Dr. Mercy Grace Chiduo is a Principal Research Officer and the Centre Manager for Tanga Medical Research Centre. She is a Medical Doctor with a PhD in Medical Sciences from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and a degree in Medicine from the Universidad de Santiago de Cuba, Facultad de Ciencias Medicas de Guantanamo, Cuba. She joined the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) at Tanga Medical Research Centre in 2007.
Dr. Chiduo’s interest in research is mainly focused in Infectious diseases; HIV/AIDS and other Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), Malaria and Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). She has been involved in different research activities to name a few; Clinical trials in Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) a work which resulted to the installation of the PCR machine for the HIV viral load testing and Early Infant Diagnosis of People living with HIV (PLWHIV) residing within the 8 districts of Tanga region. She also participated in research on STIs among vulnerable populations like Pregnant women and Commercial Sex Workers (CSWs) as well as the general population. Dr. Chiduo has been involved in the antimalarials Therapeutic Efficacy Studies (TES) within the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) sentinel sites working together with other stakeholders. She was also involved in other malaria prevention studies; among the population living around rice farms and recruits in Tanzanian’s Army Camps and School Children (IPTsc).
Dr. Chiduo has been working with the Tanga Regional Referral Hospital (Bombo Hospital) in studies looking on the causes of non-malarial fevers among admitted patients. She was also involved in studies on AMR looking at bacterial reservoirs among pregnant women and their newborns, hospital staff and environment. Dr. Chiduo has co-authored over 30 publications in peer reviewed journals. She has been Coordinating and facilitating different health related courses, Supervising Medical students with research component as part of their training. She was involved in review of the current National Guidelines for Malaria Diagnosis, Treatment and Preventive Therapies. Diagnosis and Treatment guidelines as well as review of scientific articles in various scientific journals nationally and internationally.
Email; Official: mercy.chiduo@nimr.or.tz