Andrew Bouley on left
Published September 6, 2011, last updated on March 5, 2013 under Research News
Two Duke medical students Ufuoma Akoroda and Andrew Bouley have received the Benjamin H. Kean Traveling Fellowship in Tropical Medicine, which will allow them to participate in global health research projects in Sri Lanka and Tanzania, respectively.
Akoroda is studying the epidemiology and etiology of acute febrile illness in Galle, Sri Lanka in a lab at Duke-NUS in Singapore. She is using samples from a hospital-based study of children and adults to document the prevalence of chikungunya infections, a mosquito-borne virus that is poorly undocumented in the area, in an effort to help inform current surveillance. This research is part of an ongoing collaboration between Duke and Ruhuna University physicians and researchers on the Febrile Illness Surveillance project.
Bouley will study the incidence and health care burden of typhoid fever in and around Moshi, Tanzania. He is also determining antimicrobial resistance among S. Typhi and S. Paratyphi strains, as well as identifying risk factors and clinical parameters associated with severe typhoid fever. His research, with additional funding from DGHI and the Eugene A. Stead Scholarship, is part of the Multi-Country Typhoid Fever Surveillance Program at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre.
The Benjamin H. Kean Traveling Fellowship in Tropical Medicine covers travel expenses for medical students who arrange clinical tropical medicine or tropical medicine research electives in areas afflicted by tropical diseases. It is administered by The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, whose mission is to promote global health through the prevention and control of infectious and other diseases that disproportionately afflict the global poor.
“Professionally, receiving the Kean Fellowship brings me one step closer to achieving my desired career in infectious diseases and global health,” said Bouley in his profile on the ASTMH’s website.
Akoroda and Bouley were two of only 20 fellowship recipients selected this year nationwide.
