Skip to content
Navigating a New Political Landscape: View real-time updates about the impact of and Northeastern's response to recent political changes.
Apply
Stories

Co-ops shift from studying a tropical disease to fighting a new outbreak

People in this story

Sarah Weihl and Catherine Wenger, both fifth-year students at Northeastern, had only recently begun their research into the parasitic disease visceral leishmaniasis in Chemolingot, Kenya, when word of a new outbreak of the disease elsewhere in the country reached them.

Weihl, who is studying human services and global health, and Wenger, a student of international affairs and global health, were on co-op at the Research on Multi-Disease and Educational Services Center, or TERMES Center, established by Richard Wamai, associate professor of cultures, societies, and global studies at Northeastern. The students, who had arrived in Kenya less than a month prior, were getting their bearings and beginning to build relationships within the community at Chemolingot when representatives from Kenya’s Ministry of Health tapped the TERMES team to help establish treatment for this new outbreak of visceral leishmaniasis.

It was a wise choice—Wamai has been collaborating with local health officials and researchers to study the tropical disease and build up a health clinic and research center in the country for the better part of a decade. Weihl and Wenger were on hand to learn from Wamai and the local team and to help digitize and build a database for medical records at the Chemolingot Sub-District Hospital, and spread awareness of the disease.

Continue reading at News@Northeastern.

More Stories

Police responders at the aftermath of Swedish school shooting.

Sweden’s deadliest mass shooting highlights global reality of gun violence, Northeastern criminologist says

02.05.2025
Huthi fighters stand guard around newly-released Yemeni prisoners wait to be united with their relatives, in Sanaa on January 25, 2025. (Photo by Mohammed HUWAIS / AFP) (Photo by MOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP via Getty Images)

Northeastern students wanted information on the Yemen conflict. So they went straight to the ambassador.

02.05.2025
The Center for International Affairs and World Cultures hosts a panel with a pair of scholars on the future of the Middle East peace process. Photo by Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University

After ceasefire deal, how can mediators create a lasting peace in Gaza? Experts unravel the task

02.05.25
All Stories