République Centrafricaine formation universitaire de spécialistes en santé bucco-dentaire
The lessons of the second year of the three-year course for specialists in 'License en Sciences Odontologiques' in the new training 'Dental Center' financed by the CEI have begun at the Université de Bangui. In partnership with the Ministère de la Santé et de la Population, the Université de Bangui and with the Italian association Amici per il Central Africa, at the Mama Carla health center in Bangui, a center was created for the training of specialists for prevention and assistance of oral diseases with 7 operating units. This project is an integral part of a national intervention program of the SMOM association, which will strengthen the national health and educational system of the Central African Republic by qualifying health personnel capable of implementing oral health policies throughout the national territory. The training project, conducted by expatriate staff and Central African specialists, will allow 10 specialists in the prevention, therapy and rehabilitation of oral diseases to graduate in 'License en Sciences Odontologiques' every year. Today in the Central African Republic there are 5.2 million inhabitants, with the highest index of African oral pathology, there are only 5 Dentists and 4 TSOs, Higher Technicians of Odontostomatology and all residents in the capital Bangui. In the absence of qualified personnel, the theoretical doctor / patient ratio in 2020 is 1: 430,000, the African average is 1: 150,000. In a nation where the absence of preventive health information, of public or private dental facilities, causes the population to have a high prevalence of dental and periodontal pathology and in often immunosuppressed patients, serious repercussions on general health, sometimes fatal. . Currently, the DMTF pathology index is the highest in the entire African continent.
General objective
Improve the quality of life and resilience of the population
Specific Objectives
Create a dental center for study, training and promotion for oral health
Support a three-year course of study for the training of oral health specialists.
Establish dental surgeries in rural hospitals conducted by qualified personnel
Project actors
Ministère de la Santé and de la Population de la République Centrafricaine
University of Bangui,
SMOM odv e
the Association "Friends for Central Africa".
Expected results
Reduce the prevalence of verified oral disease with epidemiological investigations Provide the national health system 10 oral health specialists each year.
Need Analysis
Considering the numbers announced previously (12 specialists for 5.1 million inhabitants), the need for staff training is very urgent. Currently, those who do not live in the capital Bangui, in a territory double of Italy by extension, are forced to turn to the shaman who, through a herbal pack, produces the maceration of the tooth (resulting in abscess and stable facial deformation). The local university does not have a course in dentistry and the dental facilities of the hospitals in the capital are dilapidated. Despite the fact that there is a lack of adequate facilities and financial coverage for a similar project. In the Central African Republic the high index of caries pathology is accompanied by a high index for Noma, a necrotizing inflammatory pathology of oral and perioral tissues with a mortality rate of 90%. SMOM began its activities in République Centrafricaine in 2008 with the outpatient clinic in the village of Bozoum with the “Friends for Central Africa Association”, at the local branch of the Carmelite Fathers. The absence of local specialist personnel forced us to send volunteer missions from Italy to help the population (around 16,000 inhabitants) and a much wider catchment area in the region.
Activities
The activities for the realization of this project start from afar, with Carla Pagani we began to hypothesize a training intervention in 2010. The arrival of the civil war led us to resume the contacts and to sign an agreement between the parties only in 2018. A framework agreement with the Ministry of Health, the Université de Bangui and the ACA association, and the first nucleus of the 'Mama Carla' dental clinic was inaugurated at the health center of the ACA association in Bangui. The first lessons began in March 2020 after the selection of 15 students from the rural provinces of the country who passed an entrance test. The ACA association with the financing of the CEI, the Italian Episcopal Congregation, has built a building equipped with 5 operational units for the theoretical and practical training. SMOM
Project Attachments