Chidozi Elvis Chidi-Ezama has many strings to his bow – and although he is an accomplished violinist, the most important of those strings is not music, but his work to detect malaria.
After training to be a doctor in his native Nigeria, Mr Chidi-Esama, 34, moved to Adelaide in 2019 to study biomedical engineering at Flinders University.
“Doctor’s practice was really a bit of a bummer for me,” he told ABC Radio Adelaide’s Jules Schiller.
“The reason I went to med school and studied all eight years was because I wanted to help people, but then you start practicing.
“The people who need this help are poor and cannot afford it [it]because they just can’t pay for it, so you just watch them slowly die.”
Mr Chidi-Esama, who goes by his middle name Elvis after a family friend who was himself named after the American rock and roll legend and died during his country’s civil war, said malaria was one of the most major health problems facing the developing world.
According to the World Health Organization latest global malaria reportNigeria accounted for 27 percent of the 241 million cases in 2020 and nearly 32 percent of the 627,000 deaths.
For his master’s thesis, Mr. Chiji-Ezama looked for ways to reduce these numbers.
“If you don’t detect malaria effectively, giving medicine is as useless as not giving because there are many strains of malaria and you have to know which one is which,” he said.
“I was very sure that this was exactly what I wanted to study.
“Flinders University had a master’s program in biomedical engineering, and even more so for people who weren’t exactly engineers, so they had a path.”
He was working on a small prototype detection device that could serve as a more affordable alternative to existing – but much more expensive – machines.
“We found one on the market that costs up to $25,000,” he said.
“No one would ever be able to buy that in Nigeria or any other developing country in Africa, so the aim was to develop something that was cheap to manufacture and could be easily maintained and used in rural Africa.
“That’s why 3D printing came about, because 3D printing is really cheap.”
“A rare combination of skills”
In recognition of his efforts, Mr Chidi-Ezama has been recognized with special awards by international student support agency StudyAdelaide.
He was named the winner in the postgraduate category at the International Student Awards 2022.
The official citation praised his “thirst to learn”, his “positive outlook and inner drive” and his “rare combination of medical and engineering skills”.
“Elvis has many opportunities to continue learning and gain real-world industry experience after he graduates, which will lead to his goal of making medical devices affordable and accessible to all people,” StudyAdelaide said.
Like his famous namesake Elvis Presley, who showed an early affinity for gospel, Mr Chidi-Isama is an accomplished church musician and plays at the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Brighton.
In early 2020, his church connections took him to Kangaroo Island where, shortly after arriving in Australia, he volunteered to help communities during the bushfire.
“I was just new to Australia and they said, ‘Hey, a bushfire just happened and some farmers just lost their farms’ … so I was happy to go there,” he said.
“Sometimes that might mean giving them cereal, it might mean helping with housing.”
A similar altruism characterizes Mr. Chidi-Ezama’s intentions regarding his own innovations.
He would like not only to develop his prototype, but also to make it as affordable as possible.
“We have a proof of concept,” he said.
“If I could make them, it would obviously be very affordable. It’s not rocket science.”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-09/nigerian-doctor-wins-top-student-prize-for-malaria-research/101506660
