Health statistics help us quantify the burden of disease in a population, and the impact of interventions. In sub-Saharan Africa, only half of febrile malaria cases are treated in the formal health sector; what is happening in the private sector or informally is not well understood. With improved diagnostics and treatments, testing and treating has become better, but tracking involves more routine systems to improve surveillance.

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Dr Victor Alegana is an Early Career Research Fellow at the KEMRI- Wellcome Trust Research Programme. He has a PhD in Geography and Masters degree in applied Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing both from the University of Southampton, UK. He has a keen interest in use of routine health data and application of spatial-statistical data science to public health problems in low- and middle-income countries. This include broad areas of population health particularly on spatial epidemiology (disease burden estimation), health care access, delivery of health interventions, and monitoring Sustainable Development Goals related to vulnerable populations.

Broad research areas

• In using applied data science to investigate public health problems related to infectious diseases in low- and middle-income countries. Victor is currently investigating ways of improving the use of routine data for estimating disease burden in East Africa.
• Delivery of healthcare in low-resource settings including access, health systems and health interventions.

Recent and current projects

• Mapping for malaria elimination: Advances in mapping malaria for elimination: fine resolution modelling of Plasmodium falciparum incidence.
• Equity delivery: Distribution and delivery of healthcare in low-and middle income countries
• Healthcare utilisation for fever treatment: Using Bayesian IRT models to estimate treatment burden in low-resource settings.
• SDG indicators and nationally representative survey data: Investigation precision in public health data-science.