Dr. Ayesha Abdullah’s remarks came during a roundtable discussion titled ‘Identifying [...]]]>

Better data collection on the causes of child injuries and safety are urgently required to implement appropriate legislation that will ensure a safer environment for children in the region, according to Dr. Ayesha Abdullah, Senior Vice President, Dubai Healthcare City, a member of TECOM Investments.

Dr. Ayesha Abdullah’s remarks came during a roundtable discussion titled ‘Identifying Research Agenda in the Area of Injury Care and Prevention’, at the 4th Arab Children Health Congress (ACHC) at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Center.

Held under the patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, wife of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, the three-day ACHC was themed ‘Accidents and Injuries: Prevention of Injuries Amongst Children’.

Dr. Ayesha Abdullah said: “In order to create policies that can really make an impact on child health, we need to analyze trend data over a long period of time – and currently, there is a knowledge gap in the region as far as statistical collection and analysis is concerned. As well as understanding the incidence of diseases amongst children, we also need to understand the level of investment being made in preventative versus curative care. This congress is a welcome opportunity to share ideas with colleagues who can shape research and policy in this area and I hope the discussion today will translate into some concrete actions that will improve the long-term health of our children.”

The round table session was moderated by Dr. Haifa Madi, Director of Health Protection and Promotion, World Health Organization – WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean of Egypt, and Professor Fikri Abu Zidan, the Head of Trauma Group at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences in the UAE University. A number of other high-profile organizations participated, including from UNICEF, and the UN.

Child and family health are a core specialty offered at Dubai Healthcare City with physicians and healthcare professionals providing expertise in the full range of child health issues from nutrition, diabetes and allergies to special needs such as learning disabilities and autism.

Other topics discussed at the ACHC included road safety, emergency response, psychological trauma and child counseling as well as Arab strategies and interventions and the role of families, the education system, legal system and media in improving child health.

Share/Save

In a study of 100 West African children aged one to six, the experimental vaccine produced immune responses similar to or even higher than those [...]]]>

A new vaccine showed promise at protecting young children from malaria, offering a potential new weapon against a disease that kills at least one million people each year, US researchers said.

In a study of 100 West African children aged one to six, the experimental vaccine produced immune responses similar to or even higher than those of adults infected by malaria all their lives.

The vaccine, which uses an immune system booster called an adjuvant from British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline Plc, targets the malaria parasite as it is actively infecting red blood cells and causing fever and illness.

This so-called blood stage vaccine acts at a later stage in the malaria parasite’s life cycle than Glaxo’s experimental vaccine Mosquirix.

‘What jumps out to me about this vaccine is the antibody response,’ said Christopher Plowe of the University of Maryland in Baltimore and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator whose study appears in PLoS ONE, a journal of the Public Library of Science.

‘When you just look at the antibodies before you immunize anybody, the adults in Mali who have been exposed to malaria life-long, they don’t get sick from malaria any more. They get infected but they don’t get sick,’ Plowe said in a telephone interview.

‘That is exactly what you want a blood stage vaccine to do.’

Second round of testing

Plowe said children start out with fewer antibodies — the immune system proteins that recognize invaders such as viruses or parasites. But after they were vaccinated, the children’s antibody levels were just as high, or even a bit higher, than adults in their community.

The results were strong enough to start a second round of testing in 400 children to see if the vaccine can blunt the infection.

The new vaccine targets the malaria parasite after it has made its way though the bloodstream and into the liver, where it transforms into a new form called a merozoite, which can infect new red blood cells and cause fever and illness.

Plowe said he thinks the adjuvant from Glaxo, the same one used in Mosquirix, is priming the children’s immune system to develop such a robust response.

‘The hope would be that you could get two or more such first-generation vaccines, especially when you have the same adjuvant, and be able to come up with a multi-stage vaccine,’ he said.

Last month, Glaxo said Mosquirix is expected to complete late-stage testing in 2011 and, if proven effective, the company will seek regulatory approval by 2012.

Plowe’s study was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the US Agency for International Development. The vaccine was invented and made by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and formulated with an adjuvant by GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals.

Most of the one million or more people killed every year by malaria are young children and most live in Africa. The World Health Organization says a child dies of malaria every 30 seconds.

Share/Save

The ground-breaking was attended by Mr. Mohammed Ali Al Shorafa, Managing Director & CEO of UEMedical, Mr. Emanuel Mikho, Vice President & Director of Healthcare – Middle East of US-based project architects ‘HKS’ and Mr. Hany Amer, Vice President & [...]]]>

UEMedical has officially broken ground and began construction on Danat Al Emarat Women and Children’s hospital.

The ground-breaking was attended by Mr. Mohammed Ali Al Shorafa, Managing Director & CEO of UEMedical, Mr. Emanuel Mikho, Vice President & Director of Healthcare – Middle East of US-based project architects ‘HKS’ and Mr. Hany Amer, Vice President & Regional Manager of consultants ‘Engineering Consultants Group’.

‘In line with our vision of becoming the region’s leading healthcare development and investment company, we are excited to begin construction of this outstanding facility, which is destined to set a new standard for patient care delivery throughout the region. The hospital will provide critically needed maternity and neonatal services in Abu Dhabi as outlined in the 2008 report by Health Authority-Abu Dhabi, and we are firmly committed to begin operations by the end of 2011,’

stated Mr. Al Shorafa.

Located in the Officers City area of Abu Dhabi, the $150m Danat Al Emarat Hospital will become one of the largest and most comprehensive Women and Children’s hospitals in the Middle East.

It will support UEMedical’s multiple missions of delivering world-class, patient-centric care, and improving the long-term health of the population. Renowned Singaporean healthcare operators ParkwayHealth will manage the 200-bed facility, positioning it at the forefront of the region’s medical sector and establishing it as a referral centre for high-risk pregnancies and a regional Centre of Excellence for women and children’s health.

Al Ghurair Arabian Foundations Engineering was selected by UEMedical for the first phase of the construction process, and the contract for the second and final phase of construction will similarly be tendered to guarantee the highest quality of the project and aptness.

‘We are delighted to have been chosen for the first phase of the build of this prestigious project. Danat Al Emarat will be yet another landmark project that we are proud to be a part of and we look forward to the prompt completion of the building base structure,’ said Mr. Hussein Hatata, General Manager of local contractor Al Ghurair Arabian Foundations Engineering.

Danat Al Emarat will be a part of the integrated healthcare delivery system currently being developed by UEMedical which includes the recently launched network of premium outpatient health centres, HealthPlus.

Share/Save