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Monday 08:00 - 17:00 Tuesday 08:00 - 17:00 Wednesday 08:00 - 17:00 Thursday 08:00 - 17:00 Friday 08:00 - 17:00

Kintampo Health Research Centre, P. O. Box 200, Kintampo (2025)

03/10/2025

Kintampo Health Research Centre, Research and Development Division of Ghana Health Service Contributes to Malaria Vaccine Policy.

On Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) Reaffirmed the importance of a Fourth Dose of Malaria Vaccines for Children. The WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) and the Malaria Policy Advisory Group (MPAG)’s recommendations were made following a review of KHRC-led research in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi.

The research, which used a case-control approach, was conducted under the Malaria Vaccine Implementation Programme (MVIP) among children under five and showed that the four-dose malaria vaccine schedule reduced severe malaria cases by about 54% over the study period. It also found that children who received the fourth dose of the vaccine had about 30% additional protection against severe malaria than those who received only three, with no evidence of malaria rebound among those who missed the final dose.

To improve uptake, SAGE further recommends that countries align the timing of the fourth malaria vaccine dose with other routine vaccinations and child health interventions offered in a child’s second year of life to help ease delivery challenges.

The case-control study was funded by the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) and carried out by a global consortium including the Kintampo Health Research Centre, European Vaccine Initiative (EVI), the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, African Research Collaboration for Health Limited in Kenya, Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), the University of Malawi's College of Medicine, and PATH.

Read more: https://www.kintampo-hrc.org/pages/khrc-contribution-to-malaria-vaccine.html

12/09/2025

The Kintampo Health Research Centre (KHRC), in collaboration with Columbia University and with funding from Clean Air Fund, is carrying out a three-year study to assess how air pollution affects the health of young children. Launched in 2023, the study titled ‘Early Life Air Pollution Exposures and Non-Communicable Disease Risk in Ghana,’ aims to examine whether exposure to polluted air early in life increases the risk of long-term illnesses such as asthma and heart problems.

To implement this study, KHRC has deployed 40 air quality sensors across Kintampo to collect data. The findings will help inform stronger policies to control air pollution in Ghana.

In line with this, the Ghana Country Lead for Clean Air Fund, Mr. Desmond Appiah and Mr. Dakuu Gordon, Analyst at the Clean Air Fund, visited KHRC earlier this week, to assess the study’s progress and provide technical support. During the visit, they inspected the high-level continuous Air Quality Monitor installed at KHRC’s new Environmental Science Laboratory, discussed the annual progress report and data management processes. They interacted with community members and inspected the 40 air quality monitors installed in the communities since 2024.

Mr. Desmond Appiah commended the Centre’s leadership in air quality research. He noted that this is one of Clean Air Fund’s few long-term funded studies and emphasized the importance of sustaining it to better understand the health effects of air pollution, especially on women and children.

Director of KHRC, Prof. Kwaku Poku Asante, expressed gratitude to the leadership of Clean Air Fund for their continued support and confidence in the Centre’s work. He noted that as a research Centre under the Ghana Health Service, KHRC has built a strong track record in air quality research over the last 15 years and continues to provide evidence that informs national health policies. He reaffirmed the Centre’s commitment to producing high-quality research that advances the mission of the Ghana Health Service to protect and improve public health.

Learn more: https://www.kintampo-hrc.org/pages/caf-visit-khrc.html

03/09/2025

At Kintampo Health Research Centre, our Seth Owusu-Agyei Medical Laboratory stands as a cornerstone of research and diagnostics. In this new video, laboratory managers Dr. David Dosoo and Dr. Dennis Adu-Gyasi provide an inside look at the cutting-edge equipment, specialized units, and skilled professionals who ensure our research informs policy and improves health outcomes. Step inside and discover how our laboratory drives impact in Ghana and beyond.

Watch on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/13ttQTATIuQ

02/09/2025

The PRISMA Maternal and Newborn Health Study at Kintampo Health Research Centre and the Bono East Regional Health Directorate have commenced a series of Life Saving Skills (LSS) trainings for 30 health workers from the Kintampo North Municipality and South District. The training, which began on September 1, 2025, aims to enhance the knowledge, skills and clinical competencies of midwives and nurses to prevent maternal and newborn deaths in the region.

Maternal deaths remain a serious Public Health problem in Bono East Region of Ghana, arising from, preventable complications including bleeding, anaemia, and high blood pressure. This training is part of wider efforts to address the timely identification of pregnancy, delivery and post-delivery related risks and complications and strengthen emergency care to reduce maternal and neonatal morbidities.

Speaking at the opening of the five-day workshop, the Deputy Regional Director in charge of Clinical Care, Mrs. Helen Agodzo, said the training is a crucial step towards reducing maternal deaths and urged participants to take their role in saving lives seriously. “This training is not just about learning, but about changing the story of maternal deaths in our communities,” she said.

Dr. Martha Ali Abdulai PhD, speaking on behalf of KHRC’s Director, Prof. Kwaku Poku Asante, called for active participation and emphasized the importance of shared learning and collaboration among the participants.

The training will run in two batches, from September 1–5 and September 15–19, 2025. It will cover sessions on maternal health policies, antenatal care planning, risk management, emergency planning, ethical care, managing pregnancy complications such as bleeding, anaemia, hypertension and diabetes, and improving referrals and emergency response.

These sessions are being led by a team of experts, including Dr. Fadle Quantson, Obstetrician/Gynaecologist/Deputy Director of Public Health, Ms. Mavis Ofori, Ms. Millicent Dapaah, Midwifery Specialist, Dr. Ellen Boamah-Kaali, and Dr. Martha Ali Abdulai PhD, Health Behavioural scientist and researchers on the PRISMA Study.

Read more: https://www.kintampo-hrc.org/pages/khrc-bedr-training.html

21/08/2025

Last week, researchers from Kintampo Health Research Centre joined other health experts, policymakers, and partners in Accra for the 2025 Health Research Dissemination Forum and Health Research Officers’ Conference. The events created a space for sharing research findings and discussing how health research can help Ghana achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

The forum, organized by the Research and Development Division, (RDD-GHS) of the Ghana Health Service, was held from August 12–14 under the theme “Research for Universal Health Coverage (UHC): Innovations and Sustainability.” UHC in Ghana aims to ensure that everyone—no matter their income, location, or social background—can access quality health services without financial hardship. Central to this goal is the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), which was introduced to remove financial barriers to care, as well as community-based health planning and services (CHPS) that extend care to rural areas. The forum therefore highlighted how evidence from research can guide policies and innovations that strengthen health systems, expand equity in health delivery, and bring the country closer to achieving UHC.

Kintampo Health Research Centre made significant contributions with twelve researchers presenting studies including the PRISMA maternal, newborn, and child health, Maternal Immunization Readiness in Ghana, household air pollution in Techiman, neurodevelopmental assessments in child welfare services, HIV and NCD co-morbidities in the middle belt, and the use of artificial intelligence in malaria diagnostics. Other presentations included community surveillance study on intestinal parasitic infections among primary school pupils, the impact of iron fortification on childhood anaemia in rural Ghana, and barriers and facilitators of maternal vaccine uptake in Kintampo. Through these presentations, KHRC highlighted both biomedical innovations and community-based research that address pressing health challenges in Ghana.

Read more: https://www.kintampo-hrc.org/pages/rdd-2025.html

20/08/2025

Today, on , we reflect on this year’s theme “Accelerating the Fight Against Malaria for a More Equitable World.”

It’s a day we recognize the global impact mosquitoes have on public health. In fact, mosquitoes kill more people than any other animal on the planet, spreading deadly diseases such as malaria, dengue, West Nile virus, yellow fever, Zika, and chikungunya.

At Kintampo Health Research Centre, we are working daily to change this reality. Through our Entomology Unit, we monitor mosquito populations, study their species and biting behaviour, and test for insecticide resistance. This vital surveillance helps track malaria transmission patterns, guides vaccine and drug studies, and informs targeted interventions to protect vulnerable communities—especially pregnant women and children.

Every mosquito we study brings us closer to understanding how to defeat them. Together, we can accelerate progress toward a more equitable world where no life is lost to mosquito-borne diseases.

Visit our website: https://www.kintampo-hrc.org/

08/08/2025

𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐀𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐭!!!

Vaccines save millions of lives every year, yet over one million children—mostly in low- and middle-income countries—still die from diseases that could have been prevented. A scoping review led by Mr. Eliezer Odei-Lartey, Head of Data Science at Kintampo Health Research Centre has explored how data has been used in Africa to identify children at risk of missing their vaccinations.

The review focused on how different types of information were selected, organized, and fed into computer models to identify children most likely to miss their vaccinations.

Their scoping review, published in PLOS Digital Health, analyzed over 4,000 articles, narrowing down to 18 studies that used machine learning models such as Random Forest, Support Vector Machines, Decision Trees, Naïve Bayes, K-Nearest Neighbours, and Artificial Neural Networks. These models analyzed factors such as socioeconomic status, which was often combined into a single wealth score, and categorical data simplified into yes-or-no values.

Building on these findings, the team applied real data from over 13,000 children in Ghana’s Malaria Vaccine Pilot Evaluation project. The follow-up study, published in Applied Sciences, revealed that well-organized and sufficiently large datasets significantly improve the accuracy of machine learning models in predicting vaccination defaulters.

Read full story: https://www.kintampo-hrc.org/pages/harnessAiToProtectChildren.html

Read publication: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000965

07/08/2025

𝐊𝐇𝐑𝐂 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐆𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐚’𝐬 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐆𝐑𝐈𝐌𝐌 𝟏𝟖𝟎+ 𝐀𝐢𝐫 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐄𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡

The Kintampo Health Research Centre, in partnership with Columbia University and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai with funding from Clean Air Fund Ghana, has installed Ghana’s first GRIMM 180+ reference air monitor in Kintampo. This marks a significant step toward improving air quality monitoring for environmental health research.

The GRIMM 180+ is a state-of-the-art, highly accurate air monitoring system that provides real-time data on different weather conditions such as temperature and humidity as well as tiny particulate matter especially PM10, PM2.5, and PM1—harmful pollutants that can enter the lungs and bloodstream, posing serious health risks.

This installation is part of the “Early Life Air Pollution Exposures and Non-Communicable Disease Risk in Ghana” study that monitors how air pollution affects the health of babies and young children in Ghana. The data will help show whether early exposure to polluted air increases the risk of long-term non-communicative diseases (NCD) such as asthma or heart problems, with the aim of supporting stronger air pollution control policies.

Special thanks to Prof. Darby Jack, Prof. Steven Chillrud of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, Dr. Alison Lee of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Clean Air Fund Ghana for making this achievement possible.

Read full story: https://www.kintampo-hrc.org/pages/grimm-monitor.html

Learn more about the study: https://www.kintampo-hrc.org/pages/air-pollution-bono.html

31/07/2025

Last week, the NCD and Environmental Research Strengthening Training (NEST) Programme conducted a five-day short course on “Introduction to Epidemiology and Proposal Writing” to build the capacity of early-career researchers and public health professionals in Ghana.

The training, which took place in Accra from 21–25 July 2025, is part of a larger effort to strengthen national research capacity in tackling non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and environmental health challenges.

Participants engaged in interactive and practical sessions that deepened their understanding of core epidemiological concepts and strengthened their proposal writing skills—essential for driving impactful research and shaping evidence-based policy. The course also provided hands-on training on securing research funding and emphasized the need to incorporate environmental considerations into NCD research.

Special thanks to Prof. Kwaku Poku Asante, Director of Kintampo Health Research Centre ; Prof. Alexander A. Manu, Senior Lecturer and Clinician at the University of Ghana, Legon-School of Public Health (UGSPH); Dr. Alison Lee, Associate Professor of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; and Prof. Darby Jack, Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University for their expert facilitation and mentorship throughout the training. The NEST Programme is funded by National Institutes of Health (NIH).

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲: https://www.kintampo-hrc.org/pages/nest-short-course-training.html

𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐓 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐦𝐞: https://www.kintampo-hrc.org/pages/Nest-training.html

30/07/2025

𝐂𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐑 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐲 𝐄𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐁𝐢𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐒𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞-𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐀𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐬

As part of efforts to strengthen capacity in climate and health data analysis, the Kintampo Health Research Centre (KHRC), through the Climate and Health Evaluation for Adaptive Resilience (CLEAR) Study, organized a three-day workshop for biostatisticians and researchers working across the CLEAR study sites in Ghana.

The training, which was held in Accra from 21–23 July 2025, was facilitated by Dr. Robbie M Parks, Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Services at Columbia University and Prof. Cascade Tuholske, Associate Professor of Human Environment Geography at Montana State University and covered key technical areas including Bayesian statistics, environmental epidemiology, and heat stress metrics.

Participants included biostatisticians from Kintampo Health Research Centre, Dodowa Health Research Centre, Navrongo Health Research Centre (NHRC), and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), providing a unique opportunity to strengthen technical skills and promote collaboration across institutions implementing the study. CLEAR study is funded by Wellcome Trust.

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲: https://www.kintampo-hrc.org/pages/clear-biostat-training.html

𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐑 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐲: https://www.kintampo-hrc.org/pages/Wellcome-trust-project.html

28/07/2025

𝐏𝐔𝐁𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐑𝐓!!!

𝐊𝐇𝐑𝐂 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐀𝐈 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐭 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐭 𝐑𝐢𝐬𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐃𝐞𝐟𝐚𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐄𝐏𝐈 𝐕𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐬

A new study led by Mr. Eliezer Odei-Lartey, Head of Data Science at the Kintampo Health Research Centre (KHRC), has demonstrated that machine learning, can be used to detect children who are likely to miss-out on routine EPI vaccination.

Many children in sub-Saharan Africa miss their vaccines, making it difficult to reach full vaccination coverage and contributing to preventable illnesses and deaths, especially in communities with limited access to health services.

The study, published in the Applied Sciences journal in July 2025 under the title “Advancing Knowledge on Machine Learning Algorithms for Predicting Childhood Vaccination Defaulters in Ghana: A Comparative Performance Analysis,” focused on how data-driven approaches could be leveraged to predict which children are at risk of default, to help improve coverage.

Read full story: https://www.kintampo-hrc.org/pages/ai-help-in-children-at-risk-defaulting-epi-vaccine.html

Read full article: https://doi.org/10.3390/app15158198

16/07/2025

Last week, the study team at Kintampo Health Research Centre (KHRC) participated in a four-day refresher training to improve their skills in brain imaging using the Hyperfine, Inc. low-field MRI system. The training focused on neuroimaging data acquisition, processing, and updated quality control procedures.

The sessions were led by experts from the University of Cape Town, including Jessica Ringshaw (Senior Training Lead), Williams (Data Manager), and Petter Clemensson (UNITY Site Biomedical Engineer). They guided the team through practical sessions and shared updated protocols to ensure high-quality data collection in low-field MRI use.

The ReMIND study is investigating how anaemia during pregnancy may affect the brain development of babies in their first year of life. It forms part of the UNITY Network, which uses portable low-field MRI scanners to study brain development in young children across 17 sites in 12 low- and middle-income countries. The study is funded by Gates Foundation.

This refresher training is part of ongoing professional development efforts to ensure consistency, accuracy, and ethical standards across all UNITY Network sites and to support the successful implementation of the ReMIND study in Ghana.

Read full story: https://www.kintampo-hrc.org/pages/remind-refresher-training.html

Learn more about ReMIND: https://www.kintampo-hrc.org/pages/Remind-study.html

Kintampo Health Research Centre

03/10/2025

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Monday	08:00 - 17:00
Tuesday	08:00 - 17:00
Wednesday	08:00 - 17:00
Thursday	08:00 - 17:00
Friday	08:00 - 17:00