Dr Belen Torondel-Lopez
Associate Professor
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Keppel Street
London
WC1E 7HT
United Kingdom
I have a degree in Pharmacy and completed my PhD in biomedicine in the University of Valencia (Spain). In 2009 I completed a Master in Public Health in Developing Countries in LSHTM. I worked at UCL from 2004 to 2008 as a postdoctoral fellow in different biomedical research projects.
I joined the Environmental Health Group in 2009 following the completion of my Master's Degree in Public Health in Developing Countries and since then I have been involved in studies of the health impact of environmental interventions such as water supply, sanitation and hygiene promotion. One of my areas of expertise is to explore the association of pathogens and risk of infection associated with different hygiene and sanitation practices. I have extensive experience in implementation and management of research environmental health projects in developing countries (The Gambia, Tanzania, Vietnam, India, Bolivia).
Affiliations
Teaching
I am the IDM215 Water and Sanitation module director which is part of the distance learning course MSc Infectious Disease. This module focuses on water supply, sanitation and hygiene in low and middle income countries. In addition I provide lectures to Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) and Health (formerly Tropical Environmental Health module) on menstrual hygiene and evaluation of sanitation programs. I have also participated in the module Applying Principles of Public Health as practical facilitator and assignment marking. I have co-supervised four PhD students and I am currently co-supervising one. I have also supervised several master summer project thesis. I have been tutor on the MSc Public Health for Development, Public Health, One Health and Medical Microbiology master courses.
I was also the Capacity Development Manager of the SHARE research consortium , a ten-year, multi-country, research partnership to deliver research and capacity to strengthen sanitation policy and programmes in low and middle income countries.
I have been organizing and leading trainings for field work data collection tools from 2009 in the different projects that I have been contributed. I have also been training for different microbiology techniques to laboratory staff of different projects I have been leading.
Research
My main research area of interest is menstrual hygiene (MH) in developing context. In the last 6 years I have mainly been involved in different projects aiming to understand the links between poor menstrual hygiene management and different health and social outcomes in different developing countries (India, Uganda, The Gambia, Malawi, Nepal). I conducted the first systematic review which compiles the evidence of the link between MH management and different health and social outcomes. I had led two hospital case-control studies in Odisha (India) assessing the urogenital health impact of menstrual hygiene management practices in Indian women and also a study in Gambia exploring challenges of mantaining a good MHM practices among school adolescent girls. I am leading the MEGAMBO study in the Gambia which aims to design, pilot, implementation and evaluation of a multicomponent MH intervention with the primary aim of reducing school attendance during menstrual periods. I am the WASH adviser expert on MHM that supports the preparation of other trials within LSHTM (MENISCUS study led by Professor Helen Weiss). I also collaborate with other groups at LSHTM and other universities around the world in topics related with MH. I am a member of the “MHM in Ten" initiative to advance the MHM agenda in schools between 2014 and 2024.
Selected Publications
