Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine announced that it will receive funding through the Achieving Healthy Growth program within the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative. This initiative was launched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to overcome persistent bottlenecks preventing the creation of new and better health solutions for the developing world. Charles H. King, MD, professor of international health and epidemiology and biostatistics, will pursue a research project entitled, "Enhancing Infant Immunity: Effect of Early Maternal Treatment for Parasitic Infections."
"Children in developing countries do not always respond appropriately to life-saving vaccines," King said, "and although several factors may be responsible for this poor vaccination response, chronic parasitic infections appear to play a significant role. We aim to determine how the effects of maternal parasite infections are linked to reduced vaccine efficacy and whether prenatal anti-parasite treatment can reverse this effect."
The goal of the Healthy Growth grant program is to discover the causes of faltering growth during the first 1,000 days of life and to identify effective and affordable interventions to promote healthy growth.
King's project is one of seven grants.