| NAVRONGO HEALTH RESEARCH UNIT |
In 1989, in the backyard of the War Memorial Hospital, Navrongo, a team of researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi and the Ministry of Health, Ghana, jointly set out to carry out health research. Their agenda was to investigate the impact of repeated large doses of Vitamin A on child survival in the Kassena-Nankana District. The project became known as Ghana VAST (Vitamin A Supplementation Trial) Upon successful completion of this study the field station was designated a Research Centre by the Ministry of Health and the name changed to Navrongo Health Research Centre (NHRC) in 1992.
After the establishment of NHRC, the first study focused on the efficacy of Insecticide Treated Bednets in the Kassena-Nankana District. Findings from this study fed into a national policy on strategies to control malaria in Ghana.
Today, NHRC is one of three research centres under the Health Research Unit of the Ministry of Health. The other two; are the Kintampo Health Research Centre; in the forest ecological zone and Dangbe West Health Research Centre in Dodowa for the coastal zone.
NHRC is mandated to conduct research into health problems prevailing in the country as a whole but in particular to the rural areas of the Sahelian ecological belt of northern Ghana and advise policymakers on feasible interventions to improve the health of the it people. To date, health research has focused on malaria, acute respiratory infections, cerebrospinal meningitis, diarrhea, female genital mutilation, lymphatic Filariasis, schistosomiasis and community-based health service delivery.
The Centre is engaged in a wide range of activities encompassing population and biomedical research and the social research that accompanies such research s activities. The Centre has a multidisciplinary team of research scientists who are Epidemiologists, Demographers, Parasitologists, Very Senior Nurses. Public Health Physicians, Sociologists, Medical Statisticians, Computer Programmers, Medical Officers and Re-search Assistants.
top
- Location; Upper East Region
- Area: 1,675 square kilometres
- Vegetation : Guinea Savannah e Woodland 1
- Climate: One rainy season (May to • October) One dry season (November to April)
- Ethnicity : 5 lNankam 47 Kassim • and 2 Buili '
- Total population : 140,000 (under surveillance)
- Main occupation : subsistence asri-culture
- Religion: majority traditional with a third Christian and a minority Muslim.
top
|
