elephants at sunset

MSU and Africa:
A half century of collaboration

Health


Nurse preparing a boy for an MRI
A nurse in Malawi prepares a child for an MRI. Photo courtesy of Terrie Taylor.

Tropical infectious diseases continue to kill, debilitate and maim millions in sub-Saharan Africa. Each year, between 300 million and 500 million clinical episodes of malaria occur worldwide, resulting in nearly 2 million deaths. Of those deaths, 90 percent are in sub-Saharan Africa. For many years, MSU health professionals have been collaborating with their African counterparts to fight not only malaria, but other diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, epilepsy and more.

  • In 2008, MSU played an integral role in bringing the first MRI unit to Malawi. Read more at the College of Osteopathic Medicine and MSU News.
  • The MSU International Neurologic and Psychiatric Epidemiology Program utilizes epidemiologic methods to study neurologic and psychiatric conditions that impact public health in developing regions of the world. Read more.
  • MSU and the University of Zambia have teamed up to fight epilepsy in that and other African nations. Epilepsy-Associated Stigma in Zambia, or EASZ, works to make more antiepileptic drugs available, as well as fights the stigma that surrounds the disease. Read more. 
  • An MSU project, using a $1.7 million grant from the National Science Foundation, is studying how insecticide-treated bed nets can thwart the mosquitoes that cause malaria. Read more.
  • MSU researchers are studying the causes and transmission routes of a tropical disease known as Buruli ulcer, which affects thousands of children throughout West Africa, particularly in Ghana. Read more.
  • More links to other MSU projects related to health, medicine and science.

 


*Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to read PDF documents.