Monthly Noma Webinars
Monthly seminars will be held on the last Tuesday of each month from 16h00 to 17h00 South Africa Standard Time (UTC/GMT +2 hours).
Dr. Moussa Baba Daou
Nouveau Visage, Mali
Tuesday the 24th of February 2026
at 16h00 to 17h00 South Africa time (UTC/GMT +2 hours).
Treating noma in Mali
Dr. Daou is a notable Malian medical researcher, often associated with infectious diseases and public health initiatives at the Gabriel Touré University Hospital Center and the Centre International de Recherche et de Formation sur les Maladies Infectieuses in Bamako, focusing on epidemics like COVID-19, where he contributes to testing, research, and preparedness in Mali.
Dr. Daou treats noma patients in Mali through Nouveau Visage, and will share with us more about the programs run in Mali, and the lessons learned throughout the years of care provision.
Alia Bly
Emory University, USA
Tuesday the 31st of March 2026
at 16h00 to 17h00 South Africa time (UTC/GMT +2 hours).
High-Resolution Metabolomics For Neglected Tropical Diseases: Lessons from Hansen’s Disease
Alia Bly is a Bioinformatics Analyst in the Department of Environmental Health and the Department of Biochemistry at the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health and
School of Medicine. She is experienced in computational approaches for transcriptomics, epigenomics, and metabolomics with a particular interest in applications of metabolomics for infectious disease epidemiology.
Alia holds a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology with concentrations in Genetic, Molecular, and Infectious Disease Epidemiology from Emory University. Her thesis research under the Emory Hansen’s Disease Program employed high-resolution mass spectrometry-based metabolomics to characterize risk factors for clinically evident Hansen’s disease (leprosy) with a focus on micronutrient and mitochondrial energy metabolism.
Metabolomics is a rapidly improving methodology for the study of risk factors for infectious disease susceptibility and discovery of associated candidate biomarkers. In this talk, Alia will introduce metabolomics as a tool for exploratory research for NTDs using examples drawn from leprosy.
Michael Olaleye
MSF Epidemiology Activity Manager, Nigeria
Tuesday the 28th of April 2026
at 16h00 to 17h00 South Africa time (UTC/GMT +2 hours).
Noma mass screening integration into existing health activities
Michael is the Epidemiology Activity Manager at Médecins Sans Frontières whose main focus is on noma.
Since 2014, the MSF Nigeria mission has worked to combat noma, primarily by supporting the Nigerian Ministry of Health’s Sokoto Noma Hospital. MSF provides comprehensive, free-of-charge care, including specialized reconstructive plastic and maxillofacial surgeries, nutritional rehabilitation, and mental health support. Beyond direct medical care, MSF conducts extensive community outreach for early detection and led a successful, multi-year advocacy campaign that resulted in the World Health Organization officially recognizing noma as a Neglected Tropical Disease in late 2023. Looking forward, MSF is focusing on integrating early screening into existing vaccination and nutrition programs to prevent the disease from advancing.
Michael has been instrumental in leading MSFs noma work. He has led several research teams investigating different aspects of the disease. Michael has more recently turned his attention to integrating noma screening into routine activities, an approach lauded by noma experts. In his presentation, Michael will share the lessons learned from these screenings, and provide insight into how other stakeholders can adopt this approach.
