By Chioma Obinna

In a move to combat pressing health issues in Nigeria, young minds from various healthcare fields, including Medicine, Pharmacy, Nursing, and Laboratory Science, are uniting at the 2024 Mega Designathon in Lagos.

This initiative, driven by Nigerian scientists in the Diaspora from Washington State University and the University of North Carolina, in collaboration with researchers from the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), aims to develop homegrown solutions to address and prevent health challenges such as hypertension, stroke, HIV/AIDS, cervical cancer, and liver cancer, and to increase HPV vaccination rates.

Speaking during the opening ceremony in Lagos, the Director of the Nigeria Institute of Medical Research, NIMR, Prof. Babatunde Salako who described the initiative as a means of ensuring the acceptability of healthcare solutions by end-users, recalled that scientists had in the past suffered setbacks in convincing patients about the potency of their research outcomes because the users were not familiar with the system that produced the results.

Salako said the research team from Washington State University, the University of North Carolina, and NIMR, came up with the idea of developing local solutions to health issues through those people who will use the products.

Highlighting the success of past designathons during the ITEST and ACCESS-HPV projects, he noted the challenge of young people’s reluctance to get tested for HIV.

He said to address this, a group of young people invented HIV self-testing kits specifically designed for young people. “These kits offer a discreet and convenient way to know their HIV status, helping to overcome stigma and other barriers associated with traditional HIV screening. This approach has been effectively adopted by many secondary school students and undergraduates.”

He explained that the 4-Day Bootcamp, which runs from 3 and 6 April, would focus on four projects, including cervical cancer and HPV-related cancers, liver cancer and hepatitis, the importance of HBV vaccination uptake among newborns, and a call to action for youths to take the reins in the fight against HIV. The four groups are tagged: 4YBY Team; 4C Team; 4MB Team and Music 4 Health Team.

On her part, the Lead Investigator of the project from Washington State University, Dr Juliet Iwelunmor said the project seeks to bring local creativity and invention to bear in tackling some Nigerian health problems.

Iwelunmor queried that if Nigerians, as a people, eat local food, put on local clothing, and engage in indigenous occupations, then why do they seek foreign solutions to their health challenges?

She said it was the question that triggered the establishment of Mega Designathon 2024, aimed at inventing local remedies for ailments in Nigeria.

Iwelunmor explained that there were about 40 teams of youths within the age range of 19 to 24, saddled with the responsibilities of producing innovative ideas to motivate mothers to vaccinate their newborns with HPV vaccines; ensuring that no Nigerian youth is HIV positive, and using music to drive awareness and prevent hypertension and stroke, among others.

According to her, “All our creativity is local. The food we eat or the clothes we wear everything we do is local. It’s our own. So, how much less our health? We know what works best for us. So that’s why we are gathered here. We are gathered here to say that no solution is too small, no solution is too big. Some solutions may fail, but some solutions will also succeed. The key is that you have to bring it.

“We are here asking our youth, asking our community-based organisations, asking just everybody that has a handle on health, that has experienced health, that wants to learn, to bring those solutions, and together we will create what we know will work best for us.

“It’s not enough to go elsewhere and say, Let’s imbibe other people’s food, other people’s culture, when we know what works for us. So that’s why we are gathered, to ask people in general, What are those solutions for increasing HPV vaccination uptake? Do you know what will work best so that more girls, for example, are vaccinated? Please bring it”.

On his part, the co-investigator of the project with NIMR, Prof, Oliver Ezechi said they received over 1000 applications and 140 passed the screening.

Some of the participants who spoke to Vanguard expressed hope to become innovators in the future.

One of the participants, a nursing student at Lead City University, Miss Precious Adesuwa, explained that her team is working on the promotion of HIV self-testing, among youths aged 19 to 24. She said they are targeting developing more acceptable means for HIV testing for young people.