Bloomberg School Receives Grant to Support Trauma and Injury Research in Uganda

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health was recently awarded a five-year training grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study trauma, injuries and disabilities in Uganda. The Johns Hopkins – Makerere University Chronic Consequences of Trauma, Injuries and Disability (JHU-MU Chronic-TRIAD) award will allow researchers from the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit (JH-IIRU) to strengthen research capacity on the long-term health and economic consequences of trauma, injuries and disability across the lifespan in Uganda.

Adnan A. Hyder, MD, PhD, MPH, director of JH-IIRU, will lead a team that includes faculty and researchers from the Bloomberg School, the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Makerere University School of Public Health in Uganda. The team will develop a collaborative program that will train a core group of researchers in Uganda to generate relevant data and apply it for promotion of key national priorities to reduce the growing chronic burden of disability from trauma and injuries across the lifespan.  In addition the team will also establish a sustainable training program that will provide a home for faculty across Makerere University, and develop an annual forum in collaboration with the Ugandan Ministry of Health for research-to-policy dialogue on the chronic consequences of trauma, injuries and disabilities.

“This program will build on more than 10 years of existing collaborative efforts between Johns Hopkins University and Makerere University to address and remedy two critical shortfalls—the lack of trained human resources and the lack of data on the chronic consequences of trauma, injury and disability,” said Steve Wegener, PhD, ABPP, associate professor and director of Rehabilitation Psychology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

“This program will help Uganda recognize, measure and respond to the growing, yet often neglected public health issue of chronic consequences of injury, trauma and disability,” said David Bishai, MD, PhD, MPH, professor with Bloomberg School’s Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health.

“My colleagues and I are looking forward to this partnership with Makerere University and we are appreciative of the support we’ve received from NIH to help improve trauma, injury and disability outcomes in Uganda,” said Hyder, who is the principal investigator of the grant.

The World Health Organization estimates that globally 50 million people suffer serious morbidity and more than 20 million are chronically disabled as a result of trauma and injuries each year. Africa has one of the highest rates of trauma and injuries, and of resulting disabilities.  In Uganda, where this burden is among the highest in Africa, the chronic consequences of trauma, injuries and disabilities are a neglected public health issue.

Media contact: Tim Parsons, director of Public Affairs, at 410-955-7619 or tmparson@jhsph.edu.