A distinguished medical professor made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit says he feels humbled and grateful to the people he has worked with over his lengthy career.
Photo: Supplied
University of Otago Professor Stephen Chambers is on the New Year Honours list for his services to infectious diseases research.
In 1987, he established the Infectious Diseases Department in Christchurch Hospital and remained there as clinical director until 2015.
He built the department from a one doctor operator to a service that has trained a large proportion of New Zealand's infectious disease physicians. He was the only infectious diseases physician in the South Island for more than a decade.
Chambers said it was extraordinary to be honoured by his country and the appointment made him feel emotional.
The appointment reflected the work of, not just himself, but also the people he had worked with, he said.
"It's a tribute to all those people who have that journey improving the world in New Zealand and elsewhere... it's hard to pin down those feelings, but [I feel] gratitude and it's rather humbling really.
Professor Stephen Chambers. Photo: CDHB
"You've worked away for so long and there's so many people you've worked with over the years, and you're just so grateful for all their efforts and energy and insights.
"What's great is looking around the group of people, giving great advice to the government and saying, 'these are some of the people I helped train and here they are, carrying the flag forward and doing a fantastic job'."
Chambers also founded and developed The Infection Group, a collaboration between the Canterbury District Health Board and the University of Otago that was now a leading infectious diseases clinical research team in New Zealand and a world leader in research on certain diseases.
The collaboration had been used as a model for how practical and clinically-relevant research can be incorporated into health service activities and lead to improved patient outcomes.
He had held a range of public health roles including as chairperson of the Polio Eradication Committee for the Ministry of Health, the medical committee of the Pacific Leprosy Foundation, chairperson of Canterbury DHB's Antimicrobial stewardship and Infection Control Committees, and Co-Chair of the South Island Hospital Antimicrobial Group.
In 2016, Chambers founded the Charles Farthing Memorial Scholarship fund to promote research among young doctors and scientists.
Chambers initially had his sights set on becoming a lawyer, but decided it wasn't for him and he ended up ditching his legal studies.
He got over his fear of blood and guts while working at the freezing works as a holiday job, leading him to pursue medical school.
His interest in infectious diseases began when he took an elective during medical school which took him to Haiti in the Caribbean.
" saw the ravage of infections in poverty-striken countries and the burden that still persists up there," he said.
When working back in New Zealand as a health officer after his travels, he witnessed the death of two Māori boys suffering from staphylococcus and a woman who died of a fungal infection following a kidney implant.
"I remember thinking, 'This just isn't good enough. We can do a lot better than this and we've got the tools and intelligence, we can apply ourselves to do this better'."
He was also granted a scholarship to work in a London hospital before heading over to the United States.
When he returned to New Zealand, the HIV epidemic was beginning to rev up.
"That was a huge challenge ... we just had young people coming into the hospital and dying for 10 years or so before the treatments started to kick in," he said.
He said the HIV epidemic was "tough stuff", but highlighted the need for physicians trained as infectious disease specialists and it prepared him for future outbreaks - including the Covid-19 pandemic.
"When you work through one epidemic, you're never surprised by other epidemic. You realise the history of medicine is often the history of new bugs coming in and getting you in different ways you don't expect."
Some of his research findings were memorable, particularly a study working with Waikato University, which found Māori people were hospitalised with pneumonia 20 years earlier on average than their European counterparts.
Chambers was shocked to see the disparity.
"I was gobsmacked when I looked at the data and showed just how badly Māori people had been affected by this."
He understood this research had helped propel forward the Healthy Homes initiative, but he believed there was more work to do.
In more recent times, he had been involved in the efforts to address leprosy in the Pacific and had a focus on the slow-burning issue of antibiotic resistant bugs.
