In the end of April 2018, Prof. Andrea S. Winkler, Director for the Centre for Global Health participated in a meeting between CYSTINET-Africa and DigI.
CYSTINET-Africa, represented by Prof. Helena Ngowi, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania, and Prof. Andrea Winkler, is a research network focusing on multidisciplinary One Health management of Taenia solium cysticercosis/taeniosis, an emerging but neglected parasitic and zoonotic disease caused by the tapeworm T. solium and the number one foodborne parasite. The network currently includes researchers from Germany, Tanzania, Mozambique and Zambia.
DigI, represented by Prof. Josef Noll, and Prof. Andrea Winkler, focus on digital health education of populations (HIV/AIDS, Tb, pork tapeworm and anthrax) to enhance disease prevention as well as strengthen health systems.
After the two network meetings, selected consortium members moved south to Mbeya, where patients affected by the pork tapeworm were diagnosed and the foundation for a multicentre clinical trial was laid. The trial will focus on the improvement of quality of life as well as on clinical, serological, immunological and radiological outcome parameters of people affected by neurocysticercosis (=cysts of the parasite in the brain). The study is a collaborative effort of several African institutions and will be conducted in resource-poor areas in Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia.