According to the American Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, tuberculosis has been affecting humanity for over 9000 years. The bacterium that causes the disease might have been in existence for over 3 million years. Although curable, this disease that has over the years been referred to as “the white plaque”, “consumption”, “the captain of all these men of death” amongst others, currently still ranks as a top single infectious killer, killing more people than HIV/AIDs. Over 10 million people fell ill with tuberculosis in 2021 and about 1.6 million died, majority of whom were in low- and middle-income countries. In this talk, Professor Chegou discussed the challenges that are involved in the control of tuberculosis, the need for new tools that may assist in the control of the disease, and the contribution that laboratories such as his, that are situated in high burden African countries, are making in the fight against the disease.
The Award
The Royal Society Africa Prize is to recognise research scientists based in Africa who are making an innovative contribution to the sciences. The medal is of bronze, awarded annually and is accompanied by a gift of £2,000 and a research grants of £15,000. The prize was previously the Royal Society Pfizer Award which was last awarded in 2016.
Attending the event
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