Around 50 million people could benefit from a new multidisciplinary research programme that is seeking new solutions to neglected tropical diseases and emerging epidemics in Africa.

Teams of scientists from Africa and the UK will pool their expertise to reduce the burden and threats from diseases like malaria, sleeping sickness, schistosomiasis and lymphatic filariasis.

They will seek to translate research into health technologies and policies that benefit vulnerable communities and better prepare and respond to epidemics such as Ebola.

Official Launch of the NIHR Global Health Research Unit Tackling Infections to Benefit Africa at the University of Edinburgh (TIBA)

UKZN College of Health Sciences’ Dean of Research, Professor Moses Chimbari has been appointed as a co-deputy director of the Tackling Infections to Benefit Africa (TIBA) project, a £7million high impact and stakeholder-driven project.

The project is led by the University of Edinburgh and involves nine African countries, namely: South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania and Sudan. In Swahili the word tiba means "to cure infection".