Samuel Danquah

The remote town of Melandiou, Guinea struck the opening keynote to the progressing crescendo in the origin story of the historic West African Ebola virus epidemic in 2014. Public health and awareness took a vacation in 2013, when patient zero, a two-year-old boy died of Ebola in Guinea. The dead boy told no tale in the news. Neither did the death of his succumbing sister, pregnant mother, and grandmother break the bane to the attention of local officials until the outbreak. The escalating wave quickly exploded on the international news with the headlines spreading panic about the apocalyptic and minuscule "bioterrorist" Ebola - the scourging death reaper harvested over 10,000 corpses in 9 countries, the US and UK inclusive. While Ghana had narrowly escaped and West Africa devastated I was disconcerted and grappled with the impact of public health in the episodes of the events. Therefore, I followed keenly the strategic interventions mapped out and executed from the unfolding chronicle - effective disease diagnosis, isolate confirmed cases, quarantine suspected ones and public education on health safety measures to thwart the epidemic. Local health authorities, non-governmental organizations, the World Health Organization and all stakeholders worked in tandem. The discovered loopholes in our healthcare systems were glaring. I could not help but wander along the thoughts of our collective readiness to mitigate other potential outbreaks. At this crossroads, I discovered my budding interest in Public Health as a young medical student tossed by the tempest in a sea of career paths. Growing up as a child, health, and health-related issues have always been front runners guiding my pole star across the night sky. Nevertheless, I observed how basic health and environmental concerns seemed elusive to most in society. I felt different from the convention of the masses in our society that have acclimatized to poor sanitation, penurious housing, water scarcity, poor healthcare. Training and working as a dentist have afforded me first-hand experience in witnessing challenges within the health sector. With oral care delivery as my primary objective, it has been stimulating observing the interplay of many health indices in the dental chair which ranges from the lack of access to oral hygiene tools, the impact of systemic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension on oral health to road traffic accident injuries, among others. Deplorable oral hygiene statuses are the effects of deprived access to hygiene tools. Faced with the challenges of the health sector on a daily basis, I have channeled my concerted efforts towards outreach and awareness programs targeted at underprivileged communities as well as communities with special needs in Ghana. These interventions provide services that permeate the boundaries of seclusion and unaffordable access to these groups. I am an ardent believer in the impact of these preventive methods initiatives, having already participated in similar programs during my final year of dental school as part of our community and preventive dentistry coursework. I approach my job from a preventive aspect through chairside education; I treat diseases, restore function and aesthetics, and liaise with other disciplines when required; I love to treat patients with a comprehensive approach. I am passionate about the total well-being of people. A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being is the aim, but how many people’s reality is this? From my experience, financial challenges and lack of education pose the biggest hurdle to this. My interest in public health has been pragmatically steered in this direction to understand funding dynamics, healthcare consumption and the central role of research to the mix. Therefore, I seek to gain a bird's eye view of the factors which influence decisions to fund preventive efforts. Furthermore, I am eager to unravel the role and management of key players and how together these ultimately influence and shape policy formulation and implementation. After almost two years of practice, I am eager to contribute to the development of health from a different lens perspective. After successfully navigating through dental school and completing as the best student in my final exam, this academic pursuit at a higher level is one I am thrilled to undertake. The record of international alumni and testimonies from current students coupled with the existing diverse student population in one of the most dynamic cities of the world makes the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine the ideal institution to pursue this academic journey. I look forward to acquiring knowledge and skills at the highest standards to help shape my career and propel me towards the ultimate purpose of helping people to live in states of complete physical, mental and social well-being.