Metabiota DRC
Prime M. Mulembakani is Director General of Metabiota DRC. Dr. Mulembakani is a medical doctor with a Masters degree in Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). He has extensive experience working with the health system in DRC, first as a clinician in different public and private hospitals, then as head of rural health zones (Health Districts); he was a member of the national team of trainers in Primary Health Care (1990-1997). He participated actively in the division of the country in Health Zones and in the set up of the current structure of the health system. He supported Ebola outbreak responses, Kikwit in 1995 and Isiro in 2012, and helped develop the national program for onchocerciasis (river blindness). Dr. Mulembakani supported different disease control programs, including human trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) and HIV within the Ministry of Health. He has worked extensively with rural and local community members, including them in the management of local health facilities (health centers) by organizing local health management committees. He worked also as a clinician during the civil war in 1997, caring for wounded soldiers.
Dr. Mulembakani has led several research programs in DRC: he was the program coordinator for the UNC-CH research program in DRC, then for the UCLA-DRC Research program before becoming the General Director of Metabiota DRC. He implemented and managed two randomized clinical trials, assessing the efficacy of peer educators in reducing the incidence of sexually transmitted infections and risky sexual behaviors among uniformed services in DRC (army and police) and also among adolescents and youth in Kinshasa.