INDEPTH NEWS BULLETIN

Vol. 2003, No.2, 2003

 

In this issue:

 

1. Professor Hannah Akuffo from Sida/SAREC in Sweden visits the INDEPTH Secretariat

 

2. The 3rd INDEPTH Annual General and Scientific Meeting ends in Accra

 

 

1. Professor Hannah Akuffo from Sida/SAREC in Sweden visits the INDEPTH Secretariat

 

The Executive Director, Professor Fred Binka welcomed Professor Hannah Akuffo from Sida/SAREC to the INDEPTH Secretariat in Accra on 31st January 2003. Sida/SAREC is one of the key donors of the INDEPTH Network, providing core funding towards the running of the Secretariat and facilitating cross-site initiatives. Fred Binka updated Professor Akuffo on the achievements of INDEPTH, starting with the adoption of the INDEPTH Strategic Plan at the Addis AGM in January 2002. “We are happy that the Board of Trustees, the Scientific Advisory Committee and the Secretariat have now been fully constituted,” he said.

 

He then briefed on the Secretariat’s work plan 2003-2005, stressing the establishment of the INDEPTH Intervention Trials Platform and the INDEPTH Scientific Development and Leadership Programme. Hannah Akuffo was happy about the positive development within the Network. She would share this news with her colleagues in Sweden and she was optimistic about further support from her organisation to INDEPTH. “Please give me any information on INDEPTH that you think I should read while I am here this week to attend the AGM. I am thinking INDEPTH,” she concluded.

 

 

2. The 3rd INDEPTH Annual General and Scientific Meeting ends in Accra

 

This year’s AGM has ended successfully in Accra, Ghana on 7 February 2003. It brought together 110 participants mainly from INDEPTH sites in Africa and Asia. There were also participants from other institutions including donor agencies.

 

Under the chairmanship of Dr. Abraham Hodgson, Director of the Navrongo Health Research Centre, the meeting was opened on Monday 3 February by the Deputy Minister for Health in Ghana, Hon. Moses Dani-Baah. The minister said that “the theme of the meeting - INDEPTH Network and the fight against poverty-related diseases - cannot be more appropriate and timely. I am confident that it will guide your deliberations in the next few days. The priorities such as the INDEPTH Scientific Development and Leadership Programme, the INDEPTH Health Intervention Trials Platform and Adult Health Study, identified in the Work Plan of the INDEPTH Secretariat for the next few years are what the Ministry of Health would want to see carried out.” Mr. Dani-Baah concluded by commending INDEPTH’s efforts in the fight against poverty-related diseases and expressed hope that INDEPTH’s partners and sponsors will continue to mobilize support and funds to make the Network’s work possible.

 

Dr. John Gyapong, the Director of Research in the Ghana Health Service delivered the keynote address. He gave an exciting speech on the potentials of the INDEPTH Network in the fight against poverty-related diseases. He urged INDEPTH to strengthen its resolve to work together for a common goal.

 

Scientific Presentations

 

The following presentations reflected a rich scientific programme at this year’s AGM. Posters were also presented.

 

1.      Monograph: INDEPTH Model Life Tables

2.      Monograph: Causes of Death at INDEPTH Sites

3.      INDEPTH-ACAP Collaboration

4.      Confidential Distribution of HIV results using hand-held Computers

5.      Ethical Issues in DSS – How Navrongo Health Research Centre is addressing these issues

6.      Longitudinal population-based HIV survelillance Area, Hlabisa, South Africa

7.      Reproductive Health in Niakhar, Senegal

8.      Assessment of Maternal Mortality in INDEPTH sites

9.      Mapping Inequalities in Rufiji DSA

10.  Social Inequality in health of migrants and non-immigrants: A case study of Kanchanaburi province, Thailand

11.  Human Capacity: Current Status, Unmet needs and obstacles to their work

12.  INDEPTH Scientific Development and Leadership Programme

13.  Burden of disease profiles – INDEPTH influencing Policy and Practice

14.  Local Monitoring of Primary Health care Activities in Nigeria: Process, Progress and Problems

15.  Child survival in West Africa – the impact of vaccinations

16.  Risk of Child Mortality due to environmental Hazards in Bangladesh

17.  Multi-Site Research on Migration and Urbanization in INDEPTH Sites

18.  Health consequences of migration: evidence from the Agincourt Health and Population Unit

19.  Adult Health in INDEPTH Sites using WHO STEPS

20.  Characterizing the epidemiological transition: comparing patterns of non communicable diseases in Ethiopia, Vietnam and Indonesia

21.  Preschool malnutrition and blood pressure in young adults in Niakhar, a rural area in West Africa

22.  A Relational Data Model to manage Longitudinal Population Data 

23.  Demographic Surveillance Systems and Monitoring the Impact of Environmental Change on Infectious Diseases.

24.  Voluntary counselling and HIV testing for pregnant women in Kassena-Nankana District

25.  Health Transitions in rural South Africa: Adult Health, non- communicable diseases and its implication for decentralized district-based systems.

26.  Health need, demand for health services and expenditure during monetary crises in Purworejo district, central Java, Indonesia

27.  Gender and TB: A case study in Kanchanaburi, Thailand

 

Working Groups

 

The following working group sessions were convened. The working groups made short plenary presentations on their proposals for the way forward.

 

1.      INDPETH Model Life Tables  

  1. INDEPTH Intervention platform (HIV, ARV,TB , Malaria & Rotavirus)
  2. Health Equity
  3. Reproductive Health

5.      Policy to Practice