By Godfred Aaneamenga Polkuu
Navrongo (U/E), Nov. 2, GNA – The Navrongo Health Research Centre (NHRC) has highlighted its contribution to health research and evidence-based policymaking in Ghana since its establishment in 1988.
Dr Patrick Odum Ansah, Director of the centre, said the NHRC was established following a collaboration between the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the Ministry of Health and researchers from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology to investigate the impact of vitamin A supplementation on infant health.
He said the research, conducted in the Navrongo area, provided evidence by 1992 that vitamin A supplementation significantly improved child survival.
“By 1992, they were able to show that vitamin A supplementation improved the life of infants drastically. It was adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a policy in many developing countries,” Dr Ansah said.
Dr Ansah who gave the highlights in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Navrongo, noted that following the success of the study, the Ministry of Health decided to maintain the research infrastructure and formally established the NHRC in 1992, which made it the first research centre linked to the Ministry.
He said the centre had since evolved into a major research institution, contributing to health research, disease surveillance, intervention evaluation and capacity building.
He said the NHRC had undertaken high-profile research that influenced national health policy, including studies that contributed to the development of the Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) programme.
The centre had also conducted significant epidemiological and vaccine studies on childhood rotavirus in northern Ghana, generating evidence to inform disease prevention and immunization efforts.
Dr Ansah explained that the NHRC formed part of the Research and Development Division of the Ghana Health Service, alongside the Kintampo and Dodowa Health Research Centres.
According to him, the three centres were strategically located within Ghana’s major ecological zones to generate evidence on health challenges and inform national policies and programmes.
Dr Ansah said the NHRC’s research platform currently covered the five northern regions, representing more than 40 per cent of Ghana’s land area and over 20 per cent of its population.
He said the centre maintained a demographic surveillance system covering about 280,000 people, with regular data collection on births, pregnancies, vaccinations, marriages, migration and deaths.
“Every death that occurs in these districts, we conduct verbal autopsy, which is analysed by two independent physicians to give the most probable cause of death,” the Director said.
He noted that such surveillance remained important, and explained that a significant proportion of deaths occurred outside health facilities, where formal documentation of causes of death could be limited.
The Director said the centre had also contributed significantly to building Ghana’s research capacity, having trained more than 50 PhDs and supported the development of several professors and other researchers.
“We train. The place becomes smaller for them, they move on, and we keep training,” he said, and stressed the need for sustained investment in research and human capacity development.
Dr Ansah said the centre’s mandate was to generate evidence to guide the implementation of health programmes and interventions.
“Our mandate is to generate evidence. Once the evidence is generated and it guides our implementation, then we have a more scientific way of rolling out our programmes in a more productive or efficient way,” he said.
He said the NHRC also collaborated with local and international institutions, universities and industry partners to evaluate interventions, conduct clinical and population-based studies and strengthen health systems.
Dr Ansah said the centre was expanding its research footprint, including plans to mentor the proposed Savannah Region research centre at Salaga, to improve the geographical representation of health research in northern Ghana.
GNA
Edited by Caesar Abagali /Kenneth Odeng Adade
Reporter: Godfred Aaneamenga Polkuu
Reporter’s email:[email protected]