Senior Research Officer
PhD
Dr Lubinda has extensive professional experience that spans several projects both in the Zambian public and private sectors and in the UK, at least 9 years of which have been in malaria research. He was a Project Manager and Research Associate in Data Science for the MIDAS Consortium, most recently providing integrated technical, operational, and programme support to 14 diverse partnerships across 7 European countries and the USA.
In the past, Dr Lubinda worked as a GIS Specialist and Data Management Coordinator in malaria-related projects across Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Congo DR, through the John’s Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health coordinated Southern Africa International Centre of Excellence in Malaria Research (ICEMR). Among other projects, ICEMR focused on supporting partner countries to achieve, sustain and document malaria elimination in low transmission settings while understanding the barriers to control in persistent high transmission zones. These studies cut across the epidemiology of malaria, vector biology, parasite genomics and environmental surveillance across the vast study areas.
He obtained his doctorate in Spatio-temporal Impact of Climate Change on malaria transmission, control and elimination in Southern Africa, at Ulster University, 2020. Dr Lubinda’s research interests include applying geospatial models to understand the relationship between the environment and disease transmission, disease surveillance, ecological modelling, eco-epidemiology, geospatial modelling, access to health, and evaluation of health interventions, health-seeking behaviour. He has co-authored several articles in peer-reviewed journals.
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Publications
December 2023
A Maximum Entropy Model of the Distribution of Dengue Serotype in Mexico
Pathogen strain diversity is an important driver of the trajectory of epidemics. The role of bioclimatic factors on the spatial distribution of dengue virus serotypes has, however, not been previously studied. Hence, we developed municipality-scale environmental suitability maps for the four dengue virus serotypes using maximum entropy modeling.
Published research Infectious Diseases Geospatial Health and Development Dengue feverApril 2023Evaluating COVID-19-Related Disruptions to Effective Malaria Case Management in 2020–2021 and Its Potential Effects on Malaria Burden in Sub-Saharan Africa
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to far-reaching disruptions to health systems, including preventative and curative services for malaria. The aim of this study was to estimate the magnitude of disruptions in malaria case management in sub-Saharan Africa and their impact on malaria burden during the COVID-19 pandemic. We used survey data collected by the World Health Organization, in which individual country stakeholders reported on the extent of disruptions to malaria diagnosis and treatment.
Published research Infectious Diseases Geospatial Health and Development COVID-19 MalariaOctober 2022What Heterogeneities in Individual-level Mobility Are Lost During Aggregation? Leveraging GPS Logger Data to Understand Fine-scale and Aggregated Patterns of Mobility
Human movement drives spatial transmission patterns of infectious diseases. Population-level mobility patterns are often quantified using aggregated data sets, such as census migration surveys or mobile phone data. These data are often unable to quantify individual-level travel patterns and lack the information needed to discern how mobility varies by demographic groups. Individual-level datasets can capture additional, more precise, aspects of mobility that may impact disease risk or transmission patterns and determine how mobility differs across cohorts; however, these data are rare, particularly in locations such as sub-Saharan Africa.
Published research Infectious Diseases Geospatial Health and DevelopmentJuly 2022Spatio-temporal monitoring of health facility-level malaria trends in Zambia and adaptive scaling for operational intervention
The spatial and temporal variability inherent in malaria transmission within countries implies that targeted interventions for malaria control in high-burden settings and subnational elimination are a practical necessity. Identifying the spatio-temporal incidence, risk, and trends at different administrative geographies within malaria-endemic countries and monitoring them in near real-time as change occurs is crucial for developing and introducing cost-effective, subnational control and elimination intervention strategies.
Published research Infectious Diseases Geospatial Health and Development MalariaOctober 2022Spatio-temporal dynamics of three diseases caused by Aedes-borne arboviruses in Mexico
The intensity of transmission of Aedes-borne viruses is heterogeneous, and multiple factors can contribute to variation at small spatial scales. Illuminating drivers of heterogeneity in prevalence over time and space would provide information for public health authorities. The objective of this study is to detect the spatiotemporal clusters and determine the risk factors of three major Aedes-borne diseases, Chikungunya virus, Dengue virus, and Zika virus clusters in Mexico.
Published research Infectious Diseases Geospatial Health and Development Dengue feverMay 2023The ecological determinants of severe dengue: A Bayesian inferential model
Low socioeconomic status (SES), high temperature, and increasing rainfall patterns are associated with increased dengue case counts. However, the effect of climatic variables on individual dengue virus (DENV) serotypes and the extent to which serotype count affects the rate of severe dengue in Mexico have not been studied before.
Published research Infectious Diseases Geospatial Health and Development MalariaDecember 2022Characterizing human movement patterns using GPS data loggers in an area of persistent malaria in Zimbabwe along the Mozambique border
Human mobility is a driver for the reemergence or resurgence of malaria and has been identified as a source of cross-border transmission. However, movement patterns are difficult to measure in rural areas where malaria risk is high. In countries with malaria elimination goals, it is essential to determine the role of mobility on malaria transmission to implement appropriate interventions.
Published research Infectious Diseases Geospatial Health and Development MalariaSeptember 2022The human toll and humanitarian crisis of the Russia-Ukraine war: the first 162 days
We examined the human toll and subsequent humanitarian crisis resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on 24 February 2022.
Published research Geospatial Health and Development Child and adolescent health -
Education and Qualifications
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Awards/Honours
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Active Collaborations