Medical researchers urged not to compromise quality

Kumasi, Oct. 12, GNA - The Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu 11, has urged scientists and medical researchers in Ghana not to compromise on the quality of their research.

He said human parts were not available on the market in live form and medical researchers should therefore, observe the highest ethical standards and treat candidates they use in their research with utmost dignity and care in order not to cause any deformities to them. Otumfuo Osei Tutu made the call in an address read for him at the 10th anniversary celebration of the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research (KCCR) in Tropical Medicine at the KNUST on Thursday.

The KCCR, which was established in 1997, is a joint venture of the Ghana Ministry of Health, the KNUST and the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM) in Hmaburg, Germany.

It aimed at conducting world class scientific and medical research in tropical diseases and come out with vaccines that can help prevent them. Otumfuo Osei Tutu, said apart from not getting a fitting substitutes for original human parts, candidates used in medical researches were also the hopes and future of many families and there was the need for careful handling in order to cause irreparable damages to them. He commended the KCCR for its tremendous research achievements in its ten years of existence, especially in the areas of severe malaria, tuberculosis, onchocercaisis, anaemia, deafness, elephantiasis, buruli ulcer and other filarial diseases.

The Asantehene said the Centre had offered opportunities for capacity building and postgraduate training at the Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy degree levels and commended the BNITM for its efforts at training future Ghanaian scientists locally.

Dr Thomas Kruppa, Director of KCCR, said the Centre was at the forefront of filariasis research revolutionizing the treatment of onchocerciasis and elephantiasis, adding that, the Centre had been selected as one of the 8 centres in Africa to participate in the clinical development of the promising malaria vaccine, which if proved successful would save millions of children's lives in Africa.

The Centre was also building up capacity into clinical research with the aim of testing drugs and vaccines to alleviate the disease burden by integrating research programmes into hospital services.

Dr Kruppa said KCCR had a vision to develop scientific techniques and personnel to carry research samples analysis here in Ghana and also research into "neglected" disease areas, particularly in childhood diseases such as diarrhoea, respiratory and blood infections to know the organisms that cause them and how they could be treated.

He called for an effective collaboration from all partners to enable the Centre perform its mandate successfully.

Professor Kwasi Kwafo Adarkwa, Vice Chancellor of KNUST, hoped the Centre would continue to execute its mandate with emphasis on areas which addressed national, sub-regional and expand to cover regional scientific problems in medical epidemiology and health implementation on the life and wellbeing of the rural communities to reduce the incidence of malaria, elephantiasis, buruli ulcer and other diseases that afflicted the people. Miss Jana Orlowski, Deputy Head of Mission of the German Embassy in Ghana, said the KCCR, which had become an international renowned research institution was an integral part of German-Ghanaian relations in higher education and science and pledged the continued support of the German government to the Centre to undertake its mandate.