Medicine Grand Rounds, Jonathan Juliano and Steve Meshnick, “Evolving Concepts in Malaria Control and Treatment”

In 2015, there were 212 million malaria cases worldwide, with the majority of deaths occurring in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to the human burden of malaria, the economic burden is vast. It is thought to cost African countries more than $12 billion every year in direct losses. For more than a decade, Drs. Juliano and Meshnick have worked together to develop tools to control this epidemic.

Dr. Steve Meshnick is Professor and Associate Chair of the Department of Epidemiology. He has worked on tropical infectious diseases, especially malaria, for over 30 years and has published more than 340 scientific papers. He has a long-standing commitment to training and capacity-building and has been the primary mentor for 40 doctoral students and for ten post-docs, including many from developing countries.

One of his former trainees, Dr. Juliano, and he are now co-leader of the Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Ecology Lab (IDEEL@UNC). In addition to malaria, the group has studied African Sleeping Sickness, tick-borne diseases, hepatitis, and Pneumocystis carinii. The goal is to integrate laboratory and field research to develop better tools for infectious disease prevention and control.

Jonathan Juliano, MD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine’s Division of Infectious Diseases. He is the Medical Director of the UNC Hospital Antimicrobial Stewardship Program. He is also adjunct faculty in the Department of Epidemiology at the Gillings School of Global Public Health and a preceptor in UNC’s Curriculum in Genetics and Molecular Biology. Dr. Juliano also acts as the Associate Program Director of research and professional development for the UNC Infectious Disease Fellowship program.