Sarah Cassidy-Seyoum

Sarah Cassidy-Seyoum

PhD Candidate

Qualifications:

Bachelor of Arts in Government with a minor in Biological Sciences, Smith College, 2016; Master of Science in the Control of Infectious Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 2017

Research Topic:

EFFORT clinical trial: Effectiveness of tafenoquine and primaquine

Location:

Remote

Biography:

Sarah has been working in the malaria world since obtaining her MSc in the Control of Infectious diseases in 2017. After graduating, Sarah worked with the World Health Organization as a United Nations Volunteer and a Provincial Malaria Officer in a high burden southern province in Lao PDR. She supported the National Malaria Program at the provincial level in carrying out routine surveillance activities, implementing outbreak responses, conducting surveillance and outbreak data analyses, and monitoring treatment efficacy studies.

She continued her work in malaria in Laos as a Program Coordinator for the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in Lao PDR. She worked on projects testing the feasibility of interventions designed to reduce malaria burden as Laos’ seeks to eliminate malaria by 2030. Projects included testing the feasibility and effectiveness of reactive case detection and the pilot of quantatitve G6PD testing at the district hospital and health center level.

Sarah is passionate about reducing the burden malaria causes and continues to support the elimination of malaria as a Menzies School of Health Research PhD candidate under Associate Professor Kamala Ley-Thriemer since August 2021. As a recipient of the Charles Darwin International PhD Scholarship, Sarah is investigating factors affecting the scale up and roll out of vivax malaria radical cure interventions within the context of malaria elimination.