Dr. Ricardo Thompson

Chokwe HDSS

Dr Ricardo Thompson has over 20 years of experience in public health and biomedical research in Africa. Having started his scientific carrier as a biomedical scientist my increasing responsibilities led him to broaden his scope of work to include public health research and evaluation on issues related with the major endemic diseases in the African region, namely HIV & AIDS, malaria, NTDS and other parasitic and infectious diseases. He was the lead scientist in the national mapping of Lymphatic Filariasis project in Mozambique, based on which the mass drug administration plan for the elimination of Lymphatic Filariasis was prepared. Since than he leads the monitoring and evaluation activities of the program and is involved in several research projects evaluating the impact of mass drug administration on the elimination of NTDs. Since 2011, Dr Thompson is the chairman of the LF program review group in the African Region of WHO and as a consequence has an in-depth understanding of the disease elimination status and challenges in the region and globally. In the same context he has served as temporary adviser in several WHO-AFRO missions to other countries in Africa to support LF elimination programs. Being a strong supporter of in-depth multidisciplinary understanding of disease epidemiology he went out to establish, in 2007, the Chókwè Health Research Centre (CITSC), a research centre located about 210 Km north of Maputo, in southern Mozambique. The research centre runs a continuous demographic and health surveillance system that serves as a platform for research and service support for over 100,000 population, where major population based studies in the area of HIV & AIDS, Malaria, Schistosomiasis, Maternal and Child Health, immunisation, diarrhoeal disease are taking place.