Oumy Thiongane

Dr. Oumy Thiongane is a research  anthropologist at the INTERTRYP unit (Interactions Host-parasite- vectors-environment in Neglected Tropical Diseases due to Trypanosomatids) of Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD, Montpellier, France). She received her PhD in 2013 from Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) of Paris. In her thesis she analysed how meningitis epidemics became a health public issue in Niger. Her work describes how vaccine and immunization policy in emergencies became the one avenue by which public health could target seasonal meningitis epidemics.

After her PhD, Oumy explored the association of perceptions of vaccines and vaccine preventable diseases in Benin and Senegal. She has received research fellowships from EHESS, Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie, Foundation Inkerman, IRDC, Population Heath Research Centre of Nairobi and IRD Agency (AIRD) grant.

Oumy’s research addresses the social lives of biotechnologies, such as mosquito bednets and tiny targets against tsetse flies in Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, and Chad. Her research explores the cultural explanations of vector borne diseases (malaria and sleeping sickness) and includes an operational component (Gates grant, PI : Liverpool School of Tropical Medecine and IRD).