Research
March 2, 2023
New study focuses on immune function to improve treatment of severely malnourished children worldwide
Categories: Awards, Children, Nutrition, Research
Severe acute malnutrition (SAM) remains a global public health emergency, especially among young children in limited resource settings who are not consuming enough energy, fat, protein, and other nutrients to maintain healthy bodily functions. This places children at high risk of life-threatening infectious diseases, such as diarrhea and pneumonia. Severely malnourished children are often treated at inpatient and outpatient hospital clinics or feeding centers, using protocols promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO). Treatment currently focuses on initial recovery as defined by anthropometric standards without adequately addressing the health of children after discharge from treatment programs. (more…)
February 10, 2023
New CHAIN Network research integrate machine learning to strengthen efforts to identify high-risk children during paediatric hospitalizations
Categories: Gut Health and Child Survival, Publication, Research
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
Categories: Conferences, Gut Health and Child Survival, Research
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.
December 30, 2022
Researchers present latest scientific findings at ASTMH 2022
Categories: Conferences, Gut Health and Child Survival, Research
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…)
December 23, 2022
Esther Choo presents new methods for improving food system strategies in Nepal
Categories: Conferences, Nutrition, Research
Esther at the ITHS/WE-REACH Innovation & Translational Science Expo in September 2022.
Esther Choo, a PhD Candidate in the Global Health Implementation Science Program and Global WACh Pre-doctoral Research Associate recently presented her work related to improving food system strategies in Nepal and on the Strengthening Economic Evaluation for Multisectoral Strategies in Nutrition (SEEMS-Nutrition) project at two scientific conferences. SEEMS-Nutrition seeks to measure costs and benefits of multi-sectoral nutrition interventions in multiple low-to-middle income countries. In Nepal, SEEMS-Nutrition is partnered with Helen Keller International on the Suaahara (meaning “good nutrition” in Nepali) II project to improve the nutrition of women and young children in underserved rural districts. (more…)
August 18, 2022
DeWorm3 generates evidence about the cost, acceptability, and optimal delivery of community-wide mass drug administration
Categories: Children, Gut Health and Child Survival, Publication, Research
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…)
August 10, 2022
SEEMS-Nutrition project advances work on evaluating benefits of nutrition-sensitive interventions for maternal-child health
Categories: Conferences, Nutrition, Publication, Research
Following a two-year funding extension starting in November 2021, the Strengthening Economic Evaluation for Multi-sectoral Strategies for Nutrition (SEEMS-Nutrition) project has continued progress to collect cost data alongside six on-going interventions, and to generate new evidence on costs and cost-effectiveness of multi-sectoral nutrition projects in five country settings. This past year, the team published two new manuscripts and delivered an oral presentation at the 7th Annual Agriculture, Nutrition & Health Academy Week (ANH2022) on June 29th. (more…)
August 4, 2022
Laurén Gómez awarded young investigator prizes at the 2022 International AIDS Society Conference
Categories: Awards, HIV, PrEP, Research
Laurén Gómez (second to right) stands with other winners selected for the IAS/MSD Prize for Research in HIV Prevention
At the 2022 International AIDS Society Conference, Laurén Gómez, a Research Coordinator with Global WACh, was selected as a winner of the Lange/van Tongeren Prize for Young Investigators (co-partnered with ANRS – France Recherche Nord & Sud Sida-HIV Hépatites) and the Prize for Research in HIV Prevention (co-partnered with MSD – Merck Sharpe & Dohme).
The young investigator awards support early career researchers who demonstrate innovation, originality, rationale and quality in the field of HIV research. The prizes are granted to the top-scoring abstract in each of the five tracks: Track A – Basic and translational research; Track B – Clinical research; Track C – Epidemiology and prevention research; Track D – Social and political research, law, policy and human rights; and Track E – Implementation research, economics, systems and synergies with other health and development sectors. The Prize for Research in HIV Prevention is given to the top-scoring abstracts with a focus on prevention research that addresses critical knowledge gaps and links new evidence to program priorities in the response to the HIV pandemic. Laurén received both awards for the Track C abstract titled, “Association of prenatal PrEP exposure with neurodevelopmental and growth outcomes beyond 24 months among Kenyan children.” (more…)
Researchers present latest scientific evidence at Pediatric HIV Workshop and AIDS 2022
Categories: Conferences, COVID-19, HIV, Research
Our researchers presented 12 poster abstracts and one oral presentation featuring the latest evidence from their studies, in relation to long-acting HIV treatment and prevention technologies, integrated and differentiated models of care, and monitoring and innovations in service delivery. Laurén Gómez, a Research Coordinator at UW, was selected as a winner of the Lange/van Tongeren Prize for Young Investigators (co-partnered with ANRS – France Recherche Nord & Sud Sida-HIV Hépatites) and the Prize for Research in HIV Prevention (co-partnered with MSD – Merck Sharpe & Dohme). Learn more about Laurén’s analysis that aimed to address safety gaps in the impacts of prenatal pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) on growth and development in early childhood. See a list of accepted abstracts for both scientific gatherings below.
August 3, 2022
Mobile WACh NEO randomized controlled trial achieves milestone to enroll 5,020 research participants
Categories: Family Planning, Research
Newborn care practices and interventions are available to support neonatal survival, but coverage remains a challenge in sub-Saharan Africa, where neonatal mortality is unacceptably high. Many newborns continue to die at home without health care services being sought. The reasons are multifactorial, at the societal, health system, and family levels. Delays recognizing illness and deciding to seek care contribute to up to 80% of neonatal and child deaths. (more…)
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