Today’s Executive Column guest is Dr. Abebe Genetu. He is a researcher and Director General of Armauer Hansen Research Institute (AHRI). He was Chief Director for Research, Technology Transfer and Community Engagement and also Assistant Professor at University of Gondar. He earned his PhD in Molecular Microbiology from the University of Calgary, Canada.
The Ethiopian Herald had a time of while with Dr. Abebe Genetu.
Herald: Could you give us the backdrop of the Armauer Hansen Research Institute?
Dr. Abebe Genetu: Armauer Hansen Research Institute (AHRI) is a biomedical and clinical research institute under the Ministry of Health (MoH). AHRI was established in 1970 by the Ethiopian government, Swedish, and Norwegian Save the Children.
It was started as leprosy research institute on the premise of ALERT. The idea was to back up leprosy treatment with research and research outputs. So, at the beginning,AHRI has been working on leprosy. Then it added tuberculosis (TB), malaria as well as leishmaniasis in its research portfolio.
Lately, AHRI has expanded its research on HIV, and other infectious diseases and also non communicable diseases. It was a non-governmental organization until 2004. Then, in 2004 the government decided to make it an independent institution. AHRI is one of the six agencies under the MoH.
AHRI has continued conducting research in biomedical, clinical and health biotechnology spheres. It as well renders trainings. Next year AHRI will celebrate its gold-jubilee.
Herald: AHRI is famous for achieving multidrug therapy treatment of leprosy, tell us about that?
Dr. Abebe: Armauer Hansen is a Norwegian physician, who discovered the bacteria that causes leprosy. The Institute is named after the Norwegian physician, Gerhard Henrik Armauer Hansen. He is the one who first described the leprosy bacillus (Mycobacterium leprae). AHRI was established as a biomedical research institute abutting the All Africa Leprosy Rehabilitation and Training Hospital (ALERT). The whole idea was to support the Ethiopian hospitals in particular and the African ones in general conducting research on leprosy.
So, AHRI’s contribution in the fight against leprosy is a big one. To begin with, there was a misconception regarding the cause of leprosy and how leprosy is transmitted. AHRI’s contribution is mainly on the biomedical science researches—how human’s body reacts to the bacteria and how we defend our self from the bacteria.
In the basic science, that time was not very clear and AHRI has made very clear in understanding how bacteria react to the human immune responses. It also contributed on the development and use of drugs for the leprosy treatment. That was one of the AHRI’S earliest contributions.
Herald: What additional researches have you conducted so far?
Dr. Abebe: Since its establishment, AHRI has been experiencing change for the better both in number and quality of researchers. The types of researches that the institute is doing have increased. So, from leprosy it has expanded to other sectors. Now, TB and leprosy research team is one of the strongest research teams.
AHRI had contributed a lot in understanding the basic infection process in TB and how human body interacts with the TB bacteria. That has a big implication in vaccine and drug discovery. Currently, we are contributing on testing different combinations of TB drugs for better treatment.
Recently, we have been involved in a multi-centered clinical trial aiming at treating multi-drug resistant TB. One of the biggest challenges in TB is drug resistances. Before our clinical trial, the treatment of TB bacteria used to take 24 months. Thanks to our push, the time needed is cut down from 24 to 9 months. It is one of the salient achievements the institution has accomplished so far in TB treatment.
Now, we are working on why some people show symptoms of infection and do not get diseased. Some people have bacteria but they do not have the disease. This is one of the points we are working on.
Another is malaria. We have been doing researches that have got international recognition on malaria. There are people who have the parasite without showing the symptoms but that continued transmitting the disease. In addition, we are conducting a study on the vulnerability of adolescent girls and young women to HIV.
We have a clinical trial facility which is primarily dedicated to testing the effectiveness and safety of new and existing drugs. Depending on the stage of the disease, the clinical trials are done on healthy individuals or patients of a particular disease. The clinical trial proposals always go through a rigorous ethics review. It is very common in the world as well as in Africa but we are lagging behind.
In addition to research, AHRI is also working on capacity building by training post-graduate students from several universities in Ethiopia. AHRI gives short courses in different areas of biomedical and clinical research. In addition, PhD and Masters Students who are registered and completed their course works in universities conduct their thesis projects at AHRI. AHRI provides the platform for the thesis projects, provides mentorship and covers all thesis-related expenses.
Currently, we have 49 PhD and 16 MSc pursuing students doing research at AHRI. The collaboration we have with Haramaya University is very special. We do take full charge of PhD students in medical microbiology of the University. We believe that after two rounds of PhD students, Haramaya University will independently run the PhD in Medical Microbiology by itself.
We have contributed our due share by contributing in transitional researches and basic science researches. In translational researches we do a research on the specific disease and we provide The MoH with evidence for policy decision. So, we are contributing on the basic science researches, translational, and post- graduate education.
Herald: Though you have conducted and achieved so many things, the institution wasn’t getting as much attention, how do you see that?
Dr. Abebe: AHRI has been a typical biomedical research institute. But for some reason, it couldn’t do publications to outreach the public with information. Our primary targets were elites in the spheres of natural science. We did conduct a lot of meetings, publications and presentations on what we had been doing. This was one of the reasons why we could not get recognition in the community. We do not hide that the kind of public relation and visibility we have been doing was not sufficient enough.
Currently, we are working to outreach the public on what we are really doing on the health business and health care. Rather than acting as per western interest, it is better to do what our community needs. This helps to get feedback.
Herald: What are the secrets behind the AHRI’s success?
Dr. Abebe: AHRI is international research institute. For any international institute to emerge successful, both researchers and administers have to work hard with an excellent team spirit. Another virtue of ours is the dedication and commitment of researchers. Their commitment really sets a good example for the whole country. Some of our researchers grew up from the diploma level. They feel at home here. Institute members show good Chemistry acting like family members. That is makes the Institute competent and successful in the international arena.
Herald: What are the challenges you have been through?
Dr. Abebe: The institution has been through problems since its establishment due to the political turmoil in the country. In the course of the last fifty years, AHRI was not only surviving but also it was thriving.
Especially, during the military government our researchers couldn’t communicate with their co-researchers and sponsors abroad.
The current challenge is the research literacy. The understanding of the general public regarding the purpose of research is very low. Whenever we go out for research, what the public think is different from what it should. In the health sector, we have a research ethics. Whenever one comes up with a proposal, it has to go through different levels of ethical approval. It starts from institutional, national, and sometimes regulatory approval by the Ethiopian Food and Drug Authority.
So, for a research to be competitive, we have to get all these reviews in time so that we can compete with our counterparts abroad. The delay in ethical approval process has been posing a problem. We are not trying to evade the ethical process but the review process should be fast and delivered on time. Space is also one of the biggest challenges we are facing since it was started.
Procurement is the other national challenge in the country as well as AHRI. For a very good quality research to be done, we need to have a good quality material and laboratory equipment. If we fail to fulfill these, the research output could not be as expected.
Hurdles in import and export have been the other challenge we have been facing.
Herald: What should be done to curb the problems?
Dr. Abebe: As I always advocate, there has to be a very good communication with the general public. We need to upturn the research literacy of the country. We need to create a society that appreciates the value of research. Unless we engage in a research, we cannot give a quality service. We have to be hard at work to engage the public in a formal and informal ways of sensitization tasks. We have to create awareness about the value of researches.
Herald: The institution is going to celebrate its gold jubilee, tell me about that?
Dr. Abebe: As I said before, in a developing country surviving and thriving as a research institution for a period that spans five decades is worth to crow about. We are planning to have a six month celebration. We want to see this opportunity to discuss what AHRI can do in the future.
Moreover, we want to invite experts across the globe. We want to convey what we opt to do the coming fifty years. We want all to recognize what we have been doing in line with the science and health policy of Ethiopia.
In addition, we want to exploit the opportunity for fund raising. These are entailed in the objectives of gold jubilee of ours. The other thing is partnership. We want to get more partnership. Currently, among others, we do have partners from Europe like UK, Sweden, Norway and Asian like Bangladesh.
Finally, scientific presentations are scheduled. We will have media events, seminars and recognition for the researchers and former directors who are behinds AHRI’s success.
Herald: What plans do you have down the road?
Dr. Abebe: The primary objective is helping the MoH regarding evidence based policy making. Focusing on the primary health problem in the country is the other area of our plan down the road. Conducting different researches and studies that could trouble Ethiopian health problems is also entailed in our plan down the road.
In the coming few years, we are going to have a brand new laboratory and I hope that will help us to have quantities and qualities researches.
Finally I would like to say, everything has to be supported by research. All media outlets should work on creating awareness on the use of research findings.
The Ethiopian Herald Sunday Edition 7 July 2019
BY AMBO MEKASA
