Dr Myo Maung Maung Swe (left), Clinical Researcher and DPhil student at MOCRU, was awarded in August an International Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID) research grant, a signature ISID program that funds infectious disease researchers from LMIC countries with the greatest burden of infectious disease. Myo Maung, a clinical researcher at MOCRU for 3 years, was awarded the ISID research grant to conduct the study Antibiotics use and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) public awareness survey in Myanmar. Myo plans to conduct the study, which aims to understand self-reported antibiotic use, public knowledge of antibiotics and the awareness of antibiotic resistance, in two regions of Myanmar, as yet to be determined. The team will collect data Dec 2018-Jan 2019 and hopes to publish results by April 2019.
That same month, MOCRU Clinical Research Assistant Htet Htet Aung (right) was awarded an Ethox Global Health Bioethics Network (GBHN) Bursary Award. GBHN is funded by a Wellcome Trust Strategic Award aiming to conduct ethics research and improve capacity building across the Wellcome Trust Major Overseas Programmes. Htet Htet, who has worked as a clinical research assistant in MOCRU for a year, will use the GBHN Bursary to conduct the study Ethical challenges related to offering pregnant women with chronic Hep B short course treatment with Tenofovir disoproxil fumarate to prevent vertical transmission in Myanmar. Htet Htet hopes to start the study mid-Oct, once she gets OxTREC and local Ethics Committee approval, and publish results in early June 2019. The study will be conducted at Central Women’s Hospital, Yangon.