LSHTM receives US$9.6M for NCDs prevention and control in West Africa

WEST AFRICA – Researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) are teaming up with the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons to tackle the rising challenge of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in West Africa.

Thanks to the financial support from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), researchers will address this challenge with the creation of the NIHR Global Health Research Centre for Non-communicable Disease Control in West Africa.

The NIHR Global Health Research Centre for Non-communicable Disease Control in West Africa is co-led by the GCPS and LSHTM, working in partnership with other institutions in the region, including Ashesi University, Ghana.

According to LSHTM, research is at the heart of the innovation needed to address these problems, and establishing the centre is a timely and welcome effort to make a difference.

“I am delighted to jointly lead the Stop-NCD program together with Professor Agyepong from the Gwinnett County Public School District (GCPS),” Tolib Mirzoev, Professor of Global Health Policy at the LSHTM and Co-Director of the Centre, said.

He explained that the 15 countries of the Economic Community of West African States are increasingly challenged by rising illness and deaths related to NCDs while noting that it is additional to their long-standing challenges from communicable diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis.

The professor further announced that the work of their Stop-NCD Centre will help the key stakeholders in Ghana, Burkina Faso and Niger, address critical questions to improve NCD control in the region.

“We have a strong team with complementary expertise across five organizations, and I have full confidence we can successfully deliver high quality results to inform improved policy and practice,” he said.

The Stop-NCD program will also provide researchers with a useful platform to leverage, and extend the collaborating institutions’ genuinely equitable partnership developed over many years of working together.

He further said that the program aims to improve the health and wellbeing of populations by developing capacity for high-quality research to inform improved prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of inter-connected NCDs.

“Our program addresses an important and urgent need for high-quality research to improve the control of NCDs in West Africa,” Mirzoev underscored.

The move follows a report by the World Health Organization in April 2022 highlighting the alarming rate of deaths from NCDs in Africa, and they are increasingly becoming the main cause of mortality in sub-Saharan Africa.

West Africa faces a growing burden of NCDs and co-existing mental health disorders, and disease control priorities in the region have been traditionally driven by infectious diseases, such as malaria.

WHO emphasized that there is an urgent need for capacity to conduct high-quality research to inform effective, evidence-based and people-centered approaches to NCD control, adapted to West African settings.

Subsequently, researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine will work in partnership to carry out a five-year ‘Stop-NCD’ program in a bid to tackle the growing burden of non-communicable diseases across the West African region.

“Through excellent science, comprehensive capacity strengthening and equitable partnerships involving research teams and key stakeholders, we will ensure the longer-term legacy of African-led research for improved policy and practice in NCD control,” the LSHTM Co-Director said.

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