Peoples Daily, Monday, February 1, 2010, page 6.

The Institute of Human Virology, Nigeria (IHVN), in collaboration with a team of cancer and chronic diseases experts from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), is to conduct research on infections and chronic diseases in Africa.

The Nigeria Country Director, IHVN, Dr. Patrick Dakum, said the collaboration aims to identify the kinds of non-communicable diseases in Nigeria, in addition to exploring possibilities of funding to enhance response to the diseases, especially as they relate to the HIV population.

To this end, a cohort of about 100,000 people would be established and followed, over time, to determine their ailments, characteristics, responses and prevention.

Dakum said the project, which would include Tanzania, Uganda, and South Africa would target 500,000 people across these countries, “while technological innovations will be used to retrieve data and conduct follow-up surveys for the study”

According to him, the most innovative and cost efficient methods will be used for collecting and banking biological samples, and will extend the scope of activities of IHVN and enhance partnership with Harvard for the benefit of the Nigeria health sector.

In an interview with Peoples Daily, Michele Holmes, who is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, at Harvard School of Medicine, said many health policies were formulated based on the results of such studies in her country.

“For instance, in the case of heart attack, diabetes and other diseases, policies were made for the people concerning diet. We realized that Africa has no studies like this, so we felt that we should share the expertise we have gained for over 34 years with the African countries for their health policies” she said. Also speaking, IHVN’s Director of Strategic Information, Training and Research, Professor Clement Adebamowo, who is a professor of cancer, said Nigeria, like all developing countries, is experiencing a triple epidemic.

“Firstly, the old communicable diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, typhoid; secondly, epidemics of non-communicable diseases, especially as the people are increasingly becoming an obese nation with attendant diseases like hypertension, diabetes, cancer and so on, and thirdly, the epidemic of the HIV , which has complicated the other categories” he said. In a presentation, IHVN’s Head of Research Operations, Oluyemisi A. Akinwande, said the research department is ready for the study.