Search results for:

…within 15 years, 95% of all new cervical cancers will be diagnosed in low- and middle-income countries. Cervical cancer is a preventable disease and efforts are underway to introduce the HPV vaccine but, even if it is accepted and provided to all, there will be at least a 15-year delay before its beneficial effects will be realized. One treatment option for precancerous lesions of the cervix is LEEP (Loop Electrosurgical Excisional Procedure). This technology has overtaken cryotherapy in the western world as standard of care for precancerous lesions.…of this project was to introduce LEEP into Western Kenya and to use it in a ‘see and treat’ protocol, due to issues relating to loss to follow-up. This project was developed to train the front-line healthcare providers, specifically nurses doing cervical cancer screening, on how to use LEEP, so that they could provide this…of doing the procedure under observation, and finally offering the procedure independently. The complication rates seen with procedures performed by these nurses were extremely low, with no significant bleeding and no injuries. The project team then expanded the LEEP training program to include physicians and residents. As a result of the project, there is a…

Issue Pollutants introduced by industrial and domestic waste entering a water body can become a part of the food chain, resulting in serious health hazards. Existing techniques to treat polluted water are limited by the cost, side effects or time needed for treatment, especially for small-scale applications. Solution The project aimed to develop magnetite-supported filters for the removal of mixed pollutants (organic and inorganic) from contaminated wastewater in an environmentally-friendly, cost-effective and sustainable fashion, with potential to upscale for field application.…

Issue More than 700 million people worldwide still lack access to water that is safe enough to drink. Many people must rely on surface water and other water sources that are usually contaminated with pathogens. In 2011, diarrheal diseases linked to unsafe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene killed about 760,000 children under the age of five. Only about 20% of people in low-income countries currently use point-of-use water treatment methods and there is still a need for a household-level water treatment solution that is safe, effective, simple, affordable, and adaptable to local usages and environments of rural and poor areas. Solution The research team…PetrifilmTM count plates used in conjunction with an incubator that the team built in-house using a countertop toaster oven and programmable heating controllers, basic sterile equipment and supplies (pipettes, alcohols, gloves), with a diesel generator for periods of power outage. The resulting equipment and procedure are robust, inexpensive (the custom-made incubator costs about 5% of…development of an innovative solar water disinfection product (SODIS X), which has effective water-disinfecting capability and is a breakthrough in the SODIS field. The ingenious and insightful design of SODIS X makes it elegant, simple, easy to use (even by children), safe, easy to maintain, inexpensive, locally producible, portable, small and light to distribute, and…

…healthcare, and care offered through the public sector is often of low quality and of limited availability. As a result, those of low income often lack access to effective care and must rely on unregulated, expensive private-sector providers who provide up to 90% of care in South Asia. Solution Implemented in Nepal, the project team developed a mobile phone application to be used by community health workers (CHWs)…over 36,000 people), six new primary care clinics and 151 CHWs. A primary care facility scorecard to evaluate human resources and supply chain issues has been introduced. The project team has applied for scale-up funding from Grand Challenges Canada and the Government of Nepal has committed $1,090,000 to expand the work in the Achham District.

…of 54 years; under-five mortality of 135 per 1,000; and the world’s highest maternal mortality rate of 2,054 per 100,000 live births. These poor outcomes are due to the extremely limited number of health facilities and health providers, including doctors and nurses. Access to healthcare is further compromised by poverty, limited infrastructure, lack of health…to deliver the necessary health services. Solution The innovation tested was a novel, micro-franchised social enterprise business model to allow 200 CHWs to generate income, with incentives for their work to reduce maternal and child mortality. The objective was to establish a public-private enterprise of micro-franchised mobile health workers that would extend healthcare throughout South to those who need it most. Activities included development of: 1) A standardized training module for mobile health workers 2) A standardized kit and inventory of health supplies and products 3) A standardized, SMS-based inventory and patient contact management system. Initial health worker training can be undertaken by hospital or clinic staff. The workers and…

Issue A major reason for insufficient access to safe drinking water is a lack of trained professionals to maintain the water systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, training is done in western countries, with few trained professionals returning to their home countries. Some water projects are directed by foreign technical water specialists but often this expensive professional oversight is …

Issue About 20 million children worldwide suffer from acute malnutrition, leaving them more vulnerable to serious illness and early death. Malnutrition is a great challenge in Tanzania where it is estimated that, over the past decade, 600,000 children under the age of five have died due to malnutrition. Solution The main aim of the project was to develop and test an innovative and community-driven food-banking system by combining low-cost, portable, durable and vermin-proof units for storing and dispensing dry farm produce, with the development of organic vegetable micro-gardens for a year-round supply of micronutrients. The target population was subsistence farming households in rural and peri-urban communities in the Ulanga and Kilombero Districts, in south eastern Tanzania. The specific project…

…life is a critical period in brain growth and development that can be affected in many ways, including from hypothermia and infection.Reducing the number of these impediments to young brain growth is the aim of a toolkit created by Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Kids for use initially by mothers in Kenya.Contents of the tool kit (which costs less than $5) include: a clean delivery kit to minimize infection at time delivery; a sterilizing gel that, applied to the umbilical stump, reduces certain severe infections by 75% and mortality from all causes by 25 to 40%; an emollient to promote skin integrity, helping to reduce infection and prevent hypothermia (and shown to reduce mortality in hospitalized preterm infants); a handheld scale to spot early warnings signaled by an infant’s weight, and a ThermoSpot to identify hypothermia and fever; a mylar infant sleeve and reusable heating device to treat hypothermia; information on infant stimulation, involving…

Issue According to the Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, access to authentic and affordable medicines remains a challenge in many parts of the developing world, including Pakistan, where at least one-third of prescription drugs (Rx) are counterfeit. Solution The aim of this project was to provide a cost-effective, scalable means of empowering patients to access genuine…Software matches the phone number of the PBM member and Rx code of the drug with the list of PBM members and Rx codes. 3.     Once both codes are matched, the POS financial transaction is authorized, along with the discount. 4.     An e-receipt of the Rx purchase is generated for the member. The second key objective was to deploy a sustainable and scalable solution that replicates a Pharmacy Benefits Plan (PBM) through access to subsidized medicine. Outcome…

Issue The intensive use of chemical insecticides against mosquitoes has led to widespread insecticide resistance in Benin. There is an urgent need for malaria control programs to adopt  integrated mosquito management approaches that include sustainable, non-chemical solutions. One strategy is the use of the insect parasitic roundworm, Romanomermis iyengari, a parasite that develops inside mosquito larvae …objective of the project was to develop a simple and cost-effective procedure for large-scale production of Romanomermis iyengari, to be used for mosquito control in pilot areas to significantly reduce malaria transmission. The innovative approach was to rear the nematodes using coconut coir fibres as a substrate in the breeding tank, instead of coarse sand. Coconut…World Health Organisation (WHO) and Ministries of Health in Sub-Saharan malaria-endemic countries) will be critical for this. Since the simple rearing facility has been installed, three technical personnel can produce up to 150 million nematodes monthly. This amount is sufficient to suppress malaria vectors in about 75,000 square meters of breeding site monthly. Several press conferences have been…