Founder | Federal Government of Nigeria |
---|---|
Type | Professional Organization |
Focus | Research in diseases of public health importance |
Location | |
Area served | Nigeria |
Members | 2,000+ |
Owner | Federal Republic of Nigeria |
Key people | Professor Babatunde Lawal Salako [1] [2] |
Website | http://www.nimr.gov.ng/ |
The Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) in Yaba, Lagos state, Nigeria is a medical research institute established by the Federal Government of Nigeria through the research institute establishment act of 1977, to promote National health and developments. Until the establishment of National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRID) in Abuja, it was the only institute in the country specifically dedicated for medical research.[ citation needed ]
NIMR focuses on scientific area of research in Biochemistry and Nutrition, Virology Vaccinology, Immunology, Health system and policy research, Reproductive, Maternal and Childhood diseases Research, Clinical Science, Microbiology, Molecular biology Biotechnology and public Health, with studies that focus on diseases of greatest public health importance in the country. These include: Malaria, HIV/AIDS Tuberculosis, Hepatitis, Schistosomiasis, Helicobacter Pylori, and Typhoid. [3] [4] [5]
On 18 September 2020, NIMR unveiled the first SARS-CoV-2 Isothemal Molecular Assay (SIMA) kit in Nigeria to boost COVID-19 testing capacity. [6]
Sir Peter Karel, Baron Piot, is a Belgian-British microbiologist known for his research into Ebola and AIDS.
Partners In Health (PIH) is an international nonprofit public health organization founded in 1987 by Paul Farmer, Ophelia Dahl, Thomas J. White, Todd McCormack, and Jim Yong Kim.
Donald Pinkston Francis is an American physician and epidemiologist who worked on the Ebola outbreak in Africa in the late 1970s, and as an HIV/AIDS researcher. He retired from the U.S. Public Health Service in 1992, after 21 years of service. He lives in San Francisco, California.
Taiwan's epidemic of HIV/AIDS began with the first case reported in December 1984. On 17 December 1990 the government promulgated the AIDS Prevention and Control Act. On 11 July 2007, the AIDS Prevention and Control Act was renamed the HIV Infection Control and Patient Rights Protection Act.
OpenMRS is a collaborative open-source project to develop software to support the delivery of health care in developing countries.
Oni Emmanuel Idigbe is a Nigerian doctor, microbiologist and academic professor who served as the Director General of the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR). He held the post subsequently in 2000 after acting in that capacity from 1999. He is widely known for his contributions to the field of diseases and Control, especially tuberculosis and HIV. Idigbe has published over 65 scientific papers in both Local and international peer review journal in this subject area. He bagged his PhD from the University of Glasgow.
Mali, one of the world's poorest nations, is greatly affected by poverty, malnutrition, epidemics, and inadequate hygiene and sanitation. Mali's health and development indicators rank among the worst in the world, with little improvement over the last 20 years. Progress is impeded by Mali's poverty and by a lack of physicians. The 2012 conflict in northern Mali exacerbated difficulties in delivering health services to refugees living in the north. With a landlocked, agricultural-based economy, Mali is highly vulnerable to climate change. A catastrophic harvest in 2023 together with escalations in armed conflict have exacerbated food insecurity in Northern and Central Mali.
The Vaccine Research Center (VRC), is an intramural division of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The mission of the VRC is to discover and develop both vaccines and antibody-based products that target infectious diseases.
The United States Military HIV Research Program was initiated by the United States Congress in 1986, in reaction to the threat of lost effectiveness of U.S./Allied troops due to HIV infection. The mission of MHRP is to develop an HIV-1 vaccine, provide prevention, care, and treatment, and conduct meaningful HIV/AIDS research for the global community through the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). It is centered at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), and has established five international research sites in Africa and Asia. MHRP also partners with the Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences (AFRIMS) in Thailand. MHRP works closely with The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine (HJF), most notably in the development of the RV144 HIV vaccine in Thailand. MHRP is the largest research program supported by the HJF.
Babatunde Osotimehin was a Nigerian physician, who served as Minister of Health, and in 2011 became the executive director of the United Nations Population Fund, holding the rank of Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, reappointed in August 2014 until his death. Osotimehin's interests were youth and gender, and he advocated for reproductive health and reproductive rights, particularly within the context of the HIV epidemic. One of his strengths was his reliance on data and evidence.
Discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS or serophobia is the prejudice, fear, rejection, and stigmatization of people with HIV/AIDS. Marginalized, at-risk groups such as members of the LGBTQ+ community, intravenous drug users, and sex workers are most vulnerable to facing HIV/AIDS discrimination. The consequences of societal stigma against PLHIV are quite severe, as HIV/AIDS discrimination actively hinders access to HIV/AIDS screening and care around the world. Moreover, these negative stigmas become used against members of the LGBTQ+ community in the form of stereotypes held by physicians.
Guinea faces a number of ongoing health challenges.
Liberia is one of the poorest countries in the world. Civil wars have killed around 250,000 people and displaced many more. The wars ended in 2003 but destroyed most of the country's healthcare facilities. Recovery precedes proceeds, but the majority of the population still lives below the international poverty line. Life expectancy in Liberia is much lower than the world average. Communicable diseases are widespread, including tuberculosis, diarrhea, malaria, HIV, and Dengue. Female genital mutilation is widely practiced. Nearly a quarter of children under the age of five are malnourished and few people have access to adequate sanitation facilities. In 2009, government expenditure on health care per-capita was US$22, accounting for 10.6% of totaled GDP. In 2008, Liberia had only one doctor and 27 nurses per 100,000 people. It was ill-equipped to handle the outbreak of Ebola in 2014 and 2015.
HIV screening in the United States is the use of tests to determine HIV status of individuals, as a part of general public health strategies to reduce the rate of transmission of HIV/AIDS in the United States and to lead to treatment of HIV positive individuals. As a public health measure, widespread testing is advocated by some. Programs such as the National HIV Testing Day on June 27 are used to promote it. The New England Journal of Medicine endorsed widespread testing in 2013. There are special challenges in reaching teenagers. Numerous areas have offered free and rapid HIV testing to the public, including Atlanta, Georgia on World AIDS Day, December 1.
Organizations from around the world responded to the West African Ebola virus epidemic. In July 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) convened an emergency meeting with health ministers from eleven countries and announced collaboration on a strategy to co-ordinate technical support to combat the epidemic. In August, they declared the outbreak an international public health emergency and published a roadmap to guide and coordinate the international response to the outbreak, aiming to stop ongoing Ebola transmission worldwide within 6–9 months. In September, the United Nations Security Council declared the Ebola virus outbreak in the West Africa subregion a "threat to international peace and security" and unanimously adopted a resolution urging UN member states to provide more resources to fight the outbreak; the WHO stated that the cost for combating the epidemic will be a minimum of $1 billion.
Joseph Masci was an American physician, educator and author based in Elmhurst, New York City. He was Professor of Medicine, Professor of Environmental Medicine and Public Health and Professor of Global Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He served as the Director of Department of Medicine at the Elmhurst Hospital Center from 2002 through 2017, when he became Chairman of the Department of Global Health, a position he held until his death in 2022.
Alash'le Grace Abimiku is a Nigerian executive director of the International Research Centre of Excellence at the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria and a professor of virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine who takes interest in the prevention and treatment of HIV.
Misaki Wayengera is a Ugandan physician, academician, and a medical researcher. He serves as a lecturer for Pathology, Immunology and Molecular Biology at Makerere University College of Health Sciences. He is the chairperson of Uganda's Scientific Advisory Committee on COVID-19 for the Ministry of Health and the National Task Force.
Mkunde Chachage is a lecturer and researcher in immunology at University of Dar es Salaam Mbeya College of Health and Allied Sciences. She is also a researcher at the National Institute for Medical Research at Mbeya medical research centre. She conducts research in clinical immunology as well as infectious diseases of human including Tuberculosis (TB), HIV and helminths infections.
Babatunde Lawal Salako is a Nigerian professor and author who is the Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Yaba Lagos. Salako previously served as the first medical director at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, from 1978 to 1984.