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Kelsey Atangamuerimo Harrison is an emeritus professor of obstetrics and gynaecology and former vice-chancellor of University of Port Harcourt, who contributed immensely to studies of maternal health, especially during pregnancy. As a researcher at the University of Ibadan, he mapped out the effects of severe anaemia on the mother and her baby, and established the safety of treating gross anaemia by packed cell transfusion combined with rapidly acting diuretic. He was also part of a group that discovered the dangerous threat posed by sickle cell disease to maternal and fetal lives among Africans. In Zaria, the results of the work of a team he led, became the most powerful boost to international advocacy for better maternal and perinatal health in developing countries. What is remarkable about him is that he has the great gift of seeing things through to the bitter end. With all this, his work has been recognized within Nigeria and internationally, and the movement for the betterment of women's health and social status it has helped to inspire, continues. ==Life== Professor Kelsey Atangamuerimo Harrison was born in Abonnema, Rivers State, on 9 January 1933. He received his primary school education locally at Bishop Crowther Memorial School. After an outstanding secondary school career at Government College Umuahia, he trained at University College Ibadan and at University College Hospital London, graduating MB BS with honours and distinction in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in 1958. Towards specializing in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, he received his postgraduate research and clinical training in Nigeria and United Kingdom, most notably under John Lawson in Ibadan, and under W.C.W Nixon, and F. E. Hytten in London. He became a member in 1964, and a fellow in 1973, of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in London. Already a foundation member of the Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria in 1965, he was professor of obstetrics and gynaecology, first in Ibadan in 1972, then in Zaria from 1972 to 1981, and lastly in Port Harcourt, 1981–1998, where he became that university's Vice-Chancellor from 1989–1992, having earlier been the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria. He retired from the Nigerian university system in 1998, and was appointed in July 1999, an emeritus professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Port Harcourt. He is a recognised authority on anaemia, sickle cell disease and malaria in pregnancy.〔Harrison, K.A. (1982) "Anaemia, malaria and sickle cell disease". Clinics in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. 9. 445 – 477.〕 His researches on anaemia at Ibadan University led to the development of the solution to the serious life-threatening problem of extreme anaemia in late pregnancy. Another group to which he belonged, unraveled the influence of several haemoglobinopathies on pregnant women and their babies under African conditions, and how best to deal with the most dangerous of them, namely sickle cell disease. In Zaria, his collaborative studies on malaria in pregnancy discovered that protecting early teenage pregnant girls against malaria and anaemia conferred a hitherto unknown benefit: the protected girls grew taller, they produced bigger babies, yet the proportion of those of them who developed cephalopelvic disproportion and needed operative delivery, fell sharply.〔Harrison, K. A, Fleming A. F, Briggs N. D, Rossiter C. E. (1985) "Growth during pregnancy in Nigerian teenage primigravidae." In Harrison, K. A. editor. "Childbearing, Health and Social Priorities: a survey of 22774 consecutive hospital births in Zaria, Northern Nigeria". British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. 92. Supplement 5. pages 32–39.〕 This offers hope that in malaria endemic areas, obstructed labour and vesicovaginal fistula (VVF) might be prevented by protecting these vulnerable girls against malaria and by adding nutritional supplements to their diets during pregnancy. The Zaria Maternity Survey by a team Harrison led, was his most influential work. Between 1976 and 1979, Harrison and his colleagues collected data on over 22,000 births that when analysed, threw open the problems of traditional forms of interference, of adolescent marriage and pregnancy, of women’s inferior status, and of their neglect in pregnancy, labour and afterwards, and of the consequences of this neglect especially high levels of both maternal mortality and VVF. The strongest message that came through this work was that both maternal and perinatal health benefitted hugely when women were educated, but not when they were illiterate. Harrison concluded that although the real priority in the area is reducing maternal deaths, the real problem to be faced is not so much medical but sociological, and that the eradication of mass illiteracy through universal formal education is a fundamental key to better maternal health.〔Editorial (1987) "Maternal Health in Sub-Saharan Africa". Lancet. 329. pages 255–257.〕 In other words, if we want to reduce maternal mortality we should stop looking at the problem in isolation. Harrison's work published by British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in October 1985.,〔Harrison, K.A.(1985) "Childbearing, Health and Social Priorities – a survey of 22774 consecutive hospital births in Zaria, Northern Nigeria". British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 92. Supplement 5. pages 1–119.〕 gave the details. The work is still being seen as a major advance in maternity care, and in their advocacy for better maternal and perinatal care, various agencies have adopted the idea. The Safe Motherhood initiative in 1987, and the "Education for All" campaign in 1990, both by United Nations agencies, were early examples. Back in Zaria, the activities of the team Kelsey Harrison led, that included sociologists〔Murphy M and Baba Turku M (1981) "Rural dwellers and health care in Northern Nigeria". Social Science and Medicine. 15 A. pages 265 – 271.〕 succeeded in eradicating VVF in the Zaria area in the 1970s,〔Harrison K. A.(1980)"Traditional Birth Attendants".Lancet.316.pages 43–44.〕 although it resurged after he had left the area. Besides Harrison's heavy clinical, teaching and research activities, he took active part in various community services and international assignments throughout his working life and afterwards. In the 1970s, it was the rehabilitation of sections of the health care services of the Rivers state of Nigeria, destroyed through military operations in the country's civil war. As part of the post civil war rehabilitation effort, he helped to ensure that displaced students of Eastern Nigeria origin were reabsorbed back to their former places in university of Ibadan. In the same decade, he was a member of the medical research council of Nigeria. In the 1980s, he took part in various WHO technical working groups on anaemia, maternal mortality and VVF. In the 1990s, he influenced the formation of the National Foundation of VVF - a local NGO - becoming its president in 1997-1998. Its activities placed the surgical treatment of VVF in Nigeria's national agenda〔Nigeria Campaign to end fistula www.endfistula.org〕 The WHO and other powerful international organisations and many NGOs have since taken over the concept and extended it to other African and some Asian countries.〔International Day to End Fistula 23 May http://www.un.org/en/events/endfistuladay/〕 Kelsey Harrison published widely. Besides the report on the Zaria Maternity Survey, a textbook he co-edited and titled "Maternity Care in Developing Countries" was published in 2001.〔Maternity Care in Developing Countries edited John B. Lawson, Kelsey A. Harrison, Staffan Bergstrom. RCOG Press. London. 2001〕 His autobiography published in 2006 is titled "An Arduous Climb: from the Creeks of the Niger Delta to a Leading Obstetrician and University Vice Chancellor".〔Harrison, K. A.(2006)"An Arduous Climb from the Creeks of the Niger Delta to a Leading Obstetrician and University Vice Chancellor" Adonis and Abbey Ltd. London〕 His latest work titled "Sowing the seeds of Safe Motherhood in Sub Saharan Africa" and published in 2010, is a compilation of some of his published scientific papers from 1966 to 2010.〔Harrison, K. A. (2010) "Sowing the seeds of Safe Motherhood in Sub Saharan Africa". Adonis and Abbey Ltd. London〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kelsey Harrison」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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