Zim scientists honoured

Sunday Mail Correspondent

THE Tackling Infections to Benefit Africa (TIBA) — an Africa-led research programme that focuses on health systems on the continent — hosted a meeting in Harare recently to discuss progress made in finding tools to diagnose diseases in people residing in underserved areas.

The participants — who were drawn from South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and the United Kingdom (Edinburgh) — included young researchers, pharmacists and policymakers, senior researchers and clinicians. They are all working on discovering better and cheaper tools to use in diagnosing and treating diseases such as bilharzia.

A major highlight of the meeting was the recognition of contributions made by Zimbabwean scientists.

Professor Francisca Mutapi, a Zimbabwean scientist based at the University of Edinburgh; and Professor Takafira Mduluza, who is based at the University of Zimbabwe, received lifetime awards for research excellence and capacity-building.

Over the past 25 years, they have run a collaborative research and training programme in Zimbabwe that has trained over 100 researchers and health workers.

They have supervised and mentored over 50 people at masters and PhD levels.

The two have also trained undergraduates, policymakers and health workers.

Their research has contributed to several national health programmes in Zimbabwe and globally. Crucially, they conducted research that showed that young children aged five years and below needed treatment for bilharzia and that the current medicine used to treat the disease in older children and adults was safe to use in these young children.

This work led the World Health Organisation to recommend that children aged five years and below should be treated for bilharzia using the medicine. This meant that over 50 million children in Africa can now be treated for bilharzia.