Lucy Mupfumi
Country (Nationality)
Botswana
Grantee Title
Harnessing adolescence advocacy to end TB in Botswana
Grantee Description
Lucy Mupfumi is a PhD candidate based at the Botswana-Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership with over 10 years of experience in laboratory medicine, research mentorship, training in quality management systems, and point of care diagnostics. She also has experience in clinical trials coordination and laboratory systems strengthening. Mupfumi's research interests are in HIV/Tuberculosis (TB) epidemiology and immunology. Her project seeks to understand predictors of incident TB and immunological markers of treatment response in HIV-TB co-infected patients.
Harnessing adolescence advocacy to end TB in Botswana
TB currently causes more deaths than HIV, claiming an estimated 4,500 lives daily. The World Health Organization officially launched a global youth movement to raise awareness about TB, “#1plus1YouthInitiative”.
The goal of this CPE project is to use innovative approaches to engage adolescents aged 12-19 years in Gaborone, Botswana to understand the predictors of incident TB in HIV-infected patients. The project has 2 key activities:
1) A ten-day intensive engagement workshop with HIV-infected adolescents in collaboration with Eh!woza, which will culminate in short documentaries produced by the youth that will reflect experiences, perspectives and attitudes towards HIV and TB
2) Youth-produced documentaries being disseminated to high school learners and on social media
The project aims to instill a sense of appreciation of biomedical research conducted in Botswana within the adolescent group and stimulate two-way discussions with adolescents around TB and HIV fears, misconceptions and stigma.