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Issue According to UNICEF, almost one billion children regularly experience physical punishment at home. Changing entrenched beliefs that perpetuate this situation is a daunting challenge, as these beliefs are often handed down across generations, reinforced by laws, supported by religious interpretations and embedded in traditions. Approaches are needed that can provide parents with a new…and delivery process. Eight Local Facilitators (LF) from Kosovo, Kenya and Canada attended the training session and, following the Advanced Training, they planned similar, four-day training sessions for other LFs in their home communities. All LFs were trained in the ethical administration of standardized pre- and post-test questionnaires to parents and were asked to administer…further expansion in other countries. On the basis of their success, additional Save The Children offices have invested in the laddered training model and are already scaling up PDEP. The team is considering an application to Phase II Transition To Scale (TTS) funding to implement the innovations, with the objective of scaling the program in…

…children in developing countries are treated in the private sector, including through drug shops. Other studies report that between 39% and 53% of people who seek treatment for an illness consult a private health provider first, including general merchandise sellers, pharmacies, for-profit providers and drug sellers. Many private sector providers are unlicensed and unsupervised. They often diagnose illnesses incorrectly, sell reduced doses of medicines, expired drugs and drugs that are not recommended by national guidelines. Solution The objective of the project was to evaluate the feasibility of implementing Integrated Community Case Management (ICCM) for the management of childhood illnesses in unlicensed drug shops in Uganda. Engaging private drug sellers to…children under five years of age is amoxicillin. At baseline, only 16.3% of children with pneumonia received any kind of amoxicillin but, after the intervention, 66.1% received amoxicillin. The team plans to scale up the project in the Kamuli district and beyond in Uganda. They are also preparing manuscripts to disseminate information about the project.

Issue India accounts for 25% of the global incidence of tuberculosis (TB). While ‘mystery clients’ (standardized patients [SP]) have been used to assess and ensure quality of care in low- and middle-income settings for health conditions (such as angina, asthma and dysentery) and for health services (such as family planning), this approach has not been tested …

Issue According to World Health Organization statistics, tobacco is a global pandemic that results in six million deaths per year. Smoking is responsible for 30% of all cancer-related deaths and 85% of all lung cancers, in addition to being linked to cardiovascular disease and overall decreased health. Effective intranasal vaccines against nicotine require potent but safe mucosal adjuvants to enhance specific …IgG in bronchoaveolar lavages (BAL) and in distal mucosa. These antibodies are essential as a first line of defence in neutralizing nicotine. Moreover, the vaccine does not promote an allergic response, as no anti-nicotine IgE was detected in the sera of vaccinated mice. Preliminary data from histopathological analyses of tissues indicated that the vaccine did…related to cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin. With these promising results, the project team plans to optimize and improve the production of the vaccine to make it ready for pre-clinical and eventually human trials.    Knowledge was widely disseminated in conference presentations and publications. The Northern Cancer Foundation awarded a grant of $230,000 to support four years’ work on the project.

…as malaria and arboviruses) are major challenges in Africa. In Tanzania, these diseases affect 12 million and kill about 70,000 people annually. While ongoing interventions are having significant impact, techniques for mapping intra-village variations that would allow targeting of hotspots of residual transmission are lacking. Solution The project aimed to create a geo-information system to map intra-village variations in the distribution and density of malaria vectors. To accomplish the study objectives, the team surveyed and mapped the…more or less abundant within the villages through observational changes, and distribution of the environmental variables and anthropogenic features. These changes were precisely and reliably recorded and updated by village community members, who can associate mosquito abundance and the environmental and anthropogenic variables in their locale. The project team found relying on community knowledge to…

…caused by a nematode parasite known as Wuchereria bancrofti. In Tanzania, Culex quinquefasciatus is an important vector and also considered as the most important nuisance mosquito. Due to its insecticide tolerance, insecticide-treated mosquito nets have proven to be ineffective in controlling the mosquito. Solution The project, carried out in Tanzania, involved introducing a natural oviposition attractant from grass infusion to lure gravid Culex quinquefasciatus to breed in biolarvicide-treated sites to disrupt development of its immature stages, including eggs and larvae. In the study areas, experiments were undertaken to determine mosquito abundance and transmission indices of Wuchereria bancrofti. The…grass infusion as an oviposition attractant and neem seed cake extract as a biolarvicide. The findings showed that Culex quinquefasciatus was the most abundant mosquito caught, accounting for 90.3% (n=38,655) of the collected mosquitoes. One out of 1,400 Culex quinquefasciatus dissected for filarial infection was carrying an infective parasite-causing lymphatic filariaisis. While using the polymerase…

Diabetes is one of the leading causes of death around the world. In India alone, there are nearly 62 million diabetic patients, a number that is expected to rise to 80 million by 2030. There is a large unmet need to provide an affordable, simple and intelligent blood glucose monitoring solution to patients and healthcare…data to specialists, along with public health agencies. After an initial proof-of-concept grant under Grand Challenges Canada’s Stars in Global Health Program, Jana Care is now scaling up the development of the Aina device, a mobile blood monitoring tool that plugs into a mobile phone. The device turns any mobile phone into a basic blood…measure blood glucose and five other basic blood parameters. The device and platform also integrates decision support and lifestyle tracking tools with a web-based patient management system for remote physician feedback. Jana Care will be undertaking pilots with both the Indian Ministry of Health and with two large hospital chains and the Public Health Foundation…

…could dramatically raise the global level of diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy, a problem that affects 1 in 100 people — 65 million worldwide, an estimated 80 to 90% of them in developing countries, of which at least 60% go untreated. The high incidence of epilepsy in developing countries is attributed to higher rates of…brain cells communicate with each other. Typically, a test involves placing electrodes on the scalp, connected by wires to a speaker and recording machine. The brain's electrical signals are turned into wave patterns viewed on a computer as the patient is asked to, for example, breathe quickly and deeply, or to look at a bright flashing light. Dr. Mateen and colleagues will gather the results of tests conducted with the EEG app, developed with the help of Danish Technical University using open-source software (offering the potential for rapid global scale-up), and compare them against those of more expensive stationary equipment. The new device connects 14 electrode leads on the scalp through the headphone jack of a tablet…

Issue Diarrheal disease is the second leading cause of mortality among children under five, and is estimated to cause an even greater burden of morbidity because of impairment in cognitive and physical functioning. Water treatment at the point of use is estimated to reduce diarrhea risk by 42%. However, despite the existence of a number of effective treatment technologies, boiling water remains the primary method of sterilizing water in low- and middle-income countries. Other household water treatment methods have significant barriers to use, such as cost, lack of availability and cultural barriers. Solution This project investigated the potential for a low-cost household water treatment intervention – a water pasteurization indicator – to improve household drinking water quality and reduce childhood diarrhea in poor communities in the…formative research to understand the barriers and motivating factors influencing household water treatment in two communities (one peri-urban and one rural) lacking access to municipal piped water supplies near Iquitos in the Peruvian Amazon. A randomized controlled trial was then undertaken to evaluate the water pasteurization indicator. Outcome Although they demonstrated the feasibility of teaching…

Issue Around 400 million people living in the developing world are disabled and they are often the poorest members of society. To qualify for benefits as a disabled individual in India, a disability certificate is required, which is granted after an examination by a doctor affiliated with a government hospital. Fewer than 10% of disabled …assessment of physical parameters and range of movements that is based on a complex set of mathematical calculations. Solution The object of Project DAS Simple was to design and develop a digital home- or point-of-care-based reliable Locomotor Disability Assessment application. This mobile application would guide the disability assessment, automate calculations, provide instant analysis, certify and…