MOH develops comprehensive health research agenda
The Ministry of Health has embarked on a comprehensive health research agenda as a way to sell out research preference and guidelines to attract health partners to support health research activities.
Dr Sylvester Anemana, Chief Director of the Ministry, who gave the hint, said they were committed to research capacity strengthening at all levels as an essential strategy to ensure that all the agencies and institutions could be active in the construction of a better future for health care in Ghana.
Dr Anemana was addressing the opening session of a two-day Ghana/Germany Academies of Science Conference at Fumesua near Kumasi on Monday.
The conference, under the theme; “North-South Cooperation in Health Science Research,” is being attended by 50 research scientists and groups from some universities and institutions in Ghana and Germany.
It would enable participants to exchange health research information and ideas related to tropical diseases, become familiar with the infrastructure and research conditions at the institutes in Ghana, showcase potential research and create a platform to demonstrate north-south cooperation in health research.
Topics to be discussed at the conference include genetics, immunology and epidemiology of viral and bacterial infections including malaria, HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, buruli ulcer, clamydia, helminth infections such as filariasis and other emerging viral infections and zoonoses.
Dr Anemana said there is the need for Ghana’s health policies and actions to be based on current scientific knowledge since research priorities set today would determine the health agenda, health practices and technologies in future.
He expressed the hope that the conference would consider new thinking on research and its major potential contributions not just to technical problems but also to the decision-making process in the health sector.
Professor Francis Kofi Allotey, President, Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, urged the academy to work hard to attract young and innovative scientists into its fold and also inject substantial resources to support the academy in the areas of basic and applied research.
He also expressed the hope that the Leopoldina Academy in Germany would assist them in building the capacity of their secretariat.
Mr Eberhard Schanze, German Ambassador to Ghana, expressed optimism that the conference would pave way to constructive and fruitful partnerships in scientific and technological cooperation between the two countries.
Professor William Otoo Ellis, Vice Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), said the university had through its Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research (KCCR) been helping in the development of top standard research, training facilities and educational programmes for some Ghanaian postgraduate students.
Source: GNA