Africa: Malaria Vaccine Not Just a Dream - Dr. Aminatou Kone, MARCAD Postdoctoral fellow

INTERVIEW

Dakar — An African scientific conference this week was "a platform for this young generation to express their views about how they perceive the future of science in Africa. We will leave here with new motivations and more opportunities." - Aminata Kone

The African Academy of Sciences (AAS) in partnership with: the Malaria Research Capacity Development in West and Central Africa (Marcad), Developing Excellence in Leadership and Genetic Training for Malaria Elimination in Sub Saharan Africa (Delgeme) and Afrique One African Science Partnership for Intervention Research Excellence (Afrique One ASPIRE), hosted the 2019 Deltas Africa Scientific Conference at the King Fahd Palace Hotel, Dakar from 15 – 17 July 2019. At the event, AllAfrica's Aminata Sall spoke with Dr Aminatou Kone, a post-doc Marcad fellow from Mali.

Could you please introduce yourself and your work to the AllAfrica audience

My name is Aminatou Kone, I'm a post-doc fellow of Marcad one of the Deltas Africa program. I want to  understand the malaria parasite resistance to treatment and also why some patient having malaria take more time to eliminate the parasite when they take medications.

Are you optimistic about the searchs of a malaria vaccine ?

Malaria vaccine is not just a dream, important progresses are already done In the comprehension of how good a vaccine should be,  to be efficient. Several research results comfort our hope in that sense. However I believe that Africa must play a determinant role in malaria research and vaccine development. Knowledge, capacity and decision power should be more balanced between all actors to reach our target.

What is your opinion on the media-scientists interaction which is one of the main themes of this conference ?

We have a great interaction with media during this meeting, one of the most mediatized I have attended  so far. We young researchers came to understand how important it is to interact with media to reach bigger audience and to make greater impact in population health. This meeting had a well coordinated media-researcher interaction.

How would you judge this conference ?

This conference is just "GREAT" .This is one of the first scientific conference that has focused  on African young researchers. An opportunity was given to us not only to present our progress but also to interact more with colleagues and so many experts that were fully available. It was also a platform for this young generation to express their views about how they perceive the future of science in Africa. We will leave here with new motivations and more opportunities.

Read the original article on allAfrica https://fr.allafrica.com/stories/201907190320.html