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Menstrual health is central to each woman’s ability to lead lives of dignity and well-being in every part of the world. Yet, lack of access to affordable feminine hygiene products is a widely overlooked issue, which has a profound and cascading negative impact on the health, education and productivity of millions of girls and women,…In a region where over 40% of females are under the age of 15, this is a rapidly escalating problem. A school girl without pads can miss up to six weeks of schooling every year and be inattentive in class, increasing her likelihood of dropping out and harming her chances to become a full and…way of in-person adolescent health education programs. ZanaAfrica Group, a hybrid social enterprise based in Nairobi, Kenya, solves this problem through incorporating fun, interactive comics in pad packages for girls. Tested for behaviour change and health outcomes, all products are developed with girls using human-centered design. In this way they meet the demand for affordable, accessible and aspirational sanitary pad products, along with menstrual health education for girls. With a Phase II Grand Challenges…

…2013, about 117,658 dengue cases were reported in the Philippines, with 433 recorded deaths. At least 40% of the infected patients were children aged 1–10 years old. Due to increased prevention efforts, detection of dengue-carrying mosquitos has now become a priority. However, this is usually not possible in local communities – where rapid, sensitive and low-tech…specific objectives of this study were as follows: ·         To conjugate the DNAzyme detector probes to the synthesized dextrin-capped gold nanoparticles ·         To determine the optimum parameters for the colourimetric detection, using DNAzyme-functionalized gold nanoparticles ·         To perform the colourimetric detection using both synthetic DENV-3 target oligonucleotide and extracted RNA from Aedes aegypti ·         To…

Issue Almost 40% of the world population is exposed to malaria, with 243 million cases reported annually and the majority occurring in children under age five in Africa. Despite current advances, interventions are unlikely to halt malaria transmission, due to increased vector and parasite resistance, changing mosquito behaviours and human activities. New innovations to produce more effective mosquito nets may have a significant role to play in the control of vector-borne diseases. In Tanzania, chicken feathers are a waste by-product of food production but they have unique properties and could…make mosquito nets from chicken feathers, by producing a non-woven feather fiber mat with different concentrations of feathers and a binder. Outcomes The experiments demonstrated the potential for treated pure feathers and processed bonded sample feathers to effectively repel mosquitoes. While technical limitations defeated efforts to produce a mosquito net using feathers, the initial study…

Issue In Sub-Saharan Africa, the number of people suffering from hunger is estimated at 239 million, and this figure could increase in the near future. Access to protein and essential nutrients that ensure people are able to lead productive lives is further limited.  Edible insects (such as palm weevil larvae) are believed to be rich…anemia. However, these insects are available only certain parts of the year and they are hand-harvested from the wild. Hand-harvesting these insects from the wild limits supply for future seasons, drives up the costs and increases the risk of pesticides. Solution This project sought to develop and distribute insect farming technologies that would make insects available for year-round consumption in…order to empower the farmers to scale their production, they are piloting a micro-finance loan based in palm weevil larva breeding. Aspire Food Group Ltd. raised a significant seven-figure round of equity financing to scale operations globally, including the project in Ghana. Based on the strategic guidance of their board of directors, the project team…

Issue Malaria is one of the major threats to public health and economic development. Until now, insecticide-treated bed nets have led the fight against malaria. However, to reach elimination and avoid further malaria resurgence, the fight against the malaria mosquito requires new, innovative and sustainable interventions to complement current control strategies. Solution The project sought…was chosen as the mosquitocidal ingredient, because of its high safety profile and also because it is easily available in remote locations in East Africa. Several lure designs were tested, using plastic bottles and containers of different shapes and sizes, different cloth colours and different fruit concoctions, as well as different ways of providing a wet sugar surface for the mosquitoes to feed on. Most mosquitoes preferred to feed on plain 10% sugar solution rather than on fruit juices, and the best prototype design consisted of…suggestions provided by the community. The next steps would be to optimize the lures and further validate the prototype in a clinical trial. The team anticipates scaling up the intervention and conducting a cluster randomized controlled trial in two ecologically different field sites – a sugar-poor environment and a sugar-rich environment – to investigate whether…

Issue Diabetes is a growing problem worldwide Management of diabetes, a disease that affects 300 million globally, requires continuous monitoring of blood sugar. Current approaches to blood glucose measurement are invasive and can be expensive. As a result, many people suffer complications associated with the disease. Solution The project began with the aim of using…to explore an alternative approach of embedding a colour sensor inside the lightbox attachment and communicating with the phone via the audio jack, thus eliminating the need for using the phone camera. While the initial aim of the project was to monitor blood glucose, the team realized that in order to ensure adoption, they needed to expand the scope of the product to: a.       Add more diagnostic parameters b.      Integrate a decision support system for the end user c.       Build a web-based platform for data storage, trending and analysis. Outcome The platform has been extended to analyze other colorimetric strips,…can be used by physicians to monitor their patients’ data or by public health administrators to monitor screening programs in their respective districts. The project team has signed an agreement with the Public Health Foundation of India and the Diabetes Education Academy to distribute the web platform for diabetes monitoring to nearly 2,500 physicians undergoing…

Issue Peruvian peasant communities in high-altitude, mountainous areas have little access to clean water. In addition, unheated water is too cold for washing and this can result in poor hygiene, the proliferation of respiratory infections and diarrhea, especially in children. Solution The project sought to develop a suitable technology for rural water heating using natural …

Issue Mental health disorders add significantly to the disease burden in India. Community and professional awareness of mental disorders are low, and India has only a small fraction of the number of mental health professionals needed to deliver care in a manner consistent with that provided in more developed countries. Solution The project team developed and validated a decision support system for the identification and management of depression, stress and suicidal intent, based on the mhGAP-IG algorithm of the World Health Organization – an approach developed for use by…·         Patients screening positive for these conditions were referred to primary care physicians, with the app allowing the ASHA to track the individual once referred and follow up to ensure compliance with treatment. Outcome A 1,500% increase in the use of mental health services was documented in the study population – from 0.84% at the…

Issue Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease are a challenge for Africa, due to changing lifestyles. Sedentary lifestyles, poor diet and obesity aggravate this problem. About 50% of Cameroon’s urban women are overweight/obese, while 30.5% of men and 47.6% of women in Cameroon are sedentary. Most Cameroonians are unaware of their body …by providing simple equipment for body fat monitoring. It was anticipated that a better understanding of the health risks of obesity and using personal risk measurement would promote more regular exercising and healthy weight maintenance. Eighteen fitness clubs (total membership of 638 men and women at baseline) located in two Cameroonian cities (Yaoundé and Bamenda)…content specifically tailored to serve as exercise reminders and for motivation, as well as to provide information on the benefits of exercise and healthy eating. A 12-month follow-up of all fitness groups taking part in the project was completed, and baseline data was analyzed. Feedback was provided to all participants, with individually-tailored health-improvement recommendations based…

Issue More than two billion people suffer from one or more micronutrient deficiencies, and iron (Fe) deficiency is the most widespread. Progress has been made to control iron deficiency by supplementation and food fortification. Lentils are consumed daily (as dhal) with rice in Bangladesh, and iron-fortified dhal could be a low-cost, achievable solution to iron deficiency. Solution The…introduce iron-fortified lentils in Bangladesh and that the food was acceptable to consumers. Three different iron formulations were used to fortify dhal in the preliminary laboratory work. For the sensory panel evaluations, the Fe fortificants and rates used were FeSO4.7H2O 1600 ppm, NaFeEDTA 1600 ppm, FeSO4.H2O 1600 ppm. The results from the evaluation indicated that…