NAIROBI, KENYA—Ebola was not a major scheduled topic at the 9th Federation of African Immunological Societies (FAIS) conference, held in Kenya early last month, but Ebola’s effect was certainly felt in the relative emptiness of flights to Nairobi, in the empty rooms in the conference hotel, and in the questions many scientists at the conference had already been asked multiple times.
East Africans are quick to point out that Rome, Italy, is closer to Nairobi than are Freetown in Sierra Leone or Monrovia in Liberia, epicenters of the latest Ebola outbreaks. There was a general frustration among conference attendees that Ebola has distracted most of the world from the burden of chronic and infectious disease that Africa already faces.
The conference was billed as “Towards Full Integration of Immunology Into Africa’s Healthcare System.” Two speakers were scheduled to speak about Ebola: Adrian Hill, of the Jenner Institute at Oxford University, and Eleanor Fish of the University of Toronto and University Health Network.
Hill was originally to speak only about his groups’ multistage malaria vaccine, but was asked to also discuss the Ebola vaccine trial that the Jenner Institute is running on an expedited schedule in conjunction with an international consortium. Phase 1 trials of the vaccine against a single virus protein of Ebola Zaire were successfully completed this fall, and Phase 2 trials are scheduled to begin in the new year. Hill expressed his frustration that, though a potential vaccine was available for testing 10 years ago, there was no interest from the major pharmaceutical companies, in spite of multiple outbreaks of Ebola; they saw little chance of profit from an Ebola vaccine. Without minimizing the effect of the Ebola crises in any way, Hill reminded the audience of the overwhelming burden imposed by HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, pointing out that no vaccines are available for those diseases.
Eleanor Fish spoke of the potential use of alpha interferon in mitigating the effects of Ebola: a factor from Ebola blocks the interferon response, and it might be possible to circumvent the blockade by addition of exogenous interferon.
Through the rest of the meeting, FAIS speakers tackled neglected tropical diseases as well as basic immunology but the focus was on the big three infectious diseases—malaria, tuberculosis (TB), and HIV/AIDS. Vaccine development for these diseases was center stage. Willem Hanekom, head of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s TB vaccine program, gave the keynote on novel strategies for vaccine design. Faith Osier from the Kenya Medical Research Institute presented data on elicitation of antibodies to the merozoite stage of plasmodium, which could lead to a new pipeline for malaria vaccine development. Osier’s antibody-based approach complemented the talk by Felix Aggor from the University of Ghana, who presented compelling data on the identification of HLA-1 restricted T cell epitopes in the P. falciparum circumsporozoite protein. Thumbi Ndung’u from the KwaZulu-Natal Research Institute for Tuberculosis and HIV, approached HIV/AIDS vaccine design with data on the importance of HIV-specific CD8+ T-cell responses in contributing to the initial control of viral replication.
However, as speakers enthusiastically spoke of possible vaccines and antibiotics, it was clear that distribution of potential drugs and vaccines across Africa was almost as big a problem as their actual discovery and production. One of the words most often heard at the conference was “capacity”—capacity to do research, capacity to develop scientists, and capacity to raise funds.
In the opening ceremonies, Berhanu Abegaz, of the African Academy of Sciences in Kenya, spoke of the challenges and opportunities of science in Africa. The list of problems he described was devastating—the relative paucity of the resources available for research or healthcare, the few universities that can train scientists, and a lack of jobs for trained scientists. The Kenyan Parliament has committed 2% of the national budget to research in Kenya: several other African countries have already made similar commitments. But the funds in Kenya have not been dispersed, although Kenyan scientists still look forward to the creation of a national science foundation.
Jane Kengeya-Kayondo of the Wellcome Trust, Uganda, gave a keynote address on “Women in Science” that was followed by open discussion on the ways to integrate women into science and research. In a complicated continent where most countries are only a generation or two from a colonial era, equality for women has been a particular struggle. There are quotas in some countries. For example, in Kenya, there are quotas for women and minority groups such as the Masai in graduate schools. Discussion of quotas drew spirited discussion, as the issue of “lowered standards” was brought up, a standard rejection of affirmative action. Kevin Marsh, Senior Advisor to the African Academy of Sciences, made the provocative point that the advancement of women in science is dependent, in part, on equality of their relationships with their spouses. His mantra, “It is critical to choose the right partner,” drew a round of applause.
Students and postdocs combed the meeting looking for established researchers who could help with projects or positions. Finding funds to travel to meetings on a continent as huge as Africa is difficult for many African lab heads and even more daunting for postdocs and students. Among the roughly 200 attendees from Africa, Europe, and North and Central America at FAIS, even the presenters were asked by the organizers to pay their own travel costs to enable the organizers to instead cover costs for African scientists and students. Organizations such as the African Academy of Sciences are seeking to transcend the political and geographical distances by uniting scientists and trainees to face Africa’s chronic infectious disease burden.
About the Author:
Kathleen Barker is a scientist/writer who focuses on science management and on communicating science to society. She authored At the Bench which teaches laboratory practice to graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in the biomedical sciences, and At the Helm which educates new principal investigators in laboratory management. She received a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was a faculty member at The Rockefeller University before embarking on her writing career. She is currently working on a book about scientists as activists and blogs at scientistsascitizens.org. Email: kbarker715@gmail.com