U of Otago receives grant to support severe typhoid research

Monday 28 November 2016

University of Otago receives grant to support severe typhoid research in Tanzania

The University of Otago received a three-year NZD $439,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for Professor John Crump and collaborators at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre and Duke University to study severe typhoid fever in northern Tanzania.

Typhoid fever is estimated to cause approximately 20 million fever illnesses per year, but there is considerable uncertainty about the proportion of patients who develop complications and die, especially in African countries.

Professor Crump says with new typhoid conjugate vaccines on the horizon that provide protection against typhoid fever from a younger age and for a longer duration, policy-makers need information to decide how typhoid vaccines should be deployed in affected countries.

“A detailed understanding of not only the number of illnesses, but also the frequency of typhoid complications and deaths is needed for countries to weigh whether to invest in typhoid control and prevention compared investments in other diseases.”

“Over the past 20 years we have made great progress in understanding how many typhoid fever illnesses occur annually in various geographic locations. However, accurately measuring less common events like typhoid intestinal perforation and fatal typhoid fever is more difficult,” he says.

Professor Crump and collaborators have studied typhoid and other causes of fever in northern Tanzania for more than a decade.

“We are glad to have been supported to contribute data on severe typhoid fever to this important multi-centre study,” he says.

“It is hoped that the collective findings will help countries to better understand the impact of typhoid fever on people and in turn support decisions about investments in prevention interventions like vaccines.”

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