Josh Colston, PhD
University of Virginia researchers are developing a powerful online tool to save children from deadly diarrhea by detecting outbreaks sooner and accelerating the deployment of treatments and new vaccines.
Diarrhea not only kills hundreds of thousands of children every year, it contributes to malnutrition and muscle wasting that stunt kids’ growth, harms their mental development and helps trap them in poverty. While significant progress has been made against the disease in recent years, the UVA researchers say that the modern era of “big data” offers a vast untapped opportunity to respond more nimbly and help more children.
Their Planetary Child Health & Enterics Observatory is bringing together the expertise of epidemiologists, climatologists, bioinformaticians and hydrologists (water supply experts) in one place online to provide an unprecedented, big-picture view of diarrhea around the world. That will give infectious disease experts and local leaders in low- and middle-income countries the information they need to make smart decisions, prioritize resources and move quickly to save lives.
Filed Under: Research