In recognition of young women scientists who have made significant contributions to science, Dr Eniyou Cheryll Oriero and Isatou Sarr recently received an Early Career Women Scientist award. The award Eniyou and Isatou received was the Elsevier Foundation award for Low and Middle-Income Countries to attend the 17th International Congress on Infectious Diseases (ICID). The event was organised by the International Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID) from the 2 to the 5 March 2016. The 17th ICID meeting focused on all the fields within infectious diseases with a particular focus on the major challenges within the region, including AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, pneumonia and enteric infections (typhoid fever and diarrhoea). Deliberations were on major areas of neglected tropical diseases with a specific focus on disease prevention and vaccination.

Both scientists work within the Disease Control and Elimination Theme of MRC Unit The Gambia. Isatou and Eniyou are two of 10 Early Career Women Scientist’s who received the Elsevier Foundation Travel Grant worth $1,500 (USD). The travel grant provides support to early career women investigators to present their work during one of the oral or poster sessions at the 17th ICID meeting. During the poster sessions, the research Isatou presented titled The Impact of pre-hospital antibiotic use in low resource settings won a Wellcome Trust /Department of Biotechnology( DBT) India Alliance award and stipend. Isatou was one of 15 recipients of the Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance Poster Award, which recognises high-quality research presented in poster format.

When asked to comment, Professor Umberto D’Alessandro, Director said “Both Eniyou and Isatou have grown and developed their research skills within the MRC Unit The Gambia and I would like to congratulate both of them for the award they have received. I believe this is also a sign our recent efforts to encourage young talented women scientists to pursue their career and going in the right direction.”

Read more about the research Isatou presented on http://www.ijidonline.com/article/S1201-9712(16)30185-0/abstract