Fogarty fellow, Oscar Ottoman, shares his work on HPV at Tanzania’s National Institute of Medical Research Annual Conference

Dr. Oscar Ottoman presented about his work on Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) genotype distribution and oncogene expression in HIV-positive adults and the underlying risk factors for anal, oral and genital malignancy at Weill Bugando School of Medicine on May 15, 2024, at Tanzania’s National Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) Annual Joint Conference. Dr. Ottoman is a lecturer at Bugando Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences (CUHAS) and a senior pathologist at Weill Bugando. Dr. Ottoman is also a NIH Fogarty fellow pursuing his PhD training at CUHAS sponsored by the NIH Fogarty Training Program, focusing his research on HPV.

The Fogarty Training Program is a five-year (2021-2026) program supported by the Fogarty International Center of the NIH which covers tuition fees, research costs, and stipend for highly qualified masters and PhD students in Tanzania. The program aims to strengthen patient-oriented HIV clinical care by physician-scientists in Mwanza, Tanzania.  The program is the result of two decades of collaboration and capacity building by several partner institutions including the Mwanza Intervention Trials Unit (MITU) and Weill Bugando, in Mwanza, Tanzania; and Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, USA.

The goals of Fogarty Training Program are: i) To increase the number of clinical investigators at MITU and CUHAS and thereby increase institutional capacity for HIV clinical investigation and care, and ii) To establish CUHAS/MITU as a sustainable training center for HIV clinical investigation and care. At the end of the 5-year training program it is expected that MITU and CUHAS will have a cadre of clinical investigators and a greater depth and breadth of externally funded HIV patient-oriented research. MITU/CUHAS will be a training hub for HIV clinical investigators in East Africa.

The program provides long-term training to 16 outstanding physician-scientists, including 10 PhD candidates and 6 masters students. Some of work currently underway by our Fogarty fellows are focused on investigation of the relationships between infectious diseases (HIV, schistosomiasis, sexually transmitted infections) and non-communicable diseases (cardiovascular diseases, sleep, hypertension), adolescent health, sexuality and reproductive health, and maternal and child health in people with HIV.

Of his time thus far as a Fogarty fellow, Dr. Ottoman said, “through the Fogarty Training Program, I get to learn so much about HIV, research, statistics and work ethics from both supervisors and other fellows at MITU and CUHAS. The training program gives us opportunity to network and achieve our career goals.”

Article by Grace Ruselu