biography
Dr. Awash Teklahaimanot's career in malaria research policy spans several decades and is dedicated to understanding the dynamics of malaria transmission and the effectiveness of malaria drugs in laboratory and field conditions, as well as developing guidelines and global strategies for malaria prevention and control. He spent three years at the CDC adapting to the wild strains of malaria parasites collected in the laboratory in the field and characterizing them by their drug response and infectivity to vector mosquitoes and primates. Dr. Teklehaimanot has also spent more than 13 years with the World Health Organization helping malaria-endemic countries, and particularly Africa, with program implementation and epidemic containment. Currently, Dr. Teklehaimanot is busy providing technical support and mobilizing resources for the fight against malaria in ten African countries as part of the Quick Wins Initiative of the Millennium Project. Dr. Teklehaimanot is currently a board member of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership and represents the research and academic community.
education
MPH, 1988, Harvard University GSAS PhD, 1982, Purdue University W Lafyte MS, 1978, Bowling Green State University BS, 1970, Addis Abeba University
Columbia Affiliations
Director, Center for National Health Development in Ethiopia
Academic appointments
Director, Malaria and NTD Program
Other affiliations
Board member, Roll Back Malaria Partnership
Choose Global Activities
Overcoming the bottlenecks in malaria control , Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda: In 2005 the United Nations launched the Quick Impact Initiative on Malaria at its world summit, given little progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals aiming to rapidly expand existing controls to accelerate progress towards MDG 6: stop and reverse the incidence of malaria. The Breaking the Bottlenecks Project (BTB) was conceived to provide comprehensive support and advice to at least ten malaria-endemic countries in order to expand their malaria control programs and achieve a rapid effect on malaria by 2008. Between 2005 and 2008, a group of experts worked with countries to mobilize resources for malaria control through the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM), assess needs and funding gaps, plan national control programs, and identify bottlenecks in program implementation identify and respond to it. In 2007-2008, BTB-supported countries raised nearly $ 1.6 billion over five years to fund their national malaria control programs. Health Enhancement Program , Ethiopia: The Center for National Health Development in Ethiopia (CNHDE) is a project of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. CNHDE helps build Ethiopia's capacity to deliver and improve health services, and helps monitor and assess the progress and overall performance of the Department of Health's Health Enhancement Program (HEP). HEP was founded in 2004 to improve access and equity to basic health services for the country's underserved rural population. It is based on the provision of basic health promotion and disease prevention through community-based health counselors. CNHDE supported the development of the curriculum and educational material for the training of health advisors, developed survey tools and instruments for collecting health information from the rural population, and also carried out a national baseline survey and a three-year follow-up survey to evaluate the training and working conditions of health advisors. Combating malaria and neglected tropical diseases in the Millennium Villages : The Millennium Villages Project (MVP) was launched in 2004 to demonstrate that the Millennium Development Goals can be achieved with low-cost, cross-sectoral, community-based interventions in even the most challenging agro-ecological environments. This includes 79 villages and around 500,000 people in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda. The Center for National Health Development in Ethiopia (CNHDE) developed the malaria control strategy in the MVP based on universal coverage of the vulnerable population with preventive and therapeutic measures, with free, mass distribution of long-lived insecticide nets (LLIN), along with the availability of a free one Treatment with artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACT) administered by government health facilities. In areas with high transmission, pregnant women are given intermittent preventive therapy (IPT) from local health facilities as part of prenatal care. Currently, community health workers trained to diagnose with Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs) and treat with ACTs support community-based case management.
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