About me
I am a medical doctor and public health specialist at Management and Development for Health (MDH) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. For the most of my career, my work has mainly centered on reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH) and Infectious Diseases. These two areas remain among major health challenges in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and many other developing countries. My career motivation is to lead efforts, build networks and collaborate to bridge the gap in research, practice and health outcomes by generating, sharing and applying scientific evidence to address health challenges in Tanzania, SSA and the world at large. As a PhD candidate at KI, my research is focused on investigating the effect of the World Health Organization (WHO)'s Option B+ intervention in the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) in routine care settings. (more information below)
Research description
The World Health Organization (WHO)'s Option B+, entailing provision of lifelong antiretroviral therapy (ART) for all pregnant and breastfeeding women, has become the mainstay intervention for prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) globally. This was in part motivated by compelling evidence from clinical trials on it's success in PMTCT . My PhD research is focused on answering three main questions: 1) How well does Option B+ work in routine care settings? 2) What influences it's success in these settings? 3) How can we optimize Option B+ service delivery to achieve maximum benefits from it? The research is based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Education
PhD Candidate 2020 (Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden) MPH 2013 (Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, USA) MD 2009 (Muhimbili University, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania)
Academic honours, awards and prizes
Henry Masters Award –The Dartmouth Institute, For exemplifying Henry’s spirit and passion, for continuing Henry’s bright light full of passion, intelligence and compassion, and for caring deeply about making a difference in health care through social change, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Research Capstone Award - The Dartmouth Institute, For exemplary achievement on the 2013 Capstone Project titled, “The effect of high-protein energy supplementation on disease progression among non-malnourished HIV-infected children 1-5 years old in resource limited settings”, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH