The Water and Health in Limpopo (WHIL) Innovations fellowship program will provide cross-disciplinary training in global health innovation to twelve post-doctoral fellows, six from the United States and six from rural Southern Africa, over the next five years. The program will focus on the closely related issues of poor access to water and sanitation in rural areas of Southern Africa and unacceptably high rates of morbidity and mortality associated with early childhood diarrhea. The nearly decade old collaboration between the University of Virginia (UVa) and the University of Venda, South Africa that will host this program is led by the internationally-recognized global health leader and early childhood diarrhea (ECD) specialist, Dr. Richard Guerrant, at UVa, and by Dr. Pascal Bessong, UNIVEN Professor and Chair of Microbiology. The collaboration is supported by a multi-disciplinary group of faculty from both institutions with particular expertise in enteric disease, rural water purification strategies, rural nursing, community planning, agent- based modeling, child development, cross-cultural ethnography, and South African law related to water and human rights. This group has formed over the past four years and has developed protocols and strategies for trans-disciplinary and trans-oceanic coordination, scholarship, and training. The WHIL Innovations fellowship will provide promising doctorally-prepared potential global health leaders from the US and Southern Africa with the opportunity to participate in mentored global health research and education training with a particular focus on access to and quality of water and ECD. Major objectives of the training program are: (1) To build skills necessary to engage in innovative global health research collaborations including specific tailored training in community engagement, rural water management, measurement of impacts of ECD, simulation modeling in global health, trans-disciplinary collaboration, global health research ethics, project management, and laboratory management;(2) To conduct an innovative, mentored global health research project in the context of the multi-disciplinary WHIL program;and (3) To develop a portfolio of research and training outputs that will serve as a framework from which to develop individual efforts and as a resource for future fellows and other trainees. We plan to recruit fellows from many disciplines and expect to attract outstanding candidates thanks to our well-established and diverse faculty training group. We expect that our trainees will contribute meaningful new research relating to rural water and sanitation provision and ECD in the context of the WHIL program. More importantly, we will ensure that they are prepared to think with innovative pragmatism about these issues meaning that, as they develop exciting new interventions, processes and policies, they will anticipate and incorporate questions of community acceptability, efficacy, affordability, accessibility, and scalability.

Public Health Relevance

Researchers, policy makers, and community members have struggled for decades in rural, resource- limited communities to develop and implement effective and sustainable strategies to decrease early childhood diarrhea (ECD) through the improvement of water and sanitation. The Water and Health in Limpopo (WHIL) Innovations Fellowship will provide mentored post-doctoral training in collaborative research and research implementation targeted at accelerating the development of sustainable strategies to reduce the devastating costs of ECD.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Fogarty International Center (FIC)
Type
International Research Training Grants (D43)
Project #
1D43TW009359-01
Application #
8401325
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-SBIB-X (50))
Program Officer
Katz, Flora N
Project Start
2012-08-13
Project End
2017-08-31
Budget Start
2012-08-13
Budget End
2013-08-31
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
2012
Total Cost
$350,016
Indirect Cost
$21,236
Name
University of Virginia
Department
Internal Medicine/Medicine
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
065391526
City
Charlottesville
State
VA
Country
United States
Zip Code
22904
Edokpayi, Joshua N; Rogawski, Elizabeth T; Kahler, David M et al. (2018) Challenges to Sustainable Safe Drinking Water: A Case Study of Water Quality and Use across Seasons in Rural Communities in Limpopo Province, South Africa. Water (Basel) 10:
Etta, Elizabeth M; Alayande, Doyinmola P; Mavhandu-Ramarumo, Lufuno G et al. (2018) HHV-8 Seroprevalence and Genotype Distribution in Africa, 1998?2017: A Systematic Review. Viruses 10:
Mushaphi, Lindelani Fhumudzani; Mahopo, Tjale Cloupas; Nesamvuni, Cebisa Noxolo et al. (2017) Recommendations for Infant Feeding Policy and Programs in Dzimauli Region, South Africa: Results From the MAL-ED Birth Cohort. Food Nutr Bull 38:428-440
Rogawski, Elizabeth T; Guerrant, Richard L (2017) The Burden of Enteropathy and ""Subclinical"" Infections. Pediatr Clin North Am 64:815-836
Gachara, George; Magoro, Tshifhiwa; Mavhandu, Lufuno et al. (2017) Characterization of occult hepatitis B virus infection among HIV positive patients in Cameroon. AIDS Res Ther 14:11
Gachara, George; Mavhandu, Lufuno G; Rogawski, Elizabeth T et al. (2017) Evaluating Adherence to Antiretroviral Therapy Using Pharmacy Refill Records in a Rural Treatment Site in South Africa. AIDS Res Treat 2017:5456219
Bulled, Nicola; Poppe, Kara; Ramatsisti, Khuliso et al. (2017) Assessing the environmental context of hand washing among school children in Limpopo, South Africa. Water Int 42:568-584
Bulled, Nicola (2017) The Effects of Water Insecurity and Emotional Distress on Civic Action for Improved Water Infrastructure in Rural South Africa. Med Anthropol Q 31:133-154
DeFrancesco, A S; Tanih, N F; Samie, A et al. (2017) Antibiotic resistance patterns and beta-lactamase identification in Escherichia coli isolated from young children in rural Limpopo Province, South Africa: The MAL-ED cohort. S Afr Med J 107:205-214
Moyo, Christabelle S; Francis, Joseph; Bessong, Pascal O (2017) Perceptions of community-based field workers on the effect of a longitudinal biomedical research project on their sustainable livelihoods. BMC Public Health 17:267

Showing the most recent 10 out of 27 publications