[33][34] He went on to pursue doctoral studies on leprosy human monoclonal antibodies at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, where his 1987 dissertation (advised by Keith McAdam) merited him the Alan Woodruff Medal.
Whilst working at Rush Green Hospital, he identified and notified the first cases of the 1988 Legionnaires' Diseases outbreak which he traced back to Broadcasting House, BBC, central London.
[35] In 2003, there were media reports about a paper of Zumla's in The Lancet discussing a new test developed by a team he led for monitoring CD4 immune cell counts based on dried blood samples.
His team's research findings have contributed to the development of WHO's management guidelines on treatment and prevention of TB and TB/HIV, and to improvements in the care of patients worldwide.
This was a Series of reports about different mass gatherings: the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games; the 2012 European Football Championship finals, hosted jointly by Poland and Ukraine; and the 2012 and 2013 Hajj.
[46] In 2024 a study published in The Lancet co-led by Sir Zumla and Dr Brian McCloskey of Chatham House –involving an international group of public health experts from the UK, Japan, Switzerland and the US outlines how mass gathering events can be held safely even in the context of an infectious disease pandemic.
[47] Zumla played a lead role in defining the etiology, epidemiology, virology, pathogenesis, mode of transmission, diagnosis, management and infection control measures of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus.
[53][54] He served as Vice Chair of the Strategic Advisory Group to the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership(2014–2016)[55] On 7 April 2015, at an inaugural meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, Zumla and Markus Maeurer from Karolinska Institutet, Sweden led and established a new initiative, the Host-Directed Therapies Network (HDT-NET) consortium of 64 global partners to tackle global infectious diseases threats of multi-drug resistant TB and antimicrobial resistance.
[58] On 12 October 2022, the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene awarded Zumla the Sir Patrick Manson Medal, their highest mark of distinction.
This was a four-paper series exploring the adoption of One Health approaches to improve health security and include an analysis of the current landscape of preventive, surveillance, and response measures in outbreak situations of emerging and re-emerging zoonotic infectious diseases with epidemic potential, antimicrobial resistance, environmental and chemical hazards and natural disasters.
[25] "Everyone should hold hands together and move forward in the fight against killer infectious diseases" Zumla has authored more than 700 publications and edited/published 21 medical textbooks, three of which are globally acknowledged classics: Manson's Tropical Diseases 21st and 22nd editions, Tuberculosis: A Comprehensive Clinical Reference which involves 156 global TB experts writing 104 chapters on all aspects of paediatric and adult TB, and Granulomatous Disorders co-edited with D. G.