Africa currently has the highest disease burden of any region of the world and the least resources in terms of health personnel and health systems. But things are changing rapidly, many countries are in the process of major epidemiologic transitions with falling childhood mortality and the prospects of controlling many of the traditional infectious causes of ill health. At the same time the combined effects of economic development and rapid demographic expansion against a background of increasing urbanisation will pose enormous new challenges for the health of African populations.

In this talk Kevin Marsh, Professor of Tropical Medicine at the University of Oxford, will examine the possible trends for the health of the continent.

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About the speaker

Professor Kevin Marsh is Professor of Tropical Medicine at the University of Oxford, Senior Advisor at the African Academy of Sciences and Chair of the WHO Malaria Policy Advisor Committee. He is a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and was awarded the Prince Mahidol prize for medicine in 2010. He was director of the KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kilifi, Kenya, for 25 years until 2014 when he joined the AAS as its senior advisor.

Kevin has a particular interest in developing and strengthening research capacity and scientific leadership in Africa and has a broad interest in clinical, epidemiological and immunological aspects of malaria. His specialist interest is in how people acquire immunity to malaria and the team he established in Kilifi have made major contributions to this field. He is currently working with colleagues in the African Academy of Sciences to develop a new platform to support African research and continues to work with colleagues in the KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme on immunity to malaria.