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The African Academy of Sciences (AAS) and its partners have mobilized a total of $ 2.8 million to support key priority research areas across the African continent to help contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.
Priority research areas were identified by 844 researchers in the field of biomedical, clinical, epidemiology, social science, policy makers and infectious diseases through a survey organized by the AAS on COVID-19.
Mrs. Juliette Mutheu-Asego, AAS Head of Communications and Public Relations, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said that the Academy in the coming days will issue a call to invite researchers to apply for funds to carry out studies in the priority areas
Key areas of research, he said, included; Understand the effectiveness of movement control strategies to prevent secondary transmission in healthcare and community settings, develop new approaches to Personal Protective Equipment using local materials and manufacturing processes.
She said the study highlighted research problems in conducting rapid cross-sectional population surveys to establish the extent of virus transmission using a standardized sampling frame.
Madame Mutheu-Asego said the survey recommended that special focus should be given to potentially at-risk groups, including; malnourished individuals and people with HIV, sickle cell tuberculosis.
He said he highlighted the development of protocols for managing serious illnesses in the absence of intensive care facilities, determining optimal clinical practice strategies to improve care processes, and developing innovative approaches to use as alternatives to ventilation.
The survey carried out in April, indicated that it marked the examination of the optimal forms of communication about possible interventions in urban environments of high density and low socioeconomic level and ensures that the knowledge was produced according to local, national and regional needs.
The African Academy of Sciences, he said, recognizes the speed and urgency that was required to build a scientific body of knowledge required to inform current outbreak mitigation policies.
“Given the limited time and resources available, the AAS is developing credible research and development advice that reports a consistent response backed by strong priorities so that the continent is ahead of the Covid-19 pandemic,” he noted.
The initiative was to complement the work of the World Health Organization and recently established the African Task Force for the Novel Coronavirus under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Africa that seeks to oversee the preparedness and response to COVID- 19.
Professor Kwadwo Koram, former immediate director of the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) said the survey findings were essential to contain and reduce the spread of the pandemic.
He said a priority area, such as determining the transmission dynamics of COVID-19 and understanding the spread of the disease at the national and regional levels, was on NMIMR’s radar and needed funding to conduct a study in that area.
Professor Koram noted that with the necessary support, a study could be conducted to describe the severity and susceptibility of the disease to facilitate an effective clinical and public health response to COVID-19 identification groups at high risk of serious infection. .
He recalled that NMIMR scientists and the Center for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens in West Africa, both at the University of Ghana, obtained information on the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic that has affected many countries worldwide.
The breakthrough would allow scientists to understand how the genome works – how genes work together to drive the growth, development, and maintenance of an entire organism.
Source: GNA
