AMANI RESEARCH CENTRE

The history of Amani Research Centre goes back to 1949 when the British Colonial and Welfare Scheme established an East African Malaria Unit (EAMU) at Ubwari, Muheza in northern Tanzania. Under the leadership of Capt. Dr. Bagster Wilson, the Unit was moved to Amani Hill in 1951 and renamed ‘East African Malaria Institute’ (EAMI) under the East African High Commission. In 1954, the EAMI was renamed the East African Institute of Malaria and Vector Borne Diseases (EAIMVBD) then operating under the East African Community (EAC). In the mid-1970s, the Medical Research Council of UK established Helminthiasis Research Unit at Bombo Hospital in Tanga.

Following the collapse of the East African Community (EAC) in 1977, all the institutions established under the EAC were rendered non-functional. Amani Research Centre became part of the National Institute for Medical Research in 1980. Between 1980 and 1986, Amani Centre, with its headquarters at Amani Hill in the East Usambara Mountains, incorporated Ubwari (Muheza), Bombo (Tanga), and Gonja (Same) Field Stations. Currently, Amani Research Centre is made up by its Headquarters at Ubwari (Muheza), Amani Hill Station (Muheza), Gonja Field Station in Same District, Handeni Field Station in Handeni District and Zeneth Experimental Station (Muheza).

The Amani Research Centre has a total of 137 staff members of whom 108 are permanent employees and the rest are project staff. Staff members are categorized as scientific and non-scientific staff. The scientific staff category includes entomologists, sociologists, economists, public health specialists, clinical researchers, parasitologists, laboratory technologists, system analysts, nurses and statisticians. The list of Research Scientists comprise of 3 PhDs, 4 PhD candidates, 3 MSc, 4 MSc candidates and 4 BSc degree holders.

 
Mosquito spheres at Ubwari, Muheza

Amani Centre is equipped with an insectary for rearing mosquitoes aimed at facilitating several studies on mosquito susceptibility to insecticides, testing various insecticides, mosquito ecology and behaviour. The insectary currently stocks one strains of Anopheles gambiae and three strains of Culex quinquefasciatus. An animal house is available for keeping laboratory animals used for feeding mosquito colonies as and for other experimental purposes requiring use of laboratory animals. Currently guinea pigs and rabbits are available. The Centre also owns a suite of 14 experimental huts based on the East African and West African designs. These are used as standard facilities for the World Health Organisation Pesticide Evaluation Scheme (WHOPES) Phase II controlled semi-field evaluation of vector control tools including insecticide treated materials and various brands of repellents.
 
To link experimental hut studies to field (community) studies, the Centre has put up a set of three Mosquito Spheres. The structures provides a setting that has the advantage that it can be used for high through-put testing of mosquito traps, repellents and other control devices with non-infected colony reared mosquitoes in a more realistic environment than that of the laboratory and a more controlled environment than that of the field.

Various research activities are undertaken by Amani Centre. These research activities falls under three main departments namely; Entomology, Epidemiology and Clinical Research and Health Systems and Policy Research.

Mosquito behavioural studies during the 1990s have contributed immensely on knowledge on malaria and filariasis mosquitoes’ host-finding behaviour. It was in 1997 that field research showed for the first time that the malaria mosquitoes, Anopheles gambiae and An. funestus are attracted to human by the skin odours and that breath plays an insignificant role. Mosquito host-seeking knowledge generated by NIMR scientists provided the basis for the changes in mosquito trapping techniques using light traps, which is used to monitor mosquitoes and determine the inoculation rates.

The Centre has contributed substantially in disease control efforts. Over 260 research papers from Amani Centre have been published in peer reviewed journals from 1980. Amani Centre provided the first evidence that treated mosquito nets lower malaria transmission and thereafter strongly promoted treated net scale-up. Some of the recent World Health Organization (WHO) approved insecticide treated net products such as PermanetTM2.0, PermanetTM3.0, DawaplusTM2.0, Lambdacyhalothrin, InterceptorTM, DuranetTM, NetprotectTM were evaluated at Amani Research Centre. Long lasting treatment kit Icon max® was also evaluated at the Centre and it has been granted WHO approval for converting conventionally nets into long lasting insecticide treated net.

 

Experimental Station at Zeneth, Muheza

Clinical trials conducted by Amani Centre and other collaborators on antimalarial chemotherapy, supportive therapy in paediatric and epidemiological studies on causes of febrile illness have provided evidence based information useful for appropriate disease management for an overall goal of improving health in Tanzania and Africa at large. Studies conducted by the Centre has contributed substantially in setting performance indicators for health sector reform in Tanzania; generated evidence that contributed to changing antimalarial drug policy from chloroquine to sulphadoxine pyremithamine and generating evidence to inform policy decisions on intermittent preventive treatment of malaria during pregnancy and in infants.

Amani Centre has a vision of being a centre of excellence in vector biology and disease control research. The strategic plan focuses on a wide range of public health issues including research on malaria, plague, lymphatic filariasis, tick-borne relapsing fever, onchocerciasis, health systems and policy, bio-informatics, diagnosis and laboratory sciences, demographic surveillance systems, basic/applied research (genetics and molecular biology) and indigenous knowledge and traditional medicine. In addition, its mandate covers vector biology and ecology, vector control, surveillance for vector susceptibility to insecticides, basic and applied research on appropriate vector control technologies, operational research on vector interventions, product development and evaluation, health financing and service delivery