Global WACh

Gut Health and Child Survival


August 18, 2023

DeWorm3 study publishes new papers, contributing to research on interrupting parasitic worms through community-wide mass drug administration

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DeWorm3 study collaborators meeting with community members.

The DeWorm3 research team continues to contribute to their body of research on the feasibility of interrupting soil-transmitted helminth (STH) transmission through community-wide mass drug administration (cMDA) in Benin, Malawi and India. Three new publications to highlight include the “Soil-transmitted helminth surveillance in Benin: A mixed-methods analysis of factors influencing non-participation in longitudinal surveillance activities”, the “Overestimation of school-based deworming coverage resulting from school-based reporting” in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases and “Policy stakeholder perspectives on barriers and facilitators to launching a community-wide mass drug administration program for soil-transmitted helminths” in the BMC Global Health Research and Policy.
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June 14, 2023

New study aims to identify barriers to implementing national sickle cell disease management guidelines in Kenya

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Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a multi-system, life-threatening condition characterized by chronic anemia, frequent episodes of painful vaso-occlusive crises, organ infarction and eventually widespread organ damage. Over 80% of the 240,000 children born with SCD in sub-Sahara Africa each year die before their fifth birthday. Despite the existence of evidence-informed guidelines around the use of disease modifying interventions necessary for the management of SCD, guideline implementation in the region is suboptimal leading to preventable morbidity and mortality. (more…)


June 9, 2023

TeAMS Toolkit Pilot Study aims to improve nutrition guidelines adherence for pediatric care in Kenya

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Since its launch in Spring 2022, the Team Approach to Malnutrition Services (TeAMS) Toolkit pilot study, funded by a UW Population Health Initiative grant, is progressing towards its goals to support healthcare workers in Kenya improve adherence to guidelines to care for pediatric patients with common illness that contribute to childhood mortality, such as malnutrition, pneumonia, diarrhea, and HIV. Although these guidelines have been available for decades, adherence to them remains suboptimal. Healthcare workers face common challenges including supply shortages, high workload burdens, and infrequent reinforcement. Existing strategies to improve quality of hospital care for children often require large investments in training and resources, making them difficult to implement at the facility level. Feasible implementation strategies to support healthcare workers and improve adherence to guidelines in routine care settings are urgently needed. (more…)


May 26, 2023

Global WACh participates in the DGH LAPIS Symposium

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On May 19th in the Hans Rosling Center, the Learning for Action in Policy Implementation and Health Systems (LAPIS) Initiative–a resource hub aiming to foster collaboration across the Department of Global Health and support the integration of health policy or health systems objectives into research grants and training–held its first event in the Global Health Systems and Policy Implementation Symposium Series.  The event included lightning talk sessions, poster abstract sessions, and opportunities for networking. Multiple centers, programs, and initiatives of the department, including Global WACh, participated in the symposium to showcase their efforts in health systems strengthening, policy implementation research, and education and training. (more…)


February 10, 2023

New CHAIN Network research integrate machine learning to strengthen efforts to identify high-risk children during paediatric hospitalizations

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New research from the Childhood Acute Illness and Nutrition Network (CHAIN) Network published in the Lancet’s discover series, eClinicalMedicine, applied machine learning algorithms to data collected on hospitalized children from six countries in sub Saharan Africa and Asia. The data showed that children with severe wasting, nutritional oedema, signs of sepsis, or evidence of renal insufficiency experienced extremely high rates of mortality. The authors concluded that developing novel interventions to treat these common comorbidities is a potentially important alternative to continued investment in incremental changes to the current WHO syndromic management approach. Click here to read the publication titled,  “Characterising paediatric mortality during and after acute illness in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia: a secondary analysis of the CHAIN cohort using a machine learning approach.”


January 9, 2023

Dr. Claire Gwayi-Chore presents DeWorm3 findings on optimal delivery of community-wide mass drug administration for intestinal parasitic worm infections

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Dr. Claire Gwayi-Chore presents at the 2022 Society for Implementation Research Collaboration Conference.

The DeWorm3 Study recently published findings regarding the cost, acceptability, and optimal delivery of community-wide mass drug administration (cMDA) for or parasitic intestinal worms (soil-transmitted helminths (STH)), in Benin, India, and Malawi. As part of the efforts to disseminate these findings, Dr. Claire Gwayi-Chore, Project Lead of several neglected tropical diseases studies at Global WACh, presented at the Society for Implementation Research Collaboration (SIRC) Conference in San Diego, CA in September 2022. Dr. Gwayi-Chore’s presentation highlighted the objective of the DeWorm3 implementation science (IS) research, to generate evidence of sustainable and scalable deworming models for possible STH transmission interruption.

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December 30, 2022

Researchers present latest scientific findings at ASTMH 2022

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Global WACh researchers from left to right: Stephanie Tornberg-Belanger, Patricia Pavlinac, Marie-Claire Gwayi-Chore, Esther Choo, Shawon Riffat Ara, Adino Tsegaye, Judd Walson, Kirk Tickell, Hannah Atlas, Mame Mareme Diakhate (Credit: Stephanie Tornberg-Belanger)

 

Global WACh faculty, staff, and students attended the annual American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene (ASTMH) held in Seattle, WA from October 30 to November 3, 2022.  ASTMH is the premier international forum for the exchange of scientific advances in tropical medicine, hygiene, and global health.

Our researchers contributed to 11 poster abstracts and two oral presentations and facilitated a symposium featuring the latest scientific findings from their research. These findings could inform strategies to implement mass drug administration for soil-transmitted helminths to combat childhood malnutrition to improve management of diarrhea among children and improve childhood survival of preventable diseases. See a roundup of the abstracts below. (more…)


September 16, 2022

Kikundi releases 2022 Annual Report and launches new partner website

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Kikundi, a Community of Practice for Neglected Tropical Disease Program Managers in Africa supported by Global WACh’s Gut Health and Child Survival Team and the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda, recently released its 2022 Annual Report. The report highlights the Kikundi leadership structure, membership, progress in meeting Program Manager priorities, and other exciting updates from the first year of the Community of Practice. Click here to read the report.

Kikundi also announced the launch of Kikundi’s new interactive homepage. With the new homepage, partners now have access to more information about platform successes, a Kikundi membership map, the latest on Twitter, and more. Check it out at ntdcop.org.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


August 18, 2022

DeWorm3 generates evidence about the cost, acceptability, and optimal delivery of community-wide mass drug administration

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A community sensitization meeting in Benin. Photo courtesy of DeWorm3.

The DeWorm3 Study is an ongoing series of community cluster randomized controlled trials that use a community-wide drug administration (cMDA) approach to determine whether deworming both children and adults can disrupt the transmission of soil-transmitted helminth (STH), or parasitic intestinal worms, across multiple geographies including India, Malawi, and Benin. Achieving high coverage in DeWorm3 is therefore essential to improve the impact of cMDA and limit transmission of STH infections that can result in disabling chronic conditions, delayed growth and cognitive development, severe social stigma, and lost economic productivity.

The DeWorm3 research team recently published three new publications in BMJ Open and BMC Health Services regarding cMDA implementation with findings on the optimal implementation packages for delivering high coverage cMDA for STH, the costs of cMDA vs school-based deworming (SBD), and the implementation climate for cMDA for STH. (more…)


May 25, 2022

New publication on childhood mortality during and after acute illness in Africa and South Asia in the Lancet Global Health

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The April 2022 publication of the Lancet Global Health featured a new publication by CHAIN Network researchers at UW’s Global WACh Research Center and our international partners – “Childhood mortality during and after acute illness in Africa and South Asia” a prospective cohort study”. The study aimed to investigate the rates of and associations behind deaths in hospitalized children across nine hospitals in six countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The study included 3,101 children and their caregivers, and revealed that out of the 350 deaths recorded, 48% were within six months of discharge from the hospital.  (more…)



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