Director General of the Ghana Health Service, (GHS) Dr. Anthony Nsiah Asare, has reiterated the need to invest in research centres for effective solutions to address challenges confronting the health sector.
Speaking at the launch of the 25th Anniversary of the Kintampo Health Research Centre in Accra, Dr. Nsiah Asare said the sector appears to be faltering in the area of prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV because it lacks innovative and relevant equipment to deliver on its mandate and has then called on research centres in the country to be proactive and find solutions to the problems confronting the health sector.
He pledged the Ghana Health Service’s support to the Kintampo Health Research Centre to discharge its mandate. Former Deputy Director General of the WHO, Dr. Anarfi Asamoah Baah, said the three research centres in the country are woefully inadequate to cater for the all the research works that need to be done.
The Deputy Minister of Health, Alexander Abban also added that, the Ministry will work with the Director General of the Centre to design a roadmap to look into the call for Senior Scientists in research centres to be affiliated with Universities as a measure to maintaining academic carrier and ensure sustainability of research institutions.
The Kintampo Health Research Centre was established in 1994 under the Kintampo Vitamin A project.
The Centre was officially inaugurated in February, 1996. Its priority research areas include; sexual and reproductive health particularly maternal, neo-natal, child and mental health, as well as communicable diseases such as Malaria, Tuberculosis, HIV and AIDS.
Over the last decade, the Centre assessed the safety and efficacy of the RTS’s vaccine, mosquirix which is currently being implemented on pilot basis with the expectation to significantly reduce malaria and anaemia.
