Welcome to
VECTOR CONTROL AND
PRODUCT TESTING UNIT

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Biography

Dr. Sarah Moore is a medical entomologist specializing in the chemical ecology and control of Anopheles mosquitoes with a focus on new tools to protect individuals, households and communities. She is leading the Vector Control Product Testing Unit (VCPTU) at IHI. Dr. Moore holds a PhD in Medical Entomology. Dr. Moore joined the Institute 14 years ago. She is also an associate professor at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) of the Basel University, Switzerland. Dr. Moore holds a PhD in Medical Entomology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK. The VCPTU she is leading, serves the community through excellence in service delivery, research into new methods of product testing and training of MSc and PhD students. Having a diverse range of vector control tools in the malaria control toolbox has two advantages: 1) malaria control programs can select tools most suitable for their setting and 2) increasing market diversity creates competition that drives down unit costs of products. Therefore, in order to bring new vector control products to market more rapidly and cost-efficiently there has been a global initiative to improve the quality of product evaluation.

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Biography

Jason Moore is currently the Test Facility Manager for the GLP accredited vector control product testing unit of Ifakara Health Institute. The units evaluate new vector control tools for pre-qualification by the World Health Organization and conducts Research and Development for industry and other consortiums. He has also been involved in large phase III studies assessing the functional life of Long-Lasting Insecticidal Nets which have led to a greater understanding of future product profiles and policy review. He has as part of a team, worked on the development of new assays and facilities used in research at Ifakara Health Institute and several other African countries.

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Biography

Emmanuel Mbuba is a research scientist at the Ifakara Health Institute (IHI) in Tanzania, where he serves as a Deputy Head of the Vector Control Product Testing Unit (VCPTU). He leads several research studies on the evaluation of new vector control interventions including insecticide-treated bed nets (ITN), indoor residual sprays (IRS) and mosquito repellents. In 2017, he was appointed to lead the VCPTU’s Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) accreditation. In 2021, the VCPTU was awarded GLP accreditation for the efficacy testing of new vector control products. He is currently serving as a GLP Study Director in the VCPTU. Mr, Mbuba holds a bachelor’s degree in biotechnology and laboratory sciences and an MSc in molecular biology. He has several years of experience in the field of malaria and medical entomology. He is currently pursuing his PhD in epidemiology at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), where his research focuses on the field durability evaluation of piperonyl butoxide (PBO) ITNs and new methods for evaluating their durability in the field. He is interested in new vector control product development, evaluations and novel ways of testing and evaluating vector control interventions.

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Biography

Miss Rose Philipo is a Project Manager under Vector Control Product Testing Unit, which is within the department of Environmental Health and Ecology at Ifakara Health Institute. She joined the institute in the year 2011 and since then been an active staff in carrying out her roles effectively and timely. She Holds a Master’s degree of Project Management from Open University of Tanzania graduate, with 8years experience in project management and administration. Miss Philipo was appointed as the Insectary Manager in the year 2017 to continue to oversee the day-to-day mosquito laboratory running activities and manage all the staff working in the insectary and the testing facility. Her main duty is to ensure that all the insectary and testing facility supplies are provided when and where necessary and mosquitoes are reared according to GLP standards. Importantly, Miss Philipo is currently assisting with the generation of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) used in conducting the unit daily activities for the purpose of acquiring a Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) accreditation. To date she continues to work as a project manager and coordinator in the VCPTU, where robust, reliable and accurate data are generated from evaluating vector control interventions for informed decision making.

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Biography

Ms Ritha Kidyalla is an Administrative Officer working with Vector Control Product Testing Unit within the Environmental Health and Ecological Science Department at IHI. She has six years’ experience in Research area. She holds a Bachelor Degree of Social Work. Ms Ritha holds a Bachelor Degree in Social Work and Diploma in Human Resource Management from Institute of Social Work, Dar es salaam. Ms Ritha started her career in 2012 in Dar es Salaam where she was employed as a Manager and Social Worker at New Hope Family Center for Children with special needs. She join Health Promotion and System Strength (HPSS) as Research Assistant. She join Ifakara Health Institute as Receptionist Dar es salaam and later on work as Project Administrator to Vector Control Product Test Unit until to date.

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Biography

Ms. Ester Giteta is an Administrative Officer working with Vector Control Product Testing Unit within the Environmental Health and Ecological Science Department. She has five years experience in Business Administration. She holds a Bachelor Degree in Business Administration. Ms. Giteta joined the Institute in March 2018 from Panacea Consulting group where she worked as a Business Administrator from 2016 to 2017. Before that, she worked with Ilala Municipal Council as Business Officer from 2015 to 2016. She holds a Bachelor Degree of Business Administration from University of Iringa where she completed studies in 2014. Ms. Giteta has over 5-year experience in business administration. She has skills and extensive experience in computerize management system. She can work conveniently with different platforms such as Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). She also possesses ability to analyse issues and provide practical solutions. When Ms. Giteta joined IHI in March 2018, she started working with URCT Project. She was then transferred to VCPTU projects in November 2018 where she is still working to date.

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Biography

Mr. Frank is a molecular biologist by training who developed interest in epidemiology and became an epidemiologist. He currently works with Ifakara Health Institute as study coordinator, testing mosquito interventions in vector control and product test unit. Also, Frank works on understanding the ecology of arboviral vectors particular Aedes mosquitoes with intention of developing a mosquito surveillance system for controlling arboviral diseases. As epidemiologist, he would like to be a research scientist having great interest in Public Health field specifically on vector control of tropical diseases. Also, participate in mentorship of junior scientists in Epidemiology, Vector Ecology and Biostatistics. Currently he is enrolled as PhD candidate at university of Basel pursuing doctorate in Epidemiology. Frank joined Ifakara Health Institute in 2014, where from 2020 to date he works as study coordinator for insecticide product evaluation projects ranging from phase I to phase III in Vector Control and Products Testing Unit (VCPTU) at Ifakara Health Institute, from 2016 to 2019 worked as Principle investigator for projects titled evaluation of Attractive Toxic Sugar Bait Resting Places (ATSB_RP) against Aedes aegypti (a project funded wellcome Trust UK) and Phase II Experimental hut and Phase III community study for evaluation of SumiShield TM 50WG for Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) in Tanzania (a project funded by SUMITOMO) and from 2014 to 2015 worked as research officer for projects titled Homemade fruit- based toxic sugar lures against Mosquito in Tanzania (a project funded by Grand Challenge Canada) and Lantana camara sterile species for protection against malaria mosquito in rural Tanzania (a project funded by Concern Worldwide).

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Biography

Kyeba Swai is a result-driven medical entomologist with ten years of accumulated experience in conducting and supervising semi-field and field studies collecting entomological data and its analysis. He is currently registered for a PhD and works at the Vector Control Product Testing Unit VCPTU) primarily leading the evaluations on spatial repellents but also supports phase II (experimental hut) evaluations of long-lasting insecticidal nets. Before joining VCPTU, he led several research projects in south eastern Tanzania including, a malaria prevalence survey across several villages of Ulanga district and on a project that aimed to develop low-cost and portable mosquito-proof houses to protect migratory rice farmers from mosquito-borne illnesses. He is interested in the control of vector borne diseases, specifically in understanding the role of migratory livelihoods in maintaining the transmission of malaria. He is keen on developing research agendas that incorporate this aspect as well as the development and evaluation of novel mosquito control tools, particularly those that can be used by migratory communities.