Lydia LeonardoI am a retired professor in Parasitology at the College of Public Health University of the Philippines Manila. Retirement did not stop me from pursuing teaching and research on schistosomiasis, food-borne helminthiases and soil-transmitted helminthiaes. More than this is the mentoring and molding of graduate students, junior researchers and faculty who have been convinced of the importance of working on the above mentioned parasitic diseases. Hence my appointment as professorial lecturer at the Institute of Biology College of Science of the University of the Philippines in Diliman and a graduate school of a private university. Retirement has also freed me from administrative work which took up much of my time when I was in active duty but which also provided me with much experience to deal with the challenges of my full-time work as a program manager of a short-term project of nationwide scope.
My work on parasitic diseases particularly schistosomiasis spanned over several decades even before I moved to the College of Public Health in 1995. After finishing my doctoral degree, I right away plunged into research work on various aspects of schistosomiasis. I was invited to a meeting on schistosomiasis in China in 1998 which turned out to be the ground work for the establishment of the Regional Network on Asian Schistosomiasis. I was appointed secretary of this network from 2001 to the present and in charge of documenting proceedings of all the meetings that were held regularly.

I was eventually recognized as an expert in schistosomiasis based on the various researches that I undertook and publications that I made from their results. I was regularly invited as resource person in reviews, upgrading or development of intervention programs for schistosomiasis, food and water borne diseases and soil-transmitted helminthiases by the Philippine Department of Health. Additionally, I have been part of mission teams sent to Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia and Anhui and Hubei in China to review their schistosomiasis program.

At present, aside from teaching, research and managing a research project, I am collaborating with experts in editing as well as writing for a special volume on Neglected Tropical Diseases in Asia and on a book on 20 years of Regional Network on Asian Schistosomiasis and other Helminthic Zoonoses. Read More Read Less