Anthony Scott

My areas of interest are infectious disease epidemiology and vaccine research. I completed an MRC(UK)-funded PhD in 2016 that included studies to assess whether human papillomavirus (HPV) infection increased HIV acquisition in East African women, to evaluate HPV vaccine introduction in Tanzania and to collate 'lessons learnt' during HPV vaccine introduction in 46 low and middle-income countries. Whilst based at the Mwanza Intervention Trials Unit in Tanzania for 2014 and 2015, I also aided the initial set-up of the EBOVAC1 Ebola vaccine Phase 1 trial. As a post-doc, I worked as the London-based academic coordinator of the EBOVAC1 projects including two large phase 2b vaccine trials in Sierra Leone and 2 nested observational studies.

Since July 2018 I have been based at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kilifi, Kenya, setting up a trial to assess whether lower doses of the two currently available pneumococcal conjugate vaccines protect Kenyan infants as well as the full dose schedules. We will compare the immune response and carriage of the pneumococcus in the nose (a surrogate marker for disease) after vaccination with a full, 40% or 20% dose schedule. The results could be used to enable countries unable to afford the full cost of the vaccine, to continue delivering it in the childhood immunisation programme in the absence of Gavi support.