Global Health

With 390 million infections occuring each year, dengue is the most important mosquito-borne viral infection, and no vaccine is currently available. DENGUE

The majority of people infected with the dengue virus experience a flu-like febrile illness, but in a small proportion of patients, particularly children, the virus causes the blood vessels to become leaky which can induce shock and lead to death. Improved diagnosis and understanding of the disease process enable better outcomes for patients with severe dengue.

Identifying and addressing ethical issues are key to the success of any clinical trials, particularly when working with vulnerable populations. Dr Phaik Yeong Cheah leads the Department of Bioethics & Engagement at the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU) in Thailand. She is particularly interested in ethical issues in community engagement, data sharing, consent and assent in paediatric research.

In settings with high level of poverty and over-stretched health services, researchers have even greater responsibilities to the communities and study participants. SOCIAL AND BEHAVIOURAL RESEARCH

A social scientist and public health researcher based in Kenya, Professor Vicki Marsh aims to understand and strenghten policies based on social and ethical aspects of international collaborations. Improving communications between researchers and the patients and local communities is not only ethically important; it can also lead to better research.

Economics and health are interlinked in many ways, as seen in the vicious cycle between poverty and ill health. Dr Yoel Lubell leads the economic team at the MORU Mathematical and Economic Modelling Group, based in Bangkok, Thailand. His research focuses on the evaluation of diagnostics, treatments and vaccines for infectious diseases, with the aim of providing guidance on malaria elimination and control of artemisinin resistance in the Mekong region.

Dr Christiane Dolecek speaks about the research on enteric fever she conducted in Vietman and Nepal Dr Christiane Dolecek's clinical research focuses on tropical diseases, in particular enteric fever and malaria. She has led enteric fever clinical trials in Vietnam and Nepal with the aim to systematically assess the current WHO recommendations as well as new treatment options.

Genetics and genomics of Streptococcus pneumoniae Angela Brueggemann's main focus is using high-throughput genotyping and whole genome sequencing techniques and unique collections of isolates to understand pneumococcal evolution, especially evolutionary changes related to antimicrobial and vaccine selective pressures.

Oxford Health Systems Research Collaboration (OHSCAR) Professor Mike English leads the Health Services Unit at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Nairobi, Kenya. This unit aims to strengthen equality in access to affordable quality health care in Africa. Studies are based on health systems clustered around five main topics: malaria, service delivery & access, information for decision making, governance and financing.

Professor English leads efforts to develop multidisciplinary links with Oxford through the Oxford Health Systems Research Collaboration (OHSCAR).

Governance in practice Dr Sassy Molyneux's main interests reside in Social science and Ethics in Public Health. Over the years, social scientists have developed a programme of empirical work on research ethics. This work is based on an understanding that while the ethics of human subjects research may be universal, there can be big differences across contexts and circumstances in key ethical issues or principles.

Rickettsial Disease Rickettsial diseases such as scrub typhus are important causes of fever in southeast Asia especially in rural communities. Discovered quite recently and not big killers, these diseases are among the most under-reported and under-diagnosed illnesses that are both treatable and preventable.

Rickettsial studies at he Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU) focus on the epidemiology and incidence of the disease using hospital-based fever studies in Thailand and Laos. Our research unit has developed highly improved acute diagnosis of rickettsial illness. MORU also has ongoing studies to determine the pathophysiological mechanisms of scrub typhus infection.

Infectious diseases in South East Asia The Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU) is a collaboration between the University of Oxford and Mahidol University, and was established with the Wellcome Trust in 1979. MORU aims to fight the infectious tropical diseases affecting rural communities in Asia and elsewhere in the developing world.

MORU's malaria research aims to directly improve the treatment of the disease globally. It's researchers focus on the treatment of severe malaria, the spread of antimalarial drug resistance, and the pathophysiology of falciparum and vivax malaria. These studies are used to formulate novel adjuvant therapies, and have been translated into recommendations for the use of artemisinin based combination therapies.