IFOTRODE has been supported by the Else Kroner-Fresenius Foundation of Germany that has provided almost all the required funding.
- Prof. Hermann Feldmeire from Charité University Medicine Berlin.
He is the global leading expert on tungiasis with more than 50 publications on this and other neglected tropical diseases of the skin in international peer-reviewed journals. He is an expert of the World Health Organization for schistosomiasis and 17 intestinal helminthiasis and of the Pan American Health Organization for tungiasis and other ectoparasitic skin diseases.
- Dr. Marlene Thielecke did her Ph.D. on the treatment and prevention of tungiasis. She has worked in Madagascar, Kenya and Uganda.
- Dr. Hannah McNelly MD, PhD, FHEA, lecturer Biomedical teaching Organisation, Edinburgh Medical school: Biomedical sciences, The University of Edinburgh.
- Dr. Felix Reichert
Dr. Felix Reichert did his Ph.D. on cutaneous larva migrans, a parasitic skin disease with similar characteristics as tungiasis, and has worked in resource-poor communities in Brazil for more than a year. He works as an epidemiologist at the Robert-Koch-Institute in Berlin.
- Susanne Wiese MD
Susanne Wiese has worked as a clinical epidemiologist on tungiasis at the coast of Kenya and has identified risk factors for tungiasis and very severe tungiasis in rural communities. Her Ph.D. is pending.
- Dr. Francis Mutebi BVM, MVM, PhD.
A Veterinarian and a Researcher, based in Uganda. He holds a PhD in Veterinary medicine of Makerere University Kampala. He has published widely in the subject of Tungiasis (jiggers) in international peer reviewed journals and presented in many Scientific conferences. He is a charter member of the Rotary Club of Wakiso, Uganda.
Francis has worked on several humanitarian projects aimed at eliminating zoonotic diseases in rural Uganda. Notably, is the Stamp Out Sleeping Sickness (SOS) which involved treatment of animals against Nagana and spraying them against tse tse flies in Teso sub region so as to eliminate the animal reservoir of sleeping sickness. With financial support from Else Kröner-Fresenius Foundation and in partnership with collaborators from Germany and Ministry of Health Uganda, they are implementing a project aimed at eliminating jiggers from selected villages in Karamoja sub region, North Eastern Uganda.
He has a lot of interest and is actively involved in research activities aimed at understanding the epidemiology and control of jiggers (Tungiasis) and other Neglected Tropical Diseases using One Health approaches. He has vast experience in working with resource poor communities which he has acquired through the various research activities he has under taken and while working as a veterinarian in rural Uganda.
- Dr. George Mukone MBChB, MPH
Dr. George Mukone was head of the Guinea worm eradication program of the Ministry of Health of Uganda until his retirement in 2017. In the same period, he also spearheaded a special project that eliminated tungiasis as a public health menace in Uganda’s Busoga sub region. He conducted the studies in which the innovative treatment of tungiasis was tested and validated. As a program manager for the Guinea Worm Eradication Program, he played a key leadership role in eradicating this disease in Uganda and maintaining the disease-free status of the country. He also initiated a project to investigate the causes of deaths in patients with very severe tungiasis. He has been working with resource-poor communities in Uganda for 30 years. He provides Country Management of IFOTRODE.