This week, Dr Kevin Mortimer Co-Deputy Director of IMPALA visited Uganda to attend the inaugural Makerere University International Non Communicable Disease (NCD) Symposium in Kampala.
The MakNCD Symposium was organised with the goal of drawing attention to the NCD epidemic among researchers, clinicians, funders, policy makers and general population that will result in a multidisciplinary response to prevent and manage the NCD epidemic in the East African region.
Kevin was invited to speak in the Chronic Respiratory Diseases session on Wednesday February 14th and delivered a talk on ‘The double-edged sword- the convergence of communicable and non-communicable diseases epidemic in Africa’.
As part of his talk, Kevin introduced delegates to the IMPALA programme and showcased the new website where all outputs will be made immediately available upon publication to ensure IMPALA research findings are disseminated swiftly and transparently.
Dr Kevin Mortimer said: “Building momentum to address the burden of non-communicable lung diseases in Africa, particularly at the intersection with infectious diseases like tuberculosis, is integral to the success of IMPALA. I was delighted to be part of this 1st international NCD symposium in Uganda, the aims of which align closely with those of IMPALA including building capacity in key skills needed for an effective NCD response and creating networks that will work together to generate data and design interventions to address the growing epidemic across Africa.”
During his trip, Kevin visited the Makerere University Lung Institute (MLI) – established in 2015 to champion lung health research that integrates disease prevention, clinical care and training in sub-Saharan Africa – for research and capacity building-focused meetings with Dr Bruce Kirenga (MLI Director), Dr Rebecca Nantanda (IMPALA Clinical Post-Doctoral Research Assistant) and other MLI-based IMPALA investigators and collaborators.
This research was commissioned by the National Institute for Health Research using Official Development Assistance (ODA) funding. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the National Institute for Health Research or the Department of Health.