Infectious Disease

CD4 T cell counts are an essential part of monitoring the progression and treatment of HIV patients; a service that is unavailable in most resource poor regions in the world. Canadian and African researchers are partnering to test low cost point-of-care HIV monitoring devices, which are purpose-built to be rugged, reliable and cost effective.

Our project will develop an interactive didactic games-based phone application with content input by school girls that teaches adolescents about the risks of sugar daddies. These educational modules will addresses contextual factors that lead to transactional sex and HIV infection among adolescent girls in Western Kenya.

One of every 12 persons worldwide is living with viral hepatitis. Mongolia has the highest rate of viral hepatitis and liver cancer mortality in the world (The Lancet 2011; 377: 1139-1140). We aspire to advance the care for hepatitis in Mongolia by providing innovative point-of-care screening and implementing an SMS campaign to increase awareness.

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This project in the Philippines is developing a biosensor system for the rapid and accurate identification of Cryptosporidium microbes in water, a cause of diarrhea that leads to half of all deaths of children under five. Working closely with the Puerto Princesa Water District, provincial health offices and non-profit organizations, the project will help oversee the manufacture and distribution of the Cryptosporidium screening systems, and conduct training to ensure their effective deployment, with aims of introducing the systems in other Asian countries.

Household-level water treatment reduces diarrhoeal disease risk by 36% (compared to 17% for water source interventions). Locally-made ceramic water filters are affordable and effective for removing bacteria but not viruses.  An innovative way of dosing ceramic filter pots with chlorine developed by this project will remove the microbial pathogens and reduce diarrhoeal disease.

In humanitarian emergencies, a lack of access to adequate sanitation is compounded by crowded, unhygienic conditions, where the spread of diarrhoeal diseases can be a major contributor to the overall sickness and death.  This project will develop a sludge treatment system for the safe disposal of excreta in humanitarian emergencies, safeguarding both public health and the environment.

Contaminated water is blamed for widespread diseases, such as rotavirus, diarrhea and dysentery, contributing to approximately a third of deaths among rural school-age children in Kenya.  This project has created a biomass stove featuring an innovative, built-in jacket that can be filled with five litres of water that helps insulate the stove, making it more fuel efficient, and allows the user to boil water and cook simultaneously.

This project will harness the potential of unlicensed drug shop owners to recognize malaria, pneumonia and diarrhea, and to deliver appropriate diagnostics and treatment that is affordable and accessible to families, helping to reduce Uganda's high death rate among children under five.  Private drug shops, though poorly regulated, have proliferated in Uganda, offering a channel through which rudimentary help can be delivered.

Preventing Infectious Diarrhoea in Kenyan and Indian Communities: Testing a Low-Cost, Point-of-Use Device for Safe Drinking Water