The protecting.health global initiative now has the opportunity to include the African continent as well. Ferenc Krausz announced this in his presentation at the 75th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting.
Ferenc Krausz introduced Prof. John Amuasi during his “Nobel Hour”: a 1-hour Q&A session with students and interested guests. Dr. Amuasi, who is affiliated with the School of Public Health of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, Ghana, and the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM) in Hamburg, Germany, wrote Ferenc earlier:
“Your work is of critical relevance globally to promoting health in the real sense of well-being. Thinking about your work within the frame of promoting healthy sustainable socioecological systems (One Health), and the fact that Africa accounts for at the very least, 70% of the world’s genetic variation, I would like to ask if you would be interested in exploring the possibility of protecting.health/africa”.
This email triggered intense discussions between the two groups about the feasibility of extending the protecting.health initiative to the African continent.
“This is a wonderful opportunity to involve even more people from diverse ethnic backgrounds in our effort to develop the world’s first screening platform for a range of non-communicable diseases and – at the same time – build mutually beneficial academic exchange between our universities and countries” says Ferenc Krausz.
John Amuasi is also enthusiastic. “I am fascinated by the concept, methodology and ambitious goals of the protecting.health initiative and we are excited and eager to make a significant contribution. To the benefit of Africa and the rest of the world.”
Initial promising exploratory talks took place shortly after the event in Lindau at the Center for Advanced Laser Applications in Garching.
Photos: Thorsten Naeser and Frank Fleischmann
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