Robert Herriman
Robert Herriman is a microbiologist, editor, and podcaster who runs Outbreak News Today, an online newsblog magazine focused on infectious diseases and outbreaks. His coverage stands out for continuous, data‑driven tracking of global outbreaks combined with expert audio interviews that reflect his laboratory and epidemiology background. He concentrates on how pathogens spread, how health authorities respond, and what those developments mean for public health risk.
Global outbreak briefs
Herriman uses Outbreak News Today to publish regular outbreak briefs that follow case counts, geography, and official alerts across multiple regions. His reporting on dengue in Sri Lanka, including large case totals and changing epidemic dynamics, exemplifies his focus on numerical detail and surveillance trends. In the same news formats he highlights travel‑associated dengue and chikungunya in Florida and diphtheria cases in Haiti, presenting them as part of a wider picture of cross‑border infectious disease movement. Regional sections such as his Middle East coverage are organized explicitly around “infectious disease news,” underlining his role as a curator of outbreak information rather than general health features. The tone of these briefs is concise and clinical, concentrating on pathogens, affected populations, and stated responses from health authorities.
Vector‑borne, zoonotic, and fungal disease focus
Within the broader health beat, Herriman repeatedly returns to diseases carried by mosquitoes, ticks, and other vectors, as well as infections emerging from environmental and animal exposures. His dengue and chikungunya reports sit alongside Lyme disease and other tick‑borne concerns, where he explores both human illness and the policy structures built to address them. He amplifies public health alerts such as warnings about histoplasmosis cases in a U.S. midstate region, bringing attention to a fungal infection that is often under‑reported outside specialist circles. Coverage of screwworm tissue destruction and its economic impact shows his interest in the intersection of animal health, agriculture, and infectious threats, extending outbreak reporting beyond strictly human case numbers. This cluster of subjects gives his work a distinctive emphasis on vector‑borne and zoonotic risk, including conditions that many general health reporters treat as niche.
Expert interviews and infectious disease podcasts
Herriman’s audio work is a central part of his coverage, with Outbreak News Today explicitly framed as a newsblog that also produces podcasts about infectious diseases and outbreaks. In his Outbreak News radio and video formats, he delivers “news reports” that walk through current outbreaks, including the dengue situation in Sri Lanka, arboviral infections in Florida, and diphtheria in Haiti. He supplements these solo briefings with expert interviews, such as his conversation with Timothy Sellati on Lyme disease, the federal Tick‑borne Disease Working Group, and clinical and research debates around tick‑borne infections. These interviews give space to scientific officers and clinicians to explain mechanisms of disease, regulatory structures, and evidence gaps, while Herriman steers the discussion toward practical implications for surveillance and treatment. The combination of structured outbreak roundups and specialist interviews makes his coverage useful for understanding both the immediate numbers and the longer‑term policy and research context.
Microbiology and public health framing
Herriman identifies himself as a long‑time laboratorian and microbiologist, and he brings that perspective into his reporting and commentary. He describes his role as editor and podcaster, emphasizing news reports that drill into the agent causing disease, the susceptible host, and environmental conditions that enable transmission. In posts around vaccine effectiveness and disease prevention, he uses the classical triad of agent, host, and environment to structure how he communicates risk and control strategies. His social and professional profiles also highlight infectious disease as a defining theme, reinforcing that his beat is not broad consumer health but the technical and surveillance‑oriented side of public health. That scientific framing, combined with accessible language and a focus on official data, distinguishes his work from more lifestyle‑driven health coverage.
4 more health journalists.
Abida Tasnim
Abida Tasnim is a health writer for The Daily Star who focuses on clear, practical guidance that helps readers recognise risks early and act before everyday illnesses turn into wider public health problems. She reports on infectious disease prevention, using measles coverage to show how outbreaks start with individual decisions and behaviours, not just hospital statistics. Her work explains what happens during an outbreak and then anchors the story in simple steps people can take, such as avoiding crowded places when symptoms appear, practising good hygiene, and seeking medical advice early. She writes direct, action‑oriented health explainers that turn clinical questions about contagion and disease burden into everyday choices. Across her beat, she stresses early recognition, timely care, and prevention as the foundations of healthier communities.
Adrián Carballo Casla
Adrián Carballo Casla stands out for turning complex cohort data on ageing into clear, food‑level advice on what older adults should eat to protect brain health and slow chronic disease. He is a researcher in nutritional epidemiology focused on ageing and chronic disease prevention and a postdoctoral researcher in geriatric epidemiology at Karolinska Institutet, writing health explainers for The Conversation. He reports on how diet quality, especially Mediterranean and Mind‑style patterns, shapes dementia risk, grey matter loss and neurocognitive ageing, and how healthy versus pro‑inflammatory diets alter multimorbidity trajectories. His articles translate findings on flavonoids, polyphenols, folate, omega‑3 fats and dietary nitrates into specific food choices and small, practical changes. Much of his coverage is anchored in his own studies on multimorbidity, high‑risk older adults and tailored dietary recommendations, often syndicated to other outlets.
Ahmed Elbediwy
Ahmed Elbediwy brings a lab-based understanding of cancer biology and clinical biochemistry to public-facing health reporting, linking drug mechanisms and molecular pathways to everyday choices about medicines and products. He writes for The Conversation on weight-loss injections, cancer overdiagnosis and anti-ageing supplements, focusing on obesity medicine, cancer signalling, screening trade-offs, skincare and supplement science. His pieces on GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro explain why some people do not respond, how gut hormones and appetite signals work, and where psychological support and nutrition fit alongside prescriptions. He co-authors explainers on cancer risk and overdiagnosis and on whether supplements can reverse ageing, separating established knowledge from emerging research. An award-winning senior lecturer at Kingston University, he favours clear, structured explainers, careful definition of key terms and evidence-based appraisal over hype.
Amanda Sheppeard
Amanda Sheppeard is a managing editor and health journalist known for long, detailed explainers that connect complex clinical research, disability policy and political narratives with the daily realities of doctors and patients. She works at The Medical Republic across editorial leadership and commercial content while reporting widely on medicine for its specialist titles. Her real beat spans autism, disability policy, autoimmune disease, infectious threats and system pressures in primary care and hospitals. She covers subjects such as autism diagnosis and the NDIS, rheumatology’s clinical shifts, weight-loss agents in rheumatoid arthritis, infection control, antimicrobial resistance and new modalities like CAR T-cell therapy and microneedles. She reports by doing the synthesis inside the story, linking trial design, molecular targets, funding rules and policy changes to concrete decisions and workflows in clinics and hospitals.