Dr Taneshka Kruger has been doing research at the University of Pretoria (UP) since 2012, which was when she did her postdoctoral fellowship on an innovative malaria mosquito vector control method. She joined the UP Institute for Sustainable Malaria Control (ISMC) as project manager and coordinator in the same year. Dr Kruger is also responsible for marketing the institute, and her research focus contributes to this.

Her research focus is innovative and novel malaria education and health promotion as proactive malaria transmission prevention methods and strategies. A large proportion of malaria deaths occur annually in children under five years of age. Dr Kruger’s research and communication initiatives often have her working directly with malaria-endemic communities, especially with young children of primary school age, in the rural Vhembe District in northeast Limpopo. The aim is to raise malaria awareness and to teach children how to prevent contracting the disease.

Malaria is still a major public health concern, with hundreds of thousands of people dying annually from the disease, despite it being both preventable and treatable. Dr Kruger says her research matters because it contributes towards proactive malaria prevention strategies, specifically identifying novel education and health promotion interventions that have the potential to contribute towards malaria elimination.