The Fleming Fund is a £265 million UK aid investment to tackle antimicrobial resistance in low- and middle-income countries around the world. The fellowship programme is managed by the UK Department of Health and Social Care, in partnership with Mott MacDonald, the Fleming Fund Grants Management Agent, and LSHTM as host institution.
LSHTM is a host institution to cohorts of Fleming Fund Fellows, currently from Ghana, Kenya and Zimbabwe. The Fleming Fund Fellowship programme is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care, UK Government, with the intention to develop the skills required in leading national institutions to help combat the global threat of antibiotic resistance.
Professional Fellows are supported in building their technical and leadership skills through mentorship support, secondments, specialised training, and participation in the design and implementation of collaborative projects.
- Laboratory Fellowships: Laboratory scientists, primarily senior microbiologists, who are responsible for bacterial culture, antimicrobial sensitivity testing and/or laboratory quality management within national medical and veterinary diagnostic laboratories.
- Surveillance Fellowships: Senior medical and veterinary epidemiologists and others involved in AMR and AMU data analysis and interpretation.
More information
- Visit the LSHTM Antimicrobial Resistance Centre
- More information on the Fleming Fund
Clare
Chandler
Professor of Medical Anthropology
Clare is a professor of Medical Anthropology, Director of the AMR Centre and leads the anthropology of AMR research group. Clare has designed and evaluated complex interventions to improve health worker prescribing practices across a range of health services settings in LMICs, including in Ugandan health centres and drug shops. Clare’s is PI for a number of research projects in Uganda on antimicrobial resistance, exploring why we are so reliant on antimicrobials, and awareness of AMR and providing essential information for designing effective.
Richard
Stabler
Associate Professor
Dr Stablers’ research focus is to understand how and why highly virulent bacteria evolve, in particular in response to the antimicrobial challenge. His focus has been nosocomial pathogens especially those are very much in the public and political eye for example Clostridium difficile and MRSA. More recently he has been focused on Acinetobacter baumannii, the human pathogen declared the highest priority by the WHO in 2017. A. baumannii has evolved to be extremely drug resistant with few treatment options in HIC countries and a far worse situation in LMIC countries. He has been using high throughput sequencing technologies to understand the A. baumanniiepidemiology and assessing the use of a bacteriophage depolymerase and ajunct antibody therapy as an alternative to antibiotics employing a disarming rather than kill methodology to reduce the selective pressure that drive AMR.
Catherine
Goodman
Professor
Catherine has been working in the field of health economics and health systems analysis at LSHTM since 1997. After a first degree in economics at Cambridge, and a Masters in development economics at SOAS, Catherine spent two years working as an economic planner in the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in Lesotho. After joining LSHTM Catherine's work mainly focused on the economics of malaria control, she completed a PhD on the retail sector and malaria control in Tanzania. Between 2006 and 2011 Catherine was based with the Kenyan Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) / Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Nairobi.
Dr Alex Aiken is a Clinical Associate Professor at LSHTM and a practicing physician in Infectious Diseases and Medical Microbiology. He conducted research work for his PhD into the epidemiology of hospital-acquired infections in Kenya. He conducted post-doctoral research in diverse projects including prevention of surgical site infections in African hospitals (the SUSP study with the WHO), transmission of antibiotic resistant bacteria in hospitals in Zimbabwe (funded by an AMS starter grant), re-analyzing an influential study on the impacts of mass deworming in western Kenya (with Calum Davey, funded by 3ie) and measuring the effects of a training intervention for hospital cleaners in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania (the CLEAN study, with Wendy Graham and Giorgia Gon).
Katharina
Kranzer
Clin Prof Infection Disease Epidemiology
Following Katharina's specialist registrar training in Clinical Microbiology and Virology in London in 2015, she became clinical director of the Supranational and National Tuberculosis Reference Laboratory in Germany. Katharina has trained as an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2007, followed by a Wellcome Trust funded PhD. During her PhD Katharina investigated the role of active case finding and antiretroviral therapy for tuberculosis control in high HIV and TB prevalence settings in South Africa. Katharina continued to work in sub-Saharan Africa with research mainly focusing on tuberculosis and HIV, including specifically interventions to improve linkage to care, operational and implementation research and diagnostics. More recently in Katharina's role as director of the WHO Supranational Tuberculosis Reference Laboratory, research interests have expanded to multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, as well as laboratory quality management and laboratory networks.
Justin is a medical anthropologist in the LSHTM Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Centre (http://amr.lshtm.ac.uk) in the Department of Global Health and Development.
Justin's research interests lie at the intersection of the anthropology of medicine and science, and he is currently working on the social science component of the FIEBRE study in Sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia (https://amr.lshtm.ac.uk/2017/04/19/febrile-illness-etiologies-broad-range-endemicities-fiebre/). FIEBRE social science uses ethnographic research in clinics, hospitals, pharmacies, markets, drug stores and residential areas to examine the social role(s) of antimicrobial medicines in the treatment of fever or 'hot body'. It also asks what care means in the increasingly restrictive prescribing environment being brought about by AMR-related policy and practice.
Sam
Willcocks
Assistant Professor
After completing his PhD in innate immunology at the Royal Veterinary College, Sam joined LSHTM in 2008 for his first post-doc position. Working with Prof Ulrich Schaible, Sam investigated host-pathogen interactions in tuberculosis infection, particularly the role of cell-wall lipids and antimicrobial peptides. Sam has since worked with Prof Brendan Wren and Dr Richard Stabler, using modern molecular techniques to identify virulence factors in pathogens including Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, Burkholderia pseudomalleiand Acinetobacter baumannii. In 2017, he was awarded an MRC Confidence in Concept Award to develop novel antimicrobials against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Sam is the discipline lead for the Biological and Pharmacological Sciences pillar of the Antimicrobial Resistance Centre.
Ana Mateus
Fleming Fellowship Mentor
Ana is interested in antimicrobial usage and antimicrobial resistance. She is currently involved in research projects investigating the supply chain and governance of antibiotics in low and middle income countries (LMICs) and in the UK taking a One Health approach. She is also interested in interdisciplinary and participatory research of zoonotic and foodborne diseases.
Benjamin Swift
Fleming Fellowship Mentor
During Ben's PhD at the University of Nottingham, he developed novel diagnostics for mycobacterial diseases, based on using bacteriophage. Ben successfully patented this technology and he is currently funded to develop this and novel technology further to aid the diagnosis of mycobacterial diseases in human and veterinary settings. Ben is involved in researching drivers of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the environment, where he aims to fill in the significant gaps in research in this area, to address the potential risks the environment poses in the spread of AMR, both in the UK and in low-middle income countries.
Claire Heffernan
Fleming Fellowship Mentor
Claire is a veterinarian with training in the social sciences. She joined LIDC and RVC from the School of Veterinary Sciences at the University of Bristol where as Head of Infection and Immunity she initiated the Risk and Resilience Hub which explores four inter-linked critical global challenges: climate change and health, antimicrobial resistance, sustainable food systems and disease emergence. Claire has extensive experience of inter-disciplinary research grounded in the challenges faced by poorer communities. For example, in 2000, she founded the Livestock Development Group (LDG) at the School of Agriculture, Policy and Development at the University of Reading. This was in response to the need for a meta-disciplinary approach to the problems faced by the global poor.
Jenny Bonnah
Ghana Fellow
Jennifer Bonnah is a Regulatory Pharmacist who has been working in regulation of medicinal products with the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) of Ghana, the national medicines regulatory body since 2004 till date. Currently, she is the Chair of the FDA AMR Team and also works with the Medicines Evaluation and Registration Department. She is the focal person representing the FDA on the Ghana National AMR Platform, offering technical advice on quality, safety and efficacy of antimicrobials for human and veterinary use. She was a member of the Technical Working Group that developed the Ghana National Action Plan on AMR and served as the Antimicrobial Use (AMU) Technical Lead, Human Health for the just ended Fleming Fund Country Grant for AMR projects in Ghana.
Mary Nkansa
Ghana Fellow
Mary Nkansa is a Public Health Professional and a Fleming Fellow in Animal Health with special interest in antimicrobial use in terrestrial and aquatic animals. Mary received her Bachelor’s Degree in Agriculture from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana and Master’s Degree from the University of Tromso, Norway in International Fisheries Management. She also has a second Master’s Degree in Public Health from the Ensign College of Public Health which is affiliated to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology respectively. She currently works as a Principal Officer at the Aquatic Animal Health Unit of the Fisheries Commission, Ghana and also on secondment to the Public Health and Food Safety Unit of the Veterinary Services Directorate of Ghana.
Nicholas Dayie
Ghana Fellow
Nicholas Dayie is a lecturer at the University of Ghana and a Fleming Fellow (Laboratory Human Health). He received training in Clinical Bacteriology and Applied Communicable Disease Control from LSHTM. He is a mentee of Prof. Richard Stabler, a Molecular Bacteriologist at LSHTM. In addition, he spent some time in the MRC Unit The Gambia at LSHTM where he acquired skills in Laboratory Quality Management Systems (LQMS). He led the Reference Laboratory designated for AMR Surveillance to participate successfully in the 2018/2019 WHO EQA Programme organised by the Danish Technical University (DTU), Copenhagen.
Susan Mahuro Githii
Kenya Fellow
Susan Githii works at the National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL), Kenya. Currently, she is the focal person for coordinating the laboratory activities in Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) surveillance. She also coordinates an online mentorship on AMR surveillance using the ECHO (Extension for Community Health Outcomes) platform for the laboratory personnel conducting the AMR surveillance.
As the AMR laboratory focal person, she feels that the Fellowship will be a huge asset in her future work as she will gain more knowledge in laboratory mentorship which will improve her skills in AMR surveillance coordination. She plans to fully utilize the knowledge she acquires from the Fellowship to build capacity in the Microbiology Departments so that they are able to produce quality AMR data which can be used to address policy in Kenya.
Susan has vast experience in the medical laboratory field spanning over 27 years. She holds a master’s degree in Medical Microbiology and a Bachelor of Science degree in Medical Laboratory Sciences. Susan is also a registered member of the Kenya Medical Laboratory Technicians and Technologist Board, as well as the National AMR secretariat that makes decision of AMR surveillance activities.
Grace Bartonjo
Kenya Fellow
Grace works at National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL), Kenya. She is currently the Deputy in-Charge in the Strategic Information Unit, engaged actively in NPHL data management including AMR surveillance data.
Grace has felt the increasing trend of AMR/U; the actual trend and exact burden is, however, unknown due to lack of systematic surveillance. She is passionate to strengthen and build up a systematic surveillance system and diagnostic services to inform policy and decision making within the Ministry of Health. The Fellowship program will help her develop the skills and experience required to work in any set-up and build multi-sectoral relationships. She longs for a One Health platform and contribute her professional expertise to improve use and interpretation of AMR/ AMU data. She is eager to see that quality data are collected, analysed and used to understand the AMR/AMU trend, resulting in more understanding in Kenya thus design better and effective ways to combat this global threat
Grace holds a master’s degree in Epidemiology and Laboratory Management and a BSC in Microbiology. Her qualification, experience in surveillance and epidemiological work enables her to better address AMR/AMU surveillance to combat this problem globally, regionally and nationally.
Karim Wanga
Kenya Fellow
Karim Wanga has a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy and a master’s degree in pharmacy (Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacovigilance) from the University of Nairobi. He now works at the Pharmacy and Poisons board, Kenya where he is the AMR focal point as well as head of Post-Market Surveillance, under Product Safety Section.
Karim has a passion for Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) and feels obliged to make his contribution towards the combat of AMR. He saw an opportunity in the Fleming Fund to achieve some of the AMS objectives. Through this fellowship he hopes to develop and adopt a standardized methodology and tools for collecting AMU/C data, including data on prescribing and consumption of antimicrobials. Karim also hopes to use this data and information to support policy makers and healthcare professionals to optimize use of antimicrobials both at country and facility levels. Lastly, Karim looks to support the establishment of a national database for AMU/C data as well as submission of data to the global database, GLASS.
Some of the AMU and AMC work that he plans to implement include the introduction of WHO antimicrobial consumption and use monitoring tools in Kenya through training of healthcare providers at facility level. Subsequently, these tools will enable antimicrobial consumption and use data generation at the country and facility levels.
Edith Chege Kagio
Kenya Fellow
Edith is a laboratory technologist in the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Co-operatives, State Department of Veterinary Services. In this role, Edith also works at the Regional Veterinary Investigation Laboratories, Karatina which serves the central and some parts of the north eastern part of the country.
Her work entails carrying out laboratory diagnostic tests for different animal diseases in various laboratory sections, and she has been involved in AMR surveillance on microorganisms showing trends of resistance in Kenya. The results generated are shared with the Head of Laboratory Diagnostics at the Department of Veterinary Services (DVS). Edith has also participated in routine surveillance and outbreak activities in various counties under the Regional Veterinary Instigation Laboratory (RVIL) mandate.
The Kenya Fellowship Scheme provides a platform for Edith to develop her personal capacity in addition to building skills on quality laboratory diagnosis, exploring new and advanced diagnostic techniques, acquiring data analysis experience and receiving mentorship and training from experts.
The experience acquired will also greatly help her in understanding ways of addressing the global problem of AMR and how to formulate policies and frameworks to help alleviate this problem in Kenya and, at the same time, promote the prudent use of antimicrobials through antimicrobial stewardship.
Elvis Madara Waga
Kenya Fellow
Dr. Elvis Madara Waga is a Veterinary Surgeon working for the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) as a veterinary intern. He graduated from the University of Nairobi with a Bachelor’s degree in Veterinary Medicine.
Dr. Elvis’ roles at the directorate include assisting in licensing and inspection of veterinary pharmacies and pharmaceuticals and conducting post-market surveillance activities. He also works on screening for registration of new pharmaceutical products and data management on imported and exported veterinary pharmaceuticals.
His interest in AMU/C surveillance and One Health is driven by the current global developing trends on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) that threaten Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially poverty alleviation, food security and good health and well-being.
Through this Fellowship, Dr. Elvis expects to learn collaborative project planning, and design an AMU/C surveillance project on the use, misuse, quality, safety and efficacy of anti-microbials, with collection and analysis of relevant data. This would provide a baseline data contribution to the global dialogue on combatting AMR. He also looks to develop himself professionally and capacity-wise to enhance service delivery at various workplace settings.
Eunice Atieno Omondi
Kenya Fellow
Eunice is a Veterinary Officer working at the Transfer and Receiving Facility of the Central Veterinary Laboratories in Kabete, Nairobi. Eunice Has been working in the veterinary laboratories for 12 years and has vast experience in laboratory operations and analyses using various techniques. Eunice ha.s extensive training on matters veterinary and has specialized in Epidemiology and currently working as a Laboratory Epidemiologist. Eunice joins the project as an officer representing the Director of Veterinary Services (DVS) in the project and she will lend her expertise in technical support and processing of samples in the co-infection project.
Prosper Chimbunde
Zimbabwe Fellow
Prosper is a medical microbiologist in the Ministry of Health and Child Care, working at the National Microbiology Reference Laboratory in the Early Infant Diagnosis (EID) and Bacteriology Departments. As head of the EID, Prosper works on HIV detection in infants. He is also involved in bacterial isolation and characterisation in the bacteriology department.
While completing his master's degree, Prosper developed an interest in the bacterial world and the national burden of AMR in Zimbabwe, as well as the threat of AMR globally. He intends to share the lessons learnt during this Fellowship with fellow scientists to strengthen their fight against AMR.
Blessmore Vimbai Chaibva
Zimbabwe Fellow
Blessmore is the Rational Medicines Use Focal Person at the Ministry of Health and Child Care, in the Directorate of Pharmacy Services (OPS). She has been involved in the drafting, costing and finalization of AMR National Action Plan and Antimicrobial Resistance Situational analysis. Blessmore is also responsible for training healthcare workers on antimicrobial use and consumption, data collection and data analysis. Blessmore has seen growing evidence of antibiotics misuse in her community. She believes change starts with her and is interested in encouraging behaviour change through promoting the rational use of medicines.
Peter Katsande
Zimbabwe Fellow
Peter is a microbiologist at the Central Veterinary Laboratory which falls under the Department of Veterinary Technical Services. Peter's work focuses on bacterial identification, antimicrobial susceptibility testing, coordinating external quality assurance programmes and strengthening the network of AMR microbiology laboratories in Zimbabwe.
In addition to improving laboratory skills for bacterial identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST), Peter looks forward to participating in research collaborations with world renowned scientists through this Fellowship, and sharing different ideas and perspectives on laboratory-based antimicrobial surveillance.
Kadzaishe Vhoko
Zimbabwe Fellow
Kudzaishe is a Veterinary Investigations Officer at the Ministry of Agriculture/Department of Veterinary Services. She is also the AMR Focal Point in the Masvingo Provincial Veterinary Laboratory. Through her postgraduate training, Kudzaishe developed an interest in solving health-related issues using holistic approaches, as well as zoonotic diseases. The training opened her eyes to the vast world of "One Health". To Kudzaishe, antimicrobial resistance is a growing problem, and one often encountered by veterinarians. The opportunity to work with AMR presents a great opportunity for her to grow as a One Health practitioner and epidemiologist; and to work with other stakeholders to tackle this vast and complex problem.
Samuel Swiswa
Zimbabwe Fellow
Samuel is a veterinarian by profession and, now, a veterinary research officer in the Poultry Unit of the Central Veterinary Laboratory, Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) in Zimbabwe. Samuel's focus in the Poultry Unit is on the diagnosis of poultry diseases, ma Inly using gross pathology. Through interacting with farmers, he learned that some bacterial disease conditions are now responding less to certain antibiotic treatments.
Through the Fellowship, Samuel is looking to develop and conduct a survey on antimicrobial use patterns in the country, as indiscriminate antimicrobial use contributes to AMR development.
Francis Kyei-Frimpong
Ghana Fellow
My name is Francis Kyei-Frimpong and I am the principal pharmacist at Kumasi South Hospital in Kumasi, located in the Ashanti Region of Ghana.I am responsible for providing medicine information, advice, and counselling services to clients and other health staff at the hospital. I also train and monitor the activities of newly posted pharmacists and pharmacy students, as well asprepare reports on the hospital’s pharmacy department for the District Health Information Management System. I hold a master’s degree in Clinical Pharmacy and my interest in AMR/AMU began when completing my thesis for this degree. I observed that antimicrobials were being prescribed and used inappropriately in the hospital where I was working. I also saw how the irresponsible use of antimicrobials contributed to poor clinical outcomes, increased cost of treatment and, ultimately, antimicrobial resistance.
In this seminar on Capacity Strengthening for AMR, the LSHTM’s role as the host institution will be introduced, and the projects of three Ghanaian fellows will be presented, representing laboratory and antibiotic use projects in human and animal health.