MARCAD Symposium on Fundamental and Applied Research at the University of Yaounde I, Cameroon

MARCAD team at the University of Yaounde held a symposium on Fundamental and Applied Research in the service of malaria control, on December 04^th at the premises of the EcoPark, Yaounde/Cameroon.

Cameroon MARCAD PI, Prof. Wilfred MBACHAM moderated the meeting. Local Advisory Board members Prof. Jean Claude MBANYA, Prof. Rose LEKE, Prof. Vincent Pryde TITANJI, Prof. Judes BIGOGA and Prof. Stephen GOGOMO attended the meeting.

After the introductory remarks led by Prof. Wilfred Mbacham, the floor was given to MARCAD postdoctoral Fellows, Dr Akindeh Mbuh, Dr Ali Innocent and PhD fellows, Peter Thelma and Virtue De-Gaulle, to present their work. They took turns on the panel and made presentations on several malaria topics.

Titles of the presentations of the MARCAD Fellows

• Dr Akindeh Mbuh: “Comparing Seasonal Dynamics of Plasmodium falciparum Malaria in Cameroon: A time series analysis.”
• Dr Ali Innocent: “Pre-COVID-19 prevalence of plasmodium falciparum chloroquine resistance transporter polymorphisms and estimate of chloroquine phosphate use in Northern Cameroon or Allele frequencies of pfcrt + pfmdr1 in two regions of varying malaria transmission in West region of Cameroon.”
• Peter Thelma: “Cytochrome P450 and NAT2 genetic variations among children infected with plasmodium falciparum Malaria in Yaounde, Cameroon: implications for anti-malarial drug dosing; metabolism and response.”
• Virtue De-Gaulle: “Assessment of the health system effectiveness in the prevention of malaria among pregnant women in Ghana and Cameroon”.

At the end of the presentations, the local Advisory Board Committee members proceeded to the “Questions and Answers” session related to MARCAD fellows presentations. Then, they provided fellows with some orientations and suggestions that could improve the quality of their research.

In continuity with the activities carried out by the Cameroon MARCAD team, the members of the Scientific Advisory Board also had a meeting on the sidelines of the symposium.

MARCAD PI, Prof Wilfred Mbacham, did a brief presentation of the general progress report of MARCAD Cameroon and that of the fellows.

To close the meeting, members of the Scientific Advisory Board congratulated the quality of the work done by the MARCAD Cameroon team from the start of the project until now and have appreciated the leadership of Prof. Wilfred Mbacham.