Strengthening Nigeria's Surveillance System for Malaria Elimination by Integrating Molecular and Genomic Data

Ify Aniebo, Senior Research Scientist and Principal Investigator at the Health Strategy and Delivery Foundation in Nigeria, will integrate molecular and genomics data for tracking drug resistance and disease transmission to strengthen malaria elimination efforts in Nigeria, which has one of the highest global burdens. Dr. Aniebo is a molecular geneticist working on malaria drug resistance, and is acknowledged as one of her country’s top young health leaders. She is also devoted to empowering the next generation of African females into the sciences. To achieve her goal of eradicating malaria, she has created partnerships with scientists and policy makers within and outside Nigeria. Leveraging these partnerships, including Nigeria’s National Malaria Elimination Program, she will conduct a cross-sectional survey in households across the country and collect around 10,000 blood samples from children aged 6-59 months during the wet season when there is high malaria transmission. These samples will be subjected to next generation sequencing to investigate the prevalence and genetic diversity of the malaria pathogen across different regions, and the presence of drug resistance. She will also build a reporting tool and dashboard to present the data and directly support decision making.