Prof. Rose Leke gets international recognition

The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene recently conferred an Honorary International Fellow of ASTMH (FASTMH) on the fine Cameroonian researcher.

Cameroon has once again been honoured at the international scene. Professor Rose Leke, a renowned researcher in tropical medicine was on October 25, 2015 conferred the title of ‘Honorary International Fellow of ASTMH (FASTMH)’ by the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. This was during the Society’s 64thannual meeting that held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Prof. Rose LekeTalking to Cameroon Tribune on December 22, 2015, the recipient said the award “was in recognition of outstanding contributions to the field of tropical medicine.” She disclosed that the award has a citation and “when I was being given the award, they cited that it is for the work that I do for malaria and polio eradication.” For polio eradication, Prof. Rose Leke chairs the African Regional Certification Commission. This means that when polio is all gone, she will be the one in Africa to stand up and give the certificate.

“I have been working for polio certification and our region for now does not have any polio virus. We are hoping that we can certify our region in the next two years. For malaria, I sit on the Malaria Policy and Advisory Committee for the World Health Organisation. So, I do a lot of policy making for malaria and I also do a lot of malaria research. I have been involved in malaria research with students,” she told Cameroon Tribune.

Prof. Rose LekeConscious of the daunting task of completely keeping the two dangerous diseases at bay, Prof. Leke noted that “the award is a call for service given that I have been trying to get documentation to see how free Africa is of polio. I have a commission made up of 16 members. We are looking at country documentation this time around to see that they are polio-free. We also have meetings to see where we are with malaria in the world and take global strategic plan on how we can work to see that malaria is eliminated. The university kept me with research lab and I have students and write projects. I hope the students I have sent abroad will come back and takeover from me because I am getting tired and should leave the lab.”

Like any other international recognition that she and other Cameroonians have had, Prof. Leke said the Honorary International Fellow of ASTMH (FASTMH) “is such a pride to Cameroon and African given that there were two of us from the continent. The other was a Ghanaian. It is real pride for us and it means we have to continue working.” Being the Vice President of the Chantal Biya International Research Centre (CIRCB), the fine researcher dedicates the award to “she who is our everything for CIRCB, Mrs Chantal Biya.

The last time I got an award, she sent me a letter of congratulations. The president did also. I also dedicate it to all Cameroonians. It is a pride for our country. This means that we all have work to do to make sure we keep polio out of this country. We should also get malaria out of this country. This is what this award means.”