Funding: Overseas unit renewals
19 August 2005
The Wellcome Trust has allocated funding totalling up to £36 million to its Major Overseas Programmes in Kenya, Thailand and Vietnam, which study malaria and other important diseases of the tropics. The new awards provide core funding for the three sites for up to five years.
The Major Overseas Programmes' research is designed to benefit local communities and regions, and ultimately to achieve significant improvements in global health.
Based in Kilifi on the Kenyan coast and in the capital, Nairobi, and run in partnership with the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), the Kenyan Programme focuses on children's health. Led by Professor Kevin Marsh, the Programme has established itself as an internationally renowned research centre studying malaria and other important infectious diseases at all levels, from molecular to clinical to social and behavioural studies. A detailed mapping of the local population around Kilifi provides an ideal base for epidemiological studies and clinical trials.
The new funding will also be used to further the training of clinical and basic scientists from Kenya and elsewhere in east Africa, helping to develop local research capacity. It will also help to develop linked data resources for scientists, to build links with national policy makers and to strengthen ties with local communities.
Directed by Professor Nick White, the South-east Asia Major Overseas Programme in Thailand and Vietnam is based in Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City respectively, with research sites in rural Thailand and neighbouring Lao PDR. The sites work closely with Thai and Vietnamese institutions to tackle local medical problems and to inform local policy making.
The research in Thailand, led by Dr Nick Day, has already made a major impact on the treatment of malaria and melioidosis. In Vietnam, where Dr Jeremy Farrar is Programme Director, research is focused on malaria, dengue, typhoid, and infections of the central nervous system such as tetanus and tuberculous meningitis. More recently, the Programme has played an important role in the treatment and study of people infected with the avian influenza virus, providing valuable information on this deadly new global threat to human health.
An offshoot research programme has been established in Lao PDR, looking into malaria, typhoid, septicaemias and beri-beri (vitamin B deficiency). The Thailand Programme is also coordinating multi-centre clinical trials of malaria treatment with artemisinin derivatives throughout the region, involving centres in Thailand, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Indonesia, and will soon extend these to sub-Saharan Africa.
See also
- Major Overseas Programmes (Special initiatives)