October 2020
Professor awarded OBE for services to tackling neglected tropical diseases
Gail Davey, Professor of Epidemiology at BSMS, has been awarded an Officer of the Order of the British Empire award in the 2020 Queen's Birthday Honours, announced today. For over 17 years, Professor Davey has dedicated herself to leading public health research that has transformed care for some of the world’s most vulnerable communities. Her work has focused on Neglected Tropical Diseases and in particular podoconiosis (podo), an endemic non-filarial lymphoedema (leg swelling), sometimes known as podo or mossy foot, that affects 4 million of the poorest people in Africa, Asia and South America.
Read the full story here >
Gail was also interviewed by Latest TV about her OBE. Watch the interview in the video below.
Tuberculosis book chapter
PhD student Aaron Goff and postdocs Daire Cantillon and Leticia Wildner in Global Health and Infection published an invited book chapter in a special issue of Tuberculosis Drug Discovery and Development. The chapter published in Applied Sciences is titled 'Multi-omics technologies applied to tuberculosis drug discovery'. It discusses the impact of new molecular methods on discovery biology and discovery chemistry pathways to the identification of new antimicrobial drugs.
Read the chapter here >
Dr Maya Semrau presents at WHO webinar
To mark of Mental Health day celebrated last Saturday (10 October), the World Health Organization (WHO) organised a webinar titled 'What role does disability, stigma and mental health play in achieving the neglected tropical diseases (NTD) road map targets?'. Dr Maya Semrau, Research Fellow in Implementation Research for the Global Health and Infection department, presented her thoughts on how overstretched health systems can support the mental health of people with NTDs. You can watch the webinar below. Maya also contributed to the WHO Guide toward a person-centred approach to integrating mental health and NTDs published last week. The document is intended for national policy-makers and programme managers, relevant programme leads and staff in participating United Nations agencies, civil society and non-governmental organisations working on NTDs, agencies that fund work on NTDs and mental health, health service providers, the academic and research community and people with these conditions and their carers.
Watch the webinar here >
New study: anti-mycobacterial properties of NSAIDs
Dr Simon Waddell, Reader in Microbial Pathogenesis in Global Health and Infection, with colleagues at Birkbeck, University of London, published a recent study investigating the anti-mycobacterial properties of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Carprofen killed tuberculosis bacilli effectively by disrupting membrane potential, demonstrating an innovative route to repurposing drugs for TB that act synergistically on both host inflammatory and essential pathogen targets. TB killed 1.5 million people in 2018; this number is set to increase due to COVID disruption of control programmes worldwide. The study was published the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.
Read the study here >
Stigma Working Group publication
The Stigma Working Group is proud to announce their first publication since starting in 2019. The article, titled 'COVID-19 in LMICs: the need to place stigma front and centre to its response', was co-authored by Dr Nick Farina and Dr Caroline Ackley from BSMS. The authors would like to thank the Stigma Working Group for facilitating stimulating discussion across a range of disciplines, without which this paper would not have been possible.
Read the paper here >
Fruitful NIHR Global Health NTD projects virtual meeting
It was never going to be an easy task to substitute the buzz of a conference coffee break among colleagues with an online chat, but, the virtual annual meeting for the NIHR neglected tropical diseases (NTD) projects in Global Health and Infection at BSMS was its largest to date and provided plenty of opportunities for interaction and discussion, particularly the last session that used Jamboards and live polling. The opening session for the 5S Foundation was presented by Dr Daniel Argaw Dagne, Head of the Prevention, Treatment and Care Unit at the World Health Organization on the newly launched 2030 NTDs roadmap. Attendees then heard from Dr Nicola Commander from the NIHR regarding the Research and Innovation for Global Health Transformation (RIGHT) award mechanics and upcoming funding opportunities available. Other themes covered over the three-day meeting included Rethinking Capacity Building in Global Health, Cross-country and cross-project experience sharing, Dissemination and Impact, Knowledge Hegemony, among others supported by members of both Strategic Advisory Boards from Ethiopia, Rwanda, Sudan and the UK. The event was supported by the Maximize Your Time team and included a dedicated website where participants could post materials and comments.
Brighton-Lusaka Pharmacy Link shortlisted for PHE Antibiotic Guardian award
Congratulations to the Brighton-Lusaka Pharmacy Link, which has been shortlisted for a Public Health England (PHE) Antibiotic Guardian award for the innovative work it is doing on antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) in a teaching hospital setting in Zambia. Antimicrobial resistance is a global public health threat and AMS – a systematic approach to antimicrobial prescribing which limits indiscriminate use of antibiotics thereby protecting their future usefulness – helps slow the development and spread of antimicrobial resistance when applied in combination with other measures such as infection control practices (eg hand-washing). The project 'Championing Pharmacists as Antibiotic Guardians in Zambia; the Brighton-Lusaka Pharmacy Link Initiative' is a partnership between University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, University of Zambia (UNZA), University of Brighton and the University of Sussex (BSUHT), led by Dr Jasmin Islam at BSMS, Dr Aubrey Kalungia (UNZA), Luke Alutuli (UTH) and Anja St. Clair Jones (BSUHT). The team also secured funding to train up all teaching hospital pharmacies in Zambia to make alcohol-based hand rub to help tackle COVID-19. This work was presented to a UK parliamentarian group in July and was highly commended. BSMS' Prof Mel Newport, Chair of the Brighton Lusaka Health Link, says: "The Brighton Lusaka Health Link is going from strength to strength across a range of disciplines despite some of the constraints imposed by the coronavirus pandemic and the Pharmacy Link is one of our flagship projects. Being nominated for this award is well-deserved recognition for the pioneering work the pharmacists are doing on antimicrobial resistance which is a major global health concern. I wish them lots of luck!" The awards ceremony will be held as an online event on Thursday 26 November.
New paper on NTD prevention
Dr Kebede Deribe and colleagues have published an article in BMC Infectious Diseases on the use of ivermectin in preventing Onchocerca volvulus, a parasitic worm that causes onchocerciasis (river blindness). The study was conducted in two districts of Cameroon with different treatment history. In the first district, with over 20 years of ivermectin mass drug administration, 21.6% direct observe treated participants were still positive for skin microfilariae after one month. In the second district, with 10 years of ivermectin mass drug administration, 6.9% treated participants were still positive after this time.
Read the full study here >
Gail interviewed by BBC World Service on track and trace
Gail Davey, Professor of Infectious Diseases at BSMS, was interviewed by BBC World Service for their programme The Evidence, which aired last Saturday (26 September). Gail was interviewed on a new paper she has co-authored which compares six countries' response to track and trace. Along with colleagues from the University of Sussex, Gail has compared the responses in Germany, Republic of Ireland, South Africa, South Korea, Spain and the UK. The paper found that each country communicated in different ways about it and had very different responses to the track and trace system. Listen to Gail's interview via the link below (her interview starts at 34 minutes in).
Listen to the interview here >
Goodbye to Daire Cantillon
Goodbye and good luck to Dr Daire Cantillon, who is leaving BSMS at the end of this month to join Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Daire has been an integral part of microbiology research and the Medical Research Building for the last seven years, successfully completing a PhD and a postdoc in tuberculosis pathogenicity and drug discovery. He founded the Sussex Sexual Health Research Network (SHARE) and published papers in journals such as Nature Communications, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, and Nature Vaccines. He will be missed and we wish him all the best for the future.
Dr Mei Trueba's policy brief on Strengthening Cutaneous Leishmaniasis control in Guatemala published
Responding to a call from the United Nations Development programme, Dr Mei Trueba, Lecturer in Global Health, teamed up with partners in Guatemala to address the rise in cases of Leishmaniasis in Guatemala, despite there being a national control programme in place since 2003. The partnership included the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, as well as the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and key representatives from the Ministry of Health in Guatemala. The research aimed to carry out a qualitative evaluation of existing Cutaneous Leishmaniasis control efforts to be able to understand what aspects of the programme work well or do not and why they weren't working in order to present evidence-informed policy recommendations. The team interviewed ministry of health officials, health professionals at the local level (including nurses, doctors, health care assistants, vector control specialists and traditional healers). They then went into the indigenous communities that are affected and carried out focus groups with both patients undergoing treatments, as well as their relatives and members of the endemic region who didn't have access to treatment. Mei was the principal investigator for this project, and together with the other members of the research team she designed project protocol and participated in data collection and analysis.
One of the main findings was the fact that the existing control programme did not address the link between the deterioration of living and working conditions and the spike in cases. The brief also makes recommendations on how to reduce the cost of treatment, how to encourage prevention with education in schools and the translation of the material into local indigenous languages. They also made the recommendation of reinstating a programme of community health workers, as they had this programme many years ago but with a change in government it got removed.
The final results were presented through a couple of workshops: one that took place in the indigenous community to see if they agreed with the conclusions and recommendations, and another one to the Ministry of Health and other relevant health professionals. This was helpful to both verify findings, as well as co-create a plan with the Ministry of Health to implement research findings. You can read the policy brief in the PAHO website here >
An extended manuscript on the project has also been submitted to Health Policy and Planning, and is awaiting publication. In it, Mei and co-authors go into more detail, not just on the policy brief, but the local dynamics, problems encountered by the local health workers and how they relate to the existing move towards more integration in the management of NTDs.
New paper: TACTIC
Dr Leena Al-Hassan, Dr Jasmin Islam and other colleagues who make up the Tackling AMR Challenges through Translational Interdisciplinary Collaborations (TACTIC) research network have published a new paper. It is titled 'The TACTIC experience: establishing an international, interdisciplinary network to tackle antimicrobial resistance' and is available to read here. Leena has also been awarded a Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) to set up an antimicrobial resistance (AMR) network in the Nile Valley.
New paper: Co-morbidity of depression with other non-communicable diseases
Dr Papreen Nahar, Senior Research Fellow (Medical Anthropology and Global Health) is a co-author on a paper published by the International Journal of Mental Health Systems, titled 'Integrating depression care within NCD provision in Bangladesh and Pakistan: a qualitative study'. Read it here >
Health, Healing and Religion Workshop summary
On 15 October, staff, students and researchers gathered for an online workshop on health, healing, and religion. Among the 19 attendees were BSMS medical students, PhD students, Research Fellows, tutors and our very own BSMS homeopath, along with researchers from Sussex, Brighton and the North Central London School of Anaesthesia. Presentations included insights from Ethiopia, Nicaragua, China, and the UK. Caroline Ackley (BSMS), Timothy Carroll (UCL) and Aaron Parkhurst (UCL) presented research on the uptake and failure of a biomedical health intervention in Kersa, Ethiopia. They shared case studies where trust in the research consenting process is at time incommensurable with religion and world view. They challenged researchers to think beyond 'is this study feasible?' and to instead ask 'is this study ethical?'. Santiago Ripoll (Institute of Development Studies) shared research on illness, witchcraft, and religion in Nicaragua. He highlighted the ways in which individuals navigate pluralistic health systems and how uncertainty plays a role in health seeking behaviour. James McMurray (University of Sussex) presented insights into Uyghur conceptions of health. He provided examples of ethnic tensions and halal prohibitions that influence feelings of loss (both spiritual and physical) for Uyghur minorities and manifest as ill-health. Young Su Park (UCL) discussed the hammacisa rituals among the Oromo of Arsi, Ethiopia. He challenged the 'culture as barrier' approach often discussed in global health by diving deeply into the cultural, structural, and political economic conditions that have produced vast health inequalities around the world. Finally, Melania Calestani (Kington and St George's UoL) presented her most recent work on spiritual care in NHS healthcare settings. She analysed formal and unexpected places that spiritual care and divine connections are made in a London hospital. She concluded that although spiritual care is considered 'at the margins' of NHS care, for patients and their families spiritual care is sometimes more powerful and even the first point of interaction with professionals in the hospital. The plenary discussion highlighted themes across all the presentations, including those of holistic care, pluralistic health systems, inclusion and exclusion in medical systems, and life and care on the margins.