Dr. Benson Hamooya (Mulungushi University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Zambia), Dr. Godlove Wepnje (University of Buea, Cameroon), Dr. Simon Manga (Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Service, Cameroon), and Dr. Alan T. N. Tita (Heersink School of Medicine, U.S.)Representatives from the Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Service (CBCHS), a partner of the Mary Heersink Institute for Global Health, recently visited UAB’s campus. The visit was associated with the Cameroon Health Initiative at UAB (CHI-UAB) involving CBCHS and UAB faculty.
Simon Manga, Ph.D., an adjunct instructor in the UAB Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the deputy director of Clinical Services for CBCHS, was a part of this visit. He first connected with UAB in 2019 when he gained admission as the first postdoctoral scholar in Global Reproductive Health at the Center for Women's Reproductive Health.
Manga was admitted into an INSIGHT Fogarty fellowship, a one-year postdoc in Global Health run by a consortium of four universities: the University of Maryland Baltimore, the University of Pittsburgh, Baylor School of Medicine, and UAB. UAB is his host university, and he was able to meet with his mentors on the project, Alan T. N. Tita, M.D., Ph.D., and Isabel Scarinci, Ph.D.
The team is comparing visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) screening method with human papillomavirus (HPV) screening method in relation to cervical cancer prevention in a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) care and treatment clinic in Cameroon. In this ongoing study, the team is comparing the proportion of treatment-eligible patients who received treatment in the HPV group versus the VIA group and assessing the factors of treatment uptake among treatment-eligible women in the HPV group.
Throughout this visit, Manga also presented the results of his Sparkman Center for Global Health-funded project to students, staff, and faculty of UAB and met with several faculty and students to discuss collaboration. The Sparkman project was a qualitative pilot study on Sociocultural and Structural Inequities Affecting Women’s Health among Female Sex Workers (FSWs) in Cameroon.
If you are interested in partnering with Dr. Manga on his research projects in Cameroon, please contact him at smanga@uab.edu.