WHO Africa: Trusting science to improve healthcare: An Interview with Professor Sika Dossim (Togo)
06 May 2026
Below are extracts from a news item on the WHO Africa website
==
Lomé – Protecting health, preventing disease, and improving patient care rely heavily on science. Through research and medical advances, it enables a deeper understanding of health challenges and provides effective solutions. When clearly understood and put to work for the people, science helps concretely to save lives and improve daily well-being.
In Togo, Professor Sika Dossim embodies this commitment. A pharmacist, biologist, and associate professor of microbiology, she is a lecturer and researcher at the University of Kara...
Science helps us better understand diseases: how they emerge, how they spread, and how they can be prevented. It also supports the development of simple and effective tools to monitor public health and respond more quickly when challenges arise.
But to achieve this, it is essential to support research, train enough professionals, and share knowledge. The better science is understood by all, the more effectively it can help protect communities...
==
COMMENT (NPW): I especially like this last comment: 'The better science is understood by all, the more effectively it can help protect communities.' At its most basic, it is about understanding that health care based on science is often, if not usually, safer and more effective than health care based on other paradigms such as tradition or religion. Personally I would like to see deeper understanding of how evidence is translated into policy and practice. A central concept here is the role of evidence synthesis, such as systematic reviews, that have revolutionised the translation of medicine in just the past 50 years. HIFA uses a 6-component graphic, the global evidence ecosystem, to describe this. https://www.hifa.org/about-hifa/hifa-vision-mission-strategy
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org