Helen Bedford

Professor at University College London, Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health.

Helen Bedford has a background as a nurse and health visitor. After gaining her MSc at Kings College London, she joined the Institute of Child Health in 1986 to work on the National Immunisation study with Professor Catherine Peckham and Dr Yvonne Senturia. This large national study investigated professionals' and parents' knowledge of and attitudes to measles and pertussis vaccine at a time when uptake of these two vaccines was poor.

Helen's PhD was a study of the long term consequences of bacterial meningitis in childhood. In this study over 1700 children who had suffered meningitis in their first year of life were followed up along with matched controls at the age of five years.

As well as conducting primary research into the determinants of vaccine uptake, Helen has written and advised on the content of papers and articles on immunisation for a wide range of publications including scientific journals, women's magazines and newspapers. She often communicates directly with the public as well as with health professionals about the benefits and risks of immunisation. She is frequently interviewed for the TV, radio and other media about issues related to immunisation and works closely with the Science Media Centre on vaccine issues.

See also

University College London (UCL)

Diverse global community of world-class academics, students, industry links, external partners, and alumni

Details last updated 30-May-2020

Helen Bedford News

How death has changed over 100 years in Britain

Guardian - 18-Sep-2017

Some interesting graphs on distribution of deaths by age. In 1915 one in ten deaths occurred amo...