1042- Zambia- Macha-Harnessing Innovation to Transform Malaria Surveillance into Key Interventions Across Transmission Settings in Zambia

The Southern and Central Africa International Center of Excellence for Malaria Research is a multidisciplinary project to understand the epidemiology of malaria and barriers to control and elimination in three transmission settings in Zambia, combining epidemiology, entomology, and parasite genomics. In Macha, Choma District, Southern Province, Zambia, we are investigating how low-level malaria transmission is sustained and how to achieve malaria elimination.

The student will assist with an initiative to accelerate malaria elimination in southern Zambia through implementation and evaluation of a reactive case detection strategy facilitated by a mobile application to monitor cases in near real-time. The student can assist with field data and sample collection, data management, laboratory assays, GIS mapping, analyses, and interpretation of the findings.

The site in Macha, Zambia is a well-established field site led by Macha Research Trust and supported by the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute. Macha Research Trust has hosted dozens of students over the past two decades. The research campus has accommodations, a cafeteria, internet and laboratories.

This placement would be a good fit for a student who is willing to work and live in rural sub-
Saharan Africa and is committed to research on malaria control and elimination.

We are a multidisciplinary team and look for a student with quantitative analytical skills, data management skills, or laboratory skills.

Willingness to live in a remote rural area of southern Zambia.

Name: William Moss, Department of Epidemiology, wmoss1@jhu.edu

I would describe my communication and mentorship styles as... 

I work to prepare the student as much as possible prior to sending the student to the field site and communicate frequently by email. I either accompany the student to the field site or have more senior students who have worked on projects at the field site accompany the student. I am not able to be at the field site during the entire time the student is there. The Southern and Central Africa ICEMR consists of a large team, both at the school and in Zambia, and members of this team will be available to assist and mentor the student.

A complementary student would have a working style and mentorship expectations that are..

A complimentary student will be able to work with our Southern and Central Africa ICEMR team at the rural field site and be able to communicate with me regularly. The student needs to be prepared for the challenges as well as the rewards of working at a remote field site in rural sub- Saharan Africa.

$500

An additional stipend is available.