Newswise — Cyril Enwonwu ScD, PhD, MDS, of the University of Maryland, Baltimore has been selected by Research!America's Paul G. Rogers Society for Global Health Research to join a group of 25 national health experts to advocate for greaterU.S. investment in global health research.
Enwonwu, a professor at the University's Dental School and adjunct professor at its School of Medicine, is trained in dentistry, public health, and nutritional biochemistry. He has dedicated much of his career to studying the impact of nutrition on health. For more than two decades, he has focused on noma, an oral-facial disease often called the "face of poverty."
Noma is a dreaded scourge, a rapidly spreading gangrenous lesion that devours the faces of its young victims, particularly in developing countries. It is easily preventable with proper nourishment and oral health care. It typifies diseases that result from complex interactions of malnutrition, infections, compromised immunity, and inflammation, says Enwonwu. Having delivered the opening lecture at the first international Noma Day conference in May in Geneva, Switzerland, Enwonwu works with nongovernmental organizations to develop measures to fight the global spread of noma. His work on diseases resulting from malnutrition is beneficial to extremely impoverished people in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, South America, and the Caribbean, but it is not limited to tropical regions. For example, noma-like disease is now showing up as a complication of HIV/AIDS in several resource-rich countries, says Enwonwu.
Enwonwu and 24 other global health researchers were selected to serve as Rogers Society Ambassadors, or scientist-advocates for U.S. funded global health research. They will join 50 previously selected experts in "a united effort to build a national conversation around the value and importance of U.S.-funded global health research," according to the Rogers Society.
Research!America is a not-for-profit public education and advocacy alliance in Alexandria, Va., whose mission is to help make health research a high national priority. The group's Rogers Society, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is named after the late Florida Congressman Paul G. Rogers, known as a champion for health research.
In addition to his appearance in Geneva, Enwonwu has been honored by the Nigerian Government and several humanitarian groups. Also, since July 2006, Enwonwu has been an honorary consultant to a private medical mission organization called the MAMA Project, Inc., based in Pennsburg, Pa. MAMA stands for Mujeres Amigas (Women Friends) Miles Apart. The organization has been putting volunteer teams of physicians and civilians together for more than 20 years to address the issues of severely malnourished children. The MAMA Project began in 1987 working in poor areas of Honduras and has expanded its programs to Haiti and recently to Nigeria.
Many findings from his studies are applicable to the health, security and quality of life of people in the United States as well. "We can apply the information from treating the children in African villages to a better understanding of the complex relationship between oral health and systemic health," says Enwonwu.
Enwonwu and his Rogers Society Ambassador peers were selected by an advisory council comprised of renowned leaders in science, public policy, and communications, including four Nobel Prize winners. Together they will meet with their policymakers to make the case for an increased U.S. investment in global health research through the examples of their own research.
"We have a new Congress and a new administration. Now is the time when we can make a difference for global health research," says John Edward Porter, chair of the Rogers Society Advisory Council and Research!America board chair. "These Ambassadors will be exceptional leaders in advocacy. Their example will serve as an inspiration for every global health researcher" "Paul Rogers' spirit lives on through the work of each of these Ambassadors. As he often said, without research, there is no hope."
Research!America was founded in 1989 and is supported by 500 member organizations, which represent more than 125 million Americans, according to the group's statements.
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The University of Maryland, Baltimore is home to the Dental School, Graduate School, and schools of law, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, public health, and social work. It is the founding campus of the University System of Maryland.
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