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…the blood is a major cause of death and morbidity among children less than five years old, particularly in resource-limited settings. Blood culture is the gold standard for diagnosis of bacterial sepsis – a technique that is virtually absent in resource-limited settings. In order to reduce mortality, antibiotic therapy is normally initiated without adequate evidence. Solution The investigators for this pilot project hypothesized that a combination of biomarkers with moderate diagnostic threshold…evidence for an innovative strategy to identify the potential biomarkers for bacterial sepsis that could be used to develop a rapid, point-of-care test for bacterial sepsis. The design of this test could then be combined with the existing malaria rapid diagnostic test (mRDT) into a single rapid test for diagnosis of both malaria and bacterial…

Issue In Tanzania, 9% of all deaths in children under five years are due to diarrhea and only 54% of the population have access to an improved water supply. Published meta-analysis reviews have shown that household-level water quality interventions (filtration, chemical treatment and boiling) have greater diarrheal disease risk reduction impact, compared to source water quality interventions. Ceramic…arms: ·         Standard ceramic filter pot·         Filter pot combined with novel chlorine (WaterGuard) dosing mechanisms·         Chlorination (WaterGuard) only·         Control (no household-level water treatment). Each household was followed for three months, with visits every two weeks. Outcome The water quality results showed a significant reduction in the quantity of E. coli after using a drinking water treatment. The average amount of E. coli in source water was reduced from 105 cfu.100…

An international group of public and private organizations is collaborating to accelerate development of an innovative heat-stable and low-cost, inhaled form of oxytocin to manage postpartum hemorrhage in resource-poor settings.The technology, originally developed at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, is being licensed to GSK as part of a collaborative agreement to co-develop, register and …to address these issues through the development of a heat-stable, affordable and easy-to-administer inhaled form of oxytocin. Formulated as a dry powder, inhaled oxytocin eliminates the need for refrigerated storage conditions, while delivering oxytocin via a powder inhaler could facilitate its administration by health workers, birth attendants and mothers themselves. Combined, this novel approach has…

…Solution The project deployed a fuel-efficient, multi-tasking, biomass stove featuring an innovative built-in jacket that can be filled with five litres of water. This feature both helps to insulate the stove, making it more efficient, and allows the user to simultaneously boil water whilst cooking. The rationale of the Jiko Kenya stove project was to introduce these fuel-efficient stoves to meet a number of goals: ·         To alleviate the burden on natural resources ·         To promote the use of clean cook stoves to reduce child mortality, to support the Millennium Development Goal ·         To promote economic development and empowerment of women and youth…of drinking dirty water that was not boiled ·         To increase access to clean water. A total of 600 stoves were produced and 300 households were profiled for the pilot project, to assess changes in attitude towards boiling water before drinking. A study to identify the impact of the use of the stoves on diarrhea…Thirty households in Kitui were trained in safe water storage to avoid contamination. The project has developed additional marketing and educational materials, and 2,000 people have been reached during exhibitions and through house-to-house visits. The project team has submitted a letter of intent for Phase II Transition To Scale funding to scale up the initiative.

Issue Inadequate access to clean water and sanitation services, coupled with poor hygiene practices, kills and sickens thousands of children every day, and leads to impoverishment and diminished opportunities. Water management in low- and middle-income countries continues to rely on paper-based bookkeeping, but could be more effective and efficient by directly involving and engaging grassroots …expedite maintenance and repair of water systems. Solution The project  developed FLOW SMS, which applied existing, low-cost, mobile technology to radically improve management of access to water for under-served communities. As part of an effort to increase access to sanitation and hygiene, TTC Mobile, in collaboration with Akvo, uses mobile technology to bring clean water…

Issue About 800 women die every day due to complications arising following pregnancy and childbirth, and 99% of these deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. Delay in transporting pregnant women for emergency obstetrical-care services is an avoidable factor for reducing maternal mortality but alleviating these problems is a relatively neglected issue. Traditional car ambulances seem to be an…of the project was to determine acceptability and feasibility of the ‘Mom’s Van’ intervention. In the formative research stage, information was collected through surveys, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and direct observation, to gain baseline information and to get feedback for designing interventions. The project then deployed three motor ambulances in three rural areas in the Mymensingh district of Bangladesh, to cover a population of approximately 100,000. The project…