Photograph revealing the true nature of the field of epidemiology bags award
Dr. Lahja Ipinge, final year resident under the Namibian Field Epidemiology Training Programme (FETP) with the University of Namibia (UNAM) recently won the 2021 photo contest at the virtually held FEPT International Night Conference.
UNAM revealed that the award winning image was captured while Ipinge boarded a 1300 ft. vessel on an unstable ladder made of rope to conduct COVID-19 swabs of illegal immigrants that were discover in the vessel while sailing through Namibian waters.
“The photograph reveals the true nature of the filed of epidemiology, going the extra mile to deal with the distribution and mitigation of diseases and she is the first Namibian resident to win such an award,” they added.
Dr. Ipinge said that this is a great honour to have her work recognised on such a big platform, especially being chosen from a pool of more than 70 nominees across the globe.
Dr Ipinge’s research profile
In May 2021, She conducted an outbreak investigation in Walvis Bay which led to the discovery of the first COVID-10 UK variant cases (B 1.1.7 variant) in Namibia. She is currently conducting her Master of Science research around Congenital Heart Disease in Namibia.
Later this month, Dr Ipinge will be presenting an article at the 2021 Southern African FELP Conference slated for 25 to 27 August and her research interests span across cardiology, rheumatology, immunology, public health and by extension infectious diseases.
Award winning image was captured while Ipinge boarded a 1300 ft. vessel on an unstable ladder made of rope to conduct COVID-19 swabs of illegal immigrants that were discover in the vessel while sailing through Namibian waters.
