Knowledge Generation

This study seeks to search for molecular markers capable of predicting the activation of hypnozoites, unique and dormant forms of vivax malaria. To do so, a metabolomic approach will be used in samples from patients with a chance of recurrence in several malaria-endemic areas. The project is innovative because it combines strict clinical follow-up and analysis of metabolites through the processing of samples using high sensitivity and resolution instrumentalization.

This clinical trial seeks to fill a global gap in the treatment of uncomplicated vivax malaria: to evaluate the safety and tolerability of short and long-term primaquine treatment regimens for uncomplicated vivax malaria in children. Thus, it hopes to provide a clinical and laboratory description of the main adverse events related to primaquine treatment in children, whether long (14 days) or short (7 days).

The study proposes to follow patients with malaria in locations with different transmission scenarios to determine the factors related to infection recurrence. For that, clinical follow-up protocols will be applied, as well as molecular biology techniques, medicine quality assessment, treatment adherence, adverse effect frequency and molecular and pharmacogenetics aspects. The project will improve the knowledge about factors associated with recurrence and classify those episodes, making possible to adjust the recommendation on case management.

Stephanie Seminara of Massachusetts General Hospital in the U.S. will perform large-scale, human genetic studies to identify gene variants that influence fertility for developing novel non-hormonal contraceptives. Globally, many women do not use contraceptives for reasons including negative side effects of hormonal methods, leading to poor method acceptability. This leads to 88 million unintended pregnancies per year globally.

Joshua Vogel of the Burnet Institute in Australia will generate evidence to support adoption of the new WHO Labor Care Guide to reduce the rate of cesarean sections and enhance the quality of care during childbirth by developing an implementation strategy for hospitals in India. In many low-middle income settings, women giving birth in busy hospitals are often alone, undermedicated, and inappropriately monitored, which increases the rates of cesarean sections.

Nyasatu Ntshalintshali of the Clinton Health Access Initiative in the U.S. will use a benchmarking approach to guide individuals and teams delivering mass drug administration (MDA) campaigns in low-middle income regions in order to improve coverage. Individual and team behavior during health campaign planning and implementation have been identified as major causes of variation in campaign quality and performance. To encourage behavioral changes, they will use a benchmarking technique that shows individuals that their peers behave in the desired way.

Lyle McKinnon of the University of Manitoba in Canada and Nicola Mulder of the University of Cape Town in South Africa will study the cause of bacterial vaginosis, which is linked to reproductive health complications and increased risk of HIV, to help identify new treatments. Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is characterized by harmful vaginal populations of anaerobic bacteria, often recurs, and is more common in Black and Latina women, suggesting that there could be a genetic component involved.

Clare Wenham of the London School of Economics and Political Science in the United Kingdom and colleagues will study whether considering gender in the design and operation of mosquito-control programs can help them to sustainably eliminate vector-borne diseases such as Zika. Brazil has eliminated disease-causing mosquitoes several times, but they keep returning. Data from Africa have shown that malaria control programs purposefully involving women have longer-lasting effects, which may translate to other countries and for other diseases.

Wayne State University in the U.S. will showcase the inspiring stories of young innovators in Detroit who overcame hardship and carved out opportunities in community development projects, especially amidst the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. The team will recruit individuals from diverse backgrounds between 18 and 24 years old who are involved in transformative projects around the city. The young change agents will learn how to effectively document having to navigate social and economic adversity in the city in a way that captures their leadership and impact.

Fahe in the U.S., through the Partners for Rural Transformation, will share the stories of people living in poverty across geographically, culturally, and racially distinct communities to highlight shared experiences and encourage their unification to reshape narratives and drive policy change. Negative stereotypes of people in poverty based on divisive factors such as race and class severely damage efforts to change those stereotypes by diluting their power as a group and detracting from the underlying systemic causes of poverty.