Correio newspaper | Ufba Faculty of Medicine opens 1st health research center for the black and indigenous population of Bahia

Center will integrate research that must be developed in collaboration with health entities and national and international researchers

Published on April 30, 2024 at 3:38 pm

The Faculty of Medicine of the Federal University of Bahia (FMB/Ufba) inaugurated, on the morning of this Tuesday (30), the International Center for the Study and Research of the Health of the Black and Indigenous Population (CIEPNI) at its headquarters, in Largo Terreiro de Jesus. The initiative, which is the first in the state, aims to expand health studies and research aimed at these two populations, as well as traditional communities, including quilombolas. In the inaugural session, the center’s first perspectives were discussed by entities representing Bahian medicine, university representatives and politicians.

Antônio Alberto Lopes, director of the FMB, highlighted that the center is one of the first achievements of his campaign promise. He, who has always been involved in research that focuses on the health of black people, said that he could not restrict the center to just one ethnic group, so the intention is to leave a diverse legacy. “Not only is it important to bring studies, research and bring people together in favor of this, but to create a new generation of black and indigenous people to become protagonists of society. We are going to have more black and indigenous researchers, and that is the center’s role too,” he said.

Initially, CIEPNI will integrate research related to the health of black and traditional populations that already exists at the Federal University of Bahia, in order to develop it from multidisciplinary perspectives, with researchers from all over Brazil and outside the country. From there, the aim is to produce results and data that, in the future, can serve as a tool for developing public policies.

Rector of Ufba, professor Paulo César Miguez was present at the event and praised the project proposal. “The Faculty of Medicine, once again, faces important challenges facing our state and society. I am absolutely certain of the success that the work that will be developed by this center will achieve. These are works that summarize long-standing research that has been carried out in our university’s laboratory and in research groups, and this center will now guarantee the possibility of leveraging knowledge,” he stated.

Among the research that has already been integrated into CIEPNI are studies on the populations of quilombola fishermen in Santo Amaro and Maragogipe, the dietary health of quilombola shellfish gatherers and the most common diseases in black populations, such as sickle cell anemia, diabetes mellitus and high blood pressure.

For Marilda Gonçalves, researcher Instituto Gonçalo Moniz (IGM) at Fiocruz Bahia and professor of the Pharmacy course at Ufba, the center is a dream come true. “For someone, like me, who has worked for 20 years studying sickle cell disease in the black population, this center is the realization of a dream that is coming true. You can’t measure efforts to make it really work. Fiocruz is available to participate in various activities with all our researchers”, she guaranteed.

In the view of Vanessa Pataxó, a Master’s student in Medicine at Ufba, the center will also occupy an important place in the joint production of knowledge about the populations that take part in these studies. “We produce science within communities, but there is still no space within the university for this. It is a very important agenda combined with collective construction, which involves the active participation of our people, our thoughts, our ways of seeing and doing. It will contribute a lot because it is a very big challenge. When we talk about traditional communities, there is diversity within this axis, so we have to work and contemplate these different voices and bring a broad vision”, she highlighted.

In addition to the research groups, seminars, lectures and congresses will be held based on CIEPNI studies, with the aim of democratizing scientific knowledge through public visits and communication using social networks. The FMB director also spoke about the implementation of awards for the best dissertations with the health of the black and indigenous population as a theme, also as a way of encouraging adherence to these studies.

*With guidance from deputy editor Amanda Palma