Julie Cliff | |
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Born | 1944 (age 79–80) Essendon, Victoria |
Occupation(s) | Epidemiologist, physician |
Awards | Order of Australia (1996) |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | University of Melbourne |
Academic work | |
Institutions |
Julie Laraine Cliff AO (born 1944) is an Australian physician and epidemiologist known for her work in the prevention and control of infectious diseases through investigating epidemics and health policy, particularly in Mozambique, where her career spanned around 40 years. There, her investigations revealed that the re-emergence of the paralytic disease konzo in poor rural communities was caused by high levels of cyanide in insufficiently processed cassava, as a result of changes in food preparation practices due to the economic effects of war and drought.
In 1996, Cliff was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia, and awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws by Monash University. In 2013, she delivered the John Snow Society's Pumphandle Lecture, titled "From London to Mozambique, from cholera to konzo".