Nisha Andany

Dr. Nisha Andany is a member of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table.¹⁾

Andany completed her Bachelor of Sciences at the University of Waterloo in 2007. She majored in health studies and biology. She then received her MD in 2011 from the University of Toronto. She completed a Masters in Public Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2018.²⁾

Andany is a member of the Drugs & Biologics Clinical Practice Guidelines Working Group on the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table. In this role, she co-authored a paper advocating against using ivermectin for prophylaxis or treatment of COVID-19 on the grounds that “inappropriate use of ivermectin for COVID-19 may make it unavailable for patients who could benefit from its use (i.e., patients with serious parasitic infections) and reduce the already limited supply of ivermectin in Canada.”³⁾

Another paper bearing her name described azithromycin, bamlanivimab, colchicine, hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, lopinavir-ritonavir, and vitamin D as “non-recommended therapies” which “either have demonstrable harm or lack sufficient evidence from randomized trials to warrant their use.” They advocated instead for use of dexamethasone, as well as monoclonal antibody treatments casirivimab and imdevimab (produced by Regeneron).^{4) 5)}

Andany is employed as an Infectious Diseases and HIV Specialist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. She works as Educational Lead, staff physician, and Affiliate Scientist, Evaluative Clinical Sciences, Integrated Community Program.⁶⁾ She participated in the centre's COVIDEO telehealth program.^{7) 8)}

Her relevant publications include:

• June 30, 2021: Patient perspectives on the implementation of routinised syphilis screening with HIV viral load testing: Qualitative process evaluation of the Enhanced Syphilis Screening Among HIV-positive Men trial.⁹⁾ Funded by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Foundation award, the CIHR Canadian HIV Trials Network, a CIHR New Investigator Salary Award, Ontario HIV Treatment Network Endgame Leader Award, and a Non-Clinician Researcher award from the Department of Family and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto.

• March 8, 2021: Diagnostic accuracy of subjective dyspnoea in detecting hypoxaemia among outpatients with COVID-19: a retrospective cohort study.¹⁰⁾

• October 2020: Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia prophylaxis in a 42-year-old woman on immunosuppressive therapy. Andany discloses funding from Janssen, GlaxoSmithKline and Gilead Sciences for other HIV research.¹¹⁾

• September 1, 2020: Home or Cabin: Community Care for Coronavirus Disease 2019¹²⁾

• May 23, 2020: A virtual care program for outpatients diagnosed with COVID-19: a feasibility study¹³⁾

• January 2020: Prevalence and correlates of early-onset menopause among women living with HIV in Canada.¹⁴⁾ Funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), CIHR Canadian HIV Trials Network, Ontario HIV Treatment Network, the Academic Health Science Centres Alternative Funding Plans (AFP) Innovation Fund, and Fonds de Recherche du Québec—Santé. Presented at the 7th International Workshop on HIV and Women in Seattle, Washington (February 11-12, 2017), funded by Gilead Sciences.¹⁵⁾ Also presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (February 13-16) in Seattle, funded by Merck, ViiV Healthcare, AbbVie, Hologic and Cepheid.¹⁶⁾

• Association between initial symptoms and subsequent hospitalization in outpatients with COVID-19: A cohort study.¹⁷⁾ Funded by the Sunnybrook COVID-19 Research Initiative.

Adany is employed as Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto.¹⁸⁾

Andany has received funding for HIV research from Janssen, GlaxoSmithKline and Gilead Sciences.^{19) 20) 21)}