Brian Labus, Ph.D., MPH is an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Health.

He is an infectious disease epidemiologist with 24 years of experience in field epidemiology, outbreak investigation, and public health informatics. From 2020 through 2023, he worked extensively on COVID-19 response activities, serving on former Nevada Governor Sisolak’s Medical Advisory Team, advising various community organizations and businesses, leading a team of over 200 student contact tracers, and participating in various aspects of UNLV’s COVID-19 response. He regularly is interviewed by local, national, and international print and video outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Forbes, and National Public Radio, and has been interviewed over 1,200 times on a variety of infectious disease topics, including respiratory illnesses like COVID-19, influenza and Legionella, Mpox, Naegleria, and foodborne illness.

His research focuses on infectious diseases, including communicable disease surveillance and outbreak investigation. He is currently studying healthcare-acquired infections, including Nevada’s Candida auris outbreak, and is involved in developing public health workforce development projects for Nevada.

Labus is a Registered Environmental Health Specialist through the National Environmental Health Association and teaches courses in epidemiology methods, infectious disease epidemiology, and outbreak investigation.

Prior to joining the faculty, Labus worked in local public health, conducting outbreak investigations, disease surveillance, and implementing public health informatics systems. Most significantly, he led a two-year investigation into the largest outbreak of healthcare-acquired hepatitis C in United States history when over 60,000 people were exposed to bloodborne pathogens because of unsafe injection practices at an endoscopy center.