The Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) is organising a five-day Master’s level course on Vaccinology for 30 young African scientists and researchers from 10 countries.

The course, which is being organised in partnership with the Jenner Institute, a Nuffield Department of Medicine at the Oxford of University, is expected to equip the participants with skills to develop potent vaccines to reduce the human and livestock disease burden on the continent.

Participating countries included Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso, Kenya, South Africa, Gabon and Cameroun, among others.

Prof. Ernest Aryeetey, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, in an address at the opening on Monday, applauded the partnership between Noguchi, the Jenner Institute and other partners from the African continent in finding a lasting solution to their own challenges.

He said the University cherished such partnerships as part of efforts to strengthen African unity and also attract more students from both Francophone and Anglophone countries to the University to share their knowledge and experiences.

Prof. Aryeetey said it was critical that Ghana’s young scientists and researchers worked closely with their counterparts in advanced countries and institutions across the globe to tap into their rich scientific and technological knowledge, to provide better health care and development for the citizenry.

Professor Kwadwo Koram, Director of NMIMR, said the initiative which was the first, was expected to be an annual event to build the capacity of the continent’s young scientists and researchers, and expose them to current and pertinent issues in vaccinology.

He said the focus for the maiden course would be to look at the general principles of getting a wide range of vaccines for various diseases, so that on their own, these young scientists and researchers could come out with clinical observations on what would work and what would not.

According to him, getting vaccines to counter the overwhelming disease burden of Africa had been generally difficult, therefore, forming partnerships would be the ideal way of making any meaningful breakthroughs towards safe health care delivery in Africa.

He said developing the right kind of vaccines was critical to the survival of both human and livestock, adding that vaccines such as the ones for polio, hepatitis, meningitis, pneumonia and measles., had saved many lives both in Ghana and in other African countries.

Prof. Koram said Ghana had not recorded any death resulting from measles over the past 10 years, and that the NMIMR had been working towards getting cures such as a malaria vaccine, to eliminate the huge annual deaths toll resulting from the killer disease.