Dr Charles N Chunge

Dr Charles Chunge was born and raised in western Kenya and studied medicine in the University of Nairobi. After qualifying in 1978 as a medical doctor he worked for 3 years in government hospitals in western and north-eastern Kenya before proceeding to London, UK, for an MSc (1981) in Medical Parasitology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. It was there that he met Ruth, his classmate, who later became his wife. On his return to Kenya he worked in clinical research and as a senior lecturer for several years in the Kenya Medical Research Institute and then in the University of Nairobi's College of Health Sciences. He was awarded a PhD in 1989 from the University of Nairobi for his research on the treatment of visceral leishmaniasis. His studies culminated in the discovery of a new drug, Aminosidine (Paromomycin), for the disease which has since been used successfully in India and elsewhere. During this period he published several scientific papers on a range of research findings in parasitic infections.

From 1989 to 1990 he studied for a second MSc in McMaster University, Canada, in Epidemiology and Health Economics. He returned to the University of Nairobi and continued lecturing, clinical and research work until 1994, when he began his own practice as a Consultant Microbiologist. From 2000, together with his wife Dr Ruth Chunge, he developed the Centre for Tropical and Travel Medicine. As well as his daily clinical work he continues to participate in several committees and projects, most notably a UN award-winning national typhoid prevention campaign for Kenya.

In 2009 he received a Fellowship (FRCPS) from the Faculty of Travel Medicine, University of Glasgow, Scotland, in recognition of his work in Kenya in tropical and travel medicine. He is often asked to deliver specialist lectures to students and health professionals in Kenya and beyond.

Drs Charles and Ruth Chunge have two grown-up sons, Ernest and Musa, who currently work and study abroad.