Thiès, Oct 8 (APS) – An international symposium on mathematical modeling applied to malaria and neglected tropical diseases opened Monday at the Iba Der Thiam University of Thiès (UIDT), with a view to contributing to better fight against affected conditions.
Scheduled to continue until October 10, this symposium is part of the objective of providing a critical mass of researchers, with the aim of ultimately defeating neglected tropical diseases, once and for all.
“Mathematical modeling is one of the very important parameters for making decisions, especially on public policies around malaria and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs),” explained the rector of the Iba Der Thiam University, Mamadou Babacar Ndiaye.
He welcomed the holding of this meeting at the UIDT with the participation of several countries, insisting on the fact that “the vast majority of researchers who work on these questions do not come from countries which suffer from these NTDs” .
“It is an honor today for the UIDT to host this international symposium which will allow us first to present the different types of modeling that exist, in a second phase to share the first results that we are beginning to see at the level of Senegal on malaria and NTDs,” he said.
He recalled that modeling refers to “the analysis of current data to be able to predict what will happen in the future”.
According to the rector of Iba Der Thiam University, “it is important to know that everything that is done in economics, in the sciences”, is done on the basis of modeling.
“If we have suffered the full brunt of malaria for decades, if we do not make progress on this disease, we will never be able to defeat it,” argued Professor Ndiaye.
“We must therefore appeal to intellectuals in general, mainly to mathematicians so that with the models that exist, they can analyze what we have experienced, see the present data and project ourselves towards the future and see the best way to fight this disease,” added Mamadou Babacar Ndiaye.
Ultimately, the objective pursued is “to have a critical mass of researchers around this essential problem”, to “defeat these NTDs once and for all”.
BT/BK/MTN
