Dr Rita Oliveira

Rita is a PhD student at the department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, supervised by Prof. Sir Roy Anderson and Dr Poppy Lamberton, and supported by a scholarship from FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia).

The title of her PhD project is “Age-distribution implications in dynamics and control of soil-transmitted helminths” and it aims to provide epidemiological evidence to improve current deworming control programmes.

This project involves the collection of parasitological data in the field (near Bungoma Town, western Kenya) to inform on the changes occurring in the age-distribution of soil-transmitted helminths (STH) in whole communities, not only between different helminth species but also after a few rounds of school-based deworming treatment. It also aims to investigate individual immune responses to STH, in an effort to elucidate the roles of immunity vs. behaviour in infection heterogeneity in an endemic population. The title of my thesis will be "Immuno-epidemiology of soil-transmitted helminths in Bungoma, Kenya".