This issue of Directions in Global Health features five PATH projects: our collaboration with the World Health Organization on the Meningitis Vaccine Project; prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission in Ukraine; a small grants program that is catalyzing behavior change in Africa; the Inter-Act project, which is training truck drivers to slow the HIV epidemic in India; and an evaluation of neonatal resuscitators.

Author: PATH

Publication date: August 2006

Region: Global

Part of series: Directions in Global Health

Scientists have been working for decades to develop a preventive malaria vaccine. While they have successfully demonstrated that such a vaccine is possible, many challenges continue to impede progress on the road to an effective malaria vaccine. As a result, the Malaria Vaccine Advisory Committee to the World Health Organization (WHO), coordinated by the WHO Initiative for Vaccine Research, called for a collective effort to explore and address the challenges. This effort resulted in the Malaria Vaccine Technology Roadmap process.

Publication date: August 2006

Region: Global

This training aid was developed as part of Training Health Workers in the Management of Sharps Waste. The aid includes a graphical representation of the equipment needed to help protect waste handlers and incinerators during the collection, treatment, and final disposal of health care waste.

Publication date: July 2006

Region: Global

This document presents an analysis of safer sharps-waste management activities, including practical options using available or emerging technologies. The analysis includes an estimate of the baseline burden of disease from unsafe injection practices, the proposed solutions' potential impact on burden of disease, and a cost-effectiveness analysis of the proposed solutions.

Publication date: June 2006

Region: Global

This is one of a series of fact sheets that describe PATH's current and past work in Kenya. The fact sheets focus on specific projects as well as unique approaches that cut across projects. This fact sheet describes work to improve single-dose packaging of nevirapine for programs to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

Publication date: June 2006

Region: Africa

This training aid was developed as part of Training Health Workers in the Management of Sharps Waste. The aid includes a graphical representation of the key steps involved in the safe management of health care waste: segregation, containment, handling and storage, transport, treatment or destruction, and disposal.

Publication date: June 2006

Region: Global

We describe the functional elements of a diagnostic instrument and disposable enteric card system under development that rapidly identifies and differentiates Shigella, E. coli, Campylobacter, and Salmonella in stool samples. These elements, currently realized as microfluidic subcircuits on individual cards, are: (1) pathogen capture and lysing, (2) nucleic acid capture, (3) on-chip rapid PCR, and (4) lateral flow detection of amplicons. Presented at the Solid State Sensor, Actuator and Microsystems Workshop, June 4, 2006; Hilton Head Island, SC.

Author: Weigl BH, Gerdes JC, Tarr P, et al

Publication date: June 2006

Region: Global

This training aid was developed as part of Training Health Workers in the Management of Sharps Waste. The aid includes a graphical representation of the segregation of medical waste into three categories: non-infectious, infectious, and sharps. Over the last few years, a number of countries have adapted the basic concepts and developed country-specific versions of this aid for training and for display in health facilities. The document available here is a link to an example adapted for Kenya.

Publication date: June 2006

Region: Global

Summary of a study to estimate the clinical and economic impact of prenatal syphilis screening with the rapid plasma reagin test and the immunochromatographic strip test in low-resource settings. Presented at: International Conference on Global Health: Global Health Council, May 30, 2006; Washington, DC.

Author: Levin C, Steele M, Atherly D

Publication date: May 2006

Region: Global

This poster reports progress incorporating magnetic beads within a unique lab card that permits efficient capture and enrichment of E. coli O157:H7 from feces. Presented at the 106th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, May 21, 2006; Orlando, FL.

Author: Gerdes JC, Weigl BH, Yager P

Publication date: May 2006

Region: Global

This issue of Outlook provides new information about the female condom as presented at the September 2005 Global Consultation on the Female Condom. Topics include evidence of the female condom's effectiveness for prevention of STIs and pregnancy, issues related to expanding access and use, and gaps in the knowledge base. Successful program examples and a detailed table of female condoms currently available or under development are also presented.

Author: Shane B

Publication date: May 2006

Region: Global

Part of series: Outlook

This edition of PATH Today features the articles "A laboratory on a card," "Using microfluidic tests to identify infection," and "Common proteins for common prevention," which highlights the work of John Boslego and his team on pneumococcus. It also includes a letter from donor Shannon Scopa about her family's ordeal with rotavirus.

Publication date: May 2006

Region: Global

Part of series: PATH Today

An exploration of one technique for drying reagents onto a microfluidics card. Reagents needed for immunocapture, lysis, and PCR for pathogen capture can be stored in trehalose or trehalose dextran. Presented at the 1st Distributed Diagnosis and Home Healthcare Conference, April 2, 2006; Arlington, VA.

Author: Ramachandran S, Weigl BH, Gerdes JC, et al

Publication date: April 2006

Region: Global

Demonstration of the PATH enteric flow-through assay as a rapid and cost effective method for detecting pathogenic bacteria in stool samples in low-resource settings. Presented at the American Association for Clinical Chemistry Oak Ridge Annual Conference, April 17, 2006; San Jose, CA.

Author: Dillman L, Fichtenholtz A, Weigl B

Publication date: April 2006

Region: Global

An overview of a method of sample preparation by smart polymers for detection in an immunoassay, demonstrated as part of a diagnostics test for Chlamydia trachomatis. Presented at: 38th Annual American Association of Clinical Chemistry (AACC) Oakridge Conference, April 21, 2006; San Jose, CA.

Author: Kulkarni S, Peck R, Barfield C, et al

Publication date: April 2006

Region: Global

Demonstration of the use of a magnetic immunochromatographic strip (ICS) assay with a reader to detect recombinant HPV-16 E6. The magnetic ICS assay was able to detect as little as 2.6ng of protein. Presented at: 38th Annual Oak Ridge Conference, April 20, 2006; San Jose, CA.

Author: Peck R, Schweizer J, Weigl B, et al

Publication date: April 2006

Region: Global

This document provides an historical overview of PATH's work on technologies for injection safety.

Publication date: January 2006

Region: Global

This document explains how to correctly build a protected sharps barrel for the disposal of waste.

Author: Berman A

Publication date: 2006

Region: Global

This document explains how to correctly build a protected sharps pit for the disposal of waste.

Author: Berman A

Publication date: 2006

Region: Global

Publication date: 2006

Region: Asia