News
March 3, 2017
Global WACh Seed Grant recipient publishes at PLOS One
Tags: adolescent health, Seed grants, STIs
As part of our commitment to meaningful research collaborations, Global WACh offers Integrated Health Seed Grants: one-year of seed funding for pioneering research to improve the health of women, adolescents, and children. The proposals we award recognize a global focus on community advocacy and innovative exploration.
In 2011 we awarded the seed grant to Dr. Linnet Masese, who at the time was a doctoral student at the UW Department of Epidemiology, and Clinic Section Head at the UW/University of Nairobi Research Site in Mombasa. Her original proposal was to explore the feasibility of Chlamydia trachomatis screening among adolescents and young women in Kenya. However, with nucleic acid amplification testing locally available at the UW Research Laboratory in Mombasa, she expanded the study to include screening for Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Trichomonas vaginalis. We are thrilled to report that the first of three papers from this study titled “Barriers and Facilitators of Screening for Sexually Transmitted Infections in Adolescent Girls and Young Women in Mombasa, Kenya” was recently published in PLOS One. (more…)
February 23, 2017
WACh Priority Areas in Focus: Family Planning Decision Support
Categories: Research
Tags: Family Planning Decision Support, Scientific Priority Areas
Our third and final Scientific Priority Area hones in on the life-saving ability of family planning services. Women face significant barriers to finding a contraception method that fits their unique needs, or gaining access to support to make informed reproductive decisions.
By providing new support and data collection tools, we can bring the health care system closer to women and their families, bring their health concerns to the attention of decision makers, and reduce the unmet need for family planning.
We can provide Family Planning Decision Support.
February 17, 2017
WACh Priority Areas in Focus: Gut Health and Child Survival
Categories: Research
Tags: Gut Health and Child Survival, Scientific Priority Areas
Global WACh Scientific Priorities develop a deeper focus on our research efforts to decrease morbidity and mortality among women, adolescents, and children. Gut Health and Child Survival is vital to understanding and improving this inter-generational health and well-being.
When we asked this scientific priority’s co-lead, Dr. Patricia Pavlinac, what the greatest challenge is to developing interventions for enteric and diarrheal disease, she says, “Even among children who survive diarrhea, multiple episodes of the disease and the underlying enteric infections can lead to chronic malnutrition, increased risk of lower respiratory tract infections, cognitive disabilities, and poor school performance. These consequences hold extreme economic and societal implications.”
Gut Health and Child Survival is our response to the unmet need for programs to treat and prevent the adverse effects of enteric and diarrheal disease. We strive to ensure children survive and reach their developmental potential.
February 16, 2017
WACh Priority Areas in Focus: HIV Through the Lifecycle
Categories: Research
Tags: HIV Through the Lifecycle, Scientific Priority Areas
Today we introduce our Scientific Priority Area of HIV through the Lifecycle.
Our center has cultivated expertise in HIV/AIDS since its inception, and our focus has always been on the intersection of three key populations: women, children and adolescents. While AIDS-related deaths are decreasing in children and adults, they are increasing in adolescents, which is why strategies for prevention and treatment of adolescents is a major focus of our priority area. By focusing on interventions during critical life stages for pregnant women, infants, and adolescents, we can prevent HIV from persisting throughout the duration of a person’s life and into the next generation.
This is how we will transform HIV testing and treatment approaches and achieve an AIDS free generation.
This is HIV Through the Lifecycle.
February 13, 2017
Global WACh reaffirms research commitments; launches new Scientific Priority Areas
Categories: Research
Tags: Family Planning Decision Support, Gut Health and Child Survival, HIV Through the Lifecycle, Scientific Priority Areas
When Global WACh completed its fifth year in June, we took a look back at the vision and goals that catalyzed the creation of our Center in 2011. The Global Center for Woman, Adolescent, and Child health was established to pursue scientific discovery and leadership development by breaking down traditional silos that separate disciplines. In doing so, we foster collaborative approaches that emphasize the interdependent nature of woman, adolescent and child health. We shaped our Center’s approach to research using a lifecycle perspective- one that views women, children and adolescents as interconnected populations that move along a shared life course. (more…)
February 10, 2017
Celebrating International Day of Women and Girls in Science
Categories: Education, students
Tags: Certificate Program, Women in Science
Over the past 15 years, the global community has made concerted efforts to inspire and engage women and girls in science. According to a study conducted in 14 countries, the probability of a female student graduating with a Bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree and Doctor’s degree in a science-related field are 18%, 8% and 2% respectively, while the percentages of male students are 37%, 18% and 6%.
The UN General Assembly recognizes that full and equal access to and participation in science, technology, and innovation is imperative for empowering women and girls of all ages. As a response, one year ago the General Assembly declared February 11th as the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. (more…)
January 12, 2017
Building evidence for HIV risk with contraceptive methods
Categories: Research
Tags: Contraception, Family Planning, HIV
Dr. Renee Heffron, co-director of our Global WACh Family Planning Working Group, has received new funding from the NIH to tie into the Evidence for Contraceptive Options and HIV Outcomes (ECHO) Study. ECHO enrolls participants in sub-Saharan Africa for a randomized trial of three equally safe and effective contraceptive methods: the copper T intrauterine device (IUD); injectable depo-medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA), also known as the Depo shot; and the Jadelle implant. (more…)
January 6, 2017
Fred Hutch Science Spotlight: Reduced CMV Transmission
Categories: Research
A collaboration between scientists at the University of Washington and the Fred Hutch Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division looks at antiretroviral use and Cytomegalovirus transmission in mothers and children in Kenya. Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is an opportunistic infection contracted by people with HIV. In Kenya, most HIV- exposed children acquire CMV within the first year of life, primarily through their mother’s breast milk. These infants with both HIV and CMV have an increased risk of disease progression, neurologic disease and death. Researchers within this collaboration evaluated the impact of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) on CMV transmission and breast milk levels related to maternal HIV. (more…)
November 15, 2016
Gut Health and Child Survival at ASTMH
Categories: Research, Talks and Events
Tags: antibiotic resistance, bacterial diseases, gut health, Kenya, Pediatrics
This week, members of our enteric research team are in Atlanta, Georgia for the 65th annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH). They join approximately 4,400 other researchers, government and public health officials, practicing physicians, students, and all health care providers working in the fields of tropical medicine, hygiene, and global health.
Our Healthy Growth and Development Core is dedicated to optimizing care in young children at high risk of diarrhea-associated mortality and the ASTMH annual meeting provides our team with a unique opportunity to discuss recent findings, build inspiration for our next big projects, and re-energize our commitment to reducing the worldwide burden of tropical infectious diseases to improve health around the world.
Yesterday ASTMH heard from Rebecca Brander on correlations of drug resistance in Kenyan children with acute bacterial diarrhea. Rebecca is a MPH student at the University of Washington and completed this research in collaboration with Global WACh directors Grace John-Stewart, Patty Pavlinac, and Judd Walson. Patty Pavlinac, our Health Growth and Development director, leads the Global WACh representation at the conference.
Rebecca’s study “Host and Environmental Correlates of Multi-Drug Resistance in Kenyan Children with Acute Bacterial Diarrhea” is a key area of research for addressing the prevalence in which bacterial diarrhea results in significant morbidity and mortality in children in sub-Saharan Africa. Antibiotic treatment can be a life-saving intervention, but the antibiotic resistance has rapidly emerged in this population of children, and now this intervention’s efficacy is limited. The study’s data pinpoints risk factors for antibiotic resistance in enteric pathogens, in order to inform diarrhea management recommendations and control resistance.
Click to read the entire study.
October 15, 2016
2015 Global WACh-Coulter Seed Grant recipients create anesthesia device for developing countries
Tags: bioengineering, coulter seed grant
In 2015, a group of engineering students proposed the idea for a low-cost, portable anesthesia delivery device specifically for use in resource-poor regions. The device’s aim was to overcome the challenge individuals in low-resource settings face when crucial medical procedures are often not performed due to a lack of accessible anesthesia delivery.
A $30,000 seed grant from the Global WACh-Coulter Foundation in 2015 allowed the team to design a benchtop test circuit, including a prototype of a simplified anesthetic vaporizer. With investigative mentorship from UW faculty and anesthesiology specialists, these students are now working to create the device that will make more surgeries possible and reduce unnecessary deaths.
Read more about this ongoing project.
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