Dr Alan Fenwick OBE, the Director of the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, has been awarded the Donald Mackay Medal by the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.The Medal is given annually for outstanding work in tropical medicine, especially if this improves the health of workers in the tropics, and Dr Fenwick receives it in recognition of nearly 40 years’ work on schistosomiasis research and control in Africa. Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease that leads to chronic ill-health and affects more than 200 million people in developing countries, 85% of them in sub-Saharan Africa. Dr Fenwick’s work to combat the disease began in Tanzania in 1966. After 5 years, he moved to work in Sudan for the next 17 years and was awarded an OBE, before managing a USAID project in Egypt from 1988-1998. He remained in Egypt, working to develop a schistosomiasis vaccine, until joining the SCI when it was founded with a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2002. The SCI is now helping people in six African countries: Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. The Initiative emphasises the use of existing delivery systems for treatments, and helps to develop local capacity for health education and training to ensure its programmes are sustainable. Dr Fenwick will receive his award at the Annual Meeting of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in June. |