Professor Alan Fenwick OBE

Professor Fenwick directs the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative in the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology.

The SCI is a collaborative project to assist countries in sub Saharan Africa control schistosomiasis, intestinal helminths and other Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). The SCI was awarded a prestigous Queens Anniversary Prize (2008), and a medal and certificate were collected from Buckingham Palace on February 14th 2008

Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease that leads to chronic ill-health and affects more than 200 million people in developing countries, 85% of them in sub-Saharan Africa. Approximately 600 million people are at risk of contracting schistosomiasis because they live in tropical regions where water supply and sanitation are inadequate or non-existent.

The SCI has been supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, through several grants since 2002, for work in six countries, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Tanzania (including Zanzibar), Uganda and Zambia. In 2007, Geneva Global awarded funds for control work in Rwanda and Burundi. SCI works in partnership with the World Health Organisation, and the DBL-Institute for Health Research and Development (responsible for in-country training and operational research), and participates in the USAID/NTD control project as country managers for Burkina Faso, Niger and Uganda. SCI is a technical assistance partner in the World Bank funded project to control schistosomiasis in Yemen.

Further information on this project and the Global Network for NTD control can be found on the SCI website at www.sci-ntds.org and at www.gnntdc.org 

 Global Health Course - June 2008 and 2009

I am a course director (with Professor Helen Ward) for a new short course first run in June 2008 on global health 2008 (see advert)  

The course was held from 23 - 27 June 2008 and repeated in June 2009. This year the attendance was over 60 students from Imperial, other UK and international universities. Students explored the complex issues of global health including health inequalities, health systems, the impact of climate change, globalisation, migration, newly emerging infections, conflict and humanitarian interventions. Students had the opportunity to question a panel of experts from WHO, Gates Foundation and other institutions, and debated questions such as the role of pharmaceutical companies through to vegetarianism. The online student evaluation was excellent.

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