Jeremiah Ngondi

Dr. Jeremiah Ngondi has more than 30 years of experience in neglected tropical disease (NTD) control, elimination, and eradication. He is an expert in trachoma, providing technical assistance as part of the US Agency for International Development’s Act to End NTDs | East program, a global flagship initiative to help endemic countries fight neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Under this program, Dr. Ngondi provides technical support for implementation of the SAFE strategy for trachoma elimination; epidemiological support for trachoma baseline, impact, and surveillance surveys implemented through the Tropical Data System; and technical support to ministries of health to develop trachoma elimination dossiers.  

Previously,  Dr.Ngondi was the Regional NTD Technical Advisor for the USAID’s ENVISION project, providing support to trachoma-endemic countries working toward elimination of trachoma as a public health problem. Under ENVISION, Dr. Ngondi’s support enabled Ministries of Health in Laos, Cambodia and Nepal to prepare trachoma elimination dossiers and successfully attain validation of elimination of trachoma by the WHO. He also played an active role in the global effort to close the trachoma mapping gap by 2015, serving as a member of the Global Trachoma Mapping Project (2012-2015) Advisory Committee and leading trachoma mapping surveys in some of the most trachoma-endemic places in the world: the Amhara Region of Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 

Dr. Ngondi started his public health career at The Carter Centre in Southern Sudan, where he headed data management for the Sudan Guinea Worm Eradication Program (SGWEP). He also spearheaded large population-based surveys to establish baseline prevalence for trachoma there and helped to guide implementation of the SAFE strategy for trachoma control in Southern Sudan during the civil war from 2001–2003.

Dr. Ngondi joined RTI International in 2013 as the senior epidemiologist for the Tanzania Vector Control Scale-Up project (TVCSP) funded by the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI). He was instrumental in streamlining analysis and use of malaria surveillance data in Zanzibar for programmatic action, especially epidemic preparedness and response and focal indoor residual spraying (IRS). He also led the strengthening of malaria surveillance in mainland Tanzania, including implementation of electronic reporting of weekly malaria data through mobile phones and developing malaria surveillance guidelines.

Dr. Ngondi holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge and has more than 100 peer-reviewed publications in leading scientific journals.  He is a member of the United Kingdom's Faculty of Public Health, and a member of Trachoma Expert Committee. He speaks English and Kiswahili and has worked in the following countries: Cambodia, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iraq, Kenya, Laos PDR, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, United Kingdom, and Viet Nam.