Supporting children’s health in rural Uganda

Mary Nyantaro is a research scientist at the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI), Entebbe. In the year In 2010, she received her bachelor’s degree in medicine and surgery from Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Uganda. She worked as a General Practitioner in Obstetrics and Pediatrics at Kiwoko Hospital in Uganda for two years and then joined UVRI. In the year In 2015, she received her master’s degree in Paediatrics and Child Care from Makerere College of Health Sciences in Kampala, and in 2021 she completed her Master’s degree in Public Health at the University of Manchester. She is currently coordinating a clinic in Masaka, Uganda. Trials to test a new schedule for vaccinating children against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP).

Why did you study two master’s degrees?

They support each other. My degree in Paediatrics and Child Care from Makerere gave me real-world work experience treating children. My degree program in Manchester introduced me to research methods such as qualitative research, biostatistics and epidemiology. That experience helped me a lot when I was preparing my research proposal for applying to PhD programs.

Tell us more about your work at UVRI.

I am the coordinator of the project exploring the right time to protect children from DTP in Uganda. The current guidelines are set by the World Health Organization. It was in 1984, but many countries have their own vaccination programs. As of 2021, we have recruited 956 children, and hope to have our own program based on data from Uganda within the next 3-4 years.

Government agencies often find it difficult to find workers to work in rural areas. What is it like to work in Masaka, 130 kilometers from Kampala?

Working here has allowed me to serve the community. I learned a lot about managing clinical trials. UVRI has a center of excellence in the region, and I have a supportive husband who lives and works in Kampala, and he doesn’t mind that I work in Masaka during the week and go home on weekends.

I can only talk about scientists. Our wages are low, and they should be increased. Paying science teachers well will motivate more students to study science and become researchers. Then, we will have a large pool of people who can innovate.

How can research be improved in Uganda and Africa in general?

We have enough manpower, but I wish we had more mentors at the early career levels and at the undergraduate level. I would like to see a senior professor teaching students the entire research cycle, including how to write a scientific paper. I think all undergraduates should take a research methods course.

Also, the government should have a greater say in the research agenda. Currently, most research is donor-driven rather than based on needs assessment. We rely heavily on protocols borrowed from other countries that don’t exactly match our health care systems. And the government should place strict limits on how much research benefits, such as intellectual property or inventions, that benefit the donor and Ugandans.

What are your plans for the future?

I am pursuing my PhD in Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in London. I want to study Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, where babies under the age of one year die for no apparent reason in their sleep. There is little research on this in sub-Saharan African countries outside of South Africa. I plan to look at risk factors such as smoking and mothers co-sleeping with their babies. Ultimately, I want to be an independent researcher who wins grants to run my own research group.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.