Maternal, Newborn, and Adolescent Health

Obtaining birth data is challenging even in peacetime Nigeria, so aid workers use census estimates to guide vaccinations. In the penumbra of conflict in Nigeria's northeast, massive demographic disruption renders such estimates inaccurate and unusable at local level, making it difficult to target newborns for vaccination or to measure the performance of vaccination programs. Community-sourced birth reports can provide reliable birth data in settings with large, internally displaced populations.

Ali Sie of the Centre de Recherche en Sante de Nouna in Burkina Faso aims to demonstrate the feasibility of generating (baseline) data on the frequency of congenital anomalies in rural Africa, including on the variability of head circumference measurements, and for the development of first-line laboratory testing for infectious agents related to congenital anomalies.

Kenneth Ssembambulidde of Makerere University College of Health Sciences in Uganda will seek to test the hypothesis of whether abnormal (high or low) maternal and newborn cholesterol is associated with a risk for neonatal sepsis.

Jesse Gitaka of Mount Kenya university in Kenya will employ a strategy that will transfer cutting edge CRISPR-based isothermal nucleic acid analysis technique for diagnosis of CuSTIs (curable sexually transmitted infections) onto fibre mats with smartphone readout enabling on-site pathogen analysis in resource-limited settings enabling prompt treatment alleviating prematurity, stillbirths and neonatal deaths.

Evrard Nahimana of Partners in Health in Rwanda will test the delivery of a peer-support model using Expert Mothers for the provision of nurturing care to small and sick newborns in 2 district hospitals in Rwanda through a quasi-experimental pre-post design. Efforts to reduce neonatal mortality have included the expansion of care for small and sick newborns, which has the potential to save 1.9 million newborn lives. However, less attention has been paid to increases in developmental disability that occur as children survive the neonatal period with significant morbidity.

Sally Griffin of ICRH Mozambique in Mozambique aims to increase the involvement of men in maternal healthcare, by testing a gender- and culture-sensitive intervention to strengthen male involvement in antenatal care in Marracuene district in southern Mozambique.

Annettee Nakimuli of Makerere University College of Health Sciences in Uganda aims at using new genomic approaches to identify pathogens that cause fever (sepsis) among pregnant women. Sepsis is one of the major causes of maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality globally, responsible for over 15% of maternal and neonatal deaths.

Yogan Pillai of Clinton Health Access in South Africa will build on work done to address the gaps in knowledge that many pregnant women have in both understanding their pregnancy and the development of the fetus as well as how to navigate the health system.

Carol Hiela of the University of Cape Town in South Africa will determine whether a new wireless vital signs monitor (ANNETM) is able to collect reliable and accurate measurements of vitals, in a way that is convenient, comfortable and efficient for neonates admitted in ICU, comparable to the hard-wired, standard-of-care monitoring systems.

Assumpta Nantume of Neopenda in Uganda examines the clinical impact and cost-effectiveness of a wearable vital signs monitoring system, neoGuard, for critically ill newborns in Kenya where the newborn mortality rate is one of the highest in the world.