Sightsavers researcher awarded prestigious fellowship

Sightsavers research consultant Martins Imhansoloeva has received an Injaz fellowship to support his work on eliminating neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).

The fellowship, awarded by the Global Institute for Disease Elimination, will help to advance Martins’s research into river blindness in Angola.

River blindness, also known as onchocerciasis, causes painful skin irritation, inflammation and itching. If left untreated, the parasite that causes the infection can migrate into the eye, causing irreversible sight loss. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 246 million people around the world remain at risk of the disease.

Alongside working for Sightsavers’ research team, Martins is currently studying for a PhD with the NTD Research Group at Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney. The fellowship will support his PhD project, which aims to gather data on the flies that spread river blindness. This data will be vital in measuring progress towards eliminating the disease.

Martins said: “Angola continues to grapple with river blindness. While regular community-wide drug campaigns are now being rolled out, we have little data on the transmission dynamics about the blackfly that spread the disease. I will use the Injaz fellowship to close this knowledge gap.”

Martins’s Injaz fellowship will include workshops and study tours, which will help him to build knowledge, skills and leadership strategies for tackling river blindness and other NTDs.