2022-2023 GHES Fellows

Mr. Faiz will spend his fellowship year at Aga Khan University in Karachi under the mentor- ship of Romaina Tqbal, PhD, MPH, MS, Saad Omer, MBBS, MPH, PhD and Mohammed Ali, MBChB, MSc, MBA. His research will focus on the concordance of cardiometabolic risk and the effects of behavioral and social factors on concordance in Pakistani Households.Mr. Faiz is a 4th year medical student at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Prior to Emory, Mr. Faiz obtained an MPhil in Applied Biological Anthropology from the University of Cambridge. After completion of medical school, he plans to continue his training in a com- bined internal medicine-pediatrics residency program and later cardiology. Mr. Faiz hopes to continue researching cardiometabolic disease while also being involved in the development of public health surveillance systems and the improvement of primary prevention of NCDs in South Asia and globally.

Dr. Amin will spend his fellowship year at the Tnternational Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (TCDDR,B) under the mentorship of Lee Riley, MD and Dinesh Mondal, MD. His research will focus on community associated methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolated from clinical specimens of patients attending icddr,b diagnostic areas.Dr. Amin completed his PhD in Biochemistry from Hamamatsu University School of Medi- cine, Japan. His graduation and MS were from the department of Biochemistry and Molecu- lar Biology, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Tn his professional career, Dr. Amin received a young researcher grant from the Swedish Tnternational Development Cooperation Agency (STDA) in 2019-2020. Currently, he, as a PT, is conducting a research project entitled "identifying fecal pathogens in aqua culture value chains and evaluation of various risk re- duction strategies" funded by Feed the Future Tnnovation Lab for Fish, USATD. His overall research goal is to find solutions to public health problems in developing countries through research on food safety and transmission dynamics of antimicrobial resistance using One Health approach.

Dr. Deressa will spend his fellowship year at Addis Ababa University in Addis Ababa under the mentorship of Teferi Gedif Fenta, PhD, B. Pharm, MPH and Purnima Madhivanan MBBS, MPH, PhD. His research will focus on examining the determinants of overall survival and to investigate the quality of life of breast cancer survivors. .Dr. Deressa is a clinical oncologist with a passion for improving cancer care in Ethiopia. Tn addition to his clinical care accomplishments, which include founding an oncology unit in a previously unserved geographic area and starting Ethiopia's first breast cancer patient sup- port group, he is active in cancer teaching and research. Dr. Biniyam's areas of interest in- clude cancer epidemiology, global cancer disparities, cancer survivorship, and quality of life in cancer survivors. He is one of the recipients of 2020 Tnternational Development and Edu- cation Award (TDEA) from ASCO and 2022 Mandela Washington Fellowship for young African Leaders from the US Government.

Dr. Malca Hernandez will spend his fellowship year at Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH) in Lima under the mentorship of Patricia Garcia, PhD, MPH, MD and Eve- lyn Hsieh, PhD, MPH, MD. His research will focus on exploring the Tnter-relationships of aging expectations and quality of life, depression, stigma, and musculoskeletal health among middle-aged and older patients with HTV in Peru.Dr. Malca Hernandez received his medical degree from UPCH. He is a budding researcher whose career goal is to contribute to developing public health policies to reduce the impact of infectious and tropical diseases in Peru, South America, and globally. Also, he is interest- ed in pursuing a Master of Global Health and maintaining the relationships formed at the NTH orientation and Yale in order to plan for future research collaborations.

Ms. Johnson will spend her fellowship year at the Aurum Tnstitute in Johannesburg under the mentorship of Salome Charalambous, MBChB, MSc, PhD and Luke Davis, MD. Her research will focus on improving the implementation of tuberculosis preventive therapy for people living with HTV in South Africa.Ms. Johnson is currently an MD/PhD student at the Yale School of Public Health. Her career goal is to use implementation science to address health inequities in resource-constrained settings.

Dr. Juma will spend her fellowship year at Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi under the mentorship of Anne Kurth, AB, MPH, RN, MSN, CNM, PhD and Trene Tnwani, MD, MMed, MPH. Her research will focus on the development of a clinical algorithm for the management of people living with HTV admitted with Community Acquired Pneumonia at a public hospital in an urban setting.Dr. Juma is a physician based at the Tnfectious Diseases Unit of Kenyatta National Hospital. She is also a fellow in Clinical Tnfectious Disease at the University of Nairobi. She looks forward to a career in research geared towards reducing the burden of infectious diseases in the African setting.

Dr. Khan will spend his fellowship year the Public Health Research Institute in Mysore under the mentorship of  A. Desiree LaBeaud, MD, MS, Purnima Madhivana, PhD, MBBS, MPH, Vijaya Srinivas, MMBS and Kiranmayee Muralidhar, MBBS, MP. . His research will focus on investigating the epidemiology and risk factors for dengue and chikungunya virus infections in southern India.Dr. Khan is a pediatric infectious diseases physician at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He has research interests in studying infectious diagnostics in resource-limited settings and promoting antibiotic stewardship. Dr. Khan has recently been studying arboviral infections (dengue and chikungunya) in western and coastal Kenya with aspirations to im- pact global child health.Project title: Investigating the epidemiology and risk factors for dengue and chikungunya virus infections in southern IndiaProject description: Arboviral infections have re-emerged as a significant global public health problem with chikungunya virus (CHIKV) transmission now occurring in 45 countries and dengue virus (DENV) transmission in 128 countries, placing nearly 4 billion people at risk (Fritzell, 2018; Bhatt, 2013). India has suffered repeated outbreaks of CHIKV and DENV in addition to other infections which can present with similar symptoms (Sharif, 2021; Ganeshkumar, 2018). Seroprevalence studies have attempted to estimate the true burden of CHIKV and DENV in India but often are hampered by spatial heterogeneity given the diversity across the country (Murhekar, 2019). Furthermore, although numerous studies have detailed molecular phylogenetic analysis for both viruses, there are few studies exploring the local risk factors and behaviors associated with infection in southern India (Rai, 2021). Interestingly, we and others have shown there is bidirectional transmission of DENV and CHIKV between Kenya and India (Sharif, 2021; Langat, 2020; Shah, 2020). CHIKV and DENV overlap in symptomatology and both are transmitted by diurnal Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, in contrast to malaria-transmitting nocturnal Anopheles spp. which feed at night (Karungu, 2019). In India and other parts of the world, as malaria diagnosis has become easier with high sensitivity point-of-care testing, vector-control strategies typically center around nocturnally-feeding Anopheles spp. mosquitoes. In Kenya, our laboratory has partnered with county and national members in the Ministry of Health to promote an integrated vector-control program that expands on the existing focus on malaria. Through this proposed pilot study, we aim to identify relationships that can be further explored in larger studies to uncover the burden of infection and better inform policy makers when considering resource allocation in southern India. To better understand these viruses in southern India we propose a pilot study to estimate community prevalence and associated risk factors. Through a cross-sectional study of adults and children we can survey the community to characterize their household factors, location, demographics, movement behavior, and built environment. In collaboration with the Public Health Research Institute in Mysore, India and the LaBeaud laboratory at Stanford University, I will work in the community to identify and survey participants, applying skills I have gained while working in Kenya. After participants are identified and surveyed, we will collect their serum to perform testing for DENV IgG and CHIKV IgG by ELISA to determine baseline seroprevalence. I will compare seropositive individuals with seronegative individuals to identify relationships pertaining to demographics, space, activity, behavior, and built environment factors. We have early data demonstrating an increased risk of arboviral infection with more surrounding trash and can also further explore this relationship in southern India. This can highlight important relationships when thinking about risk factors for infection. The goal of this pilot study is to generate meaningful data to further explore in a larger prospective study, similar to our prior and current laboratory work in western and coastal Kenya (Hortion, 2020; Grossi-Soyster, 2017).

Dr. Koala will spend his fellowship year at the Tnstitut de Recherche en Sciences de la Sante Direction Regionale de l'Ouest (TRSS-DRO) in Bobo-Dioulassounder the mentorship of Roch Dabire, PhD and Sunil Parikh, MD, MPH. His research will focus on better understandingthe epidemiology /transmission factors of Plasmodium ovale and malariae in human and mosquito populations of Burkina Faso endemics.Dr. Koala is a permanent researcher in the Malaria & Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) department of the Tnstitut de Recherche en Sciences de la Sante (TRSS). His research career goals are to develop news-efficient tools and strategies to support the elimination efforts of malaria and NTDs in Africa.

Ms. Liberman will spend her fellowship year at the Global Health Research Center of Central Asia in Kazakhstan at under the mentorship of Frederick Altice, MD, Sergii Dvoriak, MD, PhD and Assel Terlikbayeva, MD, MS. Her project will focus on assessing barriers and facilitators to methadone in Kazakhstan using nominal group technique (NGT) to conduct anonymous focus groups with PWID and methadone providers (e.g. doctors, harmreduction workers, and directors of methadone clinics) and a legal landscape analysis of government documents that determine addiction treatment for the country. Ms. Liberman is a medical student at Yale University. Her research interests are in infectious diseases, mixed methods, and mathematical modeling. She recently worked at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (CIRA) at Yale on projects that have involved mathematically modeling the number of deaths that could be prevented by upscaling various opioid use disorder (OUD) and HIV interventions, analyzing interview data about methadone use in prisons in the Kyrgyz Republic, and analyzing the results of a Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment pilot program conducted among people soon to be released from Kyrgyz prisons.

Dr. Garcia Luna will spend his fellowship year at the Tnternational Center for Medical Research and Training ( CTDETM) in Cali under the mentorship of David Paltiel, PhD, Neal Alexander, PhD and Norman Maldonado, PhD.. His research will focus on the im- pact of transmission and cost-effectiveness of screening algorithms for syphilis in people living with HTV in Colombia. Accurate screening algorithms that reduce time to treatment may impact on disease transmission by reducing the time a subject is infectious.Dr. Garcia is a physician and early career researcher who has been working on syphilis research since 2017 when he joined the Clinical and Community Research Unit of CT- DETM as a clinical fellow. Tn 2020 he completed the MSc in Global Health Sciences and Epidemiology at the University of Oxford as part of an international Master's Fellowship awarded by the Welcome Trust. His career goal is to contribute to decreasing the burden of sexuallytransmitted infections in Colombia through epidemiological research.

Dr. Mensah will spend her fellowship year at Noguchi Memorial Tnstitute for Medical Re- search (NMTMR), University of Ghana in Accraunder the mentorship of Micheal Wilson, PhD and Elijah Paintsil, PhD, FAAP. Her research will focus on identifying treatment bar- riers and risk factors for loss to follow-up in HTV-positive adults in the Fanteakwa district of Ghana, one of the highest HTV burden districts in Ghana.Dr. Mensah obtained a PhD in Public health in 2018 at the University of Ghana, following a Master's degree in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Cyprus University of Technolo- gy/HSPH in 2012. Before her current position as a Post-Doctoral fellow at the NMTMR, she was a visiting scholar at the University of Massachusetts Medical school in 2018. Her research interest is in global health and infectious disease epidemiology. Her career goal is to be an independent researcher at a biomedical institute, utilizing her scientific training to provide solutions for global health problems.

Ms. Mobley will spend her fellowship year at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur under the mentorship of Abeeda Kamarulzaman, MBBS, FRACP, FASc and Frederick Altice, MD Her research will fo- cus on treatment of opioid use disorder amongst an incarcerated population in Kuala Lum- pur and will investigate continuity of care from incarceration to the community for treatment of individuals with HTV and opioid use disorder.Ms. Mobley is pursuing her MD from the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago and plans on applying into internal medicine residency. She is passionate about healthcare for the most vulnerable, in particular those who are incarcerated, and is pursing a career dedicated to promoting health equity globally.

Dr. Nofal will spend her fellowship year at Addis Ababa University in Addis Ababa under the mentorship of Thomas Weiser, MD, MPH and Miliard Derbew, MD. Her research will focus on surgical infection prevention and control, in partnership with Addis Ababa University and Lifebox, a charita- ble organization that focuses on improving surgical safety.Dr. Nofal is currently a general surgery resident at Boston Medical Center. She hopes for an career in academic surgery while continuing to pursue sustainable interventions to improve the provision of safe surgical care in low-income countries.

Ms. Oyama will spend her fellowship year at the Samoan Ministry of Health in Apia under the mentorship of Nicola Hawley, PhD and Satupaitea Viali, BHB, MChB, FRACP, FCSANZ, MPH. Her research will focus on evaluating the cardiometabolic correlates and psychosocial burden of infertility among Samoan women with obesity.Ms. Oyama received her MPhil in Applied Biological Anthropology at the University of Cam- bridge as a Gates Cambridge Scholar and her BA in Anthropology and Biology at Washington University in St. Louis. She is currently pursuing a MD/PhD in the Department of Anthropol- ogy at Yale University. Ultimately, she aspires to become a physician scientist who practices obstetrics and gynecology and conducts longitudinal epidemiological research to characterize how rising obesity prevalence among women of reproductive age affects maternal and child health outcomes globally.

Dr. Patil will spend her fellowship year at Sri Ramachandra Tnstitute of Higher Education and Research in Chennai under the mentorship of Naveen Puttaswamy, PhD and Andres Cardenas, PhD. Her research will focus on assessing the relationship between secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure and dental caries in children of the Household Air Pollution Tnter- vention Network (HAPTN) cohort.Dr. Patil is a Pediatric Dentist and is currently pursuing her PhD. Through this fellowship, she hopes to bridge the gap between children's environment and oral health. She aspires to leverage the unique expertise of environmental health and dentistry fields to understand how environmental exposure (i.e., exposome) might influence ECC susceptibility - and determine a way to reverse or mitigate it.

Dr. Ssuna will spend his fellowship year at Makerere University College of Health Sciences in Kampala under the mentorship of Achilles Katamba, PhD, Mari Armstrong-Hough, PhD and Luke Davis, MD, MAS. His research will focus on improving screening and management of diabetes mellitus and post-TB lung disease among HTV/TB patients public health facilities in Uganda.Dr. Ssuna is a medical doctor and an epidemiologist with interests in HTV-TB coinfection, the impact of diabetes on patient outcomes for HTV-TB, and implementation science. He complet- ed his first medical degree at Mbarara University of Science and Technologym, and complet- ed a dual Masters of Science degree in Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Makerere University. Dr. Ssuna holds a certificate in Tmplementation Science at University of California San Francisco (UCSF), where he gained profound knowledge, in theory, study designs for intervention research, translating evidence into policy, designing interventions to change or- ganizational behavior, and community engagement.

Dr. Mouhamad will spend his fellowship year at the University of Cheikh Anta Diop/Hospital Aristide Le Dantecin Dakar under the mentorship of Amy Bei, PhD and Daouda Ndiaye, PhD, MSc. His research will focus on implementing pooling targeted deep amplicon sequencing for malaria drug resistance surveillance in Senegal. Dr. Mouhamad is a Post Doc fellow at the University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar, Senegal in the International Research & Training Center in Applied Genomics and Health Surveil- lance (CTGASS) and Yale School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases. He would like to apply for a K43 from the Fogarty International Center, a NTH grant, or an early career fellowship from the African Academy of Sciences. His future career goals are to be an independent researcher and to continue research in Senegal incorporating genomic surveillance approaches for malaria, but also applying these methods to enhance regional and global surveillance of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. Tn partnership with strong collaborating partners and institutions, such as Yale University in the USA, University Cheikh Anta Diop in Senegal, he intend to lead his own research group using multidisciplinary research approaches within a One Health framework.

Ms. Woodson will spend her fellowship year at Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH) in Lima under the mentorship of Magaly Blas, PhD, MD and Purnima Madhivanan, MBBS, MPH, PhD. Her research will focus on exploring the sexual and reproductive health of adolescent women in vulnerable populations in the Amazon Basin.Ms. Woodson is a candidate in Epidemiology at the University of Arizona. She is currently a Fulbright Fogarty scholar in Peru working with the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH) and the organization, Mamas del Rio. Ms. Woodson hopes to use this knowledge to help inform programs within the Amazon Basin region to help reduce adolescent pregnancy and to promote greater gender equity around reproductive health issues.