Brittany Kmush
Associate Professor and Graduate Director, Public Health Department
Research Affiliate, Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health
Courses
- 2025 Spring
- PHP 704 Infectious Disease: Epidemiology and Control
- PHP 413 Introduction to Healthcare Quality Improvement
- 2024 Fall
- PHP 668 Applied Epidemiology
- PHP 401 Epidemiology
- 2023 Fall
- PHP 668 Applied Epidemiology
- PHP 401 Epidemiology
- 2023 Summer
- SCN 057 Pre-Med & Health Professions
- 2023 Spring
- PHP 401 Epidemiology
- PHP 704 Infectious Disease: Epidemiology and Control
Highest degree earned
Research Grant Awards and Projects
"New York State Wastewater Surveillance Center of Excellence", Sponsored by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/DHHS.
"Antimicrobial Shape Memory Polymer Foams for Rapid Hemorrhage Control and Infection Prevention in Traumatic Wounds", Sponsored by Department of Defense.
"Shape Memory Polymer Foams for Hemorrhage Control in Traumatic Wounds", Sponsored by National Institutes of Health (NIH)/DHHS.
"A Phase II,Randomized, Observer-blinded, Placebo Controlled Trial to Evaluate the Safety and Immunogenicity of Hecolin in Healthy Pregnant Women between Gestational Age 14-34 weeks and Non-Pregnant Women of 16-45 years old."", Sponsored by Thrasher Research Fund.
"Technical Assistance for HEV Testing in PRiSMA", Sponsored by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
"HEV diagnostics for the WHO Essential in vitro Diagnostics List - SYR", Sponsored by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
"ELC Wastewater Surveillance", Sponsored by Department of Health & Human Services.
"Hepatitis E Vaccine Roadmap", Sponsored by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
"The SARS2 Early Warning Wastewater Surveillance Platform", Sponsored by New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
"Establishing an In Vitro Embryotoxicity Risk Classification System Based on Human Cardiac Organoid Model", Sponsored by National Institutes of Health (NIH)/DHHS.
Selected Publications
- Journal Articles
- Dinero, R. E., Kmush, B. L., "Associating Race, Income, and Discrimination with COVID-19 Vaccine Status, Hesitancy, and Access in the United States: A Cross-sectional Study." Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 2025.
- Larsen, D. A., Hill, D., Zhu, Y., Alazawi, M., Chatila, D., Dunham, C., Faruolo, C., Ferro, B., Godinez, A., Hanson, B., Insaf, T., Lang, D., Neigel, D., Neyra, M., Pulido, N., Wilder, M., Yang, N., Kmush, B. L. and Green, H., "Non-detection of emerging and re-emerging pathogens in wastewater surveillance to confirm absence of transmission risk: A case study of polio in New York.." PLOS global public health, 2024.
- Hill, D., Alazawi, M., Moran, E., Bennett, L., Bradley, I., Collins, M., Gobler, C., Green, H., Insaf, T., Kmush, B. L., Neigel, D., Raymond, S., Wang, M., Ye, Y. and Larsen, D. A., "Wastewater surveillance provides 10-days forecasting of COVID-19 hospitalizations superior to cases and test positivity: A prediction study." Infect Dis Model, 2023.
- Dinero, R. E., Shanguhyia, N., Hill, R., Monti, W. and Kmush, B. L., "Predicting attitudes toward mitigation interventions and social distancing behaviors at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States." Health Psychol Behav Med, 2023.
- Kilaru, P., Hill, D., Anderson, K., Collins, M. B., Green, H., Kmush, B. L. and Larsen, D. A., "Wastewater Surveillance for Infectious Disease: A Systematic Review." American Journal of Epidemiology, 2023.
- Lynch, J. A., Lim, J. K., Peter Asaga, P. E., Wartel, T. A., Marti, M., Yakubu, B., Rees, H., Talaat, K., Kmush, B. L., Aggarwal, R., Ciglenecki, I., Gurley, E. and Labrique, A. B., "Hepatitis E vaccine—Illuminating the barriers to use." PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.
- Appiah, B., Gebretsadik, L. A., Mamo, A., Kmush, B. L., Asefa, Y., France, C. R., Samman, E., Alemayehu, T., Abafogi, M., Ahmed, M. K., Forastiere, L., Singh, G. K. and Larsen, D., "10+10+30 radio campaign is associated with increased infant vaccination and decreased morbidity in Jimma Zone, Ethiopia: A prospective, quasi-experimental trial." PLOS Glob Public Health, 2022.
- Lazarus, J. V., Romero, D., Kopka, C. J., Karim, S. A., Abu-Raddad, L. J., Almeida, G., Baptista-Leite, R., Barocas, J. A., Barreto, M. L., Bar-Yam, Y., Bassat, Q., Batista, C., Bazilian, M., Chiou, S., del Rio, C., Dore, G. J., Gao, G. F., Gostin, L. O., Hellard, M., Jimenez, J. L., Kang, G., Lee, N., Matičič, M., McKee, M., Nsanzimana, S., Oliu-Barton, M., Pradelski, B., Pyzik, O., Rabin, K., Raina, S., Rashid, S. F., Rathe, M., Saenz, R., Singh, S., Trock-Hempler, M., Villapol, S., Yap, P., Binagwaho, A., Kamarulzaman, A., El-Mohandes, A., Barreto, M., del Rio, C., Abdulla, S., Addleman, S., Aghayeva, G., Agius, R., Ahmed, M., Ramy, M. A., Aide, P., Aleman, S., Alfred, J., Ali, S., Aliaga, J., Aloudat, T., Alqahtani, S. A., Al-Salman, J., Amuasi, J. H., Agrawal, A., Anwar, W., Araujo-Jorge, T., Artaza, O., Asadi, L., Awuku, Y., Baker, M., Barberia, L., Bascolo, E., Belcher, P., Bell, L., Benzaken, A., Bergholtz, E., Bhadelia, N., Bhan, A., Bilodeau, S., Bitrán, R., Bluyssen, P., Bosman, A., Bozza, F. A., Brinkmann, M. M., Brown, A., Mellado, B., Bukusi, E., Bullen, C., Buonanno, G., Burgess, R., Butler, M., Byakika-Kibwika, P., Cabieses, B., Carlsson, G., Cascini, F., Chabala, C., Chakroun, M., Cheng, K. K., Chetty, A., Chumachenko, D., Consalves, G., Conway Morris, A., Cordie, A., Corrah, T., Crabtree-Ramírez, B., Dashdorj, N., Davidovitch, N., de Souza, L. E., Dhariwal, A. C., Druică, E., Ergonul, O., Erondu, N. A., Essar, M. Y., Ewing, A., Fanjul, G., Feierstein, D., Feigl-Ding, E., Figueroa, R., Figueroa, J. P., Fisher, D., Flores, W., Forero-Peña, D. A., Frumkin, H., Gamkrelidze, A., Gandhi, M., Garcia, P., Garcia-Basteiro, A. L., García-Sastre, A., Garg, S., Gbeasor-Komlanvi, F. A., Gershenson, C., Gilada, I., Giovanella, L., González, M., Green, M. S., Greenhalgh, T., Griffin, P., Griffin, S., Grinsztejn, B., Anand, T., Guerra, G., Guinto, R., Gujski, M., Guner, R., Hamdy, A., Hâncean, M., Haniffa, A., Hartigan-Go, K. Y., Hassan, H. K., Hay, S. I., Heino, M. T., Hel, Z., Hotez, P., Hu, J., Hukić, M., IJsselmuiden, C., Iroko, D., Iskarous, M., Izugbara, C., Jacobs, C., Jadad, A. R., Jehan, F., Jordan, A., Jroundi, I., Kain, K., Kamberi, F., Karamov, E., Karan, A., Katz, R., Katzourakis, A., Kazembe, A., Khamis, F., Khamzayev, K., Khanyola, J., Khunti, K., Kiguli-Malwadde, E., Kim, W. J., Kirenga, B. J., Klimovský, D., Kmush, B. L., Knaul, F., Kogevinas, M., Kristensen, F., Kumar, D., Kumar, R., Kvalsvig, A., Lacerda, M. V., Lal, A., Lawton, T., Lemery, J., Leonardi, A. J., Li, Y., Löttvall, J., Lounis, M., Maceira, D., MacIntyre, C. R., Madani, A., Magiorkinis, G., Malekzadeh, R., Choisy, M., Marcelin, J. R., Marks, G. B., Marr, L., Marrazzo, J., Martina, A., Martín-Moreno, J. M., Mateos, C., Mayxay, M., Mazarati, J. B., Mboup, S., McDonald, J., McMillan, F., Mechili, E., Medici, A., Davis, S. L., Meier, P., Memish, Z. A., Menon, J., Menon, P., Mesiano-Crookston, J., Michie, S., Mikolasevic, I., Milicevic, O., Mishra, A. K., Mohamed, R., Mokdad, A. H., Monroy-Valle, M., Morawska, L., Moschos, S. A., Motawea, K., Mousavi, S. H., Mumtaz, G., Munene, P. K., Muñoz Almagro, C., Muriuki, J., Muyingo, S., Naniche, D., Naylor, C. D., Ndembi, N., Nemec, J., Nesteruk, I., Ngaruiya, C., Nguyen, H., Nikolova, D., Nitzan, D., Norheim, O., Noushad, M., Ntoumi, F., Nyborg, G. A., Ochodo, E., Odabasi, Z., Okwen, M. P., Olivia, K., Ong, D. S., Opara, I., Orozco, M., Oshitani, H., Pagel, C., Pai, M., Pálsdóttir, B., Papatheodoridis, G., Paraskevis, D., Leigh, J. P., Pécoul, B., Peichl, A., Perez-Then, E., Duc, P. P., Philippe, C., Pineda Rojas, A., Pladsen, C., Pozniak, A., Quiroga, R., Qureshi, H., Rampal, S., Ranney, M., Rathe, L., Ratzan, S., Raventos, H., Rees, H., Reis, R., Ricciardi, W., Rizk, N., Robalo, M., Robertson, E., Robinson, L., Rokx, C., Ros, T., Røttingen, J., Rubin, M., Ruxrungtam, K., Sadirova, S., Saha, S., Salgado, N., Sanchez, L., Sangaramoorthy, T., Santamaria-Ulloa, C., Santos, R., Sawaf, B., Schneider, M. F., Schooley, R. T., Sener, A., Sepulveda, J., Shah, J., Shibani, M., Shoib, S., Sikazwe, I., Šimaitis, A., Gill, A. S., Skhvitaridze, N., Sokolović, M., Solomon, R., Solórzano, X., Springer, S. A., Šrol, J., Staines, A., Stelfox, H. T., Strathdee, S., Sulaiman, L. H., Sutton, B., Svanæs, D., Swed, S., Sypsa, V., Sørensen, K., Tajudeen, R., Tan, A., Tang, J., Tanner, M., Sethi, T., Temmerman, M., Than, K. K., Tinto, H., Tomètissi, S. P., Torres, I., Tshering, K. P., Tsiodras, S., Tsofa, B., Vahlne, A., Vargas, J. R., Bernal, I. D., Ventura, D., Vilasanjuan, R., Vipond, J., Wamala-Andersson, S., Wargocki, P., West, R., Weyand, A., White, T. M., Wolff, G., Yao, M., Yates, C. A., Yeboah, G., Yee-Sin, L., Yi, S., Teo, Y., Yong, P., Zamora-Mesía, V. and Øvrehus, A., "A multinational Delphi consensus to end the COVID-19 public health threat." Nature, 2022.
- Dinero, R., Pieczonka, A. and Kmush, B. L., "The association of cultural orientation with adherence to social distancing behaviors during the early COVID-19 pandemic in the United States: A cross-sectional survey." PLOS Global Public Health, 2022.
- Kmush, B. L., Monk, D., Green, H., Sachs†, D. A., Zeng, T. and Larsen, D. A., "Comparability of 24-hour composite and grab samples for detection of SARS-2-CoV RNA in wastewater." FEMS Microbes, 2022.
- Godinez, A., Hill, D., Dandaraw, B., Green, H., Kilaru, P., Middleton, F., Run, S., Kmush, B. L. and Larsen, D. A., "High Sensitivity and Specificity of Dormitory-Level Wastewater Surveillance for COVID-19 during Fall Semester 2020 at Syracuse University, New York." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2022.
- Larsen, D. A., Collins, M. B., Du, Q., Hill, D., Insaf, T. Z., Kilaru, P., Kmush, B. L., Middleton, F., Stamm, A., Wilder, M. L., Zeng, T. and Green, H., "Coupling freedom from disease principles and early warning from wastewater surveillance to improve health security." Galea, S. (ed.) PNAS Nexus, 2022.
- Walia, B., Kmush, B. L., Ehrlich, J., Mackowski, M. and Sanders, S., "Age at League Entry and Early All-Cause Mortality among National Football League Players." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2021.
- Larsen, D. A., Green, H., Collins, M. B. and Kmush, B. L., "Wastewater monitoring, surveillance and epidemiology: a review of terminology for a common understanding." FEMS Microbes, 2021.
- Scott, R. M., Kmush, B. L., Norkyel, K., Hada, M., Shrestha, M. P., Vaughn, D. W., Myint, K. S., Endy, T. P., Shrestha, S. K. and Innis, B. L., "A Prospective Cohort Study to Estimate the Risk of Hepatitis E and its Complications in Pregnant Women Residing in an Endemic Area." American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 2021.
- Wilder, M. L., Middleton, F., Larsen, D. A., Du, Q., Fenty, A., Zeng, T., Insaf, T., Kilaru, P., Collins, M., Kmush, B. L. and Green, H. C., "Co-quantification of crAssphage increases confidence in wastewater-based epidemiology for SARS-CoV-2 in low prevalence areas." Water Research X, 2021.
- Walia, B., Kmush, B. L., Lane, S. D., Endy, T., Montresor, A. and Larsen, D. A., "Routine deworming during antenatal care decreases risk of neonatal mortality and low birthweight: A retrospective cohort of survey data." Chai, j. (ed.) PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 2021.
- Kmush, B. L., Lu, A. M., Spillane, T., Hruska, B., Gump, B. B. and Bendinskas, K. G., "Seroprevalence of hepatitis E virus antibodies in adults and children from upstate New York: A cross-sectional study." Khudyakov, Y. E. (ed.) PLOS ONE, 2021.
- Kmush, B. L., "Monitoring Coronavirus Transmission Utilizing Wastewater." New York Water Environment Association’s Quarterly Publication-Clear Waters, 2020.
- Wang, S., Green, H. C., Du, Q., Wilder, M. L., Kmush, B. L., Collins, M. B., Larsen, D. A. and Zeng, T., "High-throughput wastewater analysis for substance use assessment in central New York during the COVID-19 pandemic." Environmental Science: Processes and Impacts, 2020.
- Kmush, B. L., Mackowski, M., Ehrlich, J., Walia, B., Owora, A. and Sanders, S., "Association of Professional Football Cumulative Head Impact Index Scores With All-Cause Mortality Among National Football League Players." JAMA Network Open, 2020.
- Ehrlich, J., Kmush, B. L., Walia, B. and Sanders, S. D., "Mortality risk factors among National Football League players: An analysis using player career data." F1000Research, 2020.
- Book Chapters
- Kmush, B. L., Song, K., Ahmed, M., Maroofi, H. and Lynch, J., "Preventing Hepatitis E Disease During Pregnancy." In Maternal Immunisation. Global Library of Women’s Medicine, 2023.
- Nelson, K. E., Kmush, B. L., "Epidemiology of Viral Hepatitis A and E: A Global View." In Viral Hepatitis in Children. Springer Singapore, 2019.
- Nelson, K. E., Kmush, B. L., "Viral Hepatitis A." In Scientific American Medicine. Hamilton, B. R. (ed.) Decker Publishing, 2018.
- Nelson, K. E., Kmush, B. L., "Viral Hepatitis E." In Scientific American Medicine. Hamilton, B. R. (ed.) Decker Publishing, 2018.
- Preprint
- Hill, D. T., Zhu, Y., Dunham, C., Moran, J., Zhou, Y., Collins, M. B., Kmush, B. L. and Larsen, D. A., Estimating the effective reproduction number from wastewater (Rt): A methods comparison. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 2024.
- Pre-Prints
- Larsen, D. A., Collins, M. B., Du, Q., Hill, D., Insaf, T. Z., Kilaru, P., Kmush, B. L., Middleton, F., Stamm, A., Wilder, M. L., Zeng, T. and Green, H., "Coupling freedom from disease principles and early warning from wastewater surveillance to improve health security." MedRXIV, 2021.
- Larsen, D. A., Dinero, R., Asiago-Reddy, E., Green, H., Lane, S., Shaw, A., Zeng, T. and Kmush, B. L., "A review of infectious disease surveillance to inform public health action against the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2." SocArXIV, 2020.
- Larsen, D. A., Kmush, B. L., Asiago-Reddy, E., Dinero, R. E., Church, R. L., Khan, S., Lane, S., Shaw, A. V. and Narine, L., "An analysis of policy decisions to combat SARS-CoV-2 transmission: comparing the available evidence and policies of public face masking to social distancing." SocArXIV, 2020.
- Green, H., Wilder, M., Middleton, F. A., Collins, M., Fenty, M., Du, Q., Gentile, K., Kmush, B. L., Zeng, T. and Larsen, D. A., "Quantification of SARS-CoV-2 and cross-assembly phage (crAssphage) from wastewater to monitor coronavirus transmission within communities." MedRXIV, 2020.
- Review, Journals
- Kmush, B. L., Walia, B., Neupane, A., Frances, C., Mohamed, I. A., Iqbal, M. and Larsen, D. A., "Community-level impacts of sanitation coverage on maternal and neonatal health: A retrospective cohort of survey data." BMJ Global Health, 2021.
- Rudolph, K. E., Lessler, J., Moloney, R. M., Kmush, B. L. and Cummings, D. A., "Review article: Incubation periods of mosquito-borne viral infections: a systematic review." American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 2014.
- Nelson, K. E., Kmush, B. L. and Labrique, A. B., "The epidemiology of hepatitis E virus infections in developed countries and among immunocompromised patients." Expert Review of Anti-Infective Therapy, 2011.
Presentations and Events
Hill, D. T., Dunham, C., Moran, J., Zhou, Y., Collins, M., Kmush, B. L., Larsen, D. A., Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, "Translating wastewater surveillance data into public health terms: Methods for estimating the effective reproduction number (Rt" (June 24, 2024)
Larsen, D., Hill, D., Alazawi, M., Chatila, D., Faruolo, C., Ferro, B., Godinez, A., Hanson, B., Insaf, T., Lang, D., Neigel, D., Neyra, M., Pulido, N., Wilder, M., Yang, N., Kmush, B. L., Green, H., "Considerations in designing wastewater (environmental) surveillance for detecting emerging infectious diseases: a case study of poliovirus in New York State" (June 26, 2023 - June 27, 2023)
Hill, D. T., Alazawi, M., Moran, E., Bennet, J., Bradley, I., Collins, M., Gobler, C., Green, H., Insaf, T., Kmush, B. L., Neigel, D., Raymond, S., Wang, M., Ye, Y., Larsen, D. A., Testing the Waters, "Wastewater surveillance provides 10-days forecasting of COVID-19 hospitalizations superior to cases and test positivity: A prediction study. " (June 26, 2023 - June 27, 2023)
Debes, A., Kmush, B. L., The Second International Hepatitis E Symposium, "Overview of Hepatitis E Virus Diagnostics" (April 28, 2023 - April 30, 2023)
The Second International Hepatitis E Symposium, "The Global Epidemiology of Hepatitis E Virus" (April 28, 2023 - April 30, 2023)
Dinero, R., Shanguhyia, N., Kmush, B. L., The Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Meeting, "Predicting Attitudes Toward Mitigation Interventions and Social Distancing Behaviors at the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the US" (February 23, 2023 - February 25, 2023)
Walia, B., Sanders, S., Ehrlich, J. A., Graham, M., Kmush, B. L., Robinson, C., Seibold, C., Southern Economic Association's 92nd Annual Meeting, "An Examination of the Predictors of Professional Athlete Misconduct" (November 19, 2022 - November 21, 2022)
Ehrlich, J. A., Miranda, M., Alfonso, I., Kmush, B. L., Walia, B., Sanders, S., Southern Economic Association's 92nd Annual Meeting, "Professional Football Players' Risk of Death from Repeated Head Impacts" (November 19, 2022 - November 21, 2022)
Bernasconi, A., Ahmed, K. A., Debes, A., Kmush, B. L., 2022 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, "A Literature Review of the Clinical Accuracy of Hepatitis E Diagnostics" (October 30, 2022 - November 3, 2022)
Kmush, B. L., J. L., Marti, M., Ciglenecki, I., Zaman, K., Fyezah, J., Annual Meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, "Current State of Hepatitis E: Global Epidemiology, Evidence, and Vaccine Policy" (October 30, 2022 - November 3, 2022)
Nabbosa, G. N., Lane, S., Kmush, B. L., Annual Meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, "The association that gender roles have with health seeking behavior for women in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda" (November 17, 2021 - November 21, 2021)
Walia, B., Kmush, B. L., Sanders, S., Ehrlich, J. A., APHA's 2020 VIRTUAL Annual Meeting and Expo, "Age at league entry, ability, and mortality among former NFL athletes" (October 24, 2020 - October 28, 2020)
Kmush, B. L., Mackowski, M., Walia, B., Sanders, S., Ehrlich, J. A., Eleventh International Conference on Sport & Society, "A Logistic Regression Analysis of Reported Concussion Risk among NCAA FBS Football Players" (June 18, 2020 - June 19, 2020)
Kmush, B. L., Hilton, M., Walia, B., Sanders, S., Ehrlich, J. A., Labor and Employment Relations Association 72nd Annual Meeting, "A Logistic Regression Analysis of Reported Concussion Risk among NCAA FBS Football Players" (June 13, 2020 - June 16, 2020)
Salmon, K., Shin, D., Kmush, B. L., Walia, B., Bellows, A. C., Larsen, D. A., Annual Nutrition Science Meeting, "Evidence of Declining Dietary Diversity Among Children Aged 1–5 Years Between 2005 and 2017 in Lower-Income Countries" (June 1, 2020 - June 4, 2020)
Honors and Accolades
Chancellor’s Citation for Excellence - Outstanding Group Contributions to the Student Experience and University Initiatives, Syracuse University: One University Awards (2021)
Chancellor’s Medal, Syracuse University: One University Awards (2021)
Faculty of the Year for Service Award, Falk College (2021)
Thesis Research Publication Award, Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2018)
Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health (2017)