Parinaz Mehdipour

Assessing the impact of imperfect adherence to antimalarial treatments in a modelling and simulation framework

Principal Supervisor’s name: Professor Julie Simpson
Co-supervisors’ names: Dr Saber Dini, Dr Rob Commons

Malaria is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality, with approximately 200 million clinical cases each year throughout the world. The WHO Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016–2030 has set the following ambitious goals for 2030: reducing malaria case incidence and mortality rates by at least 90% and eliminating malaria in at least 35 countries. Efficacious treatment of malaria is one of the key factors to achieve these goals. In this regard, adherence to antimalarial drugs is an important, but less emphasised factor, since clinical trials usually focus on the safety and efficacy of antimalarial drugs. Parinaz aims to assess how adherence to antimalarial regimens influences the treatment efficacy. These findings will be incorporated into within-host malaria mathematical models that link drug concentration profile with drug action within a patient, to investigate the impact of missing doses on parasite clearance and recurrent episodes of malaria.

PhD scholarship title and funding body: Melbourne Research Scholarship, The University of Melbourne