Honorary Research Associate
PhD
Punam’s first degree was in Mathematics, Operational Research, Statistics and Economics and completed her MSc in Modern Epidemiology at Imperial College London in 2010. Since she has been working on malaria epidemiology from data processing, managing, manipulating and visualising to spatial modelling across multiple institutions including KEMRI-Wellcome Trust and Drugs for Neglected Disease Initiative. Punam’s research interests lie in the application of epidemiology and geographic information systems to questions that are essential to the control of malaria and other infectious diseases.
In 2018, Punam completed her PhD at the University of Florida, specializing in Bayesian geostatistical modelling work for malaria risk. She joined MAP at University of Oxford as a Postdoctoral Researcher soon thereafter focusing on developing multi-metric models for malaria elimination settings. Punam provides technical support in risk mapping to the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), which supports national malaria control programs to accelerate efforts to reduce malaria transmission towards elimination, to improve spatial decision making in elimination settings. She also provides support to the World Health Organization High Burden High Impact modelling group, which in turn supports countries in developing strategic plans for controlling and reducing the burden of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa.
Punam is also an active member of the R-ladies organization and carpentries and enjoys nurturing coding skills in young scientists.
- Projects
-
Publications
January 2024
Malaria risk stratification in Lao PDR guides program planning in an elimination setting
Malaria in Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) has declined rapidly over the last two decades, from 279,903 to 3926 (99%) cases between 2001 and 2021. Elimination of human malaria is an achievable goal and limited resources need to be targeted at remaining hotspots of transmission.
Published research Infectious Diseases Geospatial Health and Development MalariaDecember 2022Reach and perceived effectiveness of a community-led active outreach postvention intervention for people bereaved by suicide
Postvention is a core component of suicide prevention strategies, internationally. However, the types of supports provided to people impacted by suicide vary widely. This study examines the perceived effectiveness of the Primary Care Navigator (PCN) model for people bereaved by suicide. The PCN model was implemented in response to a suicide cluster.
Published research Youth Mental Health Geospatial Health and Development Youth mental healthFebruary 2022Spatial codistribution of HIV, tuberculosis and malaria in Ethiopia
HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria are the three most important infectious diseases in Ethiopia, and sub-Saharan Africa. Understanding the spatial codistribution of these diseases is critical for designing geographically targeted and integrated disease control programmes. This study investigated the spatial overlap and drivers of HIV, TB and malaria prevalence in Ethiopia.
Published research Healthy Skin and ARF Prevention Geospatial Health and Development Malaria Geospatial and TuberculosisJune 2021Mapping malaria by sharing spatial information between incidence and prevalence data sets
As malaria incidence decreases and more countries move towards elimination, maps of malaria risk in low-prevalence areas are increasingly needed. For low-burden areas, disaggregation regression models have been developed to estimate risk at high spatial resolution from routine surveillance reports aggregated by administrative unit polygons.
Published research Geospatial Health and Development MalariaJanuary 2021Indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on malaria intervention coverage, morbidity, and mortality in Africa: a geospatial modelling analysis
Substantial progress has been made in reducing the burden of malaria in Africa since 2000, but those gains could be jeopardised if the COVID-19 pandemic affects the availability of key malaria control interventions. The aim of this study was to evaluate plausible effects on malaria incidence and mortality under different levels of disruption to malaria control.
Published research Infectious Diseases Geospatial Health and Development -
Education and Qualifications