As the global COVID-19 pandemic spreads, there are increasing numbers of cases in low- and middle-income country (LMIC) settings, including in many African countries. A new $1.38 million UW research project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will monitor the spread of COVID-19 in sites in Africa in order to increase understanding of the effects of COVID-19 on vulnerable children and adults, healthcare workers and researchers in low-resource settings. 

Judd Walson, Vice Chair of the Department of Global Health, is the principal investigator on a $3.5 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant, titled The CHAIN Consortium, will analyze samples collected from an observational study at nine sites in Africa and South Asia with the purpose of gaining a better understanding of risk factors to child mortality rates that could be targeted by interventions. 

Judd Walson, a University of Washington professor of Global Health, Medicine, and Pediatrics, recently received $621,029 in funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for a research grant focused on the development of a molecular diagnostic platform for the detection of soil transmitted helminths (STH), commonly known as parasitic worms. Investigators will use these methods to support a large, multi-country, randomized trial evaluating the feasibility of interrupting STH transmission through expanded mass drug administration.

By University of Washington

For two billion people around the planet, anemia, weakness and malaise are part of daily life.

These symptoms are part of living with soil-transmitted helminths – more commonly known as intestinal worms – that inhabit victims’ bellies, sapping their nutrients and stunting their physical and cognitive development.