• Question: what is the most important project that you have worked on?

    Asked by me is myself to Kevin, Liz, Beccy, Rosie on 9 Jun 2017.
    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 9 Jun 2017:


      Most important is definitely playing a part (even though it was a small one in the scheme of things from the safety of London) in the control of Ebola in West Africa. There were over 20,000 cases of Ebola and over 10,000 deaths but if not for international control efforts, it could have been much worse. I am not a medic – I can’t help individual patients but I can help understand how the disease is spreading, whether it is getting better or worse and what control measures are working best.

    • Photo: Rosie Fok

      Rosie Fok answered on 10 Jun 2017:


      Making sure that we are all using antibiotics appropriately. Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest global public health threats that we face, and each and every one of us has a part to play in trying to slow down this problem. Those of us who prescribe antibiotics must make sure we are using the right ones and for the right reasons, and all of us who take antibiotics must make sure we are using them responsibly. For example, not taking antibiotics (which work against bacteria) to try and treat an illness cause by a virus (e.g. a cold or the ‘flu).

    • Photo: Liz Buckingham-Jeffery

      Liz Buckingham-Jeffery answered on 10 Jun 2017:


      Hmmm it is tricky to try and decide what is most important! But one thing I think is really important is the work I’ve been doing on norovirus.

      Norovirus causes vomiting and diarrhoea and it is very common. Here in the UK, it doesn’t cause many people to die. But in poorer countries, for example in parts of Africa, many children die because of diarrhoea. It causes dehydration, which is made worse if you don’t have clean drinking water. Norovirus spreads from person to person, so if you don’t have clean, safe toilets it will spread quickly.

      My work is just a very small contribution to understanding more about norovirus and how it is spreading. There are also many other scientists, health workers, and charities working to stop these deaths from diarrhoea. It will take the joint knowledge of everyone to improve the situation.

    • Photo: Rebecca Corkill

      Rebecca Corkill answered on 10 Jun 2017:


      Hello,

      I suppose the most important (apart from my current PhD) was my work in Burkina Faso, West Africa. I was there for 4 weeks collecting mosquitoes.

      I collected mosquitoes from people’s houses. This meant I could determine the type of mosquito (to see if it is the malaria one) and to see if they had been feeding on humans.

      I also looked into insecticide resistance. Bednets have insecticide. These bednets lowers the risk of people getting malaria, if used correctly, because malaria mosquito only bites at night.

      Basically, I was looking into the malaria mosquito to see if the nets were not working and if they had been feeding on humans. This information (even though it was only for a small geographical region) helped to inform the scientists how quickly they need to be in creating new control methods.

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