MARCAD at PAMCA 6th Annual Conference

MARCAD PhD fellow, Oumou Kalsom Gueye and Postdoctoral fellow Dr. Kevin Opondo participated in the activities organized within the 6th Annual Conference of the Pan-African Mosquito Control Association (PAMCA) in Yaoundé, Cameroon, on September 2019.

Oumou Kalsom Gueye took part in the Women in Vector Control Workshop (WIVC) held as the prelude to the PAMCA conference.

The workshop objectives were to conduct a situation gap analysis of women participation in the control of VBDs, to develop practical tools that enable visibility of women in vector control in Africa, and to develop a structured programme for strengthening the capacity of WIVC in Africa.

According to Oumou, the workshop was an important moment of learning and thinking about the next step in her scientific career.

"As a woman scientist, the Women in Vector Control Workshop reinforced my desire to become even more involved in research. We learned about leadership, mentorship... and especially how to overcome the barriers that prevent women from establishing themselves in the scientific research community.

The workshop was very interesting and enriching with an oral presentation and a very informative posters exhibition session which I participated. It served me as a framework to share my research results, to network and to acquire more scientific experience and knowledge through the research results of the other participants" said Oumou Kalsom Gueye.

MARCAD postdoctoral fellow, Dr Kevin Opondo also participated to the Pan-African Mosquito Control Association (PAMCA) 6th Annual Conference, which in total has recorded over 400 participants from 34 countries.

Dr Opondo marked his presence at this important meeting. He co-chaired a session with Elijah Juma on entomological capacity building and career tracts for entomologists in Africa.

« This allowed me to strengthen my leadership roles in entomology in Africa. The conference gave me an avenue to discuss new technologies like Gene-drive and use of genetically modified mosquitoes to control malaria and other disease vectors. Importantly, since my interest is to work closely with disease control institutions and governments, the event allowed interaction and discussions with those institutions and how to implement new technologies in disease control planning » argued Dr Kevin Opondo.

The 6th PAMCA Annual Conference highlighted progress, challenges and future of vector control in Africa. During the meeting, presentations were made on diverse status of disease vectors pertinent to Africa from malaria, threat of Zika, Dengue, sleeping sickness-tsetse fly to onchocerciasis.