News
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…)
September 19, 2022
Ashenafi Cherkos accepts faculty position at University of North Texas
Congratulations to Ashenafi Cherkos, PhD Candidate in the Department of Epidemiology and Global WACh student trainee, who accepted a tenure track Assistant Professor position in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, Texas. (more…)
September 16, 2022
Kikundi releases 2022 Annual Report and launches new partner website
Categories: Gut Health and Child Survival
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
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…)
June 29, 2022
New publication in the Lancet Microbe on CRISPR detection of tuberculosis in adults and children with HIV.
Categories: HIV and Co-Infections, Publication
Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) remains a major factor in global morbidity and mortality, especially for adults and children with HIV. Coinfection of HIV and tuberculosis is uniquely dangerous, as the depression of normal immune response to infection in persons with HIV can lead to both severe illness and the underdiagnosis of TB when using sputum-based assays. Collecting sputum from young children presents further issues. A new molecular diagnostics study by UW Global WACh in collaboration with Tulane University and other partners including Baylor College of Medicine, Baylor Children’s Foundation-Eswatini, University of Nairobi and Kenyatta National Hospital in Kenya, to study the effectiveness of CRISPR-based assay detection of M. tuberculosis cell-free DNA (Mtb-cfDNA) in seropositive adults and children was published in The Lancet Microbe May 2022 edition. (more…)
May 25, 2022
New publication on childhood mortality during and after acute illness in Africa and South Asia in the Lancet Global Health
Categories: Gut Health and Child Survival, Publication, Research
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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