Welcome to our认识SDG3研究人员blog collection. We are interviewing a series of academics and practitioners working in diverse fields to achieve可持续发展目标3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. You can find other posts in this collectionhere,并发现Springer自然在迈向实现这一目标的bob游戏平台进步方面所做的一切SDG3中心。

Please tell us a bit about yourself.

My name is Fingani Annie Mphande-Nyasulu. I am an infectious disease and public health consultant with a background in microbiology and molecular biology.

目前，我在泰国的Mongkut技术学院Ladkrabang（MD-KMITL）担任讲师。我还是理事会成员International Society of Infectious Diseases（ISID）。

graduati后ng with a BSc degree in Biology and Organic Chemistry from the University of Malawi, Chancellor College, I joined the University of Botswana for an MSc degree in Applied Microbiology.

My main area of focus was food microbiology and my research looked at mycotoxins and the role of insects in the dispersal of fungal spores in storage.

然后，我加入了马拉维 - 利物浦 - 韦尔康信托基金会临床研究计划（MLW），担任验尸的研究助理关于严重疟疾的研究in children and the expression of genes associated with severe disease in各种器官。

I completed my PhD in infection biology at the Karolinska Institutet, in Stockholm, Sweden, and acquired a short term postdoctoral fellowship at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, MLW and Institut de la Recherche pour le Developpement (IRD) – Noumea.

这些是我的伟大经历当我与专家合作时在分子生物学领域和传染病。

您是如何进入这个主题领域的？

I will echo Isaac Newton’s quote, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants”. I have had so many giants in my life who have encouraged me to pursue and supported me through my career. On the last day of my BSc course, the Head of Department called me and said, “sign these papers – it is an application for an MSc programme.” Six months later, I was registered with a full scholarship from the Belgium Technical Corporation through SADC.

Similarly, for my PhD, the Director of MLW at the time sent me a link to a funded PhD programme. I put together an application, was shortlisted for interviews and in less than six months, I was on one of the most prestigious fully funded PhD programmes in Europe. So, to answer how did I get into this, apart from the will and desire to be a scientist, I had great support from the scientific community and my family. I was surrounded by people who believed in me, encouraged me to dream further and achieve those dreams.

After the postdoctoral fellowship, I had to decide what I wanted to do. I realized I had all this scientific knowledge about infectious diseases in the communities around me, but that information could not reach them. So here we were trying to solve problems for communities that did not even know there was a problem or have awareness of the research breakthroughs. There was a gap of knowledge, and as long as this gap existed between researchers and communities, infectious disease prevention and control would not be easily achieved.

In 2014, during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the knowledge gap became clear in the conflict it created between health professionals and communities. As health professionals worked hard to quarantine people to control the spread of the disease, people were trying to find treatment elsewhere, spreading the disease further. I decided to pursue infectious disease – something I had been thinking of for a long time – but focusing on its impact on communities and livelihoods. This was the beginning of my research on infectious disease prevention and control. I combined livelihoods and infectious disease research to better understand how diseases spread within communities and whether livelihoods impacted the spread, prevention, and control of these diseases.

I started my research by authoring a book on ‘Infectious Diseases and Rural Livelihoods in Developing Countries’（2016）是将研究概念介绍给世界的一种方式。从那以后，我的研究重点一直是传染病弱势群体, including rural populations, migrant populations,refugees, slum dwellers, and internally displaced populations。

我目前的项目是由KMITL通过教师研究赠款赞助的，并专注于弱势社区的传染病。我感谢MD-KMITL的管理层和员工以及Sirindhorn Hospital的合作者的出色支持，感谢他们在设置该项目方面的大力支持。

我目前正在与伦敦大学学院，威斯康星大学 - 密尔沃基大学护理学院，卡穆祖卫生科学大学（正式马拉维大学医学院）和马来亚大学合作。

Any career highlights?

My career highlights include the publication of my first book, ‘Infectious Diseases and Rural Livelihoods in Developing Countries’, as this was the turning point in my career. I had found a niche that was my passion to pursue whole heartedly. The publication of my second book, ‘Skin Disorders in Populations, Causes, Impacts and Challenges’（2020），这证明了我关注被忽视的疾病和脆弱人群。

Another highlight was participating in the annotation of thePlasmodiumgenome at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge and being a trainer for the international advanced course “Working with Pathogen Genomes”.

作为一名在世界各地（即马拉维，瑞典，英国，新喀里多尼亚，泰国）工作的传染病研究人员，具有不同的社区，文化和疾病概况，使我对不同的社会，经济和经济，经济和经济，经济，经济，经济，经济，经济，经济，经济，经济和管理的看法文化背景。

The opportunity to be a pre-doctoral fellow with EMBL and Karolinska Institutet through the BIOMALPAR EU FP6 programme gave me the opportunity to study, attain skills, and interact with world class researchers as well as access to exceptional tools, equipment, and laboratories for molecular biology research.

成功并非没有障碍，从长远来看，我职业生涯中遇到的一些障碍也已成为我的优势。这些包括在我不流利的语言，学习和适应这些地方和环境中的文化期望的地方工作。另一个障碍是获得研究资金，有时人们不相信您可以做自己的能力。我通过更开放的胸怀克服了这些障碍，每天一次掌握一切，并知道自己是谁。

How does your work relate to SDG3?

My work is related with SDG3, “Ensure healthy lives and well-being for all at all ages”, specifically:

• 目标3.3：By 2030, end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases and combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases, and other communicable diseases.
• target 3d:Strengthen the capacity of all countries, in particular developing countries, for early warning, risk reduction and management of national and global health risks.

With a research focus on vulnerable populations, ensuring healthy lives and well-being for all is still a work in progress. Despite strides being made in some areas for target 3.3, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused interruptions that will considerably affect vaccination coverage as well as the progress that was made, for example in reducing malaria cases. Vulnerable populations who were already struggling to access their healthcare needs before the pandemic, may face even greater challenges at present and in the years to come post-pandemic.

Infectious diseases and livelihoods in vulnerable communities are also relevant toSDG1- No poverty,SDG2- Zero hunger,SDG4- Quality education,SDG5- Gender equality,SDG6- Clean water and sanitation,SDG8- Decent work and economic growth,SDG10- Reduced inequalities,SDG15- Life on land, andSDG16- Peace justice and strong institutions。在“发展中国家的传染病和农村生计”一书中，我提到了健康，贫困和生计的恶性循环。上面提到的所有可持续发展目标都会影响人口的健康和福祉，并在加剧贫困和生计中发挥作用，从而影响他们的福祉。

What’s the most pressing research question in your field and/or your hopes for progress in the future?

The most pressing question in my field is on sustainable health systems in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), how it can be attained and what the best approach would be.

To achieve SDG3 targets, different tailored approaches will be required as each country is unique. In general, it will require countries to:

1. Be able to manage and strengthen their health systems, making sure they are sustainable and have a buffer to absorb sudden events such as disease outbreaks, natural disasters, etc.
2. 使用本地data (data from their health systems) to plan for surveillance and enhance preparedness.
3. 尽管政治，宗教，社会和/或文化观点有所不同，但愿意与社区合作。
4. 能够以更具包容性的方式共同努力，以便所有国家和地区都能访问正确的信息，工具，设施，并拥有人力资本来维持其卫生系统。大流行表明，各国共同努力打击该疾病的全球不平等和挑战。希望可以从如何处理大流行中学到的许多教训可以用来建立一个更好的平台，以构建可持续的网络，以进行监视和增强社区，国家，地区和全球水平的准备。
5. 识别被忽视的社区和被忽视的热带疾病（NTD）。被忽视的社区，大多数是农村人口，是包括NTD在内的许多热带疾病的繁殖场。这些社区也是最边缘化的，无法获得医疗保健。NTD会影响全球超过10亿人，其中大多数生活在极端贫困之下。截至2018年，穷人中有4个居住在农村地区。生活在贫困中的一半是儿童，自大流行以来，an increase in the number of people living in poverty。如果要实现SDG3，这就是它开始的地方。如果这些社区可以实现可持续的健康覆盖范围，那么传染病的负担将大大减轻。发射NTD Roadmap 2021-2030is a good start.

Please tell us about a resource or person that has particularly inspired you?

What inspired me to pursue this career was a photo I saw of a lady who looked like me in a book when I was in secondary school. She was a scientist and I told myself I wanted to be like her. All through secondary school to university, that picture never left my mind. I look back today and see myself having come this far, and I am very honored and grateful to God.

在我职业生涯的早期阶段，我的博士导师也是我的巨大灵感。我记得一次去找她，不知所措，问道：“我该如何在这样的地方工作？”她告诉我：“如果您可以在这里生存，那么您将在世界任何地方生存”。她是一个非常有成就的女人，我很荣幸能成为我的导师。我回头看，我永远不会忘记那些鼓励的话。无论我遇到什么障碍，我都会记住那些话：“如果您可以在这里生存，您将在世界任何地方生存”。

You can find other posts in this collectionhere.

At Springer Nature we are committed to playing our role in advancing progress towards achieving SDG3 by both supporting researchers and being an active voice, promoting an interdisciplinary evidenced-based approach to all targets and indicators within this goal.了解有关我们的更多信息SDG3 activitiesand theSpringer Nature SDG Programme。