Top Tanzanian scientist dies aged 58
One of Tanzania’s most eminent scientists, Mwele Ntuli Malecela, has died at the age of 58 in Switzerland. She had been diagnosed with cancer in 2019.
Dr Mwele was born in 1963, the daughter of retired Tanzanian Prime Minister John Malecela. She studied zoology at the University of Dar es Salaam and completed a PhD at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
At the height her career she served as director of the World Health Organization’s Department of Neglected Tropical Diseases.
Before that she had been the first woman to head Tanzania’s National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), running successful programmes for lymphatic filariasis patients – which are now functional in 53 districts covering about 13 million people in the country.
She was however sacked from the position in 2017 by Tanzania’s then-President John Magufuli, for making public the research findings that the Zika virus existed in the country. He denied that it did.
Two years earlier, Mr Magufuli beat 40 presidential candidates to Tanzania’s highest office – among them Dr Mwele, who had been active in the ruling CCM party since the 1980s.
Following the passing of Dr Mwele many people have been expressing their grief over her death.
Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan tweeted her condolences, calling Dr Mwele a child of Africa “who worked for Tanzania within and outside its borders”.
By BBC
