Announcing the Recipients of the 2018-2019 TEPHINET Non-Communicable Disease Small Grants (Formerly Known as Mini-Grants)
By:
Tina Rezvani, Communications Manager

TEPHINET is pleased to announce the 15 recipients of the 2018-2019 Non-communicable Disease Small Grants.

This year’s group of investigators, who began working on their projects between July and September of this year, comprises current fellows and/or recent graduates of Field Epidemiology Training Programs (FETPs) from 11 countries. Many will be presenting their work at the 10th TEPHINET Global Scientific Conference scheduled from October 28 through November 1 in Atlanta.

The TEPHINET Small Grants Program focuses on building the capacity of FETP fellows and graduates through mentored projects in both infectious and non-communicable disease epidemiology. Initiated in 2010 under the moniker of "mini-" (and, subsequently, "midi-" grants), the program has to date made available close to 200 mentored small grants of $5,000 to $15,000 in topic areas ranging from emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases to birth defects, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, environmental health, injury, maternal and child health, and tobacco. TEPHINET’s funding partners for these small grants have included different divisions within the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the CDC Foundation, the Skoll Global Threats Fund, and the Biosecurity Engagement Program (BEP) of the U.S. Department of State.

Through the Small Grants Program, TEPHINET connects successful grant awardees to subject matter experts (SMEs)/mentors from the CDC and National Cancer Institute/National Institutes of Health (NCI/NIH) who advise and guide the grantees for the duration of their project’s implementation. Projects usually last between six months to a year and provide selected applicants from FETPs around the world an opportunity to benefit from technical expertise situated at the CDC and NCI/NIH in USA to complement in-country/local mentorship. The program also facilitates travel support to past and present grantees for presenting their work at international scientific conferences, including TEPHINET’s global scientific conference held every other year.

Congratulations to the recipients:

  • Ghamdan Al-Kholidy: “Non-communicable diseases household survey data analysis, Sana’a City, 2017” (Yemen)
  • Christabel Ayepah: “Proportion of individuals with elevated blood pressure (BP) during community-based screening that follow up at health facility, and barriers for follow up, Sekondi Takoradi, 2019” (Ghana)
  • Concepcion Esmeralda Barrera: “Health care accessibility of people with hypertension in primary health care centers in San Martín municipality” (Argentina)
  • Diana Bocanegra: “Analysis of reported cases of Huntington's disease in the surveillance system, Colombia, 2016-2018” (Colombia)
  • Mohammad Rashedul Hassan: “Strengthening hypertension screening in community clinics of a rural area of Bangladesh” (Bangladesh)
  • Nanono Jackline: “Assessing service availability and readiness of health facilities to offer hypertension diagnosis services in Wakiso District, Uganda” (Uganda)
  • Gurmeet Katoch: “Establishing hypertension cohort surveillance in a hilly state of India, Himachal Pradesh” (India)
  • Getahun Kebede: “Blood pressure control and factors associated with adherence to anti-hypertensive therapy among adult patients with hypertension in primary health care facilities of Tigray Region, Northern Ethiopia, 2019” (Ethiopia)
  • Abhishek Kunwar: “Availability of antihypertensive drugs included in the standard treatment protocol in four Indian states under the India Hypertension Management Initiative (IHMI) program” (India)
  • Annie Marielle Mengue Essindi: “Factors related to therapeutic adherence among known Cameroonian hypertensive patients in Yaoundé – Centre Region, 2019: Prevention and challenges” (Cameroon)
  • Nadia Noreen: “Drug adherence for antihypertensive medications and its determinants among adult hypertensive patients attending in cardiology clinic of tertiary care hospital in ICT” (Pakistan)
  • Simon Packer: “An evaluation of the utility of the new national ambulance dispatch syndromic surveillance system for extreme weather events” (United Kingdom)
  • Rontgen Saigal: “Compliance to hypertension treatment protocols in the four Indian states, India” (India)
  • Henok Solomon: “Evaluation of compliance to smoke-free policy in public places of selected sub-cities of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 2019” (Ethiopia)
  • Aman Ullah: “An appraisal of the risk of aflatoxin M1 excreted in milk in periurban dairy farms in Islamabad Capital Territory, Pakistan” (Pakistan)