A Date with Science: Tackling Emerging Infectious Diseases – from Arboviroses to Mpox

Practical

• Programme

  • 3pm – 4pm: Academic seminar in aula Janssens at ITM (and online)

  • 4pm – 5.30pm: Drink in Karibu at ITM

• Speaker: Kathy Kreppel

• Title: Tackling Emerging Infectious Diseases – from arboviroses to mpox

This webinar has passed. You can find the recording down below.

Abstract

All over the world infectious diseases are emerging or re-emerging at an increasing rate. Many of these infections are zoonotic, and it is time for scientists from different fields to work together, but does a One Health approach always work? Our unit at ITM is looking into vector borne and rodent borne diseases with collaborators in Tanzania, DRC, Cuba, South Africa, and Côte d’Ivoire. We are investigating the “when and where” of pathogen transmission of dengue virus, mpox, rift valley fever and rickettsia with multidisciplinary teams. Once we know the risk factors, we can start thinking of interventions, but it is not always straight forward, and a One Health approach usually comes with surprises. Let me introduce you to some of our projects with their challenges and surprising outcomes.

Speaker

Kathy Kreppel obtained her PhD at the University of Liverpool and the Institute Pasteur de Madagascar, where she studied the effect of climate change on the epidemiology of plague. After her PhD she focused on the behavioral ecology of malaria vectors (University of Glasgow and the Ifakara Health Institute in Tanzania). In Tanzania, she specialized in the One Health approach to research zoonotic infections of arboviruses. Today she is adjunct professor at the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (Tanzania), and still involved in epidemiological research on snakebites and dengue.

With her extensive experience in disease vector ecology and zoonotic disease epidemiology, Kathy joined the ITM in 2021, where she is heading the unit of Emerging Infectious Diseases in the Public Health department. In this unit they use an interdisciplinary research approach to study the impact of the environment on risk factors of disease transmission. Current ongoing research projects focus on rodent borne diseases and arboviruses, especially in Africa (Tanzania, Cote d’Ivoire, DRC and South-Africa).