Neil French MB ChB PhD FRCP

Reader in Infectious Disease Epidemiology

• Affiliation
• Teaching
• Research
• Publications

• 
• Karonga Prevention Study
• Karonga Prevention Study
• Box 46
• Chilumba
• T: +265 999 207898 or +265 888 263101

I am a UK trained infectious disease physician who has spent 15 of the past 18 years researching and working in Africa. In 1994 I joined the MRC programme on AIDS in Entebbe Uganda, leaving my registrar post in the regional Infectious Diseases Unit in Fazakerley Hospital, Liverpool. During the time in Uganda I ran a randomised controlled trial of pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine in HIV-infected adults. This established my research interests in the care of HIV-infected adults, pneumococcal vaccines and randomised controlled trials. I left Uganda in 1998 to complete my specialist clinical training in Liverpool and to develop laboratory skills relevant to vaccine immunology. In 2002 I returned to Africa with a Wellcome Trust career development fellowship in clinical tropical medicine. At the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome trust laboratories in Blantyre, Malawi I established a further randomised clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy of conjugate pneumococcal vaccine in HIV-infected adults. In May 2006 I took over the directorship of the Karonga Prevention Study in the north of Malawi and joined the London School. The work in Malawi has focused on the epidemiology of HIV and the consequences of HIV for the community and other infectious diseases most notably pneumococcal disease and tuberculosis. The work in karonga has expanded nationally with a programme of work to evaluate the effectivness of the introduction of two new vaccines into Malawi's EPI (pneumococcus and rota virus) and how HIV may change the benefits of vaccine.

From the 1st of September I stepped down from the role as director of KPS and took up a new post in the UK in Liverpool university as Professor of Infectious Diseases and Global Health. I continue on a small contract with the school and continue to work with the Karonga programme.

Other interests include malaria and its interaction with HIV, lymphatic filariasis and Group B streptococcal infections and vaccine development.

Affiliation

• Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology

Teaching

I teach on the School distance learning MSc in epidemiology. Exernally I teach undergraduate and postgraduate students at the University of Malawi, College of Medicine in th subject araes of clinical care, infectious diseases and aspects of epidemiology.

Research

Research takes up over 80% of my academic activities. I am based full-time in Malawi and the principal investigator and Director of the Karonga prevention study. This rural based research programme incorporates studies on HIV, tuberculosis and pneumococcal vaccines. The particular focus is upon large epidemiological studies involving community surveillance for disease/infection with measurement of the impact of increasing access to ART in this population on infectious disease transmission. A randomised controlled trial of Conjugate pneumococcal vaccine for protecting HIV-infected adults from life threatening pneumococcal diseasde is coming to an end in Blantyre, Malawi. Further studies are planned on long term effectiveness of conjugate vaccines with limited serotype coverage in this setting of high HIV prevalence.

• Selected publications

• Ten Years of Surveillance for Invasive Streptococcus pneumoniae during the Era of Antiretroviral Scale-Up and Cotrimoxazole Prophylaxis in Malawi

  Everett, D.B.; Mukaka, M.; Denis, B.; Gordon, S.B.; Carrol, E.D.; van Oosterhout, J.J.; Molyneux, E.M.; Molyneux, M.; French, N.; Heyderman, R.S.

  Plos One, 2011; 6(3)

• A Trial of a 7-Valent Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine in HIV-Infected Adults.

  French, N.; Gordon, S.B.; Mwalukomo, T.; White, S.A.; Mwafulirwa, G.; Longwe, H.; Mwaiponya, M.; Zijlstra, E.E.; Molyneux, M.E.; Gilks, C.F.;

  N Engl J Med, 2010; 362(9):812-22

• Population-level reduction in adult mortality after extension of free anti-retroviral therapy provision into rural areas in northern Malawi.

  Floyd, S.; Molesworth, A.; Dube, A.; Banda, E.; Jahn, A.; Mwafulirwa, C.; Ngwira, B.; Branson, K.; Crampin, A.C.; Zaba, B.; Glynn, J.R.; French, N.;

  PLoS One, 2010; 5(10):e13499

• High Accuracy of Home-Based Community Rapid HIV Testing in Rural Malawi

  Molesworth, A.M.; Ndhlovu, R.; Banda, E.; Saul, J.; Ngwira, B.; Glynn, J.R.; Crampin, A.C.; French, N.

  Jaids-Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, 2010; 55(5):625-630

• Inhaled delivery of 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine does not result in enhanced pulmonary mucosal immunoglobulin responses.

  Gordon, S.B.; Malamba, R.; Mthunthama, N.; Jarman, E.R.; Jambo, K.; Jere, K.; Zijlstra, E.E.; Molyneux, M.E.; Dennis, J.; French, N.;

  Vaccine, 2008; 26(42):5400-5406

• Invasive group B streptococcal infection in infants, Malawi.

  Gray, K.J.; Bennett, S.L.; French, N.; Phiri, A.J.; Graham, S.M.;

  Emerg Infect Dis, 2007; 13(2):223-9

• Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine is immunogenic in lung fluid of HIV-infected and immunocompetent adults.

  Gordon, S.B.; Kayhty, H.; Molyneux, M.E.; Haikala, R.; Nurkka, A.; Musaya, J.; Zijlstra, E.E.; Lindell, D.; French, N.;

  J Allergy Clin Immunol, 2007; 120(1):208-10

• Corticosteroids for bacterial meningitis in adults in sub-Saharan Africa.

  Scarborough, M.; Gordon, S.B.; Whitty, C.J.; French, N.; Njalale, Y.; Chitani, A.; Peto, T.E.; Lalloo, D.G.; Zijlstra, E.E.;

  N Engl J Med, 2007; 357(24):2441-50

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