Studies led by Dr. George Armah will have worldwide impact, but he looks to how they can make life better for his own community.
An avid investigator of rotavirus for more than 25 years, Dr. George Armah hopes that his own drive is reflected in the momentum of future policy decisions on rotavirus vaccines in Africa. Such policies will be boosted by data from critical studies including the one he directed on behalf of PATH and Merck to evaluate the RotaTeq® vaccine in Ghana.
Above all, he would like to see his team’s work ease the burden of parents who travel miles on bicycle or by foot to seek treatment for their ailing children. Prevention with rotavirus vaccines could be an important solution.
Dr. Armah’s initial work with rotaviruses focused on strain identification and epidemiology, eventually leading to his post as researcher and principal investigator on immunogenicity studies of rotavirus vaccines manufactured by Wyeth and GlaxoSmithKline.
In mid-2006, PATH partnered with the Navrongo Health Research Centre, where Dr. Armah led a team of researchers conducting a clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of RotaTeq® among infants. The partnership allows the Navrongo Centre to build capacity in human resources and research skills, and in turn the investigators are contributing crucial data not only to inform the use of rotavirus vaccines in Ghana but also to benefit the global public health community.
The trial is now complete, and study results are expected in 2010.