Professor Rashida Ferrand
FRCP MSc PhD DTM&H
Professor
International Health
LSHTM
Keppel Street
London
WC1E 7HT
United Kingdom
Fax.
I obtained my primary medical degree from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and completed my postgraduate training in internal medicine and clinical specialist training in HIV Medicine and Sexual Health in London.
I undertook a Distance-Based Learning Masters in Epidemiology at LSHTM while working as a clinical lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe Medical School. My PhD, funded through a Wellcome Trust clinical tropical training fellowship, investigated the clinical epidemiology of adolescents with vertically-acquired HIV.
I have been based in Harare, Zimbabwe for 20 years, where I established and direct The Health Research Unit Zimbabwe (THRU ZIM:https://www.thruzim.org/), embedded within the Biomedical Research and Training Institute (BRTI). I am a Wellcome Trust Senior Fellow in Clinical Science and a visiting professor at Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.
Affiliations
Centres
Teaching
I am the Director of the Wellcome-funded Africa Health Research Training Programme (CREATE), which will train 50 doctoral students from the UK and from Africa in global health.
I currently supervise 3 PhD and 1 DrPH students as a primary supervisor and am an associate supervisor for a further 6 students. I teach on the Tropical Medicine and International Health MSc and on the DTM&H at LSHTM. I supervise 3-4 MSc students at LSHTM per annum, as well as post-graduate and post-doctoral students from Zimbabwe and international academic institutions who are attached to THRU ZIM.
I contribute to undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in public health and clinical medicine at the University of Zimbabwe and teach on research methods courses at the Biomedical Research and Training Institute in Harare. I also mentor colleagues at the Aga Khan University in Pakistan.
Research
My research interests include adolescent health, HIV and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) including sexually transmitted infections (STIs), chronic disease and multimorbidity.
I am currently leading a cluster randomised trial across 3 provinces in Zimbabwe (CHIEDZA trial: https://www.chiedza.co.zw/) of a community-based package of integrated HIV, sexual and reproductive health and general health services for youth aimed at improving HIV outcomes.I also work on evaluation of multimorbidity prevention, screening and care packages for different population groups including adolescents, health care workers and people living with HIV
We investigate strategies to promote a shift away from syndromic to aetiological approaches for STI management including STI testing in HIV and antenatal care services and in commununty-based settings.
My research group conducts clinical and pathogenesis studies on chronic co-morbidities associated with HIV infection among children and adolescents and adults particularly lung, cardiac and musculoskeletal disease. I lead an EDCTP-funded consortium (VITALITY: https://www.vitality-trial.co.uk) that is investigating high-dose vitamin D and calcium supplementation for improving musculoskeletal health of children with HIV. I am the Zimbabwe lead for the FRACTURES E3 consortium (https://www.fractures-e3.com/) that is investigating the epidemiology, economic impact and ethnography of fragility fractures in Sub-Saharan Africa.We are investigating the clinical phenotype and drivers of cardiac disease in children growing up with HIV.