Addis Ababa University Faculty joins National COVID-19 Taskforce
The university has been engaged in front-line work and support for front line workers in many ways. First, faculty of the university form part of the national COVID-19 task force working with the Ministry of Health to address the pandemic. They are involved in providing advice, supporting evidence generation and the provision as well as mounting of surveillance in health facilities and burial sites.
The University has also offered its lab Facility at Aklilu Lemma Institute of Pathobiology to be earmarked as a centre for testing potential COVID-19 cases in the country, in addition to making two of its campuses available to the Ministry of Health to be used as quarantine centres for possible COVID-19 patients. Again, the Addis Abba University Institute for Technology, as well as the College of Health Sciences, have developed locally-made hand sanitisers for local use. Additoinally, the university has produced personal protective equipment (PPE) such as face shields and bubble helmets (a transparent hood that covers the entire head of the patient with a rubber collar neck seal) to be used by health workers and patients.
Futhermore, a COVID-19 response research working group comprising faculty from different colleges and research institutes has been constituted and allocated an amount of ten million ETB to enhance research. Their focus areas include Psycho-Social and Economic Impacts, Epidemiological and Clinical, Molecular Epidemiology, Vaccines and Diagnostics Development. Again, two faculty members from AAU formed part of the COVID-19 Clinical Research Coalition, which aims to accelerate research on the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 in low- and middle-income countries.
