Community engagement within health research for infectious disease outbreaks in Sub Saharan Africa

Manya is a recent graduate of the MSc in International Health and Tropical Medicine (2017-18) and has a BA in Social Anthropology from the University of Cape Town. She is currently working on a literature review for the African Coalition for Epidemic Research, Response and Training (ALERRT), which is a multi-disciplinary consortium building a patient-centred clinical research network to respond to epidemics across Sub-Saharan Africa. The review question is looking at what comprises effective community engagement in health research for infectious disease outbreaks in Sub-Saharan Africa. The review aims to “ensure that the actions of the network are relevant to, accepted and supported by local communities and that the results of the network’s efforts have a sustainable impact on health through improved clinical practice and public health policy”.