Tobacco and heart disease!!!

Date: 31 May 2018

Every year, on 31 May, WHO and partners mark World No Tobacco Day (WNTD), highlighting the health and other risks associated with tobacco use, and advocating for effective policies to reduce tobacco consumption.

The focus of this year’s World No Tobacco Day is "Tobacco and heart disease." The campaign will increase awareness on the:

• Link between tobacco and heart and other cardiovascular diseases (CVD), including stroke, which combined are the world’s leading causes of death;
• Feasible actions and measures that key audiences, including governments and the public, can take to reduce the risks to heart health posed by tobacco.

World No Tobacco Day 2018 coincides with a range of global initiatives and opportunities aimed at addressing the tobacco epidemic and its impact on public health, particularly in causing the deaths and sufferings of millions of people globally and in many low and middle-income countries including Ghana.

The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) is a £3.4million programme of training and research funded by the Research Council of UK as part of general aid to support the development of capacities to of tobacco control experts to bring down the effects of the tobacco menace. It involves UK academics in five universities along with research organisations in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Ghana (represented by the KNUST-School of Public Health), India, South Africa and Uganda.

VISION: The vision of the GCRF is to build capacity in partnership with research teams in Low and middle-income countries (LMICs) to conduct high quality applied health research; address gaps in international tobacco control research; and to apply this enhanced capacity to support wider efforts to address non-communicable diseases in LMICs.

AIM: To improve research capacity in LMICs to conduct high quality studies that will generate evidence on how to reduce morbidity and mortality caused by tobacco use and to advance key development priorities.

 Develop a consortium of partners worldwide

• Establish and train a cohort of post-doctoral fellows
• Develop new studies focused on tobacco control through a process of co-creation with policy makers and others.
• Apply findings from these studies to inform effective control measures
• Engage post-doctoral fellows, co-applicants and collaborators in existing and new training opportunities.
• Invest in wider stakeholder engagement to identify pathways to impact and future sustainability.

GHANA PROJECTS:

• Under the auspices of the consortium, the Ghana team will conduct a couple of research projects that would seek to enhance capacities in areas that require urgent action. The proposed research ideas will include the following thematic areas within the GCRF objectives.

              1. Illicit tobacco trade

              2. Tobacco Taxation

              3. Smoke-free policies

For more information contact the Dean, School of Public Health, KNUST Kumasi

 http://sph.knust.edu.gh