Kebede Deribe

I am a public health professional with over 10 years of experience. I have extensive experience in research and development in public health. Currently I am PhD student in Brighton and Sussex Medical School (http://www.bsms.ac.uk) in the UK and I am a Wellcome Trust Intermediate Fellow in Public Health and Tropical Medicine (http://www.wellcome.ac.uk). I work on one of the neglected tropical diseases. My research project is entitled 'Global Atlas of Podoconiosis'. The proposed work will build upon a nationwide mapping technique which was applied in Ethiopia. First, I will test the universality of factors associated with podoconiosis by conducting a nationwide survey in Cameroon. Second, I will investigate the spatial distribution of podoconiosis globally by conducting surveys and applying geostatistical and boosted regression modeling. Third, I will quantify the population at risk globally and the number of people affected, using a Bayesian meta-regression method, DisMod-MR, employed by the Global Disease Burden studies, to estimate the disability adjusted life years (DALYs) attributable to podoconiosis. Fourth, using a micro-costing approach that allows adjustment for time-variant resource utilization and for heterogeneity, I will estimate the cost of control and elimination. Findings will directly inform the global control and elimination of podoconiosis.