Dr Toby Leslie BSc MSc PhD

Lecturer ACT Consortium

• Affiliation
• Teaching
• Research
• Publications

Infectious disease epidemiologist specialising in field epidemiology and clinical trials.

• Room 495
• LSHTM
• Keppel Street
• London
• WC1E 7HT
• T: 02079272563

After completing my BSc in physiology at UCL, I worked in the private sector for 2 years before my MSc at LSHTM  (Control of Infectious Disease, 2002).

I worked in Pakistan and Afghanistan from 2002 investigating the role of antimalarial drug treatment on disease transmission. In 2004, I enrolled as a PhD student supervised by Mark Rowland.

The thesis, entitled "Improved treatments for malaria in an area of vivax and falciparum coendemicity" included randomised control trials and epidemiological studies of vivax and falciparum malaria.

Working for HealthNet-TPO, I assisted with development of the malaria and leishmaniasis control programme in Afghanistan and conducted a broad range of operational research including in entomology, drug quality, health policy, and genetics of disease.

From 2006-2008, I worked with the Afghan Government as an advisor on infectious disease control and surveillance. I received my PhD in 2009 and was awarded the annual Woodruff medal in 2010.

Currently I am with the ACT Consortium as Policy and Programmes Liaison Coordinator and manager of projects undertaken in Afghanistan. These studies are large multi-centre cluster randomised trials investigating the role of malaria rapid diagnostic tests in increasing access to and targeting of effective treatment for febrile illness.

The studies take place in 22 primary care clinics in Northern and Eastern Afghanistan and use multidisciplinary research within cluster randomised trail designs to examine the clinical, economic and societal aspects of malaria rapid diagnostic tests (http://www.actconsortium.org/pages/afghanistan.html). 

I have conducted epidemiological research and intervention trials on malaria, leishmaniasis, influenza, congo-crimean heamorrhagic fever and spectrum of disease studies in patients with respiratory tract infections, fever and diarrhoeal disease.

Affiliation

• Department of Disease Control
• Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases

Teaching

I am actively engaged in teaching of Masters and PhD students at the School.  I teach on the Designing Disease Control Programmes in Developing Countries and Analysis and Design of Reseach Studies modules and act as a course tutor for the Control and Epidemiology of Malaria module.

I have completed my Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching, Module 1.

When overseas, I frequently conduct teaching and training for the Ministry of Public Health and NGOs in Afghanistan on malaria, research study design, epidemiology, statistics and health policy. 

Research

My research interests are in infectious disease epidemiology using a range of study designs including population level cross-sectional and ecological studies, case-control studies, cohort studies and interventional trials (randomised control trials and large multidisciplinary cluster randomised trials). 

My primary research is for the ACT consortium (www.malariaconsoritum.org) in Afghanistan. I am also a member of the Malaria Centre (www.malaria.lshtm.ac.uk)).

I work closely with an NGO in Afghanistan (the Health Protection and Research Organisation; www.hpro.org.af) which conducts research on malaria, leishmaniasis and neglected tropical diseases, other vector borne diseases, HIV and other blood borne viruses, health policy, economic evaluation and social welfare research.

• Selected publications

• Defining Plasmodium falciparum Treatment in South West Asia: A Randomized Trial Comparing Artesunate or Primaquine Combined with Chloroquine or SP.

  Kolaczinski, K. ; Leslie, T. ; Ali, I. ; Durrani, N. ; Lee, S. ; Barends, M. ; Beshir, K. ; Ord, R. ; Hallett, R. ; Rowland, M. ;

  PLoS One, 2012; 7(1):e28957

• Overdiagnosis and mistreatment of malaria among febrile patients at primary healthcare level in Afghanistan: observational study.

  Leslie, T. ; Mikhail, A. ; Mayan, I. ; Anwar, M. ; Bakhtash, S. ; Nader, M. ; Chandler, C. ; Whitty, C.J. ; Rowland, M. ;

  BMJ, 2012; 345:e4389

• Outbreak of gastroenteritis caused by Yersinia pestis in Afghanistan.

  Leslie, T.; Whitehouse, C.A.; Yingst, S.; Baldwin, C.; Kakar, F.; Mofleh, J.; Hami, A.S.; Mustafa, L.; Omar, F.; Ayazi, E.; Rossi, C.; Noormal, B.; Ziar, N.; Kakar, R.;

  Epidemiol Infect, 2011; 139(5):728-35

• Field trial of three different Plasmodium vivax-detecting rapid diagnostic tests with and without evaporative cool box storage in Afghanistan.

  Mikhail, A.F. ; Leslie, T.J. ; Mayan, M.I. ; Zekria, R. ; Mohammad, N. ; Hasanzai, M.A. ; Safi, N. ; Whitty, C.J. ; Rowland, M. ;

  Malar J, 2011; 10:169

• Risk factors for anthroponotic cutaneous Leishmaniasis at the household level in Kabul, Afghanistan.

  Reithinger, R.; Mohsen, M.; Leslie, T.;

  PLoS Negl Trop Dis, 2010; 4(3):e639

• The Impact of Phenotypic and Genotypic G6PD Deficiency on Risk of Plasmodium vivax Infection: A Case-Control Study amongst Afghan Refugees in Pakistan.

  Leslie, T.; Brice?o, M.; Mayan, I.; Mohammed, N.; Klinkenberg, E.; Sibley, C.H.; Whitty, C.J.; Rowland, M.;

  PLoS Med, 2010; 7(5):e1000283

• A randomised trial of an eight-week, once weekly primaquine regimen to prevent relapse of plasmodium vivax in Northwest Frontier Province, Pakistan.

  Leslie, T.; Mayan, I.; Mohammed, N.; Erasmus, P.; Kolaczinski, J.; Whitty, C.J.; Rowland, M.;

  PLoS ONE, 2008; 3(8):e2861

• Sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine, chlorproguanil-dapsone, or chloroquine for the treatment of Plasmodium vivax malaria in Afghanistan and Pakistan: a randomized controlled trial.

  Leslie, T.; Mayan, M.I.; Hasan, M.A.; Safi, M.H.; Klinkenberg, E.; Whitty, C.J.; Rowland, M.;

  JAMA, 2007; 297(20):2201-9

• → View all Dr Toby Leslie's publications

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