Researchers participating in the study of leishmaniasis gathered in Nairobi to discuss the scope of the project and determine objectives. The project is funded through a U01 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study ecotypes driving the transmission and pathogenesis of visceral leishmaniasis and post kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis in Eastern Africa. Participants included representatives from Global One Health (Ethiopia), Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia), University of Khartoum (Sudan), the Institute of Topical Medicine (Belgium), and Ohio State's Global One Health initiative, NIH and the University of San Francisco (United States).
Country-specific presentations on leishmania disease were shared and participants reviewed a plan to implement the study and identified sample collection approaches unique to Kenya, Ethiopia and Sudan.
Representing Ohio State’s Global One Health initiative is Abhay Satoskar, professor of pathology and microbiology, and Ebba Abate, country director for the Global One Health Ethiopia office.