Dr Latif Ndeketa, a member of the Malaria Group at MLW, was awarded the best oral presentation at the MLW Annual Scientific Meeting 2017 held on 1-4 October at Makokola retreat in Mangochi. Latif presented “The modelled cost-effectiveness of the RTS,S/AS01 malaria vaccine in the childhood population of Malawi”.

His work was based on his Vaccinology MSc thesis that he studied at the University of Siena, Italy. His thesis was a collaborative effort between the university, vaccine industry and senior members of the malaria group at MLW. He used a static Markov cohort based model with malaria health costs and indicators as input parameters to calculate the cost-effectiveness of the vaccine. Malawi being a low-income country, Latif was motivated to investigate the cost-effectiveness of the vaccine because of multiple health interventions that compete for the same limited financial resources. Latif dedicated his award to the personal development programme of the Malaria Group team that supports team members with preparations for presentations and interviews.