Enreca Health > About > Participants > Bandim Health Project
The Bandim Health Project, Guinea Bissau
Institutional background in brief: The Bandim Health Project was initiated in 1978 with the aim of improving child survival in Guinea Bissau. The project is currently based on collaboration between the Ministry of Health, Guinea Bissau, Statens Serum Institut Denmark, and researchers affiliated to University of Copenhagen, and University of Aarhus, Denmark.
Research focus
The Bandim Health Project has in the past 25 years expanded its focus to include
Population based health research, primarily focusing on child and maternal health, including studies of the epidemiology or treatment of measles, lower respiratory infection, RSV, diarrhoea, malaria, TB and HIV.
The Project has also worked extensively with the effects of health strategies promoted by the international community, including vaccination strategies, breastfeeding promotion, diarrhoea control, vitamin A supplementation and micronutrient supplementation during pregnancy.
Under these headlines, the main research components include:
Measles: epidemiology, mortality and vaccination
Diarrhoea and its etiology
Respiratory infections and malaria
Nutrition, including micronutrients and breastfeeding
The health system: epidemiology and mortality
Unspecific effects of routine vaccinations (child mortality)
Tuberculosis, HIV, and immunodeficiency
Population growth and its health consequences
Humanitarian aid and the consequences of war
Researchers’ profiles
The academic staff includes 15 Guinean physicians and 2 expatriate (a
physician and an anthropologist). The project also includes close to
100 local supervisors, field workers, technicians and other staff.
Currently, 14 Ph.D. students are affiliated to the project.
Research collaboration
The Bandim Health project collaborates with the Medical Research Council Laboratories in the Gambia, and the French IRD (Institute
of Development Research), Senegal.
Aarhus University, Denmark
Leiden University, Holland, IRD, Montpellier, France
Involvement in capacity development (examples)
During the course of this project, 25 doctor or Ph.D. degrees have been
concluded. Also eight Guinean/Senegalese Masters of Science have been
completed.
The researchers in the Bandim group have taken part in the formation of the Graduate School of International Health.
Consultancies
No
Peer reviewed publications
Gustafson P, Gomes VF, Vieira CS, Seng R, Samb B, Nauclér A, Aaby P. Tuberculosis mortality during a civil war in Guinea-Bissau. JAMA 2001;286:599-603
Benn
CS, Bale C, Sommerfelt H, Friis H, Aaby P. Vitamin A supplementation
and childhood mortality: Amplification of the non-specific effects of
vaccines? Int J Epidemiol 2003:32: 822-8
Garly ML, Martins CL, Balé C, Baldé MA, Hedegaard KL, Gustafson P,
Lisse IM, Whittle HC, Aaby P. BCG scar and positive tuberculin reaction
associated with reduced child mortality: A non-specific beneficial
effect of BCG? Vaccine 2003;21:2782-90
Holmgren B, da Silva Z, Larsen O, Vastrup P, Andersson S, Aaby P. Dual
infections of HIV-1, HIV-2, and HTLV-I are more common in older women
than men in Guinea-Bissau. AIDS 2003;17:241-53
Steinsland H, Valentiner-Branth P, Gjessing HK, Aaby P, Mølbak K,
Sommerfelt H. Protection from natural infections with enterotoxigenic
Esherichia coli: longitudinal study. Lancet 2003; 362: 286-91.
Aaby P, Jensen H, Samb B, Cisse B, Sodeman M, Jakobsen M, Poulsen A,
Rodrigues A, Lisse IM, Simondon F, Whittle H. Differences in
female-male mortality after high-titre measles vaccine and association
with subsequent vaccination with diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis and
inactivated poliovirus: reanalysis of West African studies. Lancet 2003;361: 2183-88
Aaby P, Jensen H, Rodrigues A, Garly ML, Benn CS, Lisse IM, Simondon F. Divergent female-male mortality ratios associated with different routine vaccinations among female-male twin pairs. Int J Epidemiol 2004;33:367-73
Aaby P, Jensen H, Gomes J, Fernandes M, Lisse IM. The introduction of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine and child mortality in rural Guinea-Bissau: An observational study. Int J Epidemiol 2004,33:374-80
Benn
CS, Melbye M, Wohlfahrt J, Björkstén B, Aaby P. Cohort study of sibling
effect, infectious diseases, and risk of atopic dermatitis during the
first 18 months of life. BMJ 2004;1223
Garly ML, Jensen H, Martins CL, Balé C, Balde MA, Lisse IM, Aaby P
Hepatitis-B vaccination may be associated with an increased female
mortality in Guinea-Bissau: An observational study. Pediatr Infect Dis J (in press)
