Bio


Bob is the longest serving Oxford scientist at the Kenyan Programme. Bob’s career began in The Gambia where he undertook the first clinical trials of insecticide treated nets (ITN) [1984-1988]. Following a move to Kenya, he established the framework to undertake linked community-based mortality and hospital admission trials at Kilifi and directed one of four large-scale, community-randomized mortality trials of ITN in Africa [1989-1993]. Subsequently he investigated the possible long-term effects of reduced parasite exposure on the clinical epidemiology of malaria to understand the consequences of sustained ITN use and/or its interrupted use on disease burdens [1994-2003]. This was used as a basis to establish new epidemiological methods to define the mortality, morbidity and consequential burdens posed by malaria in Africa [1995-1999] and clinical disease globally [2005]. As part of new ways to articulate disease burdens he started the Mapping Malaria Risk in Africa (MARA) project with colleagues in South Africa [1996], which served as the model for a global initiative founded by Bob in Nairobi, known as the Malaria Atlas Project (MAP) [2005]. Bob has been supported by the Wellcome Trust since 1992 under three Senior and three Principal Fellowships in Basic Biomedical Science. https://www.tropicalmedicine.ox.ac.uk/news/115-years-of-malaria-in-africa-interview https://www.ndm.ox.ac.uk/bob-snow-malaria-control-in-africa

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Current Work


Since 2010, he has led a science-to-policy initiative, funded by DFID, UK, to ensure the best possible use of epidemiological data to design malaria control programmes in 22 African countries. In 2015, this work extended to support countries in the Arabian Peninsula as a collaboration with WHO’s EMR office in Cairo; focusing on countries in conflict, entering phases of malaria elimination, or aiming to prevent malaria re-introduction.

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Recent publications


Paediatric anaemia in rural Kenya and the role of travel time to emergency care services.
Musau, M. M., Khazenzi, C., Akech, S., Omondi, E., Okiro, E. A., Snow, R. W., Macharia, P. M., Kamau, A.
Front Epidemiol, (2025). 5:1578522

Putting health facilities on the map: a renewed call to create geolocated, comprehensive, updated, openly licensed dataset of health facilities in sub-Saharan African countries.
Macharia, P. M., Beňová, L., Ray, N., Semaan, A., Musau, M. M., Kipterer, J. K., Herringer, M., Snow, R. W., Okiro, E. A.
BMC Med, (2025). 23:211

Trends in malaria prevalence among school-age children in Mainland Tanzania, 2015-2023: A multilevel survey analysis.
Chacky, F., Hicks, J. T., Remiji, M. J., Rumisha, S. F., Walker, P. G. T., Chaki, P., Aaron, S., Nhiga, S. L., Reaves, E., Serbantez, N., Molteni, F., Ngasala, B., Kc, A., Mmbando, B. P., Snow, R. W., Van Geertruyden, J. P.
PLOS Glob Public Health, (2025). 5:e0004386

Detection of low frequency artemisinin resistance mutations, C469Y, P553L and A675V, and fixed antifolate resistance mutations in asymptomatic primary school children in Kenya.
Osoti, V., Wamae, K., Ndwiga, L., Gichuki, P. M., Okoyo, C., Kepha, S., Keitany, K., Kandie, R., Aricha, S., Kiplagat, R., Mwandawiro, C., Bejon, P., Snow, R. W., Ochola-Oyier, L. I.
BMC Infect Dis, (2025). 25:73

Mosquito-borne diseases in urban East African Community region: a scoping review of urban typology research and mosquito genera overlap, 2000-2024.
Noel, J. K., Mumo, E., Morlighem, C., Macharia, P. M., Snow, R. W., Linard, C.
Frontiers in Tropical Diseases, (2024). 5: