Interview with Dr. Deborah Sumari, AfOx Travel Grant Recipient

Video: Dr Deborah Sumari of Ifakara Health Institute(IHI) is a recipient of an Africa Oxford Initiative Travel Grant. Together with Dr Georgina Humphreys, her collaborator at the WorldWide Antimalarial Resistance Network, based at the University of Oxford, Dr Sumari is working on a project to map molecular markers of antimalarial drug resistance in Tanzania. Deborah Sumari is a molecular biologist and Research Scientist in the Intervention and Clinical Trials department, IHI. Her research has included studies on drug resistant genotypes of P.falciparum parasites that contributed to the withdrawal of SP as a first line therapy in Tanzania. Antimalarial drug resistance is one of the biggest threats to the treatment and control of malaria, with resistance now confirmed to all currently available antimalarials although critically resistance to the most pivotal artemisinins has not yet reached Africa but is currently confined to the Greater Mekong Subregion. New approaches, knowledge and skills-sharing are urgently needed to advance malaria control in Tanzania.