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Issue About 15% of people in the developing world are malnourished with the most fatal form of malnutrition being protein energy malnutrition (PEM), which is responsible for most hunger-related deaths in Africa. Current approaches to combat malnutrition have ignored the role locally available plants can play as sources of protein. Cowpea is a protein-rich resilient crop grown in Sub-Saharan Africa, but high…fortifying them with sulfur-amino acids, and explored fermentation, milling and temperature-monitored cooking of the cowpeas to mitigate flatulence-causing sugars (oligosaccharides). The project also linked cowpea producers to suppliers/farmers. Outcome The project successfully developed cowpea products that are suitable for consumption by children, including humus, cookies and bread. Positive feedback was received from parents, and 200…

…In low-income countries, where hygiene, awareness and availability of vaccines are limited, rapid and low-cost diagnosis of rotavirus is a major challenge. Solution The project team sought to develop fabric-based immunosensors that could be easily integrated into infant disposable diapers for the diagnosis of rotavirus in stool samples. This non-intrusive, safe collection and rapid qualitative detection of rotavirus in a diaper could be done conveniently at home or…

…cause of injury-related fatalities in the developing world, with Kenya being among those countries with the biggest problem. The waiver of import tax on motorcycles has led to an increase in the use of motorcycles to ferry passengers, called ‘bodaboda’. This has led to an unprecedented increase in RTC (road traffic collisions) in Kenya. Most…motorcycle accidents by addressing road safety knowledge gaps among local motorcycle taxi riders. An interactive phone app with games was developed as a fun and easy reminder for motorcyclists to stay safe. The app ‘BodaRush’ is transferable to any developing country. The project also worked through the Kenya Red Cross, Bungoma Networks, to improve emergency…comes to road traffic accidents – has stated that it will consider including the project’s training curriculum, including the mobile phone app, in their programs. Given the interest generated in the pilot phase, the project team intends to scale up activities to 10 other counties in Kenya. There is also an interested partner in Tanzania.

Issue Thirty-two million people in the developing world are completely deaf. Hearing aid devices are of no benefit for this population, and cochlea implantation is extremely expensive and invasive. Most individuals with congenital and pre-lingual deafness are born with functioning vocal chords but their inability to hear severely hampers their language development. Solution The project team sought to develop a non-invasive, affordable and intuitive technology to improve the communication efficiency of deaf children…is being said to them by interpreting the visual sound waves associated with the spoken words. The V-Hearing approach utilizes patent-pending sound wave expression technology, where colour codes for different frequencies convert sound waves into visual cues. V-Hearing allows deaf people to understand spoken words by interpreting the sound wave patterns associated with specific words.…of the deaf from Ontario Outreach Programs, is willing to adopt the V-Hearing technology and will start a trial with deaf children under five years of age to build up their hearing and speaking ability. The project team has filed an international application with the Patent Cooperation Treat (PCT) and have received a positive written opinion, and…

Issue The global health landscape in developing nations is rapidly shifting away from one dominated by infectious diseases to one characterized by various chronic conditions, such as cardiovascular diseases, kidney failure, cancer and diabetes. Most of these diseases are treatable but almost always go undiagnosed. Solution The aim of the project was to develop a point-of-care (POC)…testing cost. Two prototypes of colour sensors were developed.   1.  A cost-effective colour sensor using off-the-shelf components 2.  A commercially available NODE Chroma that was modified for this application. Both devices are capable of precise and accurate health markers screening at a reduced cost. The colour sensor device is capable of interpreting colour signals via red, green, blue and clear colour. Colour readings are taken at the beginning and end of an assay to provide initial and final values for calculations,…

Issue Nodding syndrome (NS), a neuropsychiatric syndrome, continues to affect thousands of children in post-conflict northern Uganda and other post conflict-settings in Africa, such as South Sudan. No family mental health intervention has been described for the families of NS children who bear the high burden of looking after the affected children. Solution The project tested a family-based group interpersonal psychotherapy intervention (IPT-F) with families of children with NS. A study was designed to investigate the effectiveness of IPT-F for caregivers of patients with Nodding Syndrome (NS) on improving the mental health of both the caregivers and patients, compared to…

Issue Reliable disease detection is important to prevent unnecessary deaths and is also important to prevent overtreatment of disease. But in developing countries, patients presenting clinical signs of a specific illness are treated with no laboratory results for confirmation, leading to overtreatment due to misdiagnosis. Solution The project aimed to show that optical devices could be used as sensors for biomolecules that are indicative of…

Issue Rape is a major risk factor for HIV, although a dearth of research makes it impossible to quantify the links between rape and disproportionate levels of infection among women in countries with the highest HIV prevalence rates. Understanding the barriers to reporting rape is necessary for prevention, but sexual violence research is severely restricted: …a tool that dramatically reduces inhibitions to reporting rape, by permitting respondents to answer questions in seclusion, in any language, posed by impersonal, non-judgmental computers. CAVIA was designed for adults over 18 years of age of either gender, without restrictions due to language, literacy, familiarity with computers or cell phones, or proximity to a central…as a relaxed and non-intrusive one. CAVIA greatly reduces the amount of time and the number of highly skilled professionals normally required to conduct research. It opens up research to non-readers, members of minority language groups, people unfamiliar with computers, and rural populations without electricity or access to the Internet, all of whom are severely…

Issue Dengue fever is the most common cause of acute illness requiring hospitalization in Indonesia. There is a need for an appropriate tool to confirm dengue in fever patients at the primary care level, to readily differentiate them from those with other, less-dangerous illnesses. While diagnosis of dengue can be confirmed using NS1 antigens, this …team hybridized PCR product with dengue probes, dropped it onto the membrane sticks (with gold conjugate on it) and added the running buffer. The reactions gave positive signals for all dengue serotypes. Outcome Compared with a standard PCR machine, the OpenPCR machine yielded inferior results. In addition, the testing of the lateral flow assay yielded…

Burkina Faso is one of the world’s poorest countries. Despite free prenatal care, access to care remains an issue for rural women, as this often means walking for an entire day through harsh conditions. As a consequence, nearly 70 percent of expectant mothers receive only 1 of the 4 recommended visits, putting themselves and their …will create an empowering environment for rural women and serve as a model that can be expanded beyond pregnancy and to isolated communities globally. The initiative has the confirmed backing and political support from local, regional and ministerial health authorities, buy-in from industry, and access to data management software, which are essential for future scaling-up.