The COVID-19 scare exposed Ghana to its dearth of health systems and health personnel in combating the disease.
The central region, of course, was no different. Martin Badagda Lugutuah, a health information officer at Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam District Health Directorate had observed the struggle with tackling the disease.
Martin, who has been in active service for a decade now, wasn’t happy with the fact that the region could boast of only two epidemiologists.
“I realized my region and two epidemiologists investigating these outbreaks and trying to understand the relationship between these outbreaks was actually a challenge,” he said.
“I want to contribute to outbreak research in my region.” – Martin
Despite Martin’s zeal to fill the gap, he was financially constrained.
The 34-year-old whose undergraduate studies was in Public Health Information, read of the opportunity offered by The Mastercard Health Collaborative and decided to apply for the Mphil in Field Epidemiology and Applied Biostatistics track.
“Undertaking postgraduate studies is very expensive and that was a barrier.
“This opportunity will give me the peace of mind to go through with my course,” he’s optimistic.
Martin believes this opportunity by the Mastercard Health Collaborative will help him contribute towards investigating future outbreaks in his region.
“I want to contribute to outbreak research in my region,” he said.