The Dr Pascoal Mocumbi Prize, awarded every two years, recognises outstanding achievements in advancing health research and capacity development in Africa having significant impact on the wellbeing of African populations. During Sunday’s opening plenary session, Professor Debrah was introduced by Marcel Tanner, EDCTP High Representative for Europe, who noted that the award “was recognition of outstanding, wonderful contributions, not only in science, not only in just writing a paper, but also in building capacity and also being interested in carrying the product of science through to communities.”
Professor Debrah has made a major contribution to the battle against neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), particularly lymphatic filariasis (caused by Wuchereria bancrofti) and onchocerciasis (river blindness, due to Onchocerca volvulus infections).
His research has spanned all aspects of lymphatic filariasis, including mechanisms of disease, treatment and delivery of care. Although drugs such as ivermectin have activity against filarial parasites, they have no effect on adult worms and do not address clinical consequences such as elephantiasis. Professor Debrah has focused on treatment strategies targeting commensal Wolbachia bacteria, including doxycycline. When resistance to ivermectin was detected in onchocerciasis patients in Ghana, doxycycline was successfully deployed to treat them.
Professor Debrah has also made landmark contributions to pathways of care. He was instrumental in the creation of elephantiasis management clinics and also helped to establish mobile phone-based case reporting in remote areas, to ensure more people gain access to care.
Global leadership
Having joined KNUST in 2007, Professor Debrah has become a national, regional and global scientific leader. He has been appointed to multiple national and international committees, and has made presentations at the UN General Assembly Science Summit in New York, USA.
Professor Debrah has established and led multiple international collaborations, particularly with researchers and institutions in Germany. For the past eight years, he has led the Tackling the Obstacles to fight Filariasis and Podoconiosis (TAKeOFF) Consortium, which has received more than €16m funding from the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
Strengthening capacity
He has also made many contributions to capacity building in Africa. As the Director of the TAKeOFF consortium, he has helped to establish a Filarial Clinical Trial and Research Platform (F-CuRE) in Ghana, Cameroon and Tanzania. He also set up the German–West African Centre for Global Health and Pandemic Prevention (G-WAC), which is building capacity in pandemic prevention and preparedness.
Professor Debrah has demonstrated exceptional expertise, leadership and dedication to advancing knowledge and practice, and has been instrumental in the near elimination of lymphatic filariasis in Ghana.
Professor Debrah received the award from Dr Sabin Nsanzimana, Rwanda’s Minister of Health. Accepting the award, he thanked EDCTP, and acknowledged the great contributions made by colleagues, collaborators and other NTD researchers, as well as policymakers and communities who shared his passion to reduce the burden of NTDs. Although much progress has been made, there is still much to be done. Nevertheless, he concluded on a note of optimism: “It is my hope that, with all hands on deck, we will be able to eliminate all NTDs from the world and achieve the WHO NTD agenda by 2030.”