Africa: Malaria Vaccine Not Just a Dream - Dr. Aminatou Kone

allAfrica.com
Dr. Aminatou Kone (left) with AllAfrica's Aminata Sall
19 July 2019
allAfrica.com
interview

Dakar — An African scientific conference this week was "a platform for this young generation to express their views about how they perceive the future of science in Africa. We will leave here with new motivations and more opportunities." - Aminata Kone

The African Academy of Sciences (AAS) in partnership with: the Malaria Research Capacity Development in West and Central Africa (Marcad), Developing Excellence in Leadership and Genetic Training for Malaria Elimination in Sub Saharan Africa (Delgeme) and Afrique One African Science Partnership for Intervention Research Excellence (Afrique One ASPIRE), hosted the 2019 Deltas Africa Scientific Conference at the King Fahd Palace Hotel, Dakar from 15 – 17 July 2019. At the event, AllAfrica's Aminata Sall spoke with Dr Aminatou Kone, a post-doc Marcad fellow from Mali.

Could you please introduce yourself and your work to the AllAfrica audience

My name is Aminatou Kone, I'm a post-doc fellow of Marcad one of the Deltas Africa program. I want to  understand the malaria parasite resistance to treatment and also why some patient having malaria take more time to eliminate the parasite when they take medications.

Are you optimistic about the search for a malaria vaccine ?

Malaria vaccine is not just a dream, important progresses are already done In the comprehension of how good a vaccine should be,  to be efficient. Several research results comfort our hope in that sense. However I believe that Africa must play a determinant role in malaria research and vaccine development. Knowledge, capacity and decision power should be more balanced between all actors to reach our target.

What is your opinion on the media-scientists interaction which is one of the main themes of this conference ?

We have a great interaction with media during this meeting, one of the most mediatized I have attended  so far. We young researchers came to understand how important it is to interact with media to reach bigger audience and to make greater impact in population health. This meeting had a well coordinated media-researcher interaction.

How would you judge this conference ?

This conference is just "GREAT" .This is one of the first scientific conference that has focused  on African young researchers. An opportunity was given to us not only to present our progress but also to interact more with colleagues and so many experts that were fully available. It was also a platform for this young generation to express their views about how they perceive the future of science in Africa. We will leave here with new motivations and more opportunities.

Tagged:
Copyright © 2019 allAfrica.com. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

AllAfrica publishes around 500 reports a day from more than 100 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.