Friday Newsletter
View this email in your browser
Dear Centre Leaders,
We hope you have had a good week.
We have the following items for your attention:
  • NUTRI-SCOPE proposal development workshop held in Addis
  • Dissemination meeting on implications of Insecticide Resistance on Malaria Vector Control
  • Vaccines against tuberculosis and smallpox may reduce overall mortality
  • Socioeconomic and demographic determinants of birth weight in southern rural Ghana: evidence from Dodowa HDSS
1. NUTRI-SCOPE proposal development workshop held in Addis
Group photograph of participants.
Policymakers from Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Kenya were among 19 participants of the NUTRI-SCOPE proposal development workshop that was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 11-13 July 2016. The proposed study links environment, nutrition and health research - closely involving HDSSs, the research modeling community and policymakers. 

Other workshop participants came from INDEPTH Secretariat; HDSSs namely Agincourt (South Africa), Kersa (Ethiopia), Nairobi ( Kenya), and Nouna (Burkina Faso); University of Nottingham (UK); University of Heidelberg (Germany); University of Bonn (Germany); PIK - Postdam; University of Haramaya and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. 
News from our member centres
1. Dissemination meeting on implications of Insecticide Resistance on Malaria Vector Control
Participants at the meeting.
A meeting to disseminate findings of a recent study on the impact of malaria insecticide resistance, led by Prof Charles Mbogo of KEMRI-Wellcome Trust, took place at the Panafric Hotel recently.

The Kilifi HDSS (Kenya Medical Research Institute/ Wellcome Trust) is an INDEPTH member centre in Kenya. Read more
2. Vaccines against tuberculosis and smallpox may reduce overall mortality
A demonstration by medical personnel on use of a bifurcated
needle to deliver the smallpox vaccine, 2002.
What if we affected health negatively when we phased out the two vaccines against smallpox and tuberculosis in the 1970s and 1980s in Denmark? Studies on non-specific effects of vaccines indicate that such live attenuated vaccines may reduce morbidity and mortality – not related to the vaccine-targeted diseases - through epigenetic changes of the innate immune system.

The Bandim HDSS is an INDEPTH member centre in Guinea Bissau.  Read more
3. Socioeconomic and demographic determinants of birth weight in southern rural Ghana: evidence from Dodowa HDSS
Baby on a weighing scale.
A paper titled “Socioeconomic and demographic determinants of birth weight in southern rural Ghana: evidence from Dodowa Healthand Demographic Surveillance System” has been published in the BioMedCentral - Pregnancy and Childbirth.

Low birth weight (LBW) is one of the major factors affecting child morbidity and mortality worldwide. The study revealed that having infant birth weight ≥ 2.5 kg is highly associated with socioeconomic status of women household, the gender of an infant, parity, occupation and maternal age.
The Dodowa HDSS is an INDEPTH member centre in Ghana. Read more
Policy Engagement and Communications