Website of the Department of Health

He is also the Clinical Director for implementing the Winning Ways, Towards Cleaner Hospitals, and Lower Rates of Infection programmes, as well as the Professor of Medical Microbiology at the University of Cardiff.

Professor Duerden qualified in medicine and microbiology at the University of Edinburgh in 1972. He was a Lecturer of medical microbiology in Edinburgh  from 1973 to 1976, and then at Sheffield University Medical School, where he became Senior Lecturer and then Professor of Medical Microbiology. Professor Duerden was also Consultant Medical Microbiologist to the Sheffield Children's Hospital.

He became Chair of Medical Microbiology at the University of Wales's College of Medicine and the Directorship of the Cardiff Public Health Laboratory in 1991. In this role, he had responsibility for developing an integrated and unified medical microbiology service in South Glamorgan.

Professor Duerden was seconded from Cardiff to become Deputy Director and Medical Director of the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) in 1995, where he played a leading role in implementing the PHLS Regional Grouping strategy, and had responsibility for the service's medical and scientific activities.

He was appointed Director of the PHLS in August 2002, until it became part of the Health Protection Agency (HPA) in April 2003. He was Director for Clinical Quality at the HPA until moving to the Department of Health in January 2004.

Professor Duerden interests are in anaerobic microbiology, healthcare associated infection and antibiotic resistance. He has published over 130 scientific papers, edited and contributed to several textbooks, and was Editor in Chief of the Journal of Medical Microbiology from 1982 to 2002.