PROFILE

I studied cultural anthropology at the University of Amsterdam, where I received my PhD in 1989. My work since has been mainly in medical anthropology. After three long-term ethnographic studies on food taboos during pregnancy in India, local explanations of illness and misfortune (in particular kwashiorkor) in Cameroon, and euthanasia decisions in the Netherlands, I spent 8 years in Tanzania and Uganda doing multidisciplinary social science research, mainly relating to HIV/AIDS. This was followed by 5 years as senior lecturer at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where I coordinated the medical anthropology course and, as a member of the Gates Malaria Partnership, carried out research on the sociocultural aspects of malaria in Tanzania, The Gambia and Mozambique. From 2006 I worked as Research Professor at the Barcelona Centre for International Health Research (CRESIB), mainly leading two large multinational projects on the sociocultural aspects of malaria prevention in infants (as part of the IPTi Consortium) and malaria in pregnancy (as part of the Malaria in Pregnancy Consortium). I also coordinated the social science component of the Microbicides Development Programme. Across these projects I have also maintained a continuous interest in developing new and innovative research methods. More recent projects focus on migration and health, developing sustainable community resources for health in Uganda, and the socio-historical development of laboratory diagnostic services in Mali.

I am currently still a Research Professor in medical anthropology at CRESIB in Barcelona and Professor of Social Science and Global Health at the University of Amsterdam.
This new chair is part of the UvA's Global Health Research Priority Area (zwaartepunt) and will give direction to the recently established Centre for Social Science and Global Health. The aim of the chair is to develop a uniquely social science perspective on Global Health, moving it away from the current narrow biomedical focus on particular diseases, towards a more transdisciplinary perspective on constellations of mutually interacting health problems and their wider sociocultural contexts. Research, in collaboration with the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development (AIGHD), will focus on syndemics - clusters of mutually interacting health problems that develop or are sustained by specific physical, sociocultural and economic contexts, and the synergies between them.

• Centre for Social Science and Global Health (SSGH)

CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS (AS PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR):

1. CoHeRe (Developing Sustainable Community Health Resources in Poor Settings in Uganda). (WOTRO: € 840,000)

It has been argued that the practical knowledge and effective interventions needed to reduce priority health problems in low-income countries are available, but that they do not adequately reach poor and vulnerable populations. One solution is the use of community health workers. So far, however, the development of sustainable reward systems for CHW's has failed. In response to this, this Programme seeks to answer the question: Can social roles, networks and groups be identified in poor and vulnerable communities in Uganda that could serve as a source of basic health information, skills and behaviours, and link vulnerable community members to existing healthresources? Programme involves transdisciplinary research capacity building in Uganda.

• Co-investigators: Dr David Mafigiri and Dr Achilles Katamba (Makerere University, Kampala), Dr Nadine Pakker (AMC/AIGHD, Amsterdam)
• Postdocs: Dr Danny de Vries (SSGH, Amsterdam)
• PhDs: Laban Musinguzi, Emmanueil Turinawe, Jude Rwemisisi

2. COHEMI (Coordinating resources to assess and improve health status of migrants from Latin America). (EC FP7)

The general aim of COHEMI is to coordinate referral centres (both in Europe and Latin American [LA] countries) dealing with diseases specific to LA countries, as well as other infectious and non-infectious diseases affecting LA migrants, and centres investigating migrant health generally (researching health systems, reproductive and child health, anthropological and psycho-social problems). Through coordinating these groups, COHEMI aims to provide a clear picture of the full migration cycle in relation with the health systems in Europe and Latin America and to suggest general and specific (disease-driven) policies to address the priority aspects of ill-health of the migrant population.

Within COHEMI I head two subprojects (work packages), one on health systems and policy (budget €193,000), carried out by Christopher Pell at SSGH in Amsterdam, and one on the social and cultural context of health seeking of Latin American migrants in Europe (budget €247,000), carried out by Maria Roura at CRESIB in Barcelona.

3. Sociocultural issues relating to the acceptability and implementation of prevention and treatment options for malaria in pregnancy in Malawi, Ghana, Kenya and Papua New Guinea. (Gates Foundation: $1 million)

This programme of social science research forms part of the Malaria in Pregnancy Consortium, which aims to better understand the burden of malaria in pregnancy, evaluate which of the new generation of antimalarial drugs can be used safely and effectively for the treatment of pregnant women with malaria, identify safe alternative antimalarials for the prevention of malaria in pregnancy, and establish the best way to increase the coverage and utilisation of existing strategies to control malaria in pregnancy.

• Co-investigators: Arantza Meñaca, Christopher Pell, Erin Andrew.

CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS (AS CO-INVESTIGATOR):

4. SocioLab (Addressing Social, Cultural and Historical Factors Limiting the ontribution of Medical Laboratory services to antenatal care in Mali). (WOTRO: €800,000)

Thekey theme of this programme is the organisation and delivery of essential and quality health services. The specific focus is to barriers impeding medical laboratory services and how this undermines the quality of antenatal care (ANC) in sub-Saharan Africa. Barriers to medical laboratory disproportionally undermining its workforce exist at all levels of the Health System. They comprise important yet unrecognized human and country-specific determinants and may relate to the poor integration of laboratory services and workers within the health system. A sub-theme on social, cultural, historical and global influences shaping the decision-making process of policymakers towards medical laboratory will be developed. These themes were selected given the pivotal yet unfulfilled role of laboratory medicine in ANC.

• Other investigators: Dr Pascale Ondoa (AMC/AIGHD)
• Dr Diallo Souleymane ( Centre Charles Mérieux, Bamako, Mali), Prof Boudougou Flabou (Institut National de Recherche en Santé Publique, Bamako, Mali)

5. Multi-disciplinary University Traditional Health Initiative (MUTHI): Building Sustainable Research Capacity on Plants for Better Public Health in Africa. (EC FP7)

The overall objective of this project is to create sustainable research capacity and research networks in Africa (Mali,South Africa and Uganda). MUTHI will identify needs and develop and implement research training programmes. The research institutions from Africa will have implemented research methodologies so that they are able to improve traditional medicines, identify bio-active compounds, and clinically evaluate and register medicinal products that are used for treatment of illnesses that are prominent in African countries.

PROJECTS COMPLETED IN THE LAST 5 YARS (AS PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR)

• Social science component of the Microbicides Development Programme (MDP) Phase III trial of a candidate vaginal microbicide gel for the prevention of HIV infection in women. (MRC/DfID) £500,000)
• Top-Up: Feasibility study in four African countries, again involving the design of innovative methods for measuring adherence to different dosing regimens, for anti-retroviral microbicide Phase III trials. (MRC/IPM): £100,000
• Acceptability of intermittent preventive treatment for malaria in infants (IPTi) in five African countries (as part of the IPTi Consortium). (Gates Foundation: $1.5 million)
• Understanding the historical, social and political factors involved in the re-introduction of indoor residual spraying for malaria (with DDT) in Mozambique. (Gates Foundation/LSHTM Gates Malaria Partnership: £120,000)
• An anthropological study of perceptions of (and responses to) HAART, symptoms relating to Immune Reconstitution Inflammatory Syndrome (IRIS), and adherence to treatment in Manhiça, Mozambique.
• Care takers' perceptions of symptoms of acute respiratory illness and malaria in infants in Manhiça, Mozambique.

PROJECTS COMPLETED IN THE LAST 5 YEARS (CO-INVESTIGATOR)

• Community Effectiveness of Intermittent Preventive Treatment delivered through the Expanded Programme of Immunisation for Malaria and Anaemia Control in Tanzanian Infants (Gates Foundation).
• Establishing HIV microbicide clinical trial capacity in Mozambique and expanding an existing site in South Africa (EDCTP).
• Reflecting the positive diversities of European priorities for research and measurement in end of life care (PRISMA project) (EC FP7).

• Universitat de Barcelona
  Hoogleraar