DGHI has been awarded $1.74 million over four years to examine the environmental and social factors that set the stage for the transmission of bacterial diseases from animals to humans. The research, to be led by DGHI researcher John Crump, will be the first integrated study of its kind in Africa.

The grant is one of eight  awards totaling $17 million to US universities for research on the transmission of diseases among humans, animals and environment. Funding comes from the U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. National Institutes of Health Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Disease Program, the U.K. Ecology of Infectious Diseases Initiative of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, and U.K. Economic and Social Research Council.

Crump and his research team will investigate the transmission of bacterial diseases which cause fever in three distinct livestock-owning communities of Tanzania. The work builds on previous research of the KCMC-Duke Collaboration which found that febrile disease caused by zoonotic pathogens, such as leptospirosis, Q fever and brucellosis, account for 11 times more febrile admissions than malaria in northern Tanzania. These pathogens are responsible for a substantial burden of disease both in terms of human health and livestock health, and this contributes to high poverty levels in marginalized livestock-dependent communities.

Little is known about transmission patterns of these pathogens among animal hosts, which host species are responsible for transmission to humans, or the key social, economic and behavioral determinants of human disease risk in different agro-ecological settings.

With the realization that it costs a mere $10 to buy and distribute an insecticide-treated bed net in Africa, a group of students at the Duke Methodist House banded together to make a contribution to the fight against the deadly disease.

On Thursday, Divinity students Scott Himel and Dawne Davis presented a $312 check to Imagine No Malaria (INM) Initiative through its campus partner DGHI. The worldwide anti-malaria initiative has campus involvement at 21 US colleges and universities - with Duke being one of them.

The students first learned about the INM Initiative last fall, when DGHI Associate in Research Caroline Hope Griffith gave a presentation to students at the Duke Methodist House. Griffith is the coordinator for African initiatives at the Divinity School and serves as campus liaison for the Imagine No Malaria Initiative.

Each year, the Methodist House makes a donation to a cause that is close to the students' hearts. The students were so moved by Griffith's presentation that they decided to donate a portion of their luncheon proceeds to the cause.

"After learning about the important work of Nothing But Nets and the Imagine No Malaria Initiative, we suggested donating to the cause half of the funds we received from students paying for pizza during our luncheon events last academic year," said Himel, a graduate student in the Divinity School. "We made the contribution with the hope that it might further the cause and dreams of the ministry."  

With the idea that strength comes in numbers, DGHI is looking for ways to connect faculty, staff and students who are passionate about the issue.