US-Rwanda Planning Visit: Developing Research on Integrated Vector Control of Blood-Sucking Insects, July 2007

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This award will facilitate the visit to Rwanda of a team of University of Illinois faculty members and a graduate student, led by Dr. Ibulaimu Kakoma, for the purpose of planning collaborative research. This collaboration holds great potential for the advancement of U.S. and Rwandan science, particularly in research on biodiversity and on the geographic patterns of insect vectors of disease. The visit coincides with an international scientific gathering, the First International Conference on Biodiversity and Natural Resources, sponsored by the Government of Rwanda. The planning visit team will meet with government officials, including the Minister of Science and Technology, with Rwandan university personnel, and also with community members from various occupations. The visiting team will focus especially on blood-sucking insects that act as vectors in the transmission of diseases. Such vector-borne diseases constitute the top 6 diseases designated by the United Nations. Africa is still extremely vulnerable to many preventable diseases, including vector-borne diseases. These diseases have both human public health impact in Africa and internationally and also economic significance at local, regional and global level. The collaboration is innovative in bringing together ecologists and geographic information systems (GIS) researchers to develop integrated vector control strategies through the identification, mapping and land use patterns of areas of sequestration of larval stages of mosquitoes. The techniques later will be adapted to other vectors such as tsetse flies and ticks.