Quique Bassat

Institut de Salut Global Barcelona

Life & Medical Sciences

Quique Bassat is an ICREA Research Professor at the Barcelona Institute of Global Health (ISGlobal). He has a degree in Medicine from the Universitat de Barcelona (UB, 1999), a specialization in pediatrics (UaB, 2004), and Masters in Tropical Medicine and International Health (UB, 2004) and Epidemiology (LSHTM, 2008). He obtained his PHD in the year 2009 (UB) with work on the treatment and clinical characterization of malaria in Africa. He has been based for several years at the Centro de Investigação em Saúde de Manhiça (CISM), in Mozambique, where he currently conducts most of his research, although in recent years he has started projects in other countries, including Morocco, Papua New Guinea, Brazil or Bhutan. 


Research interests

As a paediatrician, my research is based on the premise that there is no greater public health intervention than that which can reduce child mortality, particularly in poor contexts. To do these, I have worked in low and middle-income countries to understand and prevent malaria, yaws and other infectious diseases that most impact child survival. I have investigated in Mozambique, Morocco, Papua New Guinea, Brazil and now Bhutan, the epidemiology, aetiology and clinical characteristics of malaria, pneumonia, diarrhea, neonatal sepsis, Yaws and other infectious diseases significantly affecting child's health. I’m interested in biomarkers of host response as diagnostic and prognostic tools to help triage children and better target antibiotics. For malaria and yaws, my research is contributing to develop and test the new paradigm of disease eradication, by assessing the impact of drugs to specifically interrupt their transmission. More recently, my research has focused on improving the poor existing data on the causes of child mortality. An important contribution has been the validation of a radically innovative minimally invasive autopsy (MIA) sampling protocol.

Selected publications

- Menéndez C et al. 2017, 'Validity of a minimally invasive autopsy for cause of death determination in stillborn babies and neonates in Mozambique: An observational study', Plos Medicine, 14, 6, e1002318.

- Bassat Q et al. 2017, 'Validity of a minimally invasive autopsy tool for cause of death determination in pediatric deaths in Mozambique: An observational study', Plos Medicine, 14, 6, e1002317.

- Mitjà O et al. 2017, 'Effectiveness of single-dose azithromycin to treat latent yaws: a longitudinal comparative cohort study', Lancet Global Health, 5, 12, E1268 - E1274.

- Galatas B, Nhamussua L, Candrinho B, Mabote L, Cistero P, Gupta H, Rabinovich R, Menendez C, Macete E, Saute F, Mayor A, Alonso P, Bassat Q & Aide P 2017, 'In-Vivo Efficacy of Chloroquine to Clear Asymptomatic Infections in Mozambican Adults: A Randomized, Placebo-controlled Trial with Implications for Elimination Strategies', Scientific Reports, 7, 1356.


Selected research activities

  1. Investigating the use of biomarkers for diagnostic and prognostic purposes
  2. Defining the role of drugs as part of elimination strategies of infectious diseases (Malaria and yaws)
  3. Conducting mortality survaillance with robust minimally invasive post-mortem methods
  4. Development and validation of Innovative methods for the diagnosis of health problems in resource-constrained countries