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3rd Quarter 2017 Newsletter
July - September
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1. Wellcome Trust visits INDEPTH Resource and Training Centre in Accra
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Dr Branwen J Hennig, Senior Portfolio Lead in Population, Environment and Health, UK Environment and Health at the Wellcome Trust in London, UK paid a courtesy call on 6th July 2017 at the INDEPTH Resource & Training Centre in Accra, Ghana where she held discussions with Prof. Osman Sankoh, the INDEPTH Executive Director. Read more
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2. WHO SDG Newsletter July 2017 mentions the new INDEPTH Strategy
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The WHO SDG Newsletter presents “selected publications and articles published during the past month pertaining to the SDGs from IRIS and PubMed. Read more
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3. Electronic Data Capture at Farafenni HDSS, The Gambia
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The Gambia, like most other sub-Saharan African countries, is characterised by significantly incomplete vital registration, which makes it more difficult to carry out field-based medical research, especially studies that require accurate measurement of disease incidence and mortality rates. The prospective demographic surveillance approach, despite its high resource demands, provides the best opportunity to underpin large-scale epidemiological studies ....Read more
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4. APHRC'S NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR – Dr Catherine Kyobutungi
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Dr. Kyobutungi was a member of the INDEPTH Board and served until AGM 2015 in Addis Ababa. The Executive Director, Prof. Osman Sankoh and the entire Network wish to congratulate Catherine and wish her the best of success. We hope to see APHRC leading more INDEPTH network activities.Research Center's Board of Directors announced today that Dr. Catherine Kyobutungi. Read more
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5. New Paper from Agincourt on Malaria Mortality
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Agincourt HDSS, an INDEPTH member centre has published their latest paper on Malaria titled: The long road to elimination: Malaria mortality in a South African population cohort over 21 years. Read more as per the attached.
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6. INDEPTH launches a new malaria project on strengthening quality of malaria care and surveillance in Ghanaian communities
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Participants at the Partners’ meeting- 27 July 2017.
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The INDEPTH Executive Director, Prof Osman Sankoh on 28th July 2017 launched a new project titled “Strengthening quality of malaria care and surveillance in Ghanaian communities.” The project is funded by Comic Relief/GSK over a period of 36 months. Prof Sankoh reiterated that the title of the project was in line with what the Ghanaian authorities themselves have been seeking to do. Read more
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7. Agincourt HDSS is set to Adopt Paperless System of Data Collection
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The Agincourt health and demographic surveillance system (Agincourt HDSS) also known as MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit is set to adopt a paperless system of data collection for its 2017 annual census and this is tagged E-Census.Read more
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8. Farafenni HDSS, The Gambia
MRC Unit The Gambia Contributes to Creating a Roadmap for Program Development on Maternal Immunisation Safety Monitoring in Low and Middle-Income Countries
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Improving maternal, newborn and child health by lowering the frequency of infections through immunisations has served as a foundation of public health. Such infections kill more than 900,000 under 5-year-old children annually. In low and middle-income countries (LMICs) where there is the greatest burden of vaccine-preventable disease and the most limited access to basic health services, maternal immunisation will reduce morbidity and mortality among pregnant women and infants . Read more
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9. INDEPTH takes concrete steps to improve INDEPTHStats platform
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INDEPTH has held a fruitful discussion with the developer of Statplanet, the backbone for the INDEPTHStats platform to improve the display of the visualised demographic indicators. This is in line with reviewing the entire process after some years of implementing the INDEPTHStats platform. Read more
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10. New Dodowa HDSS Centre Leader visits the INDEPTH Resource Centre in Accra
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The new Director of the Dodowa Health Research Centre who is the Centre Leader for the Dodowa HDSS in Ghana, Dr John Williams, paid a courtesy call today on the INDEPTH Executive Director, Prof. Osman Sankoh. Joining him was Mr Solomon Narh-Bana the head of the Dodowa HDSS operations ... Read more
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11. ICDDR,B scientist joins global efforts to improve respiratory health
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ICDDR,B is collaborating with a new global health research unit on respiratory health initiative that focuses on reducing the impact of lung diseases worldwide. Experts have received £7 million in funding from the National Institute for Health Research to launch the research initiative known as RESPIRE, based ...Read more
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12. New INDEPTH paper on HDSS generalisability in Global Health Action
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This new publication by Prof Philippe Bocquier, Université Catholique de Louvan, Belgium; Prof Osman Sankoh; Secetariat, INDEPTH Network, Ghana; and Prof Peter Byass, Umea Centre for Global Health Research, Epidemiology and Global Health, Umeå University, Sweden is titled: Are Health and Demographic Surveillance System estimates sufficiently generalizable? Read more
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13. Dr John Williams presents the Navrongo Neonatal Study to the INDEPTH Resource Centre
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Dr John Williams who is now the Centre Leader of the Dodowa HDSS in Ghana, was the PI of an INDEPTH-funded neonatal study implemented at Navrongo HDSS where he was senior scientist. John was at the Resource Centre on Friday 18 August to present the results of the study. After a competitive process that started with a call for proposals from the Network, Navrongo HDSS won the $70,500 INDEPTH grant whose specific objectives were ... Read more
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14. Invisible and ignored: air pollution inside the homes of Nairobi’s residents
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F-R: Kanyiva Muindi, Blessing Mberu, Mwangi Chege
(Members of the Project Team)
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Air pollution is a visible problem in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. The city’s poor air quality is evident in its congested streets where passenger vehicles, trucks and motorcycle taxis jostle for space while belching clouds of black smoke.
Nairobi’s construction boom and practices like the burning of garbage only add to the levels of outdoor air pollutants. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that the level of fine particulate matter in the city’s outdoor air is 17 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3). This is 70% above the recommended maximum level. Read more
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15. Chililab HDSS, Vietnam publishes a supplement on health and healthcare transitions in Vietnam
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The supplement “Health and Healthcare Transitions in Vietnam: Evidence from the Chililab Health and Demographic Surveillance System (CHILILAB HDSS)", has been published in the Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health. You may access all the papers online from the Journal’s website by clicking on the following link: Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health. INDEPTH wishes to congratulate the Chililab team on this success. The INDEPTH ED, Prof. Osman Sankoh is one of the guest editors. We would always be delighted to support our member centres. Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health
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16. Intervention with HIV-positive parents successfully increases HIV-disclosure to young children (African Health Research Institute, South Africa)
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Ground breaking research led by a team of South African scientists proves that, given the right support, HIV-positive parents will disclose their status to their primary school aged children. This has enormous potential for protecting children’s health in the long term. In a rigorous randomised control trial, researchers tested .... Read more
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17. Data managers and field workers trained on REDCap to capture data for ABACUS
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Facilitators from INDEPTH Resource & Training Centre with the
Dodowa HRC ABACUS implementation team.
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Trainers from INDPETH Resource and Training Centre had a three day training workshop for Data Managers and Field workers on the use of REDCap for data capture for the ABACUS team in Dodowa Health Research Centre. Read more
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18. The INDEPTH Executive Director joins the debate on the case for generalisability over representativeness
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In a new blog just published in the International Journal of Epidemiology (IJE), Eleonora Uphoff, Neil Small, Rosie McEachan and Kate Pickett discuss
The researchers write: “For some years, our research has been based in the city of Bradford in northern England. We are often asked to justify our research setting. There seems to be a concern that a cohort population that is not representative of the nation as a whole or of the ‘average person’ cannot produce valuable insights beyond its local setting. While such concerns are not new, they now seem more present, perhaps due to the rise of Big Data or the increased sharing of and access to data from national surveys and cohorts. Read more
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19. The INDEPTH Executive Director discusses the importance of population-based research for genomic research in a blog published by the journal Global Health, Epidemiology and Genomics (GHEG)
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Cardiometabolic diseases (CMDs) are a growing public health concern in Africa. Diabetes prevalence has more than doubled since 1980 on the continent and is projected to double again by 2025. [1] Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death among those over the age of thirty years. [2] Furthermore, in Southern and East Africa, high prevalence of HIV/AIDS coupled with increasing uptake of antiretroviral therapy adds complexity to risk and morbidity phenotypes for CMD. Read more
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20. Prof Pascale Allotey, of an INDEPTH Associate member centre in Malaysia appointed Director of the United Nations University Institute for Global Health
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Prof Pascale Allotey is the site leader of Seaco HDSS in Malaysia and the Board will soon be reviewing their application for full membership. We hope that Pascale who has served the Network through supervising PhD dissertations of INDEPTH students and serving as scientific committee member of the Network's project, INTREC, will continue to contribute to INDEPTH's work in her new capacity. Read more
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21. Dr Evasius Bauni, demographer, Kilifi HDSS in Kenya retires at 62
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Dr. Evasius Bauni a demographer and in charge of the Kilifi Health and Demographic Surveillance System (KHDSS) has retired at age 62. He holds a PhD in medical demography from LSHTM, London and an MA in Population Studies from Australian National University, Canberra. Prior to joining the unit in 2001, he worked at the Population Council, Nairobi (1997-2001); UNFPA, Nairobi (1994-96) and Kenyatta University, Nairobi (1986-94). Read more
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22. INDEPTH affiliated experts playing a role at the 2017 International Population Conference in Cape Town, South Africa in October/November
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Pali Lehohla Prof. Anastacia Gage Prof Osman Sankoh
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Very senior INDEPTH affiliated scientists will play vital roles at the International Population Conference scheduled to take place in Cape Town, South Africa from 29 October to 4 November 2017. The good news is that the Statistician General of South Africa, Pali Lehohla who is also the Vice Chair of the INDEPTH Board of Trustees is the President of the International Organising Committee (IOC) of the conference. The Vice President of the IOC, Professor Anastacia Gage is a current member of INDEPTH Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC). Read more
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23. Why the path to longer and healthier lives for all Africans is within reach
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By Dr. Alex Ezeh, Prof Nelson Sewankambo and Dr Peter Piot via ConversationThere is huge diversity within and across the 49 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The challenges these countries face in achieving health outcomes that are at part with low and middle income countries in other regions of the world are numerous and diverse. But they . Read more
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24. Meet Dr. Myriam Sidibe, the hand washing champion, Kenya
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By Lynette Kamau, Communications and Policy Officer, APHRC.
Myriam Sidibe is one of two people in the world with a doctorate in public health, focused on hand washing which she attained from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Myriam has used her expertise to work with various NGOs and governments, UN organizations in both relief and development settings. Read more
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25. AHRI students honoured at South African Immunology Society Meeting
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Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI) PhD students have won prizes at the 6th South African Immunology Society (SAIS) meeting, held in Gordon’s Bay in the Western Cape recently. SAIS is an open society for all South African immunologists and anyone doing immunology-based research in South Africa, with the aim of growing basic, applied and translational immunology in the country. This year’s conference saw diverse talks on immune tolerance, allergy, autoimmunity, primary immunodeficiencies and infectious diseases. The meeting was well attended by international leaders in the field of immunology. Read more
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