Denis Sinzinkayo

Dr. Denis Sinzinkayo is a medical doctor with a decade’s worth of experience working in both public and private hospitals as well as serving as a district medical officer and the deputy director of the National Malaria Control Program of the Ministry of Public Health in Burundi.

Dr. Sinzinkayo currently serves as the Chief of Party (COP) on the Abt-led U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative Evolving Vector Control to Fight Malaria Project (PMI Evolve) in Burundi. He works with the National Malaria Control Program (NMCP) to strengthen its capacity to conduct vector surveillance activities and provide assistance on government-led vector control activities. He also coordinates bi-monthly entomological surveys across nine sentinel sites in Burundi.

Before the launch of PMI Evolve in August 2023, Dr. Sinzinkayo served in the same role on the PMI VectorLink Project, where he supported the important establishment of a molecular laboratory at Burundi’s Institut National de Santé Publique, furthering the country’s capacity to conduct molecular analysis of malaria-transmitting mosquitoes, which had previously been done by international partners abroad.

Before that, as Deputy Director of the NMCP from June 2017 through October 2021, Dr. Sinzinkayo was responsible for the development and implementation of malaria control strategies. He coordinated over seven country-wide indoor residual spray campaigns that led to a significant reduction of malaria caseloads and the mass distribution campaign of insecticide-treated nets in 2017 and 2019.

As a district medical officer in Burundi, Dr. Sinzinkayo coordinated five national vaccination campaigns with over 80% coverage and the response to two cholera epidemics. He developed two health district action plans and implemented the Integrated Community Care Management of children’s diseases including malaria under the support of USAID in 2016. He also implemented performance-based funding coupled with free care for pregnant women and children under 5.

Expertise

• Data Management
• Budget Management
• Project Management
• Vector-borne Diseases
• Research and publication.

Key Projects

• U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative Evolving Vector Control to Fight Malaria Project
• U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative VectorLink project

Publications

• Van Bortel, W., Mariën, J., Jacobs, B. K., Sinzinkayo, D., Sinarinzi, P., Lampaert, E., ... & Leclair, C. (2022). Long-lasting insecticidal nets provide protection against malaria for only a single year in Burundi, an African highland setting with marked malaria seasonality. BMJ Global Health, 7(12), e009674.
• Niyukuri, D., Sinzinkayo, D., Troth, E., Oduma, C., Barengayabo, M., Ndereyimana, M., ... & Koepfli, C. (2022). High sensitivity of a novel rapid test for the diagnosis of clinical and subclinical Plasmodium falciparum infections in a high transmission setting in Burundi. medRxiv.
• Sinzinkayo, D., Baza, D., Gnanguenon, V., & Koepfli, C. (2021). The lead-up to epidemic transmission: malaria trends and control interventions in Burundi 2000 to 2019. Malaria Journal, 20(1), 1-7.