Three health research institutions receive awards

Accra, Feb. 29, GNA- Three Ghanaian institutions are to receive US$50,000 each for their Health Research Ethics Review Committees. African Malaria Network Trust (AMANET), a pan-African international Non-Governmental Organization promoting malaria research and development in Africa, is making the presentation to the three institutions. A statement in Accra signed by Dr Charles Wanga, Communications Officer of AMANET, said the grants for the three institutions were aimed at strengthening the institutional health research ethics review committees for projects spanning three years.

The institutions to benefit are the Navrongo Health Research Centre Institutional Review Board (NHRC-IRB), Kintampo Health Research Centre Institutional Ethics Committee (KHRCIEC) and the Health Research Ethics Committee at Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research. According to the statement, many ethics committees in Africa were poorly resourced and there was the need to strengthen them in order to minimize the risk of unethical research being conducted on the poverty-stricken populations.

It said all three institutions would each set up a state-of-the art database and archive system for Ethics Committees and strengthen the capacity of the committees among other things. It said AMANET in December 2006 received a US$4.1 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for a project aimed at strengthening institutional capacity in health research ethics in Africa and fostering discussion, research and publications that highlight African perspectives.

The statement said the project focused on strengthening institutions undertaking, or about to undertake malaria intervention trials.

It said AMANET health research ethics project aims to ensure that as the African populations were recruited into health research projects, the protection of their welfare and interests was enhanced. 29 Feb. 08