Infectious Disease

TEGACWO is committed in improving nutrition and use of essential health services for women and children in prisons. Incarcerated mothers of young children are often the primary or sole caretakers of their children. Kenya law allows incarcerated women to live with their children in jail between ages 0 to 4yrs. Once the children turn 5years old they are removed from the jail facility and returned to the community to live with their relatives or people willing to adopt them.

A dynamic, integrated health worker communication and coordination system called ‘mHero’ provides tools to help countries tackle the core communication gaps present in Ebola affected communities, providing a trusted channel of information and support for frontline health workers. Through mHero’s multi-partner collaborative approach and inherent interoperability with other critical technologies, national health leaders can use basic mobile phone technology to communicate and coordinate with the health workers and public health officials on the frontlines of care.

CommCare is an open source mobile platform that supports a range of Ebola management needs, including screening, triage, diagnostics, lab tracking, contact tracing, and map-based visuals – all to help ease the communication burden and disconnect currently experienced on the ground in Ebola affected countries. This intervention is standard-based and provides open source mobile applications that will be inter-operable with related tools and systems.

A song, recorded in local languages by twelve of West Africa’s most famous musical artists, promoting communities’ adoption of behaviors that prevent Ebola transmission. The Africa Stop Ebola collective will extend the reach of the song and key messages to rural and at-risk communities in Guniea through a mass-media and interpersonal communication campaign.

A partnership with IBM will launch an innovative community engagement platform that facilitates two-way communication between public health officials and citizens using basic mobile phones. Unlike many traditional approaches that are only one-directional, from public health officials to citizens, this novel approach closes the feedback loop and generates real-time, on-the ground information about public perceptions and community needs.

Highlight colorizes standard bleach solutions to allow visualization of disinfected regions, and gives bleach the ability to fully cover and adhere to all surfaces. The color is designed to fade after 15 minutes to indicate when decontamination is complete and prevents staining of reusable materials. While the bleach spray recommended by the WHO disinfection protocol is widely used, it is difficult to guarantee complete coverage on contaminated surfaces. Bleach is transparent and fails to stick to waterproof materials like PPE suits, leaving healthcare workers susceptible to infection.

State-of-the-art, easy-to-assemble decontamination chambers from TOMI Environmental Solutions can decontaminate health care workers and equipment in less than 3 minutes to a level of 99.9999% without the use of hazardous chemicals. The bleach solutions typically used by health care workers in West Africa must remain wet on the surface for 10 minutes to be effective, but high temperatures and humidity in these environments can cause the bleach products to dry and evaporate before this required time can be achieved.

SPR Advanced Technologies, Inc. has developed a novel, ground-breaking solution to the problem of surface contamination on PPE materials and surfaces used in the medical care and treatment of infected individuals (such as hospital beds, table surfaces, electronic tablets, smart phones, etc.). The SPR "Barrier Technology" is a long-lasting, spray-on barrier that creates electro-static fields that kill and repel microbes on treated surfaces.

The PPE for healthcare workers (HCWs) was redesigned to allow for faster and more efficient doffing or removal. This team is developing three distinct products. First generation products include a fast-doffing coverall and a hood with increased visibility. The second generation combines the two products into a single suit. HCWs will be able to remove their suits in a fraction of the time needed for existing PPE, significantly reducing the risk of infection. They are also looking to incorporate cooling features to allow for increased time inside the suit and increased comfort.

This re-engineered protective suit for health care workers is designed be more breathable while still providing leak-free barrier protection, improved hood design and easier doffing/removal. This partnership brings together top experts in personal protective equipment, leading researchers in materials science and a PPE manufacturer. The garment utilizes proven viral penetration resistance material that also offers high levels of moisture vapor transport for breathability. A miniature fan-based suit air exchange system is also being investigated as a possible feature.