News

It's been a busy and productive period for Dr Brama Koné, Principal Investigator of Project E. From 23 May to 3 June 2016, he attended a short course on Public Health and Disasters at the Institute of Public Health at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. Here, he was able to share experiences on climate change, disasters, and impacts on health and health systems, as well as to learn from other participants and experts.

Richard M’bra, along with two other Project E PhD students – Jeanne d’Arc Kouakou and Constant Gbalegba – are set to attend the 2016 Summer School organised by the International Graduate School (IGS) North-South in Delmont, Switzerland from 15 to 24 August 2016.

Since 1 September 2015, PhD student on Project E Kouassi Richard M'Bra, has been reaping the rewards of a residency at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute of the University of Basel, Switzerland. After being awarded a one-year Swiss federal grant to attend the Institute, M'Bra has strengthened his skills and knowledge through a number of interesting and demanding courses, predominantly in biostatistics, epidemiology and public health.

From 9 to 10 March 2016, Dr Brama Koné, PI of Project E, along with students involved in the project, participated in the 2nd Congress of the Ivorian Society of Parasitology and Mycology (SIPAM), held at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical and Biological Sciences at Felix Houphouet Boigny University in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

The researchers from Project E have developed a monitoring and evaluation report to document research uptake activities that they have been involved in. This includes how individuals external to the project have been involved, and discusses the project's information exchange and data sharing activities.

The Global Change Impact on Diseases and Alien Species Expansion Workshop took place from 2-6 May 2016 at the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) in Cape Town, South Africa.

Along with a number of researchers from the TDR/IDRC projects, two students from Project E, Constant Gbalegba and Richard M'bra, attended the workshop. During the event, Richard M'bra won the award for the best poster.

On the 21st to the 22nd of April, TDR/IDRC Project E held a community feedback meeting in Nouakchott, Mauritania. A number of stakeholders attended the meeting. Attendees included the mayor of Kaedi, Dr Jean Pierre Baptiste (WHO Representative), the General Secretary of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, the General Secretary of the Ministry of Health, the President of the University of Nouakchott, the Prefect of Kaedi, researchers from the project and the Co-PI of the project in Mauritania.

Two transversal studies were conducted in Côte d’Ivoire and Mauritania during the rainy season (July to September 2015) and dry season (March to May 2015). In Mauritania, the two seasons did not show tangible differences regarding the transmission of malaria and schistosomiasis.

Coinciding with the Conference of the Parties in Paris (COP21), Research group E, conducting research on Vulnerability and resilience to malaria and schistosomiasis in the northern and southern fringes of the Sahelian belt in the context of climate change, released a video highlighting their work in Côte d'Ivoire.

Dr Koné, the project’s PI, participated in the scientific conference of the African and Malagasy Council for Higher Education (CAMES) in Dakar, Senegal.

From 18 to 19 November 2015, a workshop was held at Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d’Ivoire (CSRS). This took place following a feedback meeting with communities and other stakeholders in July 2015 in Korhogo.

From 15 to 16 September 2015, the project participated in a preparatory workshop of the African and Malagasy Council for Higher Education (CAMES) scientific conference, to take place in Dakar (Senegal) in November 2015. The Workshop was held at the University Félix Houphouet Boigny of Abidjan (UFHB) and was organized by the Thematic Research Program on Climate Changes (PTRCC) of the CAMES.

A site visit was conducted from 27th to 31st July 2015 by Dr Bernadette Ramirez of the Unit on Vectors, Environment and Society (VES) of the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Ms Jamie Guth, Communication officer at TDR/WHO and Mr Richard Craggs, a photographer from The Jump Network in London.

The project held a mid-term feedback workshop in Korhogo from 30th to 31st July 2015. The purpose of this workshop was to present the main preliminary results of the research to all the project's stakeholders

A data analysis workshop was held in Yamoussoukro in Côte d’Ivoire from 23rd to 24th of June 2015. The objectives of the data analysis workshop was 1) to help students develop their data analysis plan, and 2) to start project data consolidation and backup.

For the second year of the project, two master’s students and one PhD student were enrolled in the project after a call for master’s positions two months ago. Two students, one in Mauritania and one in Côte d’Ivoire, will help collect and analyse historical meteorological and health data.

The project’s data collection during the dry season in Korhogo, Côte d’Ivoire, lasted two weeks from 18th March to 1st April 2015 and took another two weeks in Kaedi, Mauritania, from 9th May to 23rd May 2015.

The project’s PhD students were involved in Côte d’Ivoire’s third national symposium on malaria from 22nd to 23rd April, 2015. The symposium was organized by the Malaria Control Programme of Côte d’Ivoire (PNLP) at the University Felix Houphouet Boigny (UFHB) in Abidjan for World Malaria Control day.

A workshop was held to evaluate the activities undertaken during the project’s first year. This workshop took place at the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques (CSRS) in Côte d’Ivoire. The objectives of the workshop were first, to discuss the rate of completion of the project activities for the first year. Second, to assess the cost-effectiveness of the project activities carried out in the first year and third, to assess the progress of the work of the students involved in the project.