Infectious Disease

The project is using One Health approach in investigating the emergence and spread of Methicillin Associated Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and other antibiotic resistant bacteria at the human-animal interface in Kajiado and Kiambu Counties in Kenya. The study is a continuation of Kagira's work on surveillance of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in livestock in Kenya. Preliminary work by Kagira and a team of researchers have shown high prevalence of AMR in bacteria isolated from ruminants having mastitis.

This study will combine conventional microbiology methods, whole genome sequencing, as well as social and behavioral sciences-based methods and, a combination of both longitudinal and retrospective study designs to generate knowledge with the potential to transform our understanding of the local and global emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance especially in hospitals and community settings. This study will also elaborate the acquisition and transmission dynamics of antimicrobial resistance between communities or within communities over time.

Timely, holistic and accurate information on antibiotic resistance is important for guiding public health actions and treatment decisions. Ng'eno's research explores application of ecological niche models in predicting spatial distribution of antibiotic resistance carriage risk, using antibiotic-use and environmental data.

This project intends to add the simplified filter paper-DNA extraction protocol to the portability of the Q3-Plus instrument and the ease of use of gelified 'ready to use' qPCR reactions to assemble a complete technological solution that can detect Plasmodium DNA in low-resource or remote areas, such as settlements and gold mining regions in the Amazon.

This project intends to establish a platform for colonization and mass infection of Nyssorhynchus darlingi, the primary vector in almost every state in the Amazon region and one of the more efficient vectors in the process of Plasmodium spp transmission. The establishing of a mass breeding colony of the main malaria vector in Brazil in the laboratory is extremely necessary and represents a primary condition for the development of malaria research in a multidisciplinary context.

This study intends to address two important issues related to the asymptomatic P. vivax-infected individuals: diagnosing asymptomatic individuals with submicroscopic parasitemia in the field and defining whether low parasitemic patients transmit the infection to Anopheles darlingi. Following the belief that deploying a novel point-of-care rapid test (RDT) and understanding the importance of asymptomatic individuals in P.

Artesunate/mefloquine (ASMQ) has good efficacy, safety, and tolerability when used with primaquine (PQ) on the treatment of vivax malaria, falciparum malaria and mixed infections. However, there is little knowledge of the possible interactions of its use with PQ or TQ, recently approved by ANVISA. The results of this study will provide evidence for the option of using ASMQ with TQ and PQ, thereby subsidizing new research for universal treatment of malaria in the Amazon.

This project intends to determine the susceptibility profile to new and existing insecticides used in the public health in high malaria-endemic areas in Brazil and to fill knowledge gaps on the genetic mechanisms involved in insecticide resistance (IR). This issue is important because, although chemical control of anopheline via indoor residual spraying (IRS) and pyrethroid-impregnated mosquito nets contributed to the reduction of malaria cases, the selection of resistant mosquito populations is a threat to the malaria elimination plan.

This study seeks to search for molecular markers capable of predicting the activation of hypnozoites, unique and dormant forms of vivax malaria. To do so, a metabolomic approach will be used in samples from patients with a chance of recurrence in several malaria-endemic areas. The project is innovative because it combines strict clinical follow-up and analysis of metabolites through the processing of samples using high sensitivity and resolution instrumentalization.

This clinical trial seeks to fill a global gap in the treatment of uncomplicated vivax malaria: to evaluate the safety and tolerability of short and long-term primaquine treatment regimens for uncomplicated vivax malaria in children. Thus, it hopes to provide a clinical and laboratory description of the main adverse events related to primaquine treatment in children, whether long (14 days) or short (7 days).