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R. Geigy Award 2024: Cutting-edge research to control communicable and non-communicable diseases in Côte d'Ivoire

The 13th R. Geigy Award 2024 goes to West Africa. Scientists from the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d'Ivoire (CSRS) are being honored with the award, which is endowed with CHF 20,000. Dr. Siaka Koné is being rewarded for his achievements in establishing long-term cohorts and demographic and health surveillance systems in rural Côte d'Ivoire. Dr. Julien Zahouli, Emmanuelle Lisro, Laurence Yao and Dr. Marc Adou for their research work on the validation of the effect of insecticides on various disease vectors. In memory of Professor Rudolf Geigy (1902-1995), biologist and founder of the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), the foundation awards this prize every two years to young researchers and public health specialists who have distinguished themselves through outstanding achievements in the field of poverty-related and neglected tropical diseases.

Image: Danielle Powell


This year, the R. Geigy Foundation is presenting the prestigious R. Geigy Award to two different research groups at the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d’Ivoire (CSRS): epidemiologist and health economist Siaka Koné is being honored for his seminal work in setting up the Taabo Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems (Taabo HDSS). Julien Zahouli, Emmanuelle Lisro, Laurence Yao and Marc Adou for their work in setting up a state-of-the-art entomology laboratory where the effect of a wide range of insecticides can be tested on deadly mosquitoes. “In the spirit of Rudolf Geigy, the scientists and their groups made a significant contribution to deepen theunderstanding of the interactions between communicable and non-communicable diseases and the control of poverty-related diseases in Côte d'Ivoire”, says Professor Jürg Utzinger, President of the R. Geigy Foundation, in praise of the awardees.


Taabo HDSS: Health and demographic data to study the interaction of communicable and non-communicable diseases

Take Siaka Koné, for example: the epidemiologist heads the Taabo HDSS 150 km north-west of the economic capital Abidjan. The Taabo HDSS regularly collects health-related data and demographic trends in the rural population. Thanks to this unique database in rural Africa, the impact of health interventions in the region can be measured for the first time. A long-term cohort, including a biobank has been connected to the Taabo HDDS since 2017. Among other things, this allows research into the interaction between infectious diseases and non-communicable diseases, from which the population of Côte d'Ivoire is increasingly suffering. “We are particularly interested in the question of whether people who are exposed to a high burden of infection are at greater risk of developing chronic illnesses later in life,” says Prof. Nicole Probst-Hensch, Head of Department at Swiss TPH and Member of the R. Geigy-Foundation.


New insecticides to control malaria and dengue fever

The research work of Julien Zahouli, Emmanuelle Lisro, Laurence Yao and Marc Adou also focuses strongly on the health priorities of the West African country. The entomologists at the CSRS have a unique laboratory infrastructure at their disposal in the form of the Good Laboratory Practice (GLP)-accredited laboratory. In close partnership with the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) and research groups from the Ifakara Health Institute (IHI) in Tanzania, they are testing the efficacy of new insecticides to combat disease-transmitting mosquitoes such as Anopheles gambiae (malaria mosquito) and Aedes aegypti (vector of the dengue virus). “Julien Zahouli, Emmanuelle Lisro, Laurence Yao and Marc Adou have worked together in exemplary fashion to create a sustainable infrastructure and innovations based on it that will allow us to tackle these pressing global health challenges in the years to come,” says Pie Müller, head of the Vector Control Unit at Swiss TPH.

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