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Innovation Highlights
This page is devoted to highlighting innovative projects, people, and research in science, public health, and technology. Updates are made each month. To view previous highlights please click here to visit the archive.
PATH International has developed a new BIRTHweigh scale that helps low-literacy health workers in the developing world identify underweight newborns. The scale compensates for low-literacy rates by providing pictorial instructions for use, and it is designed for local production and distribution to reduce costs to those who use it. Once an underweight newborn is identified, the infant can be given immediate care such as breastfeeding and warming, or higher levels of medical care.
Many babies in the developing world - where 95 percent of underweight children are born – are delivered at home. Oftentimes, traditional birth attendants and midwives lack the training and tools to identify underweight children. The PATH Birthweigh scale offers a means to tackling this enormous public health problem.
Currently, PATH is seeking a manufacturer to whom the technology can be transferred, so that it will be readily available to community health workers who care for infants.
For more information, please visit:
PATH BIRTHWeigh Scale for Saving Newborns.
Duke University researchers have mapped out a group of 200 genes whose “imprinting” may have profound effects on human health. Imprinting is the process by which a gene (either the copy from one’s mother or father) becomes silenced and stops operating. This is not always problematic because the remaining gene can compensate, however, in some cases it can lead to detrimental disorders such as Angelman syndrome (a cause of mental retardation).
Interestingly, many of the newly identified genes are on regions of chromosomes known to be involved in the development of obesity, diabetes, and cancer. This is particularly meaningful in light of prior work done by the same researchers that has shown how environmental factors, particularly nutrient intake, can alter gene expression.
This demonstrates that while some individuals may be pre-disposed to certain illnesses due to their genetic make-up, behavioral interventions can still play a role in maintaining health.
For more information, please visit: www.newobserver.com.
A six year research project funded by the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) involving nine research institutions and more than half a million publications has added substantial evidence to the ever-growing body of data linking risk factors such as smoking, poor nutrition, and lack of exercise to cancer.
The study is especially valuable in its breadth as well as its findings that even those marginally overweight are at increased risk.
The study suggests that a body mass index (BMI) that was conventionally thought to be healthy—between 18.5 and 24.9—may be too wide a range. In fact, the best thing one can do to avoid cancer is maintain a BMI between 21 and 23.
To access the full report, please visit:
WCRF Download Center.
In May 2007, The Micronutrient Initiative won a World Bank Development Marketplace Award for a project that helps village millers in Nepal add essential vitamins and minerals to the cereal flour they produce. In Nepal, where 78% of children under the age of five and three-quarters of women are anemic, the addition of key nutrients is improving health and productivity of rural Nepalese by decreasing iron deficiency anemia.
The project relies on a flour device that was introduced to small traditional watermills in the Lalitpur District of Nepal. The device, which does not require electricity, automatically adds correct doses of nutrients to grain being milled. It was developed by the Micronutrient Initiative with funding from the Canadian International Development Agency.
To access the official article, please visit:
Micronutrient Initiative Project in Nepal.
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