Researchers at CVD-Mali and the Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health are researching ways to reduce infant and child mortality in Africa.
Photo: Samba Sow
In countries where CVD works, like Mali, many infants do not survive their first month of life. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) has awarded CVD-Mali to implement mass drug administration with azithromycin throughout the country and assess its impact on infant survival. It is the largest grant from BMGF for research in Africa. Samba Sow, MD, MSc, director general of CVD-Mali and an adjunct faculty member at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), is leading this global initiative.
Karen Kotloff, MD, the John A. Scholl, MD and Mary Louise Scholl, MD Professor of Pediatrics at UMSOM and a University of Maryland, Baltimore Distinguished Professor, is overseeing the work at the Baltimore site to evaluate the public health impact of the intervention. Together, Sow and Kotloff aim to address high child mortality rates in sub-Saharan Africa, which has some of the world’s worst health outcomes for children.