Tell me a bit about yourself.

I’m trained as an infectious diseases and intensive care physician, and developing ICU [intensive care unit] care in developing countries is an interest of mine. I’ve been living here, in Bangkok, for the last 15 years. During that time, I’ve mainly been doing research on both uncomplicated and severe falciparum malaria, a disease that requires intensive care in hospital. Over the last ten years or so, I’ve developed a strong interest in antimalarial drug resistance, which is an increasing problem here in the region – again.

Can you tell us a bit about the malaria situation in Sri Lanka and how it has changed?

When I joined the University of Colombo as a Lecturer in 1989, malaria was a major problem with around 400,000 cases per year. But there’s been a drastic reduction since 2000 with no evidence of local transmission in Sri Lanka since 2012. So, according to the World Health Organization criteria, Sri Lanka has fulfilled the requirements to be certified as a malaria-free country.

Can you tell us a bit about fine scale epidemiology of mosquito populations?

Can you tell us a bit about the Plasmodium Diversity Network Africa? What made you want to get involved?

Tell me a bit about what you do.

I’m based in Bangkok at the Mathematical and Economic Modelling Unit (MAEMOD), which is part of the Mahidol Oxford Research Unit (MORU). The main work that we do is economic-epidemioloigcal modelling with a focus on mechanistic approaches, and we also do enhanced data analysis.