Afox Senior Visiting Fellow to Present at Merton Africa Oxford Lecture

Dr Kennedy will speak on Ebola in Liberia: Perspectives from the Frontline. During the lecture, Dr Kennedy will discuss the unprecedented Ebola outbreak between 2014-2016, its rapid spread in the sub-region, challenges encountered in breaking the transmission chain, lessons learnt, and the country's preparedness for future public health emergencies (PHEs).

The 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa was the largest. It was unprecedented due to its rapid spread from rural to densely populated urban settings in West Africa. The most affected countries were Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Dr Kennedy is from Liberia, one of the most devastated and affected countries by the Ebola virus. During the outbreak, Dr Kennedy served as the thematic lead for Ebola Research at the Incident Management System (IMS) Liberian Ministry of Health (MoH). Dr Kennedy also served as the lead Liberian Scientist and one of the Country's Principal Investigators for conducting the first Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) Vaccine Clinical Trial in Liberia. Dr Kennedy further played scientific leadership roles in sub-regional and external (e.g., Oxford University) clinical trials on vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics for Ebola.

Dr Kennedy is presently a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at Merton College, Oxford University, on the African Oxford Initiative (AfOX) Program. He is trained in medicine, infectious disease epidemiology, global health, and biomedical research from Liberia, the United States, and Zambia.