Editorial Board
Dr Edward Eremugo Kenyi, MBBS, MScIH, HHH Fellow
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Email: [email protected]
Edward is a physician and public health specialist, with special interest in implementation of sound primary health care policies and practices in low and middle income countries, especially ending preventable maternal mortality and morbidity, communicable diseases and HIV/AIDS.
Edward graduated from the University of Juba in 1999 and has Master of Science Degree from the University of Heidelberg in 2007. He recently completed the prestigious Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship at the Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University (USA).
He worked in Sudan and South Sudan in different capacities and projects such as the six years with The Leprosy Mission International Sudan Programme; a PHC Advisor in the Sudan Health Transformation Programme Phase Two (SHTP II), a USAID funded project in South Sudan; and as PM and Deputy Chief of Party for Jhpiego at the Integrated Service Delivery Project (ISDP) managed by MCHIP (USAID).
Edward was the founding President of the South Sudan Doctors’ Association (SOSDA) and served in the Board of the South Sudan General Medical Council.
Dr Eluzai Abe Hakim, MB. Ch.B, FRCP Edin, FRCP, DTM&H, Pg.Cert.Health R&D
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Email: [email protected]
Dr Eluzai Hakim founded the South Sudan Medical Bulletin (later renamed the South Sudan Medical Journal - SSMJ) in 2008 whilst a Consultant Physician in Rehabilitation and Stroke Medicine at Saint Mary’s Hospital, Isle of Wight, UK. The aim of SSMJ is to improve medical, nursing, pharmacy, and laboratory Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and health provision in South Sudan.
In addition to clinical work, Dr Hakim has taught and examined doctors at undergraduate and postgraduate level. He supervised and assessed trainees on placement to the Stroke Unit and medical wards, and examined final year medical students at the University of Southampton Medical School. On retirement in 2015, he was a joint recipient of the “Educator of the year” at St. Mary’s Hospital.
He continues to examine on the Practical Assessment of Clinical Examination Skills of the UK Royal College of Physicians, is Associate Editor of SSMJ, is International Adviser to the Royal College of Physicians of London on South Sudan and sits on the Executive Committee of the Gordon Memorial College Trust Fund, a UK based charity which supports postgraduate training for Sudanese and South Sudanese students. Although retired he keeps updated through CPD.
Dr Wani Mena, MBchB, MMed (Ophth), MSc ClinEpi, Cert CEH
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Email: [email protected]
Dr Wani Mena currently works at the Mutare Medical Centre, Zimbabwe in charge of the Eye Department which he founded. He is Head of the Juba Teaching Hospital Eye Department, is Director of Eye Services and National Coordinator for the prevention of blindness, Ministry of Health, South Sudan. He holds a MMed (Ophth), a MSc in Clinical Epidemiology from the University of Zimbabwe and a Certificate in Community Eye Health from the University of Cape Town. He gained his medical degree from the University of Nairobi in 1988.
He has been a consultant at CBM eye care programme in South Sudan from 2008 – 2015; he participated in drawing up the national plan for eye care and in establishing the training programme for ophthalmic clinical officers and cataract surgeons and is the current Director of the recently established Institute of Ophthalmology. He is a member of the College of Ophthalmology for East, Central and Southern Africa (COECSA) and a reviewer for the Journal of Ophthalmology for East, Central and Southern Africa (JOECSA).
Ann Burgess, BSc Nutrition, MPH
MANAGING EDITOR
Email: [email protected]
Ann Burgess is a non-medical nutritionist and editor. She has lived in Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, and the Philippines working on the management of malnutrition, on nutrition surveys, and with nutrition education services. She has taught at universities in Kenya, the Philippines and UK and has been a consultant in East and West Africa for various UN agencies and NGOs. With colleagues, she has produced a variety of nutrition materials, including textbooks, mainly for ‘middle-level’ African health professionals, and has published in several journals. Her main professional interest is in the sharing of practical health information relevant to Africa.
Ann visited South Sudan when her father was the Medical Officer in Li Rangu – hence her interest in the country. She has helped to edit most issues of the South Sudan Medical Journal and presently lives in Scotland.
Dr David Tibbutt
CHIEF REVIEWER
Dr David Tibbutt gained a degree in Animal Physiology (1963) and then qualified (1967) in Medicine from the University of Oxford undertaking most of his junior hospital doctor posts at the Oxford Radcliffe Infirmary. He worked (1965) as Lecturer in Physiology at Makerere University Medical School, Uganda and as Consultant Physician and Cardiologist at Worcester Royal Infirmary, UK (1976 - 1998). He is a past Adviser for Continuing Medical Education in Uganda, Editor of the "Uganda CME Newsletter" and Visiting Physician to Kitovu Hospital, Uganda and Kirambi Health Centre, Rwanda. He has led a team from Worcester City, and supported by the Commonwealth Local Government Forum, to assist a district council in Ghana with a local economic development programme. He was Mayor of Worcester (May 2011 - May 2012).
Dr Tibbutt has a passionate interest in the fundamental aspects of healthcare: history and examination, attention to clinical detail, clear medical record keeping, inter- and intra-professional communication and problem solving. Get these right and much else falls into place. The optimum use of the resources we have is crucial the world over and especially in these difficult financial times.
Dr John Adwok, MBBS, MMED(Surg.), FCS(ECSA), FRCS(Edin.), FACS, PhD.
MEMBER
Consultant General & Endocrine Surgeon
Professor Adwok was a tutor and lecturer in clinical surgery at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Nairobi intermittently for 26 years until voluntary retirement in 2011. His work covers the field of general surgery with special interest if not expertise in thyroid, parathyroid and breast surgical diseases.
He holds an MBBS degree from the University of Khartoum (1978), a Master's Degree in Surgery, MMed (Surg.) (1984) from the University of Nairobi and a PhD in Health Care Administration from Capella University, Minnesota, USA. Dr Adwok had additional training in Endocrine and General Surgery at the University of Düsseldorf, Germany between 1987 and 1989 and is also a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh by examination (1990).
Additional professional recognitions and honours include: Fellowship of the American College of Surgeons, Membership of the International Surgical Society, Membership of the American Society of Breast Surgeons, Fellowship of the College of Surgeons of East, Central, and Southern Africa, as well as Membership of the International Association of Endocrine Surgeons and Fellowship of the Royal Society of Medicine. He is the current Chairman of the South Sudan General Medical Council among several other affiliations.
Dr Charles Saki Bakheit, PhD
MEMBER
Dr Bakheit is a retired Associate Professor of Mathematics and Statistics. He worked at the Sultan Qaboos University in Oman and was Associate Professor and Secretary for Academic Affairs in University of Juba, South Sudan.
He was born in Juba in 1946 and educated at Rumbek Secondary School. When the civil war broke out in 1962, he continued his schooling in Uganda. He studied Mathematics at Makerere University, Kampala. He went to the University of Waterloo in Canada gaining an MSc. Degree in Combinatorics and Optimization. In 1977 he joined the University of Juba as a teaching assistant in Mathematics, at. He earned a PhD. in Applied Probability at Durham University, UK.
He is passionate about higher education in South Sudan and has been involved in publishing several articles about developing higher educational institutions. With two colleagues he studied the status of the five public universities in South Sudan making important recommendations. He is a member of the National Council for Higher Education (South Sudan), and has been a long serving Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Gurtong Peace Project. His research publications include applications of statistics and applied probability in biological and medical fields.
Dr Charles O. C. Langoya MBBS, MSc (TMID), MSc (Internal Medicine), MPH, PGDipHIV, HCMTC, DTM&H, DipUKMP, MRCP (UK)
MEMBER
Dr Langoya is a physician currently sub-specializing in infectious diseases and medical microbiology in Edinburgh, Scotland. Born in Juba in 1982 where he completed both his primary and secondary levels of education, Dr.Langoya then joined the school of medicine, Juba University from which he subsequently graduated in 2008. He gained a diploma in HIV medicine and a Master’s Degree in Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases from the University of Medical Sciences and Technology (UMST) in Khartoum. In 2015, he was awarded a Master’s Degree in Internal Medicine from the University of Edinburgh and a Master’s Degree in Public Health from the University of Liverpool.
Dr Langoya joined St James' University Hospital, Leeds in 2015 as a core medical trainee and later completed and obtained the full membership of the Royal College of Physicians of the United Kingdom (MRCP-UK). He later was awarded a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (DTM&H) from the same institution.
Dr Langoya’s passion is clinical tropical/infectious diseases with special interest in neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). He believes in mentorship of a young generation of doctors as the surest way of improving the health system of South Sudan.
Dr Justin Bruno Tongun MBChB, MSc, PhD
MEMBER
Dr Tongun is a specialist in Paediatrics and Child Health. He is presently Assistant Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health, College of Medicine, University of Juba and Executive Director of Al Sabah Children Hospital. He has over 15 years of clinical experience and has worked at Al Sabah Children Hospital, World Health Organization (2007-2008), Juba Teaching Hospital (2007) and Yei Civil Hospital (2006). His other responsibilities include being a chair of the National Polio Eradication Committee and a national consultant on nOPV2.
Dr Tongun holds a PhD from University of Bergen, Norway (2019), Master of Medicine in Paediatrics and Child Health, Makerere University, Uganda (2014), and MBChB, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Uganda (2006).
He is a proven researcher and a trainer. He has designed quality of care assessment tools for assessing the quality of maternal and new born care based on the World Health Organization and UNICEF Global standards. In 2019, Dr Tongun led a team of experts from the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization in the development of current guidelines for the integrated management of neonatal and childhood illnesses (IMNCI) in South Sudan.
Dr Ayat Constantine Jervase MBBS
MEMBER
Dr Jervase is a family physician, and public health expert with more than fifteen years’ experience specifically in HIV, sexual health, TB, Medical Research and Health Systems in South Sudan. She has particular passion in research which supports the implementation of comprehensive primary health care systems in low- and middle-income settings.
She has worked as a lecturer and clinical supervisor at the University of Medical Sciences and Technology in Khartoum. She was Deputy Director for the national HIV programme in the Ministry of Health, South Sudan and advisor for the USAID funded “Health Systems Strengthening Project” with Abt. Associates Inc. She also co-managed a national level programme and donor funded projects. She served as Team leader and Co-Principal Investigator for a number of national surveys and researches and was involved in the health system development of the post conflict South Sudan. Dr Jervase is also an independent consultant providing technical support for grant development, organisations and programme monitoring and evaluation with various UN agencies.
She is a founding member of the South Sudan Doctors’ Association.
Inspired to pursue a leading role in medical and public health to halt needless mortality and morbidity, and reverse the suffering of the needy.
Dr Nyakomi Adwok, MBChB, MRCPsych
MEMBER
Dr James Ayrton BM EDIC MFICM
MEMBER
Dr James Ayrton is a Specialty Doctor in Critical Care and Anaesthesia working in Poole, UK. He has spent a total of 9 months working in Juba Teaching Hospital between 2008 and 2009 working and teaching in the departments of surgery and medicine. He has been leading the team designing and implementing this SSMJ website and is responsible for its maintenance and development. He is interested in medical education and international health.
Dr. Boniface A.E Lumori, MBBS, MMED
MEMBER
Dr. Lumori is a specialist physician. He currently serves as a lecturer in the department of Internal Medicine, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Uganda. He has a wide experience in management of common adult diseases in east Africa. He started as a teaching assistant at University of Juba in 2015. He loves to encourage medical students to progress in academia.
Dr. Lumori holds a Master of Medicine from Mbarara University of Science and Technology (2018). He was awarded a part one of Membership of Royal colleague of physicians (MRCP-1) by examination in 2014. He holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) from University of Bahri, Sudan.
Dr. Lumori is a proven teacher and a researcher. His research interests are on communicable and non-communicable diseases affecting the respiratory, gastrointestinal, and cardiovascular systems in Low- and middle-income countries.
Dr. Koma Akim, MBchB, MMED General Surgery, FIGO Obstetric Surgery Fellow, DNF International Faculty and a SIGN Surgeon.
MEMBER
Koma Akim is a general surgeon at Bor State Hospital, Jonglei State, South Sudan. He holds an MBchB (Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya) and a Master of Medicine in General Surgery (Mother Kevin Postgraduate Medical School, Uganda Martyrs University, Kampala, Uganda). Furthermore, he is a FIGO Obstetric Fistula Fellow. He is also an international faculty of the David Nott Foundation, which prides itself in training and up skilling war doctors/surgeons to work in war zones and disaster areas providing, much needed medical care, thus saving lives and preventing permanent disability.
He has worked in government and INGOs in East Africa and South Asia. In addition, he has worked in South Sudan in three of the seven state hospitals treating war-wounded patients and repairing obstetric fistulae.
Koma is a member of the International Society of Obstetric Fistula Surgeons (ISOFS) and a SIGN surgeon.
He is passionate about general surgery in the true sense and believes that surgery is both an art and a science and can only be taught when one has mastered both the art and the science. In short, a surgeon can only teach what he knows, and surgery has no shortcuts!
Dr Grace Juan Soma, MBChB, MMed, MSc
Dr Grace Juan Soma is a paediatrician, child health specialist and training consultant. She received her Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBChB) degree from the University of Nairobi, Kenya and has more than 10 years of experience practising medicine in both Kenya and South Sudan. She obtained a Master’s of Science degree in Tropical Paediatrics from Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom and a Masters of Medicine degree in Paediatrics and Child Health from the University of Nairobi Kenya.
In academia, Dr Grace has worked as a lecturer at the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Juba and at St. Mary’s College in Juba, South Sudan. She is keen on building the capacity of health workers and has conducted child health and clinical training consultancies in South Sudan.
Currently, Dr Grace serves as an editorial assistant and peer reviewer for the South Sudan Medical Journal and authors clinical guidance reviews related to child health. Her interests are in child health, tropical medicine, teaching and research.
Álvaro del Valle Palacios, LLB
Dr Anthony Wek Garang, MBBS, MBA, PGDipHCF
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Dr Anthony W. Garang is a medical doctor and a health economist with a wealth of experience spanning over 14 years. He holds an MBBS from the University of Bahr El Ghazal, an MBA from the Kampala University, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Health Care Financing from Suez Canal University in Egypt. He is currently pursuing an MSc in Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Medical Science and Technology.
Dr Garang has established a distinguished career in medicine and other capacities. He worked as a Broadcast Journalist with UN Radio Miraya, Medical Officer at Juba Teaching Hospital, TB Programme Officer with the Arkangelo Ali Association, Oversight Officer with the Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) for the Global Fund, and HIV/TB Programme Specialist at HIV Department Ministry of Health. He was a member and Secretary for COVID-19 Audit Committee at the National Taskforce on Coronavirus Pandemic Response.
Dr Garang is currently a Programme Manager and Coordinator for the PMU Capacity Building Project with UNICEF under the World Bank CERHSP Project. He is also a Rapporteur of the EAC Expert Group on Sustainable Financing and a Deputy Chairman of the South Sudan Doctors Union.
Dr Onyango Okech MBBS MPH
Dr James Frater
James Beard BSc
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
James Beard is a freelance data manager. After graduating in physics from the University of Bristol, James worked as a data analyst, as a computer programmer, and as an IT manager in various commercial organisations. In 1998, he moved to Tanzania, as a volunteer IT manager / programmer at a hospital. Between 2002 and 2018, he worked as a data manager on numerous health research projects in London, Africa and South Asia, for both the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and for University College London, during which time he again lived in Tanzania and also in Malawi. Since then, he has continued to work freelance.
Nancy MacKeith BSc, MPhil
ASSISTANT REVIEWER
Nancy was a midwife for 25 years working in the UK, Asia and Africa. While working in Winchester, UK she joined the link project that visited Yei, South Sudan and went there many times to share skills.
Dr Rachel Ayrton MA, MSc, PhD
TRUSTEE, PROJECTS
Rachel has a background in community development and engagement work in areas of urban deprivation in the UK. She holds a doctorate in Sociology with a specialism in social research methods, particularly epistemology, qualitative methods and creative and visual methods. She has published in internationally leading journals in these areas. Her MSc dissertation research, which won a departmental award at the University of Southampton, considered mothers' trust in medical professionals in South Sudan and was conducted through fieldwork in Juba. She is currently an ESRC Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Southampton working with the South Sudanese diaspora in the UK to understand the role of national identity in the community.
Rachel is qualified in project management (PRINCE2) and has experience of in the voluntary sector as a former Trustee/Chair of Southampton Citizens' Advice Bureau, as a volunteer in various organisations and in providing voluntary sector support as part of her community development remit in previous roles. She works on a range of projects within the SSMJ team, recently including a consultation survey and project managing the design and build of our new website.