Position: Senior Lecturer of tropical Medical Parasitology and Public Health.
Contacts: humphreymazigo@gmail.com

Dr. Humphrey D. Mazigo is a Tanzanian with a PhD in Public Health which he obtained from Makerere University in 2015. His PhD fellowship was funded by the Wellcome Trust funded THRiVE Consortium. His PhD project focused on ‘Epidemiology of Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Schistosoma mansoni co-infection and impact on anthelminthic treatment in fishing communities in North- Western Tanzania’. In Africa the distribution of intestinal schistosomiasis and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) overlaps, so that many people have both infections. It has been suggested that this co-infection may have additional health implications. Dr Mazigo investigated the co-occurrence of the two infections in fishing communities on Lake Victoria. His results indicated that HIV infection had no effect on schistosomiasis-related disease parameters, such as excretion of parasite eggs from infected individuals, enlargement of the patient’s spleen and portal vein. However, co-infected individuals did have more liver enlargement than those who only had schistosomiasis, suggesting the two infections interact to cause more liver disease. Drug treatment for schistosomiasis reduced this liver enlargement, and HIV infection did not interfere with the efficacy of this treatment. He concluded that mass anti- schistosome drug treatment should continue to be used in areas where HIV and Schistosoma mansoni co-infection does occur.

Dr. Mazigo is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Tropical Medical Parasitology and Public Health at the School of Medicine, Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences-Bugando, Mwanza, Tanzania and visiting lecturer to other medical school in Tanzania. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Veterinary Medicine from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the Sokoine University of Agriculture, Master of Science in Medical Parasitology, from the College of Health Sciences, Institute of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Nairobi, Kenya and a Master of Public Health from St. Augustine University of Tanzania. Currently, he is undertaking a postgraduate diploma in Project Planning and management.

His active research interest is in epidemiology, immunoepidemiology, immunomorbidity and control of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in sub-Saharan Africa. He is particularly interested in the epidemiology, diagnosis, design, implementation and evaluation of interventions for prevention, control and potential elimination of helminthic neglected tropical diseases and how neglected tropical diseases interact with malaria and HIV-1 infection in causing morbidity.  Humphrey has authored and co-authored over 60 scientific publications in international and local peer reviewed journals. He has been a reviewer for Parasites and Vectors, BMC Public Health, Journal of Infection in Developing Countries, Tanzania Journal of Health Research, Infectious Diseases of Poverty and  PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Achievements

Dr. Humphrey Mazigo a THRiVE PhD fellow was awarded the Dan David Prize Scholarship worth $15,000 for the Future Time Dimension in the field of Preventive Medicine.Best poster presentation at the WELLCOME Trust meeting in Ghana 2013 and was awarded 1000 GBP