Moses Katabarwa, Bsc, MA, MPH, PhD; Senior Program Epidemiologist, River Blindness Elimination Program, Lymphatic Filariasis Elimination Program, and Schistosomiasis Control Program

“River Blindness (Onchocerciasis) Disease: From Control to Elimination”

As senior program epidemiologist, Dr. Katabarwa provides scientific support to the Center's river blindness, lymphatic filariasis, and schistosomiasis programs. A medical anthropologist trained in public health, Katabarwa studies the importance of community structures in the delivery of health care services. Dr. Katabarwa is a leader in the elimination of river blindness from Uganda, Sudan, and Ethiopia. He helped to re-organize The Carter Center assisted onchocerciasis control program in Cameroon and turn it into the most effective program in the Country between 2003-2011.

He helped establish a national community-directed program for the treatment of river blindness in Uganda in 1994 that resulted in the 2001 Ugandan government decision that all community-based health programs follow community-directed intervention (CDI) approaches. A similar approach was adapted by the World Health Organization's African Program for Onchocerciasis Control in 1996, where he was appointed by the Director General of WHO to serve as member of its Technical Consultative Committee for six year.

He also served as country director for the Carter Center's Uganda office from 1998 to 2003. Formerly, he worked at a senior level with other non-governmental development organizations, OXFAM, World Vision International, and River Blindness Foundation.

Katabarwa earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Makerere University, Uganda. He has a master's degree and doctorate in anthropology from Commonwealth Open University in the United Kingdom. He received his Master of Public Health degree from Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in 1997. He received Emory University's Sheth Distinguished International Alumni Award from Emory's University in 2005.  He was a guest researcher in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2003 to 2010, and currently is an adjunct professor at Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health. Since 1996, Katabarwa has been a member of the Lions Clubs International, and is married with 3 sons and a daughter.