American medical researcher, Professor Terry Taylor, is not well known among Malawians even though her work impacts their lives, especially children and medical scholars.
She is the director of the Blantyre Malaria Project at the Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (Kuhes) where she has worked since 1986.
Her work alongside Malawian researchers contributed to the world’s first-ever malaria vaccine.
“Malawi’s role in the testing and rollout of the world’s first malaria vaccine is well documented,” says Taylor. “We helped prove its effectiveness in real-life conditions and now it’s rolling out worldwide.”
Her name is not just etched in academic journals and World Health Organisation (WHO) guidebooks.
It is immortalised in families whose children survived the killer disease transmitted through mosquito bites, medical researchers she has mentored and trees she planted decades ago at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre.
Her journey from the Michigan State University (MSU) College of Osteopathic Medicine in the US to Kuhes started with a simple idea that transformed her life-saving legacy globally.
“MSU requested me to develop a research project in a suitable country and Malawi was the perfect place,” Taylor recalls.
Her inroads in Malawi started with a simple question by the country’s Ministry of Health: “What is your top research priority?”
“I was drawn by the burden of severe malaria in children,” she says.
Together with the late Professor Malcolm Molyneux and Dr Ankie Borgstein, she launched “a lifetime of collaboration and discovery”, reading blood smears and taking children’s temperatures with their own hands.
The study gave rise to world-acclaimed malaria research programmes.
The outcomes include the Blantyre Coma Score, a clinical tool used for assessing the consciousness in children hit by cerebral malaria.
Before, doctors relied on vague, biased and inconsistent terms like drowsy or unarousable.
Their standardised scorecard enabled more precise diagnosis and research.
It is globally recognised by WHO.
Taylor also collaborated with ophthalmologist Dr Susan Lewallen, examining the eyes of children in coma to establish retinal patterns symptomatic of cerebral malaria.
“It helped us distinguish between children truly suffering from cerebral malaria and those with other conditions like meningitis,” she says.
Despite the groundbreaking research, autopsies revealed many malaria-infected children were dying from unrelated causes.
In 2008, the limitation compelled the team to bring Malawi’s first magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine for detailed scans of patients’ internal organs.
“It was the only one in the country then,” she says. “It helped us understand the role of brain swelling in deaths caused by malaria.”
Taylor also contributed to Malawi’s public health policy milestones, including discarding inefficient drugs.
Amid surging drug resistance, Malawi became the first African country to abandon chloroquine in favour of sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) and later artemisinin-based combinations, including therapies.
Taylor says Malawi was far-sighted in making artemether-lumefantrine [LA] widely available in communities.
“With rapid diagnostic tests, it meant a child in a village could get tested and treated immediately. Hospital admissions fell from over 400 to about 70 a year,” she says.
Human capital development is one of the enablers of the Malawi 2063, a call for innovation, resilience and homegrown solutions to the country’s health-related challenges.
“This is an amazing story in combating the dreaded malaria disease. Her impact on the health systems is phenomenal and speaks to the Malawi 2063,” observes National Planning Commission board chairperson Professor Richard Mkandawire on says Taylor’s contribution
Taylor, 70, has received several awards, including the 1996 Ralph Smuckler Award in recognition for her international contributions that enhance MSU’s education and public service functions.
“Michigan State University is proud to call Dr Taylor one of its esteemed faculty members as she embodies the very best qualities of what educators and health professionals ought to be,” says Dr Isabella Tirtowalujo, MSU International Studies and Programme’s Assistant Dean for Administration and Global Inclusion.
Taylor also won the ‘University Distinguished Professor’ and ‘MSU Research Foundation Professor’ honours reserved for the most accomplished academics.
In 2024, she received the Community Engagement Scholarship Lifetime Achievement Award at the MSU Outreach Engagement Awards Ceremony in recognition for sustained excellence in research, teaching, public service and scholarship.
For Taylor, “Malawi is home”.
She finds Malawians “friendly, welcoming, encouraging and remarkably cheerful” despite everyday challenges.
She says smilingly: “I’m a permanent resident now; I’ve always felt at home here.
“I’ve watched trees we planted in 1986 grow tall. I’ve seen young researchers I mentored rise to lead their own labs. And I’ve seen how powerful it is when science and community work hand in hand”.
Taylor’s favourite Chichewa proverb is Mutu umodzi susenza denga (two heads are better than one).
“It beautifully represents the collaborative spirit of all we’ve done here,” she says.
The researcher advocates for Malawian-led research funding mechanisms.
“There’s so much talent here, I want to help create local support systems that allow these scientists to thrive independently,” she says.
