Liverpool’s Institute of Infection and Global Health is recruiting THREE NEW CHAIRS

Following a highly successful year, with appointment of five new chairs, as well as many junior positions, and a move into a brand new purpose built 5000m² state-of-the-art facility, the Institute is looking to make further appointments

CHAIR (CLINICAL) in INFECTION / GLOBAL HEALTH

For a medically qualified adult or paediatric physician in Infectious Diseases or other relevant specialties, including Microbiology Immunology, or organ-related specialties – for example Respiratory, Gastroenterology or Neurology, where the candidate has an outstanding track record in infection or global health research, relating to the Institute’s research themes (see below). Job Ref: A-578196

CHAIR IN VETERINARY INFECTIOUS DISEASES

For an outstanding candidate researching veterinary infectious diseases who may also be a veterinary qualified clinician. Whilst we are keen to appoint a Veterinary Parasitologist, we will also consider candidates with a strong record in other aspects of veterinary infection or global health research, relating to the Institute’s Research themes.  Job Ref: A-504111

CHAIR (NON-CLINICAL) IN INFECTION AND GLOBAL HEALTH

For an outstanding non-clinical scientist.  Whilst we are especially keen to develop Immunology, Bacteriology, Parasitology and Veterinary Infectious Disease, we will consider candidates in any area of our major research themes.  Job Ref: A-578195

Major Research Themes in the Institute include:

-          Infectious Diseases of Adults and Children

-          Food Safety and Food Security

-          Emerging and Zoonotic infections

-          Improving The Health of Pets and other Companion Animals

-          Vaccines Against Major Infectious Diseases;

-          Antimicrobial and Anthelmintic Resistance

Further information www.liv.ac.uk/infection-and-global-health/ and http://www.liv.ac.uk/working/job_vacancies/professorial/

Contact Professor Tom Solomon, Director, Liverpool Institute of Infection and Global Health,

Telephone:  0151 795 9626, e-mail: tsolomon@liv.ac.uk

Editor’s collection: Health interventions in resource-constrained settings

Freely available online collection pulling together some of the papers published in International Health, in the last two years, that assess a range of different health interventions used in areas of the world where resources are limited.

Please click here to view the collection.

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The Lancet, Volume 379, Issue 9820, Page 996, 17 March 2012

“Diseases need advocates”, says David Molyneux, from the University of Liverpool's School of Tropical Medicine, UK, “and Gail has been the advocate for ‘podo…what’ with huge success”. Now, let's pause for a moment to get our facts straight. “Podo…what?” is the most common shorthand for podoconiosis; otherwise known, when it is known at all, as endemic non-fılarial elephantiasis. And the Gail in question is Gail Davey, who is summed up pithily by one of her old PhD students, Fasil Tekola, as “a voice for the voiceless podoconiosis patients and affected poor families—fighting the good fight”.

And it's a fight that Davey looks like she's starting to win. For decades podoconiosis has languished as a footnote in textbooks on tropical diseases, but this month will see the arrival of the International Podoconiosis Initiative, which will “bring together private and public partners to prevent and treat podoconiosis”, says Davey. “We're hoping to integrate podo control with that of other neglected tropical diseases wherever possible, and to partner with organisations working on foot-related conditions to advocate for shoes as ‘the new bednets’.” That's because podoconiosis is entirely preventable, and only occurs wherever irritant red clay soils coexist with high altitude, high rainfall, and a level of income that puts footwear out of the reach of many. By forging partnerships with footwear companies, Davey has been able to champion the provision of shoes as a public health intervention with benefits that extend far beyond podoconiosis.

The launch of the International Podoconiosis Initiative will mark the next step in what has been an incredible journey for Davey; one that has taken her to bustling Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and, eventually, back to the UK, where she has been Reader in Global Health at Brighton and Sussex Medical School since 2010. Schooled in Oxford, the young Davey was “either standing on her head or had it buried in a book”, according to a report card that her mother delights in recounting. It's hard not to suspect she was one of those perfect pupils, academic and athletic by turns. But Davey sounds so bashful when talking about herself that pressing her further feels like an act of cruelty. Sigurd Hanson, of the International Orthodox Christian Charities, and who had a crucial role in helping Davey “move in development circles” during her time in Ethiopia, sums up her attitude to self-promotion succinctly: “she has no ego”.

“Partly by how she taught, and by really opening our eyes far beyond the curriculum”, a biology teacher ignited Davey's passion for medicine and the biological sciences—a passion almost extinguished by 3 “dire” years doing preclinical medicine at Cambridge University in the mid-1980s. But as grim as all the exam cramming was, it was at Cambridge that Davey first became interested in medicine outside the UK. After dabbling in a few overseas projects, a 6-month stint in Zimbabwe crystallised Davey's desire to pursue medicine and research outside the UK.

Brushing up on her epidemiology skills at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) was the logical next step, and it was early during her time there as a research fellow that she met her husband Richard, a professional marathon runner. When Richard picked up a career-ending injury in 2000, their conversations turned increasingly to working abroad, Davey explains, and that's where an old contact from the LSHTM and founder of THET (Tropical Health and Education Trust), Eldryd Parry, came in.

“When Gail was working in London she talked to me about the possibility of work in east Africa, in a country where Richard could also contribute through his marathon excellence”, recalls Parry, “and I knew that someone of her singleminded commitment would make a go of Ethiopia and would make a considerable contribution”. Through his contacts with the Dean of the Addis Ababa University Medical Faculty, Parry found out there was a position open at what is now the School of Public Health. “The significant point is that she was prepared to take a local appointment on local terms, and without the comfortable cushion of a major agency or a research grant. That was a risk and was brave”, Parry says.

One of the things that helped Davey accept that risk is her Christian faith, and it also helped her adapt to a country in which, she says, “faith is very much a part of every day life”. “Whether it's Orthodox or Muslim or Protestant, there's very little secular life in Ethiopia, so that was a good fit”, she explains. Davey also picked up Amharic quickly and was able to “look around a bit and see what wasn't being covered”.

From her first contact with the disease, assessing a funding application by the Mossy Foot Treatment and Prevention Association at the behest of the British Ambassador, Davey knew that in podoconiosis she had found a cause worth advocating. And since then, says Molyneux, she has “taken the seminal work of [E W] Price in the 1970s and 1980s to a new dimension”, both in terms of the science and getting the condition recognised as a neglected tropical disease. All by “including and involving Ethiopians at every stage because it's going to be Ethiopians who solve the problem”, and without “zooming around in big white cars”, laughs Davey. “I think it's small things like that that sort of signal that you're coming along as an equal and that you're very happy to assist and facilitate, but you're not coming along pretending to know lots of answers”, she says. Unless, of course, the question happens to be “podo…what?”

Please see http://www.podo.org/ for further details on the prevention and treatment of podoconiosis.