Ms Heleen Vermandere

Post-doctoral researcher

As a global health researcher with over 10 years of international experience, Heleen is proficient in collecting qualitative and quantitative data in challenging contexts. She combines health sciences, epidemiology and sociology to study health behaviour and to evaluate the impact of health programmes. She has primarily worked on sexual and reproductive health in sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on family planning and infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and cervical cancer. For her doctoral thesis she evaluated the acceptability and uptake of the HPV vaccine in Kenya. Given her strong interest in gender, she has also conducted studies on female genital mutilation and violence against women in Egypt. She coordinates the work of various students and manages the day-to-day operations of a Horizon2020 project on cervical cancer screening.

Projecten van Heleen

Cervical cancer and HPV

A Community-based HPV screening Implementation in Low-Income countries - CHILI

Baarmoederhalskanker is de vierde meest voorkomende vorm van kanker bij vrouwen wereldwijd, met tot 85% van de last in landen met beperkte middelen. Vroege opsporing van voorstadia van kanker heeft aangetoond succesvol te zijn in het verminderen van kankerincidentie en -sterfte, maar een wereldwijde toepassing van deze aanpak wordt belemmerd door verschillen in cultuur en middelen tussen landen.

Project lopende Read more about this project Seksueel overdraagbare aandoeningen (soa's) Cervical cancer and HPV

ELEVATE: Vroege detectie van baarmoederhalskanker in moeilijk bereikbare populaties van vrouwen door middel van draagbare en point-of-care HPV tests.

Het ELEVATE-consortium wil vrouwen in staat stellen om in elke omgeving hun risico op baarmoederhalskanker te screenen en tegelijkertijd snelle en gemakkelijk te begrijpen resultaten te garanderen. Daartoe zal het project moeilijk bereikbare vrouwen identificeren en een screeningstrategie ontwerpen om toegang tot hen te krijgen.

Project lopende Read more about this project Health system research Family planning and contraception

Enhancing motivation of family planning service providers as a lever to avoid stock-outs and increase quality of service

Good progress is being made towards ensuring universal access to family planning (FP) services, mainly through strengthening the supply chains, tackling logistic and financial barriers, training of staff, broadening the choice of methods, and providing information and advocacy. However, sound supply-, counseling- and service provision systems, supported by good manuals and Standard Operating Procedures alone can’t guarantee that stock-outs are completely avoided and that quality of service is sufficient to ensure high user satisfaction of both the services provided and the methods used.

Project afgesloten Read more about this project Cervical cancer and HPV

Cervical cancer prevention in Kenya: Introduction of the HPV vaccines

In Kenya, HPV vaccination is not part of the national immunization scheme. The 2 types of HPV-vaccines are however approved and allowed to use in the country. Dr Hillary Mabeya, National Advisor on Adolescent Vaccination at the Ministry of Health (Kenya), received a grant of 9000 HPV vaccines from the GARDASIL Access Program in order to pilot HPV vaccination. The pilot program started in May 2012 and ended in March 2013. Primary school girls (standard 4 to 9, i.e. approximately 9 to 14 years of age) enrolled in 10 randomly selected public schools were the first target group, but in a second phase the program was opened for young girls from the whole community; 2500 girls of the 3000 girls who received the first dose were fully vaccinated at the end of the program. While vaccination occurred at Moi University Hospital, promotion of the HPV-vaccine was school based: health providers informed teachers who on their turn were asked to inform the girls and parents about the upcoming HPV vaccination opportunity.

Project afgesloten Read more about this project

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