Dear Centre Leaders,
Greetings from the INDEPTH Training and Resource Centre. We hope you had a fruitful week. We have the following items for your kind attention:
Two New Publications from INDEPTH:
INDEPTH's Dr Mamusu Kamanda recognised among exceptional young African scientists by the African Academy of Sciences
INDEPTH Pays courtesy call to the Association of African Universities in Accra
Pre-registration open – ISC2018 (INDEPTH@20), 26-28 November 2018 in Pretoria, South Africa
Two PhD students from the INDEPTH OPTIMUNISE project successfully defend theses
Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis: how icddr,b responded to emergencies
Farafenni HDSS: Major Incident Medical Management Support Course held at the MRC Unit The Gambia
1)Two New Publications from INDEPTH:
a) Assessing levels and trends of adult mortality in Sub Saharan Africa using INDEPTH health and demographic surveillance systems
b) Knowledge Generation for Better Health: Contribution of the INDEPTH Network of HDSS Field Sites
On Adult Mortality: There is still a considerable dearth of knowledge regarding adult mortality and premature deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Attempts to measure adult mortality using censuses and cross-sectional surveys rely mainly on indirect techniques that are affected by common biases. The growing number of Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems (HDSSs) offer a medium-term solution to the dearth of knowledge regarding adult mortality and the main causes in Africa. This paper compares adult mortality estimates from 16 HDSSs in nine countries in SSA based on publicly available data on INDEPTHStats. We use Life Table techniques to examine differences in adult mortality trends and to identify mortality clusters and sex differentials. Results reveal distinctive mortality trends for the three regions of Africa with the Southern and Eastern African regions having relatively higher mortality than the West African region.Read more
On Knowledge Generation: Data generated by the 49 Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) field sites run by 43 research centers that make up the INDEPTH Network offer a valuable corrective to the dearth of robust and objective health information in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The field sites collect regular data from defined demographic surveillance areas as well as conduct ad-hoc studies to assess policy and program interventions. The data allow policy-makers in Africa, Asia and Oceania where the field sites are located, to track emerging health threats from both infectious and non-communicable diseases, and to assess in real-time the effectiveness of interventions to tackle them. Read more
2) INDEPTH's Dr Mamusu Kamanda recognised among exceptional young African scientists by the African Academy of Sciences
Nairobi, Kenya, 1 February 2018-The African Academy of Sciences (AAS) today announced the 25 early career scientists who have been elected for the third cohort of the AAS Affiliates Programme, which recognises exceptional young African scientists.
The third cohort saw the most competitive pool yet with an overwhelming number of nominations from across the five
regions of the continent of PhD holders below 40. This year’s Affiliates are also drawn from countries not covered in the previous two cohorts including, Ethiopia, Senegal and Sierra Leone. Other countries from which the 25 were selected from are Benin, Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Tunisia, South Africa and Uganda. The full list of Affiliates is available available hereRead more
3) INDEPTH Pays courtesy call to the Association of African Universities in Accra
Prof. Etienne Ehile (centre), AAU Secretary General and Prof Osman Sankoh (3rd from right), INDEPTH Executive Director and colleagues from both institutions.
Our Executive Director, Prof. Osman Sankoh and colleagues at the INDEPTH Resource and Training Centre paid a courtesy call on 30th January to Prof. Etienne Ehile, Secretary General of the Association of African Universities (AAU) at the AAU headquarters in Accra. Prof Sankoh presented an overview of INDEPTH Network to about eleven senior AAU staff who were present.
The presentation cut across the activities at the centres to the various working groups and projects that INDEPTH has undertaken and projects that are still in progress. AAU colleagues asked critical questions on data collection, verbal autopsies, methods harmonisation, and the various projects INDEPTH implements. INDEPTH and AAU both agree that INDEPTH is an “international university” that can benefit African universities, many of which are already part of INDEPTH and run HDSS sites. Examples of all sites in Ethiopia and South Africa are owned by Universities were mentioned. Uganda and Burkina Faso also have universities with field sites. Read more
4) Pre-registration open – ISC2018 (INDEPTH@20), 26-28 November 2018 in Pretoria, South Africa
St. George Hotel, South Africa.
Centre Leaders and teams, working groups and INDEPTH projects may now pre-register for INDEPTH’s 20th anniversary celebrations in Pretoria, South Africa. We have chosen a date that doesn’t conflict with the major other international conferences. So please block the dates, pre-register and let us know your specific needs for sessions and workshops.
Please preregister by visiting the ISC2018 (INDEPTH@20) webpage which is now available.
5)Two PhD students from the INDEPTH OPTIMUNISE project successfully defend theses
(F-R) Syed Hanifi ,Prof Peter Aaaby and Paul Welaga.
INDEPTH is pleased to announce to the Network that Syed Hanifi and Paul Welaga successfully defended their PhD theses at Southern Danish University on the 12 and 15 January 2018 respectively. Prof Peter Aaby of Bandim HDSS expressed his happiness in working with them and indicated that the two have really advanced their respective areas.
The OPTIMUNISE of INDEPTH’s Vaccinations & Child Survival Working Group led by Peter Aaby took advantage of the HDSS infrastructure to test the real life impact of child interventions on overall mortaliaty. OPTIMUNISE is being implemented at three INDEPTH member sites in Guinea-Bissau (Bandim Health Project), Burkina Faso (Nouna), and Ghana (Navrongo). As a basis for the studies, OPTIMUNISE modified the HDSS data collection systems to include information on all interventions in childhood.
6) Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis: how icddr,b responded to emergencies
icddr,b is playing a key role to prevent disease outbreak among the Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals (FDMNs) seeking refuge in Bangladesh. The plight of the FDMNs was mostly hidden from the world until August 2017 when they fled from Myanmar due to a violent military crackdown. Read more
7) Farafenni HDSS: Major Incident Medical Management Support Course held at the MRC Unit The Gambia
Participants at the training.
The Hospital Major Incident Medical Management and Support Course (MIMMS) training was held at MRC Unit The Gambia from 22nd to 26th January, 2018. The training involved 24 health workers from across various public health facilities in The Gambia and 24 MRC Unit The Gambia Clinical Services Department staff.
The training was conducted by a team of eight trainers from the Advanced Life Support Group in the United Kingdom. The aim of the course is to prepare health facilities for appropriate and adequate response in case of a major man-made or natural disaster-related-incidents by having a plan in place.Read more
