TB & Poverty Policy Research Officer
Delia Boccia |
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After receiving her degree in microbiology in Italy, Delia Boccia joined the Department of Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases at the National Public Health Institute (Istituto Superiore di Sanita’, Rome) where she was mainly involved in antimicrobial resistance surveillance and research on pneumococcal disease.
In 2002, she joined the EPIET program (European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology). As part of the program, she worked for three years at the Health Protection Agency- Centre for Infectious Disease (UK) where she was involed in surveillance systems implementation and research projects on HIV and TB coinfection. During this period she also conducted outbreak investigations for Médecins Sans Frontières in Darfur, Sudan.
Since February 2005, she worked as research fellow and PhD student at the London school of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Main area of research included health inequalities and quantitative studies on the socioeconomic determinants of Tuberculosis, particularly in Zambia and South Africa. At the school she was also involved in teaching activities (i.e. she was one of the AIDS Study Unit course organiser).
Delia joined FIND in April 2008 to conduct equity and cost-effectiveness analysis on the new TB diagnostic technologies that FIND is implementing. The main area of research for FIND will be mainly to assess whether these tests are more equitable (i.e. accessible at all socioeconomic strata of the population) compared to the previous ones, how equity of access can be best achieved, and whether these tests can actually cause a substantial reduction in patient costs (i.e. have a positive impact on the impoverishment effect of TB). She will also act as focal point for the TB and Poverty Subgroup of the WHO and will be responsible for liaising with the STOP TB Working Group, among others, to ensure that poverty-related issues become an integral part of the discussion. Delia will support areas of research that specifically address poverty as part of TB control strategy.
Contact:
delia.boccia@finddiagnostics.org
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