Ending Rabies in Africa and Worldwide
The Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health is working with international partners to eliminate rabies as a cause of human suffering and death as part of the World Health Organization’s Zero by 2030 initiative. Combining game changing vaccine research with community-based programs and working with local governments, WSU leads in development and long-term deployment of the strategies needed to eliminate rabies. This week Dr. Courtney welcomes Dr. Thumbi Mwangi, infectious disease epidemiologist, live from Kenya about rabies elimination programs.
BIO:
Dr. Thumbi’s is an infectious disease epidemiologist with expertise in quantitative epidemiology and statistics. He currently coordinates research and educational activities of the East Africa Program for the Allen School.
Dr. Thumbi’s primary research is in:
- Epidemiology and immunology of multiple parasitic infections
- Understanding the mechanism of maintenance and transmission of zoonotic pathogens
- Understanding the pathways that link livestock health and human health and welfare in rural households in East Africa
His current research projects include; a) a population-based animal syndromic surveillance study that is linked to a human syndromic surveillance study among rural households in Western Kenya, b) a study investigating the epidemiology and immunology of Malaria and helminth co-infections in children under 5 years, and c) a study investigating the impact of worm control on the incidence and severity of East Coast fever in cattle in Western Kenya.
He is a visiting scientist at the Kenya Medical Research Institute/CDC in Kenya and a visiting lecturer at the Wangari Maathai Institute for Environmental Studies and Peace - University of Nairobi, where he teaches and supervises graduate students. In addition, Dr. Thumbi works closely with Kenya’s Zoonotic Disease Unit, where he helps in research studies focused at the human-animal interphase and aimed at reducing the burden of zoonotic diseases in Kenya. The Zoonotic Disease Unit is a collaboration unit between the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries and the Ministry of Health of the Government of Kenya.
Dr. Thumbi is a trained veterinarian and holds a Masters of Science degree in Genetics and Animal breeding from the University of Nairobi, and a PhD in Infectious Disease Epidemiology from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland UK.