DZIF tropical medicine specialist receives Memento Research Award 2024
The Memento Alliance honours the commitment of the DZIF scientist Michael Ramharter in the fight against the African eye worm
DZIF scientist Michael Ramharter from the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg and the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf has received the Memento Research Prize 2024. The award honours his many years of research into the tropical disease loiasis, which is caused by the eye worm Loa loa. The award ceremony took place at the Berlin Medical History Museum of the Charité.
Loiasis is an infectious disease caused by the worm Loa loa, which occurs in rural and often inaccessible forest and savannah areas of West and Central Africa. The worm is transmitted through horsefly bites and can move through the human body for years, sometimes even into the eye, which has given the parasite the name “eye worm”. Infected patients often suffer from persistent headaches, aching limbs and severe itching. The burden of this disease is enormous. Despite this, loiasis is not yet on the World Health Organisation's (WHO) list of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs).
Prof Ramharter has been researching this neglected infectious disease and its effects together with colleagues from Hamburg and Gabon for more than ten years. The scientists in the research area Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases of the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) are working intensively on the development of new medicines, as the drugs available to date are not only outdated but also have serious side effects. In addition to developing safer and more effective therapies, the research group aims to raise awareness of loiasis and its burden on the rural population in sub-Saharan Africa. The team estimates that around 23.6 million patients are chronically infected with Loa loa, often for life.
According to the award jury, Michael Ramharter has not only significantly expanded our understanding of this neglected tropical disease during his many years of intensive research into loiasis. He has also opened up new avenues for prevention, diagnosis and treatment. In his laudatory speech, Prof. Klaus Brehm emphasised Ramharter's extraordinary commitment to the affected population groups in Gabon. Through his initiatives to raise awareness and strengthen local health infrastructures, Ramharter has made a decisive contribution to improving the living conditions of the local population.
“I am very pleased that our team is being honoured for its work,” said Prof. Ramharter at the award ceremony in Berlin. “In the affected areas, more than 70% of the adult population is often infected with the eye worm. If this were to affect the population of Berlin or Paris, there would be an outcry to develop and provide adequate medical care. We urgently need to devote more attention and resources to combating this disease.”
The Memento Award for Neglected Diseases was established in 2014 by Doctors Without Borders, Bread for the World, the BUKO Pharma Campaign and the DAHW German Leprosy and Tuberculosis Relief Association. Every year, the award recognises special commitment in the fight against neglected diseases and, in addition to scientific research projects, also includes journalistic initiatives that make barely noticed health needs visible through comprehensive reporting. The prizes are endowed with 5,000 euros each.
Michael Ramharter (2024) is the most recent DZIF scientist to be awarded the Memento Research Award. Previous winners from the DZIF network were Gisela Bretzel (2014), Achim Hörauf (2015), Carsten Köhler and Peter Kremsner (2017), Christoph Lange (2018), Jürgen May (2019), Christian Keller (2020), Claudia Denkinger (2021) and Jan Felix Drexler (2023).
Source: Press release of the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine
