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Sub-Saharan African region news, resources and funding for global health researchers

NIH supports a diverse mix of research projects in sub-Saharan Africa with significant activities in approximately 20 African countries. About a third of the funding supports groundbreaking research and research training on HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases, including a substantial effort to study mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Around 20 percent funds research on other infectious diseases, ranging from population-based research on malaria, schistosomiasis and leishmaniasis, to molecular research on vectors and parasites. Chronic disease research makes up about 12 percent of the research portfolio, with the remainder devoted to child development, biodiversity, basic research and other studies.

Countries in Region

Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Libya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Morocco, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, São Tomé and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

NIH Funded Research Impacting Sub-Saharan Africa

• Through grant funding to U.S. universities, NIH facilitates international collaboration in Sub-Saharan Africa in all areas of the biomedical and behavioral sciences.

Regional News

• Resolute vision: Caring for casualties in low-resource conflict settings
  Global Health Matters, July/August 2025
• Nutritional research in Tanzania may help coal miners in the U.S.
  Global Health Matters, July/August 2025
• Culturally relevant meal plans lead to better health
  Global Health Matters, July/August 2025
• Seeing and becoming: Q&A with Gbenga Ogedegbe, MD, MPH
  Global Health Matters, March/April 2025
• In her own words: Jody Olsen (former director of the Peace Corps)
  Global Health Matters, March/April 2025
• US-Uganda collaboration examines how viral infection affects breast cancer
  Global Health Matters, March/April 2025
  
• NIH–Rwandan Partnership ‘Graduates’ Eighth Fellow
  NIH Catalyst, January/February 2025
• Studying the intersection of HIV and breast cancer in Botswana
  Global Health Matters, November/December 2024
• Dr. Christian Happi talks infectious disease in Africa
  Global Health Matters, November/December 2024
• Qualitative drivers of postoperative prophylactic antibiotics use and resistance in Ethiopia
  BMC Health Services Research, October 22, 2024
• Jean Nachega: collaborating for research on mpox in Africa
  The Lancet, October 19, 2024
• Sickle cell research in Africa yields global benefits
  Global Health Matters, September/October 2024
• Probing the interaction of SCD and malaria resistance in Ghana
  Global Health Matters, September/October 2024
• Ugandan sickle cell researchers keep pace with aging patients
  Global Health Matters, September/October 2024
• This Nigerian hematologist established an SCD stroke prevention program in the community
  Global Health Matters, September/October 2024
• Glutathione peroxidase 3 is a potential biomarker for konzo, co-authored by Fogarty International Research Scientist Matthew Bramble
  Nature Communications, September 6, 2024

Fogarty Grant Recipient & Trainee Publications

• Differentiated Service Delivery Models for Maintaining HIV Treatment and Prevention Services During Crisis and Disease Outbreaks: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic, co-authored by former Fogarty trainees Njambi Njuguna, Jared M. Baeten 5, and Nelly R. Mugo
  Current HIV/AIDS Reports, July 25, 2025
• Risk of arboviral transmission and insecticide resistance status of Aedes mosquitoes during a yellow fever outbreak in Ghana, co-authored by Fogarty grant recipient Yaw Asare Afrane
  BMC Infectious Diseases, July 25, 2025
• Molecular Characterization of Hepatitis B Virus in People Living with HIV in Rural and Peri-Urban Communities in Botswana, co-authored by Fogarty grant recipients Joseph Makhema, Roger Shapiro, and Shahin Lockman, and former Fogarty trainees Mosepele Mosepele and Simani Gaseitsiwe
  Biomedicines, July 14, 2024
• Coping strategies, challenges and potential interventions among adult patients with HIV and mental illness comorbidity in southwestern Uganda, co-authored by Fogarty grant recipient Celestino Obua
  Global Public Health, July 11, 2024
  
• Supplement: Implementation research and the HIV response: Taking stock and charting the way forward
  Journal of the International AIDS Society, July 5, 2024
  • Examining barriers to antiretroviral therapy initiation in infants living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa despite the availability of point-of-care diagnostic testing: a narrative systematic review, co-authored by Fogarty grant recipients Mina C. Hosseinipour and Victor Mwapasam and Fogarty trainees Maggie Nyirenda Nyang'wa, Mitch Matoga, and Alinane Linda Nyondo-Mipando
  • Providing HIV-assisted partner services to partners of partners in western Kenya: an implementation science study, co-authored by Fogarty grant recipient Carey Farquhar and Fogarty trainees Barbara Wanjiku Mambo, Sarah Masyuko, Beatrice Wamuti, Paul Macharia, and Rose Bosire
  • Effectiveness of HIV self-testing when offered within assisted partner services in Western Kenya (APS-HIVST Study): a cluster randomized controlled trial, co-authored by Fogarty grant recipient Carey Farquhar and Fogarty trainees Sarah Masyuko, Paul Macharia, and Rose Bosire
    

Fogarty Contact

Stacy Wallick, MPH
Regional Program Director, Sub-Saharan Africa
Division of International Relations
Fogarty International Center
National Institutes of Health
Building 31 Room B2C11
Bethesda, MD 20892-2220
Telephone: 301-496-2091
FAX: 301-480-3414
Email (preferred): Stacy.Wallick@nih.gov

US Government Resources

• Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Africa Office
• National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID): Global Research in Sub-Saharan Africa
  
• U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)
  
• U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on Africa
  

Online Resources

• Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) report: The Global Burden of Disease: Generating Evidence, Guiding Policy - Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Edition
• African Academy of Sciences (AAS)
• Clinical Trials Community (CTC), an African Academy of Sciences platform
• African Journal Partnership Program (AJPP)
• Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA)
• Federation of African Immunological Societies (FAIS) Legacy Project to support Ph.D. students across Africa
  
• Scientific African, an open access, pan-African scientific journal

Updated September 2, 2025