During 15th and 22nd June, six members of GHTM travelled to Santiago Island, Cape Verde, to take part in fieldwork for the RESPIRA-CV project.
On this mission, researchers (Ana Paula Arez, Marcelo Ferreira, M. Rosário O. Martins, M. Ceu Teixeira) and PhD students (Iolanda Alves and Ricardo Mendes) from the GHTM-IHMT took part in collecting anthropometric and biological data and administering questionnaires on symptoms of allergic diseases as part of the RESPIRA-CV project.
Funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the La Caixa Foundation, this study aims to improve knowledge, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of asthma and atopic diseases in Cape Verdean children and to develop/strengthen human and institutional capacity to carry out clinical research in this country and in São Tomé and Príncipe.
Led by Isabel Inês Araújo, Professor at the University of Cape Verde and member of the Population Health, Policies and Services Research Group at the IHMT’s GHTM R&D Centre, this work is coordinated by the University of Cape Verde and has the Agostinho Neto Hospital, the Ministry of Health and the Cape Verde Health Centres as partners, the Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine of the NOVA University of Lisbon, through the GHTM R&D Centre, the University Institute of Tropical Diseases and Public Health of Canarias, ULL, La Laguna (IUETSP-ULL), Spain, the National Bioethics Commission, the Ministry of Health, São Tomé and Príncipe and the Global Alliance for Respiratory Diseases in the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (GARD CPLP).
This joint effort promises to bring significant advances in public health in Cape Verde, especially in the prevention and treatment of respiratory and allergic diseases, benefiting children and strengthening clinical research in the region.
RESPIRA-CV began on April 2024 and will be developed in the next 3 years. “This joint effort promises to bring significant advances in public health in Cape Verde, especially in the prevention and treatment of respiratory and allergic diseases, benefiting children and strengthening clinical research in the region”, mentioned Isabel Inês Araújo.
To learn more about this project, please watch the enterview given by the Project Coordinator to the RTC – Rádio Televisão Cabo-verdiana, here: