Student Spotlight: MSc-GH Candidate Nanjala Wafula Wants Malaria Gone

Nanjala Wafula

Nanjala Wafula collecting larvae in Kinesamu village, Kenya

Published November 24, 2015 under Education News

Nanjala Wafula, a second-year Master of Science in Global Health student from Eldoret, Kenya, is passionate about eradicating malaria. 

Wafula’s global health path began when she worked as a research assistant on malaria projects in Kenya led by Duke medicine and global health professor Wendy Prudhomme-O’Meara. Wafula saw that Prudhomme-O’Meara’s work—geared toward influencing malaria treatment and diagnosis policies—could have a significant positive impact in western Kenya, and she thought that a master’s degree in global health would help her advance this work. 

Wafula is particularly concerned about the excessive prescription of anti-malaria drugs in Kenya and the resulting waste of resources and potential resistance of mosquitoes to these drugs.

This summer, Wafula returned to her home country to investigate the use of agricultural chemicals and their potential influence on mosquito resistance to insecticides used in the treatment of bed nets—the primary mode of protection against malaria in most of sub-Saharan Africa.

Her summer research involved collecting mosquito larvae, raising the larvae to adults, exposing them to insecticide and counting those that die as a result. Raising the mosquitoes required Wafula to find just the right combination of food and water, and she relished her accomplishment: “Seeing those mosquitoes emerge from the pupae stage brought me such joy!”

She hopes that her research will lead to insights that will help strengthen current vector control programs in targeting highly agricultural areas with a tailored approach.

In the future, Wafula, who holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing, sees herself combining her nursing and global health backgrounds to combat malaria and other diseases in her home country. Nurses are far more prevalent than doctors in sub-Saharan Africa, yet Wafula believes they’re an “underutilized resource that can be more effectively harnessed to reduce the global burden of disease.” 

And she plans to be a part of that movement, even if it means earning another advanced degree—this time in nursing.

Seeing those mosquitoes emerge from the pupae stage brought me such joy!

Nanjala Wafula, MSc-GH candidate

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