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Professor Moses Bockarie, Director of LSTM’s Centre for Neglected Tropical Diseases has been asked to be chair of the scientific working group (SWG) set up to examine the complex interactions influencing disease transmission and control within disease endemic countries undergoing change.
The Research on Vectors, Environment and Society (VES) has been set up by TDR, the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, a global programme of scientific collaboration that helps facilitate, support and influence efforts to combat diseases of poverty, which is hosted at the World Health Organization. VES looks to develop and evaluate innovative and improved vector control tools and strategies in the context of climate, environmental and social change, exploring optimal ways to engage with communities and scale up control interventions, while facilitating research into quality diagnosis and treatment of malaria and other fevers within vulnerable populations. The SWG has been set up by TDR to provide VES with strategic oversight and technical advice as well as providing independent assessment on such programmes and activities.
The SWG will hold its first meeting in February 2015, and it will be chaired by Professor Bockarie for the next two years, who is delighted to accept the role. “It is an honour to be asked to act as the SWG chair for the next two years,” said Professor Bockarie, “I am looking forward to working with esteemed colleagues and being part of a global network working to improve the lives and health of those burdened with the diseases of poverty.”
It is hoped that the meeting will provide an updated direction for VES, including the recommendation of new initiatives and the improvement of the implementation of those already in existence, to further TDR’s mission of promoting the translation of innovation to health impacts in disease endemic countries.