Links Grantees /
The African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET)
Community-based hypertension care in Nigeria
Status: Ongoing

AFENET is a field epidemiology training institution that supports ministries of health to strengthen public health programs across Africa, including Nigeria.
With support from LINKS, AFENET and partners will scale up the Community Action Against Non-Communicable Disease (COMAAND) project, a local initiative using community-based strategies to address hypertension and reduce non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Nigeria. The expanded project in Anambra, Nigeria will include raising public awareness about high blood pressure, training community members and health care workers on hypertension screening and care, and securing essential hypertension medications.
AFENET will implement the expansion with two partners from the pilot phase of the COMAAND project: University of Abuja’s Centre of Circulatory Health, which specializes in research, training and policy formulation aimed at reducing the burden of noncommunicable diseases, and the Society for Public Health and Social Development, a Nigerian public health NGO.
"As a cardiologist practicing in Nigeria, I have been very frustrated by the fact that many hypertensive patients present at various advanced stages with many complications. The LINKS grant will surely change the narrative of hypertension and its complications in my community by strengthening the technical capacity and resources for hypertension prevention and control at the community and primary health care levels.”
Prof. Augustine Odili, Circulatory Health Research Laboratory, University of Abuja/AFENET
Read the full press release.