Professor to aid children with grant

By Stephen Brooks | Originally Published: 01/25/12 9:54pm |Modified: 01/25/12 9:56pm | No comments

With the help of a substantial research grant, an MSU professor is hoping to increase health care opportunities for children in Africa.

Professor of pediatrics Stephen Obaro received a $5.8 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to lead a research team to study the causes of bacterial diseases, such as pneumonia and meningitis, in children in Nigeria.

“The ultimate goal is to decrease child mortality by the appropriate use of preventive measures such as vaccines,” said Obaro, who will be leaving Friday on his first of many visits to Nigeria throughout the next three years.

Obaro and a team of about five or six faculty members will work with local hospitals and communities in Nigeria in an attempt to identify the risk factors that expose children to different kinds of infections. One of the initial tasks in Nigeria will be to set up diagnostic laboratory sites that researchers will use to study children who show disease symptoms, Obaro said.

“We’ll be evaluating children who come in with (a) fever to determine what is causing the fever … and making the appropriate recommendation for treatment,” he said.

Obaro said studies have shown the diseases are a serious problem in Nigeria and other parts of Africa.

“It would appear that a significant number of children who have (a) fever may actually be having some kind of bacterial infection and not malaria, (which) most people would assume is the case,” Obaro said.

Social relations and policy senior Jordan Dickinson said it’s difficult for a country to get ahead in the developing world if it is plagued with different health issues. The scope of the experiment must be large enough to gain accurate conclusions, Dickinson said.

“Bill Gates has so much money, his Gates Foundation can really do a lot of effort,” he said.

A representative from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation declined to comment.

Obaro is hopeful that when his research project concludes, his team’s data will be used for both the promotion of vaccine use in Nigeria and the creation of vaccines not yet in existence.

“Vaccines are available (in Nigeria) but are poorly utilized,” Obaro said. “They are poorly utilized because people ignore them — they’re ignorant about what causes child diseases.”

Religious studies senior Robert VanKirk believes the research could benefit the entire world, not just children in Nigeria. This is the type of research a leading research institution such as MSU should be involved in, he said.

“The whole point is for health and human development,” VanKirk said.