Ghanaian Scientist receives Ronald Ross medal

Daily Graphic (pg 14) Tues. April 13/10

Story: Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
A Ghanaian Scientist, Professor Fred Binka, has been awarded the ‘Ronald Ross Medal’ for 2010, by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Prof. Binka, who is currently the Dean of the Faculty of School of Public Health in the College of Medical Sciences, University of Ghana, Legon, was given the recognition due to his contribution to research on a wide range of disease problems in the tropics, especially on malaria.
Regarded as one of British most prestigious award in science, the award was instituted in 1997 to award scientist who research into malaria. Prof. Binka is the first scientist from a developing country to be awarded the medal.
It was named after Ronald Ross, a British scientist who was the first to discover that malaria was transmitted to man by a mosquito bite, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1902. The medal was set up to commemorate the centenary of Ross’s discovery of the transmission of malaria by the mosquito.
At a lunch organised in his honour after the award by the INDEPTH Network in Accra, Prof. Binka said “I feel good about this award because it is Ronald Ross who is regarded as the father of Malaria”.
Prof. Binka, who dedicated his award to INDEPTH, a health and demographic surveillance system based in Africa, Asia, Central America and Oceania, did most of his research work when he was the head of the Navrongo Health Research Institute and researched into several other areas such as the importance of Vitamin A supplementation for children, the use of the insecticide treated bed nets, among others.
The current chair of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Africa Regional Advisory Committee of experts on malaria, Prof. Binka in an interview with the Daily Graphic after the lunch challenged young scientists to ensure that they published their research work, saying that it was only when they published them that they would be recognised.
“The problem with scientists in the developing world is that they do not publish their research work; research and publishing are synonymous,” he added
The main force behind the setting up of the Malaria Clinical Trails Alliance (MCTA) funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, aimed at strengthening the capacity of research centres in Africa to conduct trials of malarial treatment and vaccines, Prof. Binka commended Ghana and the African continent as a whole, saying that although there were many diseases, malaria continued to get the most attention.
He said the country was doing well in its fight against malaria and called on all, especially policy makers and politicians, to commit more resources into finding a lasting solution to the menace of malaria in the country.
Prof. Binka, who also initiated the setting up of the INDEPTH Effectiveness and Safety Studies (INESS) to assess the effectiveness and safety of new anti-malarial drugs as they were introduced to African countries, also called on the government to ensure that chloroquine, which, according to him, was still being used by at least 30 per cent of the country’s population, was totally taken off the shelves.
The Director of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Elias Sory, who was present at the lunch, commended Prof. Binka for his achievement.
He called on all in the medical fraternity to devote themselves to selfless and dedicated services to ensure that healthcare delivery in the country became the envy of all on the continent.
Dr Sory also commended the leadership skills of Prof. Binka, saying that he was a visionary leader who nurtured and trained people to take over effectively from him.
The Executive Director of INDEPTH, Dr Osman Sankoh, in his appreciation to Prof. Binka for dedicating the award to the network, said the award would put the organisation on an international pedestal.
In a related development, Prof. Binka has also been awarded by the British Medical Journal, the Research Paper of the Year Award for 2010.