GHI One Health Center – West Africa
GHI One Health | West Africa (GHI-OHC-WA) is a collaboration between the UW-Madison Global Health Institute (GHI) and the University of Sierra Leone, Directorate health Securitites and Emergencies at Ministry of health and Sanitation, Project 1808/Koinadugu College, the Abbott Pandemic Defense Coalition, and several local hospitals. Founder and One Health Center Director Alhaji N’jai will lead the center and promote strategic alliances and partnerships with West African and Sierra Leone entities.
The GHI-OHC-WA signifies the start of the Sierra Leone Abbott Pandemic Defense Coalition Acute Febrile Illness (AFI) Surveillance and Diagnostic research work with five major hospital sentinel sites in Freetown, including Connaught, 34 Military Hospital, Ola During Children’s Hospital, Choitrams and Rokupa, as well as the Central Public Health Reference Laboratory (CPHRL). Three staff members from each hospital and CPHRL, in addition to four lab technicians and six research students, support the Center’s efforts.
The GHI-OHC-WA has a mission to offer new opportunities for faculty, staff, students, and trainees to collaborate and share scientific capabilities and resources to identify key knowledge gaps in the ecology of infectious diseases, advance scientific training, build capacity, and encourage multicultural and geographic diversity and racial and gender equality in science, all of which can help alleviate the burden of disease, climate change, and social disparity.
Director, GHI One Health Center-West Africa