Merle A. Sande Health Leadership Award
Recognizing Emerging African Leaders in Infectious Disease
Congratulations to the 2013 Merle A. Sande Health Leadership Award winner, Dr. Damalie Nakanjako. She is an internist whose work focuses on optimizing HIV treatment outcomes and reducing HIV-associated morbidity and mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. She is currently a Lecturer in Makerere University’s Department of Medicine and a Wellcome Trust post-doctoral Research Fellow in Infection and Immunity at the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI).
Previous Awardees
Dr. Kamija Phiri
Honored for his outstanding work on investigating new strategies to prevent malaria especially severe anemia, one of malaria’s most common and devastating complications, in children under five, Dr. Kamija Phiri from the University of Malawi was recipient of the 2012 Merle A. Sande Leadership Award. Click here to read more about Dr. Phiri.
Dr. Christian Happi
Accordia Global Health Foundation announced Dr. Christian Happi as the 2011 Sande Awardee. Dr. Happi was honored for his outstanding work on the molecular basis for Plasmodium falciparum resistance to antimalarial drugs.
Professor WD Francois Venter
Click to read about the 2010 Merle A. Sande Health Leadership Award recipient, Professor WD Francois Venter, and to view his keynote address on Developing a Coherent Approach to HIV in Africa.
Background
Dr. Merle Sande was a visionary; known for his enthusiasm for work as well as life, his joy in teaching, and his outstanding leadership abilities. He was a renowned infectious diseases specialist with a brilliant career and a passion for medicine. Merle had an indomitable spirit, a remarkable breadth of knowledge, and a knack for persuading his students and colleagues that they were as excited about the subject as he was. His dreams knew no boundaries. He was an inspiration to all that surrounded him in life and in the field of medicine.
Dr. Sande’s most indelible mark on life, however, occurred when he focused his attention on the AIDS crisis in Africa and established Accordia and its Academic Alliance. As Chief of Medicine at San Francisco General Hospital in the early 1980s, Merle had been on the frontlines when AIDS hit San Francisco. In those early years, there was no treatment, and he helplessly watched as thousands died. Hope emerged with antiretrovirals. However, the AIDS crisis in Africa grew, and Merle was impatient to help. He gathered his colleagues and convinced them that together, with their experience and resources, they could stem the tide of the African pandemic. He had a mission and the foresight to realize that the real challenge to the African HIV/AIDS crisis was to build healthcare capacity, specifically by training physicians and healthcare professionals to care for the vast numbers of HIV infected patients. Merle realized the paramount need to strengthen and upgrade academic medical centers in sub-Saharan Africa, so they could educate and prepare a generation of healthcare professionals skilled in the best practices to lead a resurgent effort against infectious disease. His vision came to fruition when the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) in Kampala, Uganda was created as a preeminent center in sub-Saharan Africa for infectious disease training, treatment, and research. Through Dr. Sande’s dream, IDI is providing opportunities for emerging African healthcare leaders and empowering a new generation that are working to overcome the burden of HIV and other infectious diseases in Africa.
For more information
If you have any questions related to the Merle A. Sande Health Leadership Award or the application or evaluation process, please email sandeaward@accordiafoundation.org.
