Amy Husser, Postmedia News
In spite of a global perception as being “dependent, pestilence-ridden and suffering,” Africa has the ingenuity and conviction to solve its own health problems, Canadian researchers say in a sweeping new look at the continent.
A team of researchers conducted hundreds of interviews in nearly 100 locations across sub-Saharan Africa to offer a “unique microscope” on neglected health problems for Afica.
The “landmark collection” of papers — published Sunday in the U.K.-based BioMed Central — outlines 25 innovative health technologies they say deserve more attention.
The researchers paint Africa as a hub of innovation, being held back only by finances and cultural biases, resulting in a lack of access to global markets.
“The bottom line is there’s a lot more ideas and talent in Africa . . . than there are products on the market helping people improve their health,” says Peter Singer, director of the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health, which conducted the research.
“In the long term, the sustainable solutions to Africa’s health problems rest with the home team.”
According to lead researcher Ken Simiyu, the 25 technologies are considered “stagnant” because they languish in African health institutes instead of being converted into a viable product or service for local markets.
Examples include a portable medical-waste incinerator created in Kenya that can cut down on byproducts produced during mass vaccinations in rural areas, or a Ghana-developed diagnostic test for schistosoma, a parasitic disease that affects as much as 50 per cent of the population in some areas of Africa.
And in Kenya, scientists have isolated human odours that effectively repel mosquitos; an adapted insecticide could cut down on malaria, which kills nearly one million people — mostly African children — annually.
“What is holding them back is they have not been able to get a commercial partner who can transform these chemical entities . . . into a product that is really deliverable to the market,” said Simiyu.
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