Dr Michael Marks

Michaels initial work, which was funded by the Wellcome Trust, focused on understanding the impact of azithromycin mass administration on treponemal infections as part of a strategy to eliminate yaws in the Solomon Islands including work on disease mapping and the evaluation of diagnostic tests. He was a lead investigator on a WHO sponsored trial of treatment of yaws in Ghana and Papua New Guinea and collaborates with Oriol Mitjà on studies to optimise community treatment strategies for yaws in PNG. He is the principal investigator on a new EDCTP evaluation of a LAMP assay for yaws (2020-2022) in Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Cameroon and is collaborating on studies evaluating Linezolid as a new therapeutic agent for yaws.

Michael is involved in a number of studies on the epidemiology and control of scabies, which is endemic in the Pacific region and has recently been adopted as an NTD by the World Health Organization. He collaborates with Andrew Steer, in Melbourne, and John Kaldor, in Sydney, on a number of studies to better understand the use of mass treatment strategies to control scabies in endemic communities. He sits on the technical advisory group for the World Scabies Program. 

As well as work on these specific NTDs Michael is interested in strategies for the integrated control of neglected tropical diseases. He is a lead investigator on several studies exploring the possibility of combining MDA programmes for multiple NTDs into a single intervention in Ethiopia and Papua New Guinea. Along with Rachel Pullan, Steve Walker and others he is a lead investigator on the NIHR funded SHARP project (2019-2023) on integrated control strategies for NTDs of the skin including buruli ulcer, yaws, cutaneous leishmaniasis and leprosy in Ghana and Ethiopia.

Michael is a member of the World Health Organization Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases Diagnostic Technical Advisory Group and is the current Chair of the International Alliance for the Control of Scabies.