Prenatal Parasites - Harry Tagbor explains the story behind the success of his new ISTp strategy

In this article (opens PDF), Harry Tagbor discusses the history of and latest research on intermittent screening and treatment of malaria in pregnancy (ISTp). In the absence of an effective drug to replace sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine for intermittent preventive treatment during pregnancy (SP-IPTp), his current research, in collaboration with organisations including the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, aims to determine whether screening for malaria infection using malaria rapid diagnostic tests at scheduled antenatal clinic visits, and treating only those who are positive with an effective antimalarial drug, provides a potential, alternative strategy to SP-IPTp.

Harry Tagbor is Public Health Specialist, Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Community Health at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. After completing an undergraduate degree in Human Biology in 1990, he went on to qualify as a medical doctor in 1993. Since then Tagbor has worked as a Senior Medical Officer at St Theresa’s Hospital in Ghana and as a lecturer both in Ghana and at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK, and has published his research in peer-reviewed journals such as PLOS One, Trends in Parasitology and Tropical Medicine and International Health. He undertook his PhD at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine through the Gates Malaria Partnership and is one of the Co-Investigators for the Malaria Capacity Development Consortium.

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