UW Researchers Receive $3.5 Million Grant to Identify Childhood Mortality Risk Factors

Judd Walson, Vice Chair of the Department of Global Health, is the principal investigator on a $3.5 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant, titled The CHAIN Consortium, will analyze samples collected from an observational study at nine sites in Africa and South Asia with the purpose of gaining a better understanding of risk factors to child mortality rates that could be targeted by interventions. 

DGH Students Share Their Experiences as Gates Foundation Interns

Esther Choo and Andrew Secor, Department of Global Health PhD students in Implementation Science, interned for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation during the summer of 2019. Choo served as part of the Global Delivery Program and Secor worked with the Qualitative Sciences initiative under the Integrated Development Team.

“My main project focused on health systems and seeing if we can draw lessons from past experiences, while also thinking of ways we can improve evaluation methods going forward,” Choo said. 

Global Health Professor Receives $1.4 Million Grant to Study New Technologies in Tuberculosis Testing

A new grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will allow Paul Drain, a professor in the UW Department of Global Health, to conduct clinical evaluation studies of point-of-care tuberculosis (TB) diagnostic tests. These rapid tests deliver quick results to patients and clinicians in hospital and community clinics. By accelerating the initiation of TB treatment, patients may have better outcomes and will be less likely to transmit TB to others. TB has become the leading infectious cause of mortality in the world, due partly to poorly performing diagnostic test practices.

Global Health Professor Receives Grant to Investigate Innovative Detection Methods to Eliminate Intestinal Worm Infections

Judd Walson, a University of Washington professor of Global Health, Medicine, and Pediatrics, recently received $621,029 in funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for a research grant focused on the development of a molecular diagnostic platform for the detection of soil transmitted helminths (STH), commonly known as parasitic worms. Investigators will use these methods to support a large, multi-country, randomized trial evaluating the feasibility of interrupting STH transmission through expanded mass drug administration.

Improving Survival Rate of Malnourished Children Critical – Researchers Say

By Agnes Kyotalengerire / New Vision

The three-day meeting attracted investigators from the six collaborating countries of Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Bangladesh and Pakistan who admit malnourished children, follow them through hospitalization and then six months after.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: Maternal Immunization Safety Monitoring in Low- And Middle-Income Countries: A Roadmap for Program Development

By Eve Lackritz, Andy Stergachis, and Maria Stepanchak

The first 28 days of life (the neonatal period) are the most vulnerable for a child’s survival. Worldwide, almost half of all deaths in children under five years old occur during the first 28 days of life. Despite progress in recent decades, neonatal mortality remains the highest in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and 99% of all neonatal deaths occur in LMICs.

What It Will Take for The World to Keep Getting Better

By Vanessa Bates Ramirez

Compared to life 100 years ago, life these days is pretty good by many measures. You’ve probably heard the statistics: poverty and infant mortality are down, life expectancy is up, and infectious diseases are being controlled, if not cured. In short, more humans than ever before are having their basic needs met, and it’s undeniable that the world is getting better.

The Seattle Times: Bill Gates: Global-Health Cuts Would Increase AIDS Deaths

 By Sandi Doughton

With more than $40 billion in assets and the world’s richest man at the helm, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation might seem well-positioned to ride out any political storm.

But the Trump administration’s proposal to slash funding for the global health and development causes the Seattle foundation holds dear sent shivers through even the country’s most powerful philanthropy.

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