Dr Klodeta Kura is a mathematical modeller working at the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Imperial College London, UK,where she models the transmission of schistosomiasis. Within Dr Kura's work, using deterministic and individual-based stochastic models, she assesses the effect of MDA and examines whether we can achieve the WHO goals of morbidity control and elimination by using the current guidelines. In cases where these guidelines do not appear to be sufficient, programmatic adaptations are suggested that could be implemented to increase the probability of achieving the WHO goals. Dr Kura is also working on assessing the impact of a candidate vaccine (Sm-p80), used either alone or in combination with MDA, when applied in endemic regions with different intensities of transmission.
