Deus Thindwa, an epidemiologist and malaria modeller at Imperial College London and member of the MLW Malaria Epidemiology group, recently presented in the House of the Lords at the UK parliament during Commonwealth day event on 12 March 2018 organized by Malaria No More UK (MNMUK), where he described how his passion in mathematics and computation and early exposure to epidemiology through a Commonwealth MSc scholarship in 2012 led him to his current research work on malaria in pregnancy and evolution of drug resistant malaria parasites.
During the event, Deus shared the stage with prominent leaders, involved in the #MalariaMustDie campaign, including the Rt Hon the Baroness Hayman GBE, Vice Chair of the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on Malaria and NTDs, the Rt Hon Penny Mordaunt MP, the UK Secretary of State for International Development, James Whiting, the Executive Director of Malaria No More UK, Luc Debruyne, the President of Global Vaccines at GSK, and Liz Warner, the Chief Executive Officer of Comic Relief.
The event was organized to advocate forthe political and financial support from global leaders needed to eradicate malaria. This was in response to the recent World Health Organisation Malaria report that revealed progress towards eliminating malaria has stalled for the first time in ten years. Cases of malaria are now rising and deaths are going down but at a slower rate. Funding has flat lined and there are growing threats including drug and insecticide resistance. In his speech, Deus described why antimalarial drug resistance is an obstacle to control/elimination efforts. Deus appealed to the UK business leaders and parliamentarians, and Commonwealth Heads of Government to use an upcoming April Malaria Summit Meeting in London to discuss challenges faced by malaria control/elimination programs in different settings, invest in new technologies to diagnose malaria, expand partnership realm to fight against malaria and develop new strategies to combat drug/multi-drug resistant malaria.
Deus said “I am grateful to Malaria No More UK and Imperial Malarial Modelling Group to have been given a platform to talk about one of the most important issues derailing malaria control/elimination efforts – drug resistance. It was a wonderful opportunity to share the stage with others who have a similar passion to fight against malaria. “
