Email: emwakapeje75@gmail.com
Research Interests: understanding the epidemiology and management of
anthrax outbreaks in the human-livestock-wildlife and environmental health interface
areas of Arusha and Kilimanjaro regions,
2.A cross sectional survey on the attitude and perception of the Public on road traffic
accidents in Dar es Salaam
3.Participated in the establishment of the community based diseases surveillance system, under
the support of Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA)
4.National Facilitator–One Health Assessment for Planning and Performance (OH–APP)
5.Data management using Epi info, STATA software and Excel Spreadsheet
Biography: Dr. Elibariki Reuben Mwakapeje is a Senior Epidemiologist and has worked for the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania since 2005. Initially, he worked as a Diseases Surveillance Officer involving himself in investigating diseases outbreaks, diseases surveillance, coordinating rapid response teams (RRT) at national, regional and district levels during response to disease outbreaks and other public health emergencies of national and international concerns.
Later on, he was appointed as a National Coordinator for the Integrated Diseases Surveillance and Response (IDSR), with this position he was responsible for ensuring that both indicator and event based surveillance systems are well implemented and streamlined as per the International Health Regulation (IHR 2005). Currently, he is a Head of Vector-borne, Zoonotic Diseases Control and One Health Unit at the Ministry
Moreover, he participated in the establishment of the diseases surveillance systems in the cross border districts within the East African Community region in order to ensure for a well-structured and resilient systems for prevention, detection and response to various public health threats in the region. Most importantly, Dr. Elibariki is one of the founders for the electronic diseases surveillance systems (eIDSR) in Tanzania. This system was established in order to foster for a robust real – time surveillance systems as a requirement for both Global health Security Agenda (GHSA) and International Health Regulation (IHR 2005).
Dr. Elibariki Reuben Mwakapeje has pursued a BSc. Environmental Health Sciences from the University of Dar es Salaam (2004), and MSc. Applied Epidemiology from the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) in 2010. He also holds a Ph.D in Veterinary Science focusing on a One Health approach in the Epidemiology of anthrax outbreaks in the human-livestock-wildlife and environmental health interface areas of Northern Tanzania from the Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Department of Food Safety and Infection Biology at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences in Oslo, Norway (Februray 2019). He is currently working to establish a project entitled ‘‘connecting the unconnected’’ for ensuring free access to digital health information through smartphone application in order to provide health education as a tool for prevention and control of anthrax outbreaks in the marginalized Maasai communities of Northern Tanzania.
Dr. Elibariki also works as a Post-Doctoral Researcher under the AFRIQUE ONE ASPIRE Fellowship in establishing an integrated surveillance system for human and animal in Tanzania and Chad (West Africa) at the Nelson Mandela–Aifrican Institute of Science and Technology (NM-AIST) based in Arusha, Tanzania.