News and events - 2021

December 2021

New fellowship programme in Africa and UK will boost global health leadership

BSMS will work with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and other partners in the UK and Africa on a new £11.8m PhD fellowship programme to train a new generation of world-class researchers focused on improving health and wellbeing in Africa.Funded by Wellcome, the programme will support 25 UK registered and practising healthcare professionals, including nurses, midwives and allied healthcare professionals, to study for PhDs on global health in Africa. A further 25 matched fellowships will be offered by the UK partner institutions to African fellows working across the six African partner institutions, creating a unique blended cohort of 50 doctoral fellows recruited over five years.  

Read the full story here >

Grant awarded for AMR research

World Antimicrobial Awareness Week took place from 18-24 November. The 2021 theme of Spread Awareness, Stop Resistance called on stakeholders, policymakers, healthcare providers and the public to be antimicrobial resistance (AMR) awareness champions. On this theme, it was announced that David Banda from the Brighton Lusaka Health Link (BLHL) has received a grant award from the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and the National Institute for Health Research for the proposal ‘Towards Zambia Point Prevalence Survey of Antimicrobial Consumption and Resistance’. This research will assess the prevalence and the quality of antimicrobial prescriptions across six hospitals in Zambia. BLHL was established in 2005 and is a partnership between University Hospitals Sussex, the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka, Zambia and other allied institutions including the medical schools and schools of nursing and midwifery in both cities. Prof Melanie Newport from the Global Health and Infection Department at BSMS is the current chair of the board.

New article: intimate partner violence

Dr Anne Gatuguta from the Global Health and Infection department has co-authored an article titled ‘Identifying the women most vulnerable to intimate partner violence (IPV): a decision tree analysis from 48 low and middle-income countries.’ The paper has been published in the EClinicalMedicine journal (Published by The Lancet). This paper provides important insights about subpopulations of women where IPV prevalence is high; information that can help in designing targeted interventions for IPV.

Read the paper here >

NTD mental wellbeing projects get highlighted on new interactive map

There has been increasing interest in the links between mental health, stigma and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). This has led to an increase in NTD funding in this area and many projects emerging that focus on these issues, including three projects being carried out by the Global Health and Infection department at BSMS: IMPRESS, EnDPoINT and the 5S Foundation. All these projects are highlighted in the new online tool co-developed by the NTD NGO Network and InfoNTD.

Visit the map here >

Sexual behaviour, not antibiotics, main influence of transmission dynamics for contemporary syphilis

Through a partnership with Sanger Institute, Prof Jaime Vera, Chair in HIV Medicine at BSMS, was part of a research group looking at why the incidence of syphilis has increased by 150% in some high-income countries. The data shows that the Treponema pallidum infecting patients today is not the same T. pallidum infecting patients even 30 years ago – ancestral sub lineages may have become extinct, being replaced by new sub lineages that have swept to dominance across the globe with the dramatic upswing in syphilis cases in the USA, the UK and other Western European countries. An article with the results is now published in Nature Microbiology.

Read the article here >

November 2021

'No health without mental health'

Dr Maya Semrau, Senior Research Fellow in Implementation Research, gave a talk titled 'No Health Without Mental Health - Mental Health in an Unequal World', on Tuesday 19 October and was part of the 'Diversity in Medicine' series of events at BSMS. Maya’s talk, which was chaired by Dr Arianne Shahvisi, was an illuminating discussion on the global mental health movement and the large treatment gap associated with mental ill-health globally. If you weren't able to attend the live presentation, or would like to rewatch Dr Semrau's talk, watch it via the link below.

Watch the talk here >

October 2021

HIV Hour podcast

Dr Diego Garcia, Research Associate in HIV and Social Science at BSMS, was interviewed by HIV Hour on 9 October about the new Pedal website he is involved in. The study asks people who take double and triple medication about their experiences. Listen to the interview below and find out more about the Pedal study at pedalstudy.org.uk.

Listen to the podcast here >

Papreen publishes new book

Dr Papreen Nahar, Senior Research Fellow (Medical Anthropology and Global Health), has published a new book, Childlessness in Bangladesh: Intersectionality, Suffering and Resilience. This book examines the intersectionality and stratified lived experience of rural poor and urban middle-class childless women in Bangladesh. The volume will be of interest to scholars working in anthropology, reproductive and women’s health, global health, gender studies, development studies and Asian studies. BSMS is planning an official launch in March 2022 to tie into International Women's Day, but you can purchase a copy online with a 20% discount with the code FLR40.

Visit the webpage here >

STI vending machines reach Japan

Vending machines that aim to prevent sexually transmitted infections (STIs) have reached Japan via a collaboration between BSMS, the University of Brighton, Nagoya University and AKTA (a sexual health charity). The vending machines are dispensing HIV self-testing kits in sexual venues in Tokyo for the first time. The research team, which includes Jaime Vera, Professor in HIV Medicine at BSMS, are currently evaluating the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention. Find out more by watching a video here. Additionally, the STI vending machines continue to be evaluated in Zambia and have proven to be very versatile. A vending machine is also located locally in Brighton’s Jubilee Library. Prof Malcolm Reed, Dean of BSMS, joined Prof Vera at an event earlier this month.

Launch of Resilience Diaries

Have you ever wondered what this pandemic has been like for people on different continents, or those living with pre-existing health conditions? 'Resilience Diaries' is a short film documenting the daily thoughts and lives of people living with HIV during the Covid-19 pandemic in Trinidad and Tobago, Argentina, Zimbabwe, the UK and the Philippines. This video was produced in partnership between BSMS, the Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+), the International Community of Women living with HIV (ICW) and the Global Network of Young People Living with HIV (Y+). The team at BSMS included Dr Marija Pantelic (PI), Prof Carrie Llewellyn, Prof Jaime Vera and Dr Collins Iwuji. All footage was self-directed by people living with HIV. The film is now being used to facilitate virtual psycho-social support groups for people living with HIV around the world, funded by GNP+. 

Long-term consequences of the misuse of ivermectin data

An article involving researchers at BSMS has been published online by The Lancet. Prof Jackie Cassell and Jo Middleton from BSMS were involved in a study on the effects of ivermectin, an oral anti-infective medicine that is integral to neglected tropical disease programmes. It is safe and effective for the treatment and control of lymphatic filariasis, scabies and onchocerciasis. There has been a groundswell of opinion across several countries that ivermectin might be useful in reducing the symptoms of and mortality due to Covid-19, with many citing meta-analyses that infer positive effects; however, these conclusions appear to be unreliable. On March 31, 2021, the World Health Organization advised that ivermectin should only be used within clinical trials and not as part of routine clinical practice. Read the article in full here >

September 2021

BSMS academics chair sessions at the 12th NNN Conference

The Annual Neglected Tropical Disease NGO (NNN) Conference took place this week, with the theme of 'Enabling a paradigm shift to a country-led response to deliver the neglected tropical diseases (NTD) Road Map'. The three-day event attracted more than 1,000 participants. Prof Gail Davey and Dr Maya Semrau, from the Global Health and Infection department at BSMS, chaired a number of sessions. Gail chaired a special panel session looking into the new NTD road map's call for strategic shifts at a time when the global health and development community is having a moment of reckoning with the power dynamics, colonial legacies, and the inequities that pervade through the various intersecting sectors, including, foreign aid, academia, civil society and non-state actors, and grassroots community development. The high-level panel included speakers from WHO, World Mission and the Ministry of Health in Guyana. Maya chaired a workshop on the theme of developing essential care packages for mental health and wellbeing in NTDs, as well as facilitating one of the breakout rooms. The workshop aimed to drive participant engagement with and contribution to the development of essential care packages on mental health and wellbeing for NTDs. A report will be published after the conference and can be found on the NNN website.

Read more about the conference here >

BSMS PhD students speak at inauguration event in Sudan

On Tuesday 24 August, the NIHR Unit on neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) at BSMS' partner, the Mycetoma Research Centre (MRC) based in Khartoum, Sudan, opened the doors of an innovative vocational training centre for mycetoma patients called SAAI'D in Arabic. In the presence of high-level dignitaries, such as the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Industry, the Ambassador of Japan in Khartoum, the Vice-Chancellors of the University of Khartoum, Prof Ahmed Hassan Fahal, Director of the MRC, welcomed their presence and support for MRC's vision to attend to mycetoma patients both during, and after treatment, to reduce their sufferings, disabilities and stigma. He affirmed the MRC's determination to provide pioneering medical, community development and research projects to achieve its vision, objectives and roles. BSMS PhD students based at MRC from the NIHR Unit on NTDs and the 5S Foundation spoke at the event to explain the current academic links between BSMS and MRC, including the role of social science research to support contextually appropriate interventions for patients.

Read more about the centre here >

Mental health lecture – Tuesday 19 October

Mental health was long neglected in funding, policy, practice and research. Over the last 20 years, the Global Mental Health movement has highlighted the significant burden of disease and the large treatment gap associated with mental ill-health, with the aim of improving the lives of people with mental illness worldwide. This talk will delve into some of these issues, arguing that there can be 'no health without mental health'. This talk will be delivered by Dr Maya Semrau, Research Fellow B in Implementation Research, and will be chaired by Dr Arianne Shahvisi, Senior Lecturer in Ethics. This lecture is for BSMS staff and students, and will take place from 4-5pm. If you would like to attend, please email the Inclusivity team at inclusivity@bsms.ac.uk. 

World-first initiative contributes to reduction in HIV diagnosis

An award-winning world-first trust initiative, HIV testing in the community’, has helped see a 44% reduction in Brighton residents diagnosed with HIV since its launch in 2017. ‘HIV testing in the community’, which was established by UHSussex Sexual Health consultants in partnership with The Martin Fisher Foundation, uses a smart vending machine to dispense free HIV self-testing kits. The HIV self-tests give a result in just 15 minutes from a single drop of blood. Importantly, of those diagnosed in Brighton & Hove this year, 100% received HIV treatment within 30 days. Once on effective treatment, people living with HIV are unable to pass the infection on. These machines are in multiple venues across Brighton to make them as accessible as possible to those in high-risk groups across the city. Dr Jaime Vera, Senior Lecturer in HIV Medicine and Honorary Consultant Physician at BSMS, has been involved in the project. 

Read the full story here >

BSMS team hosts online charity challenge for Sixth Form students

Global health affects everyone wherever they live, with its emphasis on overcoming health inequities. Raising awareness of global health issues among young people is particularly important in the current pandemic. It has also been a challenging year for year 12 and 13 students to gain experience and relevant activities to put on personal statements for university applications. This led to the Global Health and Infection department working with Outreach and Widening Participation team to launch an online Sixth Form Charity Challenge. The team set local year 13 students the task of identifying a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that was working effectively to tackle neglected tropical diseases. They then had to give an eight minute presentation to Dr Anne Gatuguta and Dr Sarah Marshall from Global Health and Infection to pitch for funding for the charity. As an added incentive, the prize was a £100 donation to the winning organisation! Sarah Marshall said: "We were incredibly impressed by the hard work and the high quality of all the final presentations. It is encouraging to feel that the future of global health is in such good hands." The worthy winner was a team of prospective medical students from Varndean, who argued very effectively that the NGO Evidence Action should be funded for their Deworm the World project. Their teacher, John Luton, added: "Thank you so much for setting up this competition, it certainly made them work hard. All teams were really good I thought and they have a good addition to their Personal Statements. Even I've learnt a lot about NTDs."

August 2021

Gail Davey - inspirational women of BSMS interview

Gail Davey OBE, Professor of Global Health Epidemiology at BSMS, is the latest to feature in the 'inspirational women of BSMS' series. Read her interview in full via the link below.

Read Gail's interview here >

Dr Arianne Shahvisi - Global Health Lives podcast

Dr Arianne Shahvisi, Senior Lecturer in Ethics at BSMS, was the guest speaker on the latest Global Health Lives podcast, hosted by Dr Delan Devakumar. Arianne discuss racism and xenophobia, the Global Gag rule and neglected tropical diseases.

Listen to the podcast here >

Academics from BSMS participate in climate change symposium

In August, the Sussex Sustainability Research Programme (SSRP) hosted a two-day online gathering of leading scientists on the intersection of climate and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) called Evidence for Action. BSMS was well represented with Prof Mel Newport chairing a session on ‘Integrated Approaches to Converging Climate and Health Crises’. Jo Middleton, Research Fellow, spoke about integrating climate action, healthcare and biodiversity conservation in Papua New Guinea’s rainforests while Dr Kingsley Orievulu (Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Africa Health Research Institute, KwaZulu-Natal), who works with Dr Collins Iwuji, spoke about their SSRP project on HIV and drought. You can watch the presentations via the link below. After three informative talks there was a panel discussion which drew together some of the key points from the session. All speakers demonstrated the complex interactions between many factors when the impact of climate change on health is considered.  

Watch the talks here >

Save the date – launch of the Sexual Health Vending Machines in Brighton

The Martin Fisher Foundation is celebrating the installation of five vending machines delivering free STI and HIV tests across Brighton and Hove. This is part of the Brighton and Hove Fast Track City collaboration, with the machines aiming to help the foundation’s commitment of zero new HIV cases and zero new HIV cases and stigma by 2030. Dr Jaime Vera from BSMS is part of the team who have introduced these new vending machines. This launch event will take place on Friday 8 October from 5:30-7pm at Jubilee Library in Brighton.

Register here >

July 2021

Forced labour indicators in Malaysian medical glove industry supplying the NHS worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic 

Exploitation of workers in the Malaysian medical glove industry supplying the NHS has worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to new research carried out by a partnership led by Newcastle University for the Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre (Modern Slavery PEC). The study surveyed nearly 1,500 mainly migrant workers in Malaysia’s medical gloves factories and interviewed actors from the whole medical glove supply chain, including workers and manufacturers in Malaysia, government officials, suppliers and procurement managers in the UK. There are current initiatives to enhance the Labour Standards Assurance System and training programmes in ethical public procurement. "But clearly a lot of work remains to be done, starting with requiring evidence of preventing and remediating forced labour as a condition of contract and actively monitoring compliance with international labour standards during the length of the contract", said Dr Mei Trueba, research partner from BSMS.

Read the full story here >

Digital vending machines provide access to STD self-tests in Zambia

A study evaluating the acceptability and feasibility of vending machines delivering HIV self-tests and other items such as condoms and sanitary towels to young adolescents in Lusaka started this week. The study is a collaboration between Dr Jaime Vera, Senior Lecturer in HIV Medicine and Honorary Consultant Physician, and colleagues at the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia. Two machines have been set up in a youth clinic and a youth centre respectively. If the intervention provides successful, it can become a new way to provide access to sexual and reproductive health supplies for young people in Zambia where the HIV epidemic is one of the country’s major public health problems.

New Open WHO courses available on podoconiosis and scabies

The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a new series of open access trainings for health workers at national and district levels relating to Skin Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). Prof Gail Davey and Dr Kebede Deribe from the Department of Global Health and Infection at BSMS contributed to the content of the podoconoiosis training.

View the training courses here >

June 2021

Free sexual health and HIV tests available through digital vending machines

The Martin Fisher Foundation and University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust launched three new sexual health and HIV vending machines on Friday 18 June 2021. These machines are sited across the city in the centre (The Jubilee Library), the West (Portland Road, between Wish Park Surgery and Kamson Pharmacy) and the East (the Wellsbourne Centre, Whitehawk), providing easy access to kits in these areas. The award-winning digital vending machines were developed by the Martin Fisher Foundation in collaboration with academics from BSMS in 2017 and funded by Public Health England (PHE) as part of the HIV Prevention Innovation Fund. Initially they were designed to distribute HIV self-tests, however, in response to user feedback, they have developed them to additionally provide sexual health testing kits. This was also in response to the Coronavirus pandemic where people have been less able to access clinical services. 

Read the full story here >

Papreen wins poster prize

Dr Papreen Nahar, Senior Research Fellow (Medical Anthropology and Global Health), won the best poster prize at the NIHR Global Health Research Training Forum. Her poster was titled 'What works to keep a project running through a pandemic?' Papreen's poster was part of the Mentorship category and explored four ways the 5S team at BSMS have adapted their training during the pandemic, including a case study. Papreen said: "It was great to see the NIHR's strong commitment to training alongside research, as well as its involvement of LMIC researchers."

Prof Newport’s blog published on NIHR Global Health website

Prof Melanie Newport, Head of the Global Health and Infection Department at BSMS, is also the co-Chair of the NIHR Training Forum which hosted a successful third annual Global Health Research Training Forum last week. More than 90 participants from across various NIHR funded projects attended the forum. Mel wrote a blog for the NIHR on mentorship, leadership and career progression for early career researchers and allied health professionals, which is available to read below.

Read the blog here >

Prof Davey to give keynote talk at British Association of Dermatologists Annual meeting

Gail Davey, Professor of Global Health Epidemiology at BSMS, will be giving two talks at the British Association of Dermatologist Annual meeting taking place from 6-8 July. Her keynote will focus on the power research can have to raise awareness of forgotten conditions. Using the example of podoconiosis, a non-infectious form of tropical lymphoedema, she will explain how studies conducted initially with modest levels of funding have increased local, national and global attention on this condition. While epidemiological, clinical and implementation research has provided the evidence base necessary to influence policy, basic research including genetic research has drawn in academic audiences.

See the programme here >

May 2021

Webinar: A new strategy for Podoconiosis

On 12 May, a panel of leading advocates, experts, practitioners, and funders considered the steps necessary to improve the lives of individuals and communities affected by the disease and to accelerate treatment and prevention by integrating the control neglected skin diseases.

Speakers included:

• Githinji Gitahi, Group Chief Executive, Amref Health Africa
• Fikre Seife, National NTD Program team leader, Federal Ministry of Health, Ethiopia
• Daniel Argaw Dagne, Head, Prevention, Treatment, and Care Unit, Department of Neglected Tropical Diseases, World Health Organization
• Gretchen Stoddard, Program Director, IZUMI Foundation
• Gail Davey, President, Royal Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene, and Founder, Footwork: The International Podoconiosis Initiative

This webinar, hosted by Footwork, the international Podoconiosis initiative, and supported by the Brighton and Sussex Medical School and the Institute of Development Studies, marked the launch of Footwork’s new five-year strategy to mobilise and coalesce actors to build commitment and translate this into transformative action to improve the lives of individuals and communities affected by the disease and to accelerate treatment and prevention by integrating podoconiosis control into efforts to eliminate other NTDs, particularly skin-related NTDs. Watch the webinar in full below.

The importance of ethical and sustainable procurement

Dr Mei Trueba, Lecturer in Global Health, gave a talk on 7 May about the importance of ethical, responsible and sustainable procurement within the health sector, with a particular focus on critically discussing the role of the Supplier Codes of Conduct. Jointly organised by the Barcelona City Council and the Catalan Government, this event gathered key members of various NGOS, public and private organisations seeking to tackle the labour, environmental and human rights violations and the instances of forced labour taking place in healthcare supply chains. Mei is the co-author on a recent article, titled 'Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) control in Alta Verapaz (northern Guatemala): evaluating current efforts through stakeholders' experiences'. This article is based on a research study that aimed to understand barriers and facilitators of CL control in Guatemala as experienced and perceived by key stakeholders, in order to comprehend what works well and what does not, and suggest evidence‐informed interventions.

Read the article here >

Covid RECOVERY HEIF funding

Dr Mei Trueba, Lecturer in Global Health, has been awarded Covid RECOVERY HEIF funding to develop a programme to mitigate the mental health effects of Covid-19 on junior doctors. Mei's action-research project will be developed in collaboration with the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust’s staff health and wellbeing department and with junior doctors. New staff member Hatty Martin, who is starting this month as a Research Assistant in Global Health and Infection, will work with Mei on the new project.
New paper: non-communicable diseases and obesity

Dr Papreen Nahar, Senior Research Fellow (Medical Anthropology and Global Health) has published a new paper in the International Journal of Obesity, titled 'Risk factors for non-communicable diseases related to obesity among first- and second-generation Bangladeshi migrants living in north-east or south-east England.' The paper is based on a study she carried out in collaboration with Durham University. It explores the outcome of Papreen's acculturation and migration project, which focuses on the British Bangladeshi community. The study observed important inter- and intra-regional inequality in OR-NCD risk, which worsens the health of ethnic minorities and widens inequality.

Read it online here > 

New paper: HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder

Katie Alford, Doctoral student and HIV Research Assistant in Global Health and Infection at BSMS, has published a paper this week, titled 'Quality of life in people living with HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder: A scoping review study.'

Read it online here >

New publication: AMR

Dr Papreen Nahar, Senior Research Fellow (Medical Anthropology and Global Health), is the co-author of a new paper on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) issues, looking specifically at antibiotic stewardship in a low-income country. 'Motivating antibiotic stewardship in Bangladesh: identifying audiences and target behaviours using the behaviour change wheel' has been published in BMC Public Health.

Read it online here >

April 2021

Prof Tadele named President of the Ethiopian Society  

Prof Getnet Tadele from the 5S Foundation Ethiopia team, part of Global Health and Infection at BSMS, has been named President of the Ethiopian Society of Sociologists, Social Workers and Anthropologists (ESSSWA) as well as being named Board Member of Wolkite University. Congratulations to Prof Tadele.

March 2021

Prof Abebaw Fekadu receives prestigious research award in Ethiopia 

Congratulations to Abebaw Fekadu, Professor in Global Mental Health, who has received a prestigious Senior Public Health Research Award in Ethiopia. On 14 March, Lia Tadesse, Minister of Health for Ethiopia, handed Abebaw the Senior Public Health Research Award at the 32nd Annual Scientific Conference of the Ethiopian Public Health Association in Addis Ababa. With more than 200 publications and a track record delivering clinical trials and complex intervention studies across multiple partners and countries, Abebaw, who is a member of the Global Health and Infection Department at BSMS, has established himself as an international influencer in the field of global mental health. Abebaw is also Head of the World Bank Africa Centre of Excellence in Therapeutic Discovery (CDT-Africa) at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, where BSMS is a knowledge partner. He is an African Research Leader (the Medical Research Council/DfID, UK) and fellow of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences. In addition, he serves on various committees and advisory boards, including WHO, Lancet Commission and Journal editorial boards.

Read Abebaw's full profile here >

February 2021

BSMS Lecture Series with Dr Tamara Mulenga

The next BSMS Lecture Series talk will take place on Wednesday 3 March. The series is organised by the BSMS Widening Participation and Outreach team and aimed at school and college students. The speaker will be BSMS alumna, Dr Tamara Mulenga, who will explore the topic of global health and the importance of working together.

Find out more here >

BSMS Social Science Forum: Neglected Tropical Diseases

The second event in a brand new series, the BSMS Social Science Forum, will take place on Thursday 25 February. The guest speaker is Samantha Vanderslott from the University of Oxford, who will explore reasons for neglect in global health and how attention can be directed in the future. All are welcome, no background in social science required.

Find out more and join here >

PhD work on Mycobacterium tuberculosis growth published

Daire Cantillon in Global Health and Infection recently published his PhD work in Nature Biofilms and Microbiomes. The research used a microgravity culture system developed by NASA to understand the impact of Mycobacterium tuberculosis growth as a biofilm in low shear liquid suspension. The study concluded that the natural ability of mycobacteria to form axenic biofilms in nutrient replete conditions was alone sufficient to induce antimicrobial drug tolerance in vitro, and that this might generate phenotypic heterogeneity in vivo that contributes to the challenge of treating tuberculosis. Justyna Wroblewska, a BSMS medical student, played a key role, starting the research as a biosciences undergraduate project. The study was funded by The Royal Society and a PhD studentship from the University of Brighton. The link to the open access publication is available here and there is a Nature Communities blog about the study below.

Read the blog here >

Welcome to new staff members

Please welcome Saeideh Babashahi, Research Fellow in Economics, and Jaime Thakrar, Research Fellow in HIV and Neurology. Both have recently joined the Global Health and Infection department. 

Research aims to personalise antibiotic treatment 

An NIHR Doctoral Fellowship has been awarded to Dr Elizabeth Cross for research that aims to personalise antibiotic treatment for patients with cellulitis. Dr Cross began her medical career at BSMS, where she graduated with a Distinction in 2012. After her foundation years she spent time training in public health prior to beginning specialty training in infectious diseases and microbiology. Over this time she developed a keen interest in healthcare interventions designed to reduce unnecessary antibiotic use to tackle antimicrobial resistance. She experienced her first taste of research during her fourth year BSMS Individual Research Project (IRP) with Prof Martin Llewelyn, who is now also supervising her Doctoral research. Cellulitis is an increasingly common bacterial infection of the skin that usually affects the legs and frequently recurs. Many patients with cellulitis get much longer antibiotic treatment than they need, which exposes them to the risks of taking unnecessary antibiotics. Through this research, Dr Cross aims to better understand which individual patient factors predict outcomes in cellulitis, in order to develop a tool to guide antibiotic treatment length. This should benefit patients by ensuring they receive the amount of antibiotics they need and no more.

January 2021

We must go beyond drugs and therapies to overcome neglected diseases

Gail Davey OBE, Professor of Global Health Epidemiology at BSMS, has written an opinion piece to mark the World Health Organization Neglected Tropical Disease Roadmap 2030 launch. Gail says: "Whilst progress has been made in controlling and even eliminating some of these diseases in certain countries, several of the targets are ambitious – not because they require vast investments in research to develop complex pharmaceutical treatments and vaccines, but because these diseases and the people they most harm remain forgotten or at the bottom of governments' and development funders' priorities."   

Read the full opinion piece here >

Collins presents at Health Systems Global Symposium 

Dr Collins Iwuji, Senior Lecturer in Sexual Health and HIV Medicine, and Diantha Pillay from the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute in South Africa, offered a joint presentation at the Health Systems Global Symposium this week. Their presentation was titled 'Integrating HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis and diagnostic STI care: an individualised public health approach'. The interactive session shed light on the benefits, challenges and limitations faced by NIHR Global Health Policy and Systems Development Award holders, in addition to recommendations for improving the funding model and strengthening the NIHR’s role in the global health systems research sphere. You can follow this and other events from Health Systems Global on their YouTube channel.

Visit the YouTube channel here >

Webinar considers impact of COVID-19 on maternity and midwifery 

Globally, COVID-19 has disrupted aspects of birth that make it a safe and positive experience for women. In December 2020, CORTH (the Centre for Cultures of Reproduction, Health and Technology) led an international and multi-professional exploration into the impact of COVID-19 on midwifery. Dr Chi Eziefula, co-director of CORTH, hosted an online 'CORTH conversation' with a panel of senior midwives from Canada and the UK, who recounted their experiences, reflections and innovative service developments working on the frontline and in academia since the pandemic began. The meeting highlighted the difficult experiences of women during pregnancy, birthing and in the post-natal period. It also characterised the challenges faced by maternity staff in delivering a service of quality that supports women's physical and mental health. Midwifery has had to adapt, including provision of online services and use of social media. Discussion reflected on access to care, birth rates, birthing choices, and the disproportionately poorer outcomes in people from Black and minority ethnicities. Academic panellist Professor Saraswathi Vedam, of the Birth Place Lab, University of British Colombia, pointed out that for many pregnant and birthing women around the world (such as refugees) social distancing and other COVID-19 measures have proven impossible to maintain. The meeting was attended by a multidisciplinary, global audience of 45 participants including academics, midwives, obstetricians and the UK parliamentary advisor to the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on reproductive health.

Study aims to improve mental health services for people living with HIV

An NIHR ARC KSS award of £20,000 has been given to a study that aims to improve access to psychosocial services among people living with HIV. This study is a partnership between BSMS (Dr Marija Pantelic, Prof Carrie Llewellyn); Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust (Dr Jaime Vera); Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust (Dr Mun-Yee Tung, Dr Emma Fox); Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust (Dr Shalini Andrews); and the Terrence Higgins Trust (Mark Tweed, Dr Emma Russel), a national organisation providing psycho-social peer support for people living with HIV. The researchers will establish a Kent, Surrey and Sussex (KSS) Coalition for Living Well with HIV, consisting of people living with HIV, nominated family/friends from their immediate support networks, psychologists, HIV consultants, primary care providers, researchers and commissioners in the region. The coalition will be consulted and engaged throughout all stages of the study and co-design pathways for linking people living with HIV to psychosocial support services. The study will start in April 2021 for one year.

New series: BSMS Social Science Forum

We are delighted to announce the Social Science Forum events for the second term. All are welcome, no background in social science required. To find out more about the series, visit the BSMS events page or contact Gem on g.aellah@bsms.ac.uk with any queries.

Visit the events page here >

New study: anti-TB activity

Researchers Dr Daire Cantillon and Dr Leticia Wildner, published a study in January demonstrating the anti-tuberculosis activity of plant-derived natural products in a collaboration between the Waddell lab in Global Health and Infection and natural product chemists at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil. The results suggest new avenues for drug discovery, expanding antimicrobial compound chemistries to novel anthraquinone and polyacetylene scaffolds in the search for new drugs to treat drug-resistant bacterial diseases. The research, published in Frontiers in Microbiology, was partially funded by a University of Brighton Santander Travel Award.

Read the full report here >