Uganda

Site: Uganda (Tororo, Kampala)

Focus: Malaria

Affiliation: Makerere University and the Yale Schools of Public Health and Medicine

U.S. Contact: Sunil Parikh, MD, MPH
Ugandan Contact:Norah Mwebaza, MB ChB, Ph.D

This site will provide training opportunities in malaria and HIV-malaria co-infection. Training will be based at Makerere University in Kampala and in Tororo, sites of numerous NIH-funded trials. Makerere University has a long track record of partnering with several U.S. institutions and has long-standing research and clinical programs focusing on infectious diseases such as malaria, TB, and HIV. Sunil Parikh, the U.S. mentor, has been conducting malaria research in Uganda since 2002 and has trained over a dozen graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and medical doctors. Parikh has been collaborating with the Ugandan site mentor, Norah Mwebaza since 2009. Together with other international researchers they have been supported by the NIH/NICHD to conduct studies of the most widely used antimalarials in vulnerable populations, primarily young children, pregnant women, and HIV-infected individuals. Over the course of the recent studies in Tororo, 2 physician-scientists, 2 post-doctoral fellows, 2 post-doctoral candidates, 4 graduate students (pharmacology and public health), and 1 undergraduate student have participated in these studies, both from domestic and international universities. The infrastructure in Tororo continues to grow, housing a Research Clinic with separate examination rooms, staff offices, laboratory space for phlebotomy, a microscope room, and a fully equipped research laboratory with liquid nitrogen and freezer capacity. In addition to Parikh’s work with Makerere University/Dr. Mwebaza, he has collaborations with Mbarara University of Science and Technology and the Makerere University-Johns Hopkins University Collaboration, both of which have been the site of graduate student training over the past 2 years. Specifically, under the Global Health Equity Scholars Program, Dr. Parikh served as mentor for Dr. Jerome Chin and co-mentor for Jennifer Mootz, both working in Kampala at Makerere University/Mulago Hospital during the last funding cycle.