Parasites Without Borders Hosting a Second Fundraiser for ASTMH

Throughout February and March, all donations made to Parasites Without Borders are being matched by PWB and donated to ASTMH. This is she second year in a row that PWB has hosted a fundraiser benefitting the Society. A portion of these funds will go to providing Travel Awards for three qualified female students, early-career investigators or scientists actively working in the tropical medicine field from low- and middle-income countries to attend the 2022 Annual Meeting.

 

PWB is a comprehensive educational resource on all aspects of parasitic diseases and their impact on humanity around the globe. We asked PWB about the fundraiser, goals and its sister organization, Microbe.TV.   Thank you for hosting a fundraiser to benefit ASTMH for a second year. What does PWB see as the benefit from such a partnership?   While Parasites Without Borders continues to work on getting knowledge to the people and places that need it the most, it is important to partner with organizations with similar goals. Our goal is to do our part in relieving the enormous suffering throughout this world and ASTMH is an organization that aligns perfectly with our goals.   What led to your decision to sponsor three female students from the LMICs to attend the Annual Meeting?   There remains tremendous challenges for women in LIMCs, developing careers and getting involved in global health. Supporting female students from LMICs will hopefully be one small step in forwarding this. Tell us about your recent medical excursion to Ghana, including your meetings with some of PWB’s partners over World NTD Day.    We were fortunate to recently travel to Ghana in West Africa to see patients, learn from local physicians and to meet friends and colleagues. Several of the people we met with are members of the ASTMH and avid listeners of our podcasts. There also were several people with whom we met that use our textbook Parasitic Diseases. It was great to be there on World NTD day.   What have your sister organization Microbe.TV and your “This Week in Parasitology” podcast focused on recently?   Our most recent This Week in Parasitism episode focused on the case of a co-infection with COVID-19 and a parasitic infection in a man in the Cox Bazaar camp for displaced Myanmar natives in whose care we were recently involved. That was followed by a discussion of recent research demonstrating the benefit of mosquito bed nets.

Parasites Without Borders previously donated copies of the Parasitic Diseases textbook to the school. Health professionals at the Big Ada Hospital near the Volta River. Dr. Griffin learned that this hospital sees a lot of schistosomiasis, malaria, and soil transmitted helminths. Dr. Oumou Maiga-Ascofare and two of her PhD students met Dr. Griffen for dinner. Mr. Henry Hanson works on malaria co-infection with schistosoma. Miss Priscilla Adjei-Kusi works on the vectors of parasitic pathogens. Celebrating World NTD Day with Dr. Kabiru Abbas of the Buruli Ulcer Reference Centre