Celebrating Amazigo, the scientist with passion for Africa’s poor (feature)

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Accolades are pouring in for Dr. Uche Amazigo, who retired 1 April as Director of the World Health Organization African Programme for Onchocerciasis (River blindness) Control (WHO/APOC).

A university teacher, health management expert, mother, researcher and humanist, Dr. Amazigo capped her decades of illustrious service by spending the last 15 years at the WHO/APOC.

In recognition of her distinguished service, the Government of Burkina Faso - where the WHO programme is based - recently bestowed on Dr. Amazigo the distinguished Medal of “Knight of the National Order of Burkina Faso,” a rare achievement for a non-native.

The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Gomes Sambo, on behalf of the WHO Director General Margaret Chan, has also lauded Amazigo for “her excellent work” as Director of APOC.

The history of the epoch-making efforts made by WHO and its partners in seeking scientific and practical solutions to the River Blindness scourge will be incomplete without mentioning the role of Dr. Amazigo

Back in her native country Nigeria after studies abroad, she had developed more than an academic interest in the disease.

In the early 1990s she had the responsibility of teaching parasitology to medical students at the renowned University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in South-east Nigeria. She complemented her classroom teaching with research and field work and it was during one of such field visits to an antenatal clinic in Etteh village, Enugu State in South-eastern Nigeria, that her career world changed, not just for public health interventions but for the good of Africa.

During a chance meeting with a woman afflicted with River Blindness at the antenatal clinic, Amazigo resolved to make a difference. She did not only undertake to pay for the treatment of the afflicted woman who had been abandoned by her husband because of the stigma of itching and discoloration of her skin by this disease, Amazigo also decided, with funding by the WHO, to research into the social impact of the disease.

It was the result of that research that formed the scientific basis for the launch of WHO/APOC in 1995, and changed the international perceptions about morbidity from River blindness.

Consequently, WHO/APOC in 1997, adopted its revolutionary Community-Directed Treatment with Ivermectin (CDTI) strategy which enables communities to decide when, where and how to distribute ivermectin tablets, with assistance from Ministries of Health and NGDOs, and with generous financial support from donors provided through the APOC Trust Fund, managed by the World Bank.

Following her ground breaking research, Amazigo had to move to WHO/APOC headquarters in Burkina Faso in 1995 to avail the programme of her expertise, and to help translate the research findings into deliverable products/services.

In 2005, she was appointed the first female Director ever to lead the multi-million-dollar, multi-stakeholder regional WHO/APOC programme

Driven by a strong African leadership, the WHO/APOC programme has since become one of the world’s broadest and most successful Public-Private health partnerships. It has not only proved that preventive chemotherapy is a viable strategy for the control of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs), but its trademark CDTI strategy - also known as Community-directed intervention (CDI), a bottom-up approach to health care delivery - has also become an irresistible model in the delivery of multiple health interventions combining global and community resources, innovation, expertise and advocacy as well as multi-sector engagement.

Thirty-four African universities, medical science and nursing schools are pre-testing the CDI strategy for incorporation into their curricula. This will no doubt expand the knowledge about the strategy with an exponential increase in the number of young medical professionals equipped with the requisite expertise for effective engagement of rural communities in public health interventions.

Since inception, the programme has recorded 86% reduction in severe unrelenting itching, 33% reduction in prevalence of the disease, prevention of more than 500,000 cases of blindness and an estimated Economic Rate of Return of 17% on invested funds. Annual treatment with ivermectin in APOC countries has multiplied from 1.5 million in 1997, to 68 million in 2009, nearing the projected target of 90 million by 2015.

WHO/APOC’s CDI strategy holds a great promise for improving Primary Health Care among Africa’s most disadvantaged and needy rural populations, at a time of dwindling donor funding due to the global economic crisis.

The programme has also shown remarkable leadership in disease mapping, providing vital scientific data for evidence-based disease control system and bringing remote and neglected villages into demographic equation for national planning and development.

Despite her achievements and the accolades she has been receiving, Dr. Amazigo, in her typical modesty, would not claim credit for the internationally-acknowledged achievements of the WHO/APOC programme, insisting that it was all down to team effort and that much work was still required.

“The achievements by WHO/APOC would not have been possible without the unwavering commitment and support of donors, NGDOs, Ministries of health, dedicated scientists and strong community involvement,” she said.

Analysts said while the acclaimed Nigerian scientist has played her own part, even pledging more contributions in retirement, the greatest tribute to her untiring efforts
will be the continuation of the battle until Africa is freed, not only of River blindness, but also of all neglected diseases, to enable the continent realise its full development
potentials.
-0- PANA PR/SEG 25April2011