Dr Vira Chechenieva

Main research areas & clinical expertise:
HIV in children & adolescents
TB/HIV co-infections
Migrant health

Dr Chechenieva’s position is generously supported by the Verein zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung am Wilhelminenspital (FWFW).

Biography:

Dr Vira Chechenieva she has been working as a researcher at the Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Klinik Ottakring, since 2023. She is a paediatrician with specialisation in the Infectious Diseases. She graduated from the National Pirogov Memorial Medical University, Vinnitsa, and completed her internship in paediatrics at the Bogomolets National Medical University in Kyiv, Ukraine. She has also been awarded a Post-graduate Diploma in Paediatric Infectious Diseases by the University of Oxford.

She worked at the Infectious Diseases Centre Clinic for treatment of children with HIV/AIDS and TB within the National Specialized Children’s Hospital “OKHMATDIT” in Kyiv from February 2008 until 2022, and as a researcher at the Paediatric Department of the National Institute of Phthisiology and Pulmonology in Kyiv from 2018 to 2022. Except clinical work, she contributed as investigator in clinical trials in paediatric HIV patients there, as well as in international studies of ptbnet network, resulting in several publications on paediatric TB in renowned international medical journals.

She took part in organizing and facilitating training programmes devoted to paediatric HIV and TB for doctors, caregivers and staff of orphanages in Ukraine. Since 2018 she has been acting as a facilitator in the PENTA network dedicated to HIV infections in children. She was a member of the working group developing the national Ukrainian Guidelines on ‘Prevention of HIV transmission from mother to child’, which were published in 2022. In 2022 she was an invited speaker at the Intensive Course in Tropical Paediatrics and Global Child Health, Germany. In 2024 she acted as a national consultant in paediatric TB in an international mission supporting the PHC (Public Health Centre) of Ukraine, enabling high-quality analyses of data on paediatric TB. 

Selected Publications:

Rodríguez-Molino P, Tebruegge M, Noguera-Julian A, Neth O, Fidler K, Brinkmann F, Sainz T, Ivaskeviciene I, Ritz N, Brito MJ, Milheiro Silva T, Chechenieva V, Serdiuk M, Lancella L, Russo C, Soler-García A, Navarro ML, Krueger R, Feiterna-Sperling C, Starshinova A, Hiteva A, Hoffmann A, Kalibatas P, Lo Vecchio A, Scarano SM, Bustillo M, Blázquez Gamero D, Espiau M, Buonsenso D, Falcón L, Turnbull L, Colino E, Rueda S, Buxbaum C, Carazo B, Alvarez C, Dapena M, Piqueras A, Velizarova S, Ozere I, Götzinger F, Pareja M, Garrote Llanos MI, Soto B, Rodríguez Martín S, Korta JJ, Pérez-Gorricho B, Herranz M, Hernández-Bartolomé Á, Díaz-Almirón M, Kohns Vasconcelos M, Ferreras-Antolín L, Santiago-García B. Tuberculosis disease in immunocompromised children and adolescents: a Pediatric Tuberculosis Network European Trials Group multicenter case-control study. Clin Infect Dis 2024; 79(1): 215-222.

Buonsenso D, Noguera-Julian A, Moroni R, Hernández-Bartolomé A, Fritschi N, Lancella L, Cursi L, Soler-Garcia A, Krüger R, Feiterna-Sperling C, Sali M, Lo Vecchio A, Scarano S, Hernanz Lobo A, Espiau M, Soriano-Arandes A, Cetin BS, Brinkmann F, Ozere I, Baquero-Artigao F, Tsolia M, Milheiro Silva T, Bustillo-Alonso M, Martín Nalda A, Mancini M, Starshinova A, Ritz N, Velizarova S, Ferreras-Antolín L, Götzinger F, Bilogortseva O, Chechenyeva V, Tebruegge M, Santiago-García B; ptbnet QFT-Plus study group. Performance of QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus assays in paediatric tuberculosis: a multicentre PTBNET study. Thorax 2023; 78(3): 288-296.

Noguera-Julian A, Calzada-Hernández J, Brinkmann F, Basu Roy R, Bilogortseva O, Buettcher M, Carvalho I, Chechenyeva V, Falcón L, Goetzinger F, Guerrero-Laleona C, Hoffmann P, Jelusic M, Niehues T, Ozere I, Shackley F, Suciliene E, Welch SB, Schölvinck EH, Ritz N, Tebruegge M. Tuberculosis Disease in Children and Adolescents on Therapy With Antitumor Necrosis Factor-ɑ Agents: A Collaborative, Multicenter Paediatric Tuberculosis Network European Trials Group (ptbnet) Study. Clin Infect Dis 2020; 71(10): 2561-2569.

Götzinger F, Santiago-García B, Noguera-Julián A, Lanaspa M, Lancella L, Calò Carducci FI, Gabrovska N, Velizarova S, Prunk P, Osterman V, Krivec U, Lo Vecchio A, Shingadia D, Soriano-Arandes A, Melendo S, Lanari M, Pierantoni L, Wagner N, L’Huillier AG, Heininger U, Ritz N, Bandi S, Krajcar N, Roglić S, Santos M, Christiaens C, Creuven M, Buonsenso D, Welch SB, Bogyi M, Brinkmann F, Tebruegge M; ptbnet COVID-19 Study Group (incl. Chechenieva V). COVID-19 in children and adolescents in Europe: a multinational, multicentre cohort study. Lancet Child Adolesc Health 2020; 4(9): 653-661.