Overview
As the Assistant Commissioner of the Bureau of Communicable Diseases at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene since September 2022, Dr. Ahuja oversees surveillance, investigation, and outbreak response to more than 70 infectious disease threats. Key activities of her team include surveillance, data analysis and outbreak detection, investigations and response and provider engagement and community outreach. She also oversees work surrounding new and emerging infectious disease threats to New York City,
Previously Dr. Ahuja was the Director of the Office of Surveillance and Epidemiology in the Bureau of Tuberculosis Control at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene where she oversaw the tuberculosis registry and case management system, surveillance and reporting, field epidemiology, outbreak detection and response, laboratory activities, molecular epidemiology, data analysis and research. She has also been involved in co-leading surveillance and epidemiology activities during multiple NYC emergency activations including for Superstorm Sandy, Ebola and most recently COVID-19.
Prior to her work at the NYC Health Department, Dr. Ahuja worked as a surveillance epidemiologist for the CDC's Georgia Emerging Infections Program conducting active surveillance and data analyses for foodborne diseases and bacterial meningitis pathogens.
Dr. Ahuja is an infectious disease epidemiologist, by training, her research interests include transmission dynamics of infectious diseases at the population level, the epidemiology of infectious diseases in high-risk, vulnerable populations, use of molecular epidemiology in applied infectious disease control, outcomes of patients with drug-resistant TB, the interaction of infectious and non-infectious conditions and translating research into policy.
Academic Appointments
- Adjunct Assistant Professor of Epidemiology
Credentials & Experience
Education & Training
- BS, 1995 Emory University
- MPH, 1997 Emory University, Rollins School of Public Health
- PhD, 2010 Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health
Committees, Societies, Councils
Member, Council for State and Territorial Epidemiologists (2013-present)
Member, International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (2007-present)
Advisory Council for the Elimination of Tuberculosis (2013-2022)
Founding past president of the Society for Epidemiology in Tuberculosis Control (2013-2022)
Member, National Tuberculosis Controller’s Association (2007-2022)
Chair, New York City Tuberculosis Research Consortium (2012-2022)
Research
Selected Publications
Kyaw NTT, Silin M, Trieu L, Ahuja SD, Foerster S, Jordan HT. Tuberculosis Incidence and Outcomes Among Older New Yorkers. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2025 Mar 27;12(3):ofaf059.
Gröschel MI, Pérez-Llanos FJ, Diel R, Vargas R Jr, Escuyer V, Musser K, Trieu L, Meissner JS, Knorr J, Klinkenberg D, Kouw P, Homolka S, Samek W, Mathema B, van Soolingen D, Niemann S, Ahuja SD, Farhat MR. Differential rates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis transmission associate with host-pathogen sympatry. Nat Microbiol. 2024 Aug;9(8):2113-2127
Greene SK, Levin-Rector A, Kyaw NTT, Luoma E, Amin H, McGibbon E, Mathes RW, Ahuja SD. Comparative hospitalization risk for SARS-CoV-2 Omicron and Delta variant infections, by variant predominance periods and patient-level sequencing results, New York City, August 2021-January 2022. Influenza and other respiratory viruses. 2023 Jan;17(1):e13062.
Pei S, Kandula S, Cascante Vega J, Yang W, Foerster S, Thompson C, Baumgartner J, Ahuja SD, Blaney K, Varma JK, Long T, Shaman J. Contact tracing reveals community transmission of COVID-19 in New York City. Nat Commun. 2022 Oct 23;13(1):6307
Peebles K, Arciuolo RJ, Romano AS, Sell J, Greene SK, Lim S, Mulready-Ward C, Ternier A, Badenhop B, Blaney K, Real JE, Spencer M, McPherson TD, Ahuja SD, Sullivan Meissner J, Zucker JR, Rosen JB. Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 infection among long-term care facility staff with and without prior infection in New York City, January-June 2021. J Infect Dis. 2023;227(4):533-542.
Jordan HJ, Calderon M, Pichardo C, Ahuja SD. Tuberculosis Contact Investigations Conducted in New York City Adult Day Care and Senior Centers, 2011-2018. J Appl Gerontol. 2022 Feb;41(2):545-550.
Slutsker J,Trieu L, Crossa A, Ahuja SD. Using Reports of Latent Tuberculosis Infection Among Young Children to Identify Tuberculosis Transmission in New York City, 2006-2012. Am J Epidemiol. 2018 Jun 1;187(6):1303-1310.
Fojo AT, Stennis N, Azman A, Kendall EA, Shrestha S, Ahuja SD, Dowdy DW. Current and Future Trends of Tuberculosis in New York City: A Dynamic Model. The Lancet Public Health. 2017 Jul;2(7):e323-e330
Dawson P, Perri B, Ahuja SD. High Tuberculosis Strain Diversity Among New York City Public Housing Residents. Am J of Public Health. 2016 Mar;106(3):563-8.