A doctor who graduated at The University of Manchester last week (10 December 2014) is already using his skills in the world’s newest country to transform the way authorities care for pregnant women.
Charles Nwosisi is originally from Nigeria but has been based in Juba, the capital of South Sudan for the last month. Working for an NGO, he is tasked with bringing his expertise to improve health outcomes through the work in 22 health facilities across the country which has a population of about 10 million people.
The newest country in the world is still building up its infrastructure and needs human resources dedicated to health care service delivery. UNAIDS estimates HIV prevalence to be about 2.2%. Charles’ job is to help train and mentor health staff who are often non-specialists on reproductive health care and to increase the number of pregnant women being tested for HIV in the country.
He said: “Staff in South Sudan are often very enthusiastic, but deal with a heavy workload and a shortage of supplies and equipment, so providing technical help to make the most of the resources they do have is crucial to transforming the situation.”
To help in his role, Charles took a distance learning course at The University of Manchester. The covers subjects such as epidemiology, biostatistics, evidence-based practice and primary health care. In his previous role planning health services in Nigeria he was able to apply his learning directly to practice by using data to predict the areas which would need facilities for HIV testing among pregnant women and then working to resource these facilities.