By Samuel Akumatey
Ho, May 03, GNA – The Fred Newton Binka School of Public Health of the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) has won a World Malaria Day quiz competition organized by the University.
The competition climaxed a series of activities organized by the Centre for Malaria Research of the University’s Institute of Health Research to mark the World Malaria Day
The “what do you know” contest got seven Schools of the University challenging each other on malaria and related knowledge, and among them were the School of Medicine, School of Nursing and Midwifery, School of Sports and Exercise Medicine, the School of Pharmacy, the School of Basic and Biomedical Sciences, and the School of Allied Health Sciences.
The School of Public Health emerged the winner after breaking a tie with the School of Pharmacy, which pushed the competition into extra time.
Ms Bellama Gado, who represented the School of Public Health, was adjudged best female contestant, and received a plaque and a cash prize for coming first in the competition.
Dr Mary Akua Ampomaa, a clinical psychologist, lecturer, and counselor at the School of Public Health, said the quiz competition would help the students get the right knowledge on malaria, which was necessary in making the right decisions for the management and control of the disease.
She said the questions, which had been put together by Dr Evelyn Korkor Ansah, the Director of the UHAS Centre for Malaria Research, provided a quality set of mind probe to stimulate the competition.
Questions had covered the basis of the malaria disease, as well as the vision for the global celebration, the elimination targets and drugs involved.
Dr Ampomah said the event helped to showcase the interest of students in the malaria discourse, and that with the right information, and right decisions, the nation could be ushered into the elimination stage.
She noted how a student majoring in nutrition won the competition, and said it showed the widened scope of focus on the disease by the University.
There was an online seminar on the theme for the celebration; Time to Deliver Zero Malaria: Invest, Innovate, Implement, and renowned scientist and Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at the School of Pharmacy, Dr Fred Newton Binka, as a speaker.
Dr Keziah Malm, Programme Manager of the nation’s Malaria Control Programme, and Fred Adomako-Boateng, Health Services Director for the Bono Region, were also speakers at the online seminar.
The fourth edition of the UHAS Malaria Newsletter was released as part of the celebrations, and there was a health walk in Hohoe.
GNA