Professor Philippe Guérin is Director of the Infectious Diseases Data Observatory (IDDO). He was appointed Director of the WorldWide Antimalarial Research Network (WWARN) - the prototypic model for IDDO - in January 2009. Philippe has extensive experience working in the field for Médecins Sans Frontières and as a researcher for a Wellcome Trust Research Unit in many countries in Africa and Asia. Following three years as a Senior Advisor to the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Philippe joined Épicentre in Paris - a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Research in epidemiology and response to emerging diseases. Philippe served as Scientific Director for six years at Épicentre before moving to WWARN. 

Emmanuelle joined the Senior Management Team at IDDO in December 2023. As Senior Operations and Development Manager, she provides leadership to programme management and operations activity across IDDO’s portfolio of infectious disease research themes and data repository. She also oversees the governance of the organisation, and supports its strategic development including funding, communications and partnerships.

Emmanuelle has an MRes in Molecular and Cellular Immunology with a specialisation in Virology from University Paul Sabatier in Toulouse, France. She carried out a PhD in genetics at the WCHG in Oxford, developing the first prenatal diagnosis for a severe congenital immune and skin disorder. She then moved to the MRC Functional Genomics Unit, working in neurosciences on new therapeutic pathways for aggressive forms of blood cancer in children, before joining the Department of Statistics.

In the past 10 years, she managed the strategies, operations, and governance of multidisciplinary programmes in cancer and infertility across experimental and computational biology, including building and leading new research and preclinical validation platforms in academia and the industry.

Lucie Kafkova, a former Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow, recently joined IDDO to support the Neglected Tropical Disease portfolio team. Before this, she conducted ground-breaking research in Prof. Mathew Freeman's lab at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, developing novel methodology using unnatural amino acids to discover new substrates of human rhomboid protease RHBDL4.

Lucie earned her Ph.D. at the University at Buffalo under the guidance of Prof. Laurie Read, investigating arginine methylation in Trypanosoma brucei. Her academic journey began with a master's and bachelor's degree in the lab of Prof. Lukes in the Czech Republic, where she studied RNA editing in Trypanosoma brucei. Notably, Lucie was honoured with the Dean's Prize for both her master's and Ph.D. theses. Lucie is also a certified Professional Coach, showcasing her commitment to personal and professional development.

Visceral Leishmaniasis (also known as Kala Azar across the Indian subcontinent) is a protozoan parasitic disease which causes fever, weight loss, fatigue and anaemia. It is fatal in over 95% of the untreated cases, but the right treatment significantly reduces deaths and disease effects.

However, relapses after treatment, with clinical symptoms returning months later, remains a major public health concern. Quantifying these relapses is important to control the spread of the disease, so IDDO researchers in collaborations with colleagues working in the field undertook a large scale meta-analysis to generate a baseline estimate of relapses in patients who have been treated.  

The research team used the Infectious Diseases Data Observatory (IDDO)’s library of visceral leishmaniasis clinical studies: this library is a living systematic review updated on a periodic basis to indicate relevant publications indexed by major research databases in the field.

“We extracted data from the studies indexed in the IDDO’s library of visceral leishmaniasis clinical studies and analysed them to estimate the proportion of patients who showed signs of the disease returning after treatment had been completed,” said IDDO’s Dr Prabin Dahal, one of the study authors.

This analysis found that the rates of relapse varied widely, depending on where the patients lived and the exact drug regiment used for the treatment – between 0.5% and 4.5% of patients in the Indian subcontinent showed signs of the disease returning, but for East Africa, as many as 13% of the treated patients had recurring symptoms.

“Patients were also less likely to relapse after treatment with a combination of drugs, rather than single drug”, said IDDO’s Rutuja Chhajed, the study’s first author. The study also highlights previous work suggesting that a combination of drugs might work synergistically to reduce relapse rates as well as treatment duration for visceral leishmaniasis treatment, potentially helping to alleviate the burden on healthcare systems.

“21 of the studies we analysed followed up patients for longer than the standard six months, and based on these studies, we estimate that more than 27% of the relapses were being missed in the six month follow up,” said Dr Prabin Dahal. “Prompt identification and treatment of relapsing visceral leishmaniasis remains priority for the Kala Azar elimination programme in the Indian subcontinent and other regions as they provide an infective pool of the parasite to fuel disease transmission. We think that a longer follow-up duration is needed in future studies of visceral leishmaniasis to capture the late relapses, which remains crucial for disease control”.

Read the full paper in the Lancet Regional Health - SouthEast Asia. 

Find out more about our work on Visceral Leishmaniasis, and access our free database. 

This year’s meeting, in Utrecht, will focus on shaping the future of equitable and sustainable planetary health.

IDDO’s researchers will be presenting our latest research at a series of oral presentations and via e-posters.

Oral presentations

Tuesday, November 21

Join IDDO’s team at Tivoli Vredenburg Cloud Nine Track 2, from 10:30am (Central European Time CET), for a presentation on 'Safety and efficacy of primaquine in patients with P. vivax malaria from South Asia: A systematic review and individual patient data meta-analysis'

Thursday, November 23

Watch two presentations on visceral leishmaniasis on, at the Social Impact Factory Room 3, from 10.30am CET

• Host, parasite and drug determinants of treatment outcomes in Visceral Leishmaniasis: An individual patient data meta-analysis using the Infectious Diseases Data Observatory data platform
• Haemoglobin dynamics following treatment of Visceral Leishmaniasis: An individual patient data meta-analysis using the Infectious Diseases Data Observatory data platform

Join IDDO at 3.30pm CET in the Tivoli Vredenburg Hertz, Track 2, for our presentation ‘Systematic review and geospatial modelling of molecular markers of resistance to artemisinins and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine in Plasmodium falciparum in India'

Posters

• Ophthalmological Complications in Visceral Leishmaniasis and Post Kala-Azar Dermal Leishmaniasis: A Systematic Review of Published Literature
• Lymphatic filariasis treatment studies: the case for an individual participant-level data platform
• Navigating the Neglected Crystal Ball: A Systematic Review of Prognostic Models in Visceral Leishmaniasis
• Substandard and falsified vaccines and their detection

ECTMIH, which takes place from November 23 to 23, provides a platform for experts, scientists and researchers to present scientific developments and breakthroughs in tropical medicine and global health, and strengthens networks and creates new partnerships.

If you are not able to join us in-person then why not follow what is happening at the conference over Twitter by following us on @IDDOnews

Read our latest news or email info@iddo.org with your questions.

The American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH ) President Daniel G. Bausch presented the medal at a ceremony at the Hyatt Regency Chicago, on the opening day of the 72^nd annual meeting of the society

Professor Guérin was nominated for the award by Dr Abib Abera, of Addis Ababa University (AAU), Ethiopia, to mark his 25-year career in the field of tropical medicine where he has led research in clinical trials and epidemiology to improve outcomes for some of the world’s most vulnerable populations.

He began his career as a physician working in France and Nepal, before joining Médecins Sans Frontières where he worked in the field in many countries in Africa and Asia. He later moved into research and held a number of posts with the Wellcome Trust Oxford Research Unit in Thailand, the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, and Épicentre in Paris - a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Research in epidemiology and response to emerging diseases.

Philippe’s interest lay in research and how data could be better used to further research. He has been the director of the WorldWide Antimalarial Network (WWARN) since its inception. WWARN is a collaborative data platform generating innovative resources and reliable evidence to inform the malaria community on the factors affecting the efficacy of antimalarial medicines. In 2016, Philippe established the Infectious Diseases Data Observatory (IDDO), focusing on neglected tropical diseases and emerging infections to provide an environment for equitable sharing of data, methods and infrastructure to generate evidence that improves outcomes for patients worldwide.

The Bailey K. Ashford Medal is named in honour of Bailey K. Ashford who recognised the connection between hookworm infection and anaemia at the age of 26.

Philippe said “I am thrilled to be awarded this medal, which is more of a recognition of the hard work of the very many people I have worked with throughout my career.”

Dr Farhad Shokraneh has 20 years of experience and a PhD in Evidence Synthesis. He joined IDDO in October 2023 as Evidence Synthesis Manager.

Previously, he has worked at the University of Nottingham, King's College London, University College London, UCLH, and Cambridge University in similar roles. He has led teams to deliver projects to clients such as WHO, UN, UNICEF, FDA, UK NIHR, Cochrane, AWMF, and NICE.

As a passionate methodologist and change maker, Farhad is a co-author of the Cochrane Handbook, an editor of Systematic Reviews journal and has designed the first and most sensitive search strategy for COVID-19 literature and the first living search strategy and coined concepts such as 'Search-Resistant Concepts', 'Search Pyramid', 'Living Search Strategy', and 'Iterative Systematic Reviews'.

Dr Charvy Narain holds a doctorate in Neurosciences from the University of Oxford, and has worked in research communications for over 15 years. In her currently role as Communications Manager for IDDO, she provides strategic communications advice and implements IDDO's communications strategy across various communications channels, including the IDDO website and social media. She also line manages the IDDO communications officer.