Global WACh

Research

August 11, 2015

WACh Research Racks Up Awards at IAS Conference

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In late July, Global WACh sent several team members to Vancouver for the 8th Annual IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis Treatment and Prevention. Our researchers presented posters highlighting woman, adolescent, and child health and Kristjana Asbjornstottir, Irene Njuguna, and Keshet Ronen took home awards recognizing their excellent work!

Kristjana received the The IAS/ANRS Lange-Van Tongeren Prize for Young Investigators for her project Immune Activation ped HIV.

Kristjana shared her thoughts about winning this prestigious award saying:

Giving a talk at IAS was an incredible opportunity in itself, and having our work recognized through the Young Investigator award on top of that is an enormous honor. I think it highlights the particular attention that was paid to pediatric research at the conference this year. Lots of UW research was featured in various tracks and sessions.

Irene Njuguna was the recipient of the CIPHER Award (Collaborative Initiative for Paediatric HIV Education and Research) which is granted to provide funding for research that addresses priority gaps in pediatric HIV. Without treatment, 50% of HIV infected children will die by the age of two so early diagnosis and treatment is crucial.

The Financial Incentives to increase HIV testing in children (FIT) study that Irene and the team have been working with wants to test to see if small financial incentives will increase HIV testing for children of HIV infected adults who are already in care.

This award is a result of hard work from the team, and I feel honored to be part of this team. This would not be possible without the excellent mentorship from Grace John-Stewart, Jennifer Slyker and Anjuli Wagner.

All of our Global WACh members gave poster presentations for the conference, and Keshet Ronen won an award for Best Poster for her research on Lower ANC Attendance and PMTCT Uptake in Adolescent versus Adult Pregnant Women in Kenya.

Let’s hear it for our award winning Global WACh team!

 

July 17, 2015

Global WACh at IAS 2015

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UW Global Health and Global WACh will be attending the 8th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis Treatment & Prevention July 19th – 22nd, and we’re there in full force. Below are the oral presentations you don’t want to miss!

Monday at 11:00am  Kristjana Asbjornsdottir will present  Immune activation and pediatric HIV during the Growing up on ART session (Ballroom B)

Wednesday at 11:00am Anjuli Wagner will present Pediatric HIV testing during the Children and Adolescents Living with HIV session (Room 211-214)

Wednesday at 11:00am Keshet Ronen will present Adolescent PMTCT engagement during the Children and Adolescents Living with HIV session (Room 211-214)

Global Health and Global WACh team members will also be at the poster presentations, and we even have a few award winners in the bunch! Kristjana Asbjornsdottir will be honored with the IAS Young Investigator Award, Irene Njuguna will receive a CIPHER Award, Keshet Ronen will be getting a Best Poster award for her Pediatric IAS Meeting poster. Congratulations to all of them!

Click here here for more information about IAS 2015.

July 10, 2015

2015 Global WACh – Coulter Foundation Seed Grant Awarded

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The Coulter Project and Global WACh teamed up again to offer a seed grant award.  The Bioengineering Solutions Seed Grant supports collaborative translational research in biomedical engineering addressing the clinical needs of women, adolescents, and children.

This year we received a fantastic pool of innovative applications and ultimately awarded funds to Drs. Wendy Thomas (UW Bioengineering) and Anthony Roche (Anesthesiology). Their project titled An Affordable, Portable Drawover Vaporizer  was selected for funding by a team of expert reviewers and we couldn’t be more excited!

The project aims to develop an affordable and easily portable anesthetic delivery device to help in low resource settings, particularly in Uganda. Most anesthetic delivery devices are bulky, difficult to transport, not sufficiently durable, expensive, or can’t function without reliable power sources making them an unrealistic solution in low resource settings.

PI Wendy Thomas says she volunteered to help with Bioengineers Without Borders (BWB) when they asked her to suggest a bioengineering co-advisor for the project. “They are hard-working, passionate about learning and helping people, and very capable. I want to particularly compliment David Peeler and Eric Swanson, the graduate BWB team members who put the most work into writing this proposal.”

This project is hoping to use a simplified design that requires no additional power source other than the patient’s breathing to draw anesthetic from the device.PI Anthony Roche also expressed his thanks to Global WACh and The Coulter Foundation for the support of the project. “I am constantly inspired by the vision and passion of our team, as well as their dedication and tireless effort to improve healthcare in low resource settings.”

The funding process served as a great catalyst for their team.  They have been working hard for months solidifying design constraints, identifying key engineering questions, and collaborating with experts at PATH. “All of this was done before the award was even made!” Dr. Roche says.

Eric Swanson, a 3rd year Bioengineering PhD student and team leader for BWB’s Anesthesia Device Team says the team is comprised entirely of undergraduate and graduate students. “My hope is that this funding will not only enable us to take steps towards developing a device that could have a significant impact on an important global health problem, but that it will also increase awareness of the Bioengineers Without Borders student group and promote future funding and collaboration opportunities for our other projects.”

Congratulations are in order for this dynamic team! Global WACh is proud to support such innovative work and can’t wait to share the results with you.

May 20, 2015

Global WACh In Focus: Patricia Pavlinac

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Patricia Pavlinac, PhD, was trained in epidemiology and began working within the Department of Global Health on tuberculosis-related research projects in January 2010. Through coordinating a diarrheal and febrile illness surveillance study for Judd Walson, she developed a dissertation to determine the potential etiologies of acute diarrhea among Kenyan children, to determine how these etiologies associate with HIV-infection and HIV-exposure, and to evaluate the appropriateness of current international diarrhea management guidelines in correctly indicating antibiotics.  She found that specific enteric pathogens, namely enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) and Cryptosporidium are associated with HIV-infection and HIV-exposure, respectively, a finding that builds upon recent evidence that these two pathogens are independently associated with mortality in children with diarrhea.  Additionally, she found that the indications for antibiotic use in current World Health Organization management guidelines miss most treatable bacteria. To give a bit of context to her research, over 3% of children under 5 years of age who present to a Western Kenya health facility with a moderate to severe form of diarrhea will die within the subsequent 60-days, despite receiving oral rehydration solution and zinc,  a risk of death 5-times higher than a healthy similarly aged child living in the same community. This knowledge, combined with her research in understanding the role of host and management factors in diarrheal disease consequences, have inspired her to focus her career on pediatric diarrheal disease in sub-Saharan Africa. (more…)

March 23, 2015

Dr. Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli of WHO Presents at Global WACh

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This week we were pleased to have Dr. Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli here at Global WACh for an amazing presentation on adolescent and sexual reproductive health.

Since the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in 1994 there have been tremendous changes made throughout the world in which adolescents live. Lowered infant mortality, a decrease in poverty, and better access to clean drinking water are just a few examples of things that have improved. Progress where it comes to adolescent sexual health however hasn’t been quite as successful, and often inadequate commitment, discomfort, or limited funding and resources stand in the way of such changes.

“When you have huge fires burning like childhood or maternal mortality, or HIV, adolescent sexual and reproductive health is talked about as one of the many priorities but is not given the attention it needs.”

Dr. Chandra-Mouli  works in the World Health Organization’s Department of Reproductive Health and Research and seeks to create evidence based policy changes and programs. Watch the recorded talk on our YouTube channel.

 

February 10, 2015

The CATCH Study Focuses on the Children Who Miss Diagnosis

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The Kenya Pediatric Studies (KPS) team has been working hard on an important study called CATCH (Counseling and Testing for Children at Home). The CATCH study does just what the name says by “catching” children ages 12 and under who have fallen through the cracks in HIV diagnosis systems.

There are 3.3 million children in the world living with HIV.  Half of HIV-infected children that go untreated will die by the age of two. There are some great programs in place to help prevent mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) during pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding; but going through all the steps in these systems can be challenging, and medication is not always successful at preventing infection in babies. (more…)

December 12, 2014

Global WACh’s Launch of Special Supplement of the Journal of Adolescent Health

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There are 1.8 billion adolescents in the world today. That’s a tremendous number of youth that are at a crucial point of transition in their lives.  1.4 million adolescents die each year from causes such as early pregnancy, sexual violence, unsafe abortions, and HIV and other STIs. Yet adolescence is often overlooked in policy making,  particularly in low income, high risk settings, and the global health of adolescents is not improving at the rate it should.

Last night Global WACh was proud to sponsor the launch of a Special Supplement of the Journal of Adolescent Health. This marks the 20th anniversary of the the landmark Cairo International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD).

We had some truly amazing speakers on hand to have a conversation on ways of improving the health and well-being of adolescents globally. The speakers and a tremendous student panel shared their experiences and discussed how investing in adolescent friendly health services, comprehensive sex education, supportive environments, violence prevention, and youth participation can help adolescents transition into happy and healthy adults.

If you missed our livestream of the event, you can go to the following link and watch the recorded version. Thanks to all our speakers, students, and attendees that helped make this launch a great success!

 

August 13, 2014

Global WACh & Coulter Foundation 2014 Pilot Award

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We are pleased to announce that the Global WACh/W.H. Coulter Foundation Seed Grant for 2014 has just been awarded to Drs. James Lai, Barry Lutz, and David Horne for their excellent proposal focused on point-of-care tuberculosis testing. (more…)


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