Developing a therapeutic food from local ingredients for the treatment of persistent diarrhea in children in Ethiopia
Principal Investigator: Melkamu Berhane1
Co-investigators: Alemseged Abdissa1, Mike Zangenberg 2, Benedikte Grenov2, Henrik Friis2, Yetnayet Bekele1, Kaleab Baye3, Tsinuel Girma1
Collaborating Institutions: Jimma University, 2) University of Copenhagen, 3) Addis Ababa University
Background, objectives and methods
Diarrhoea remains one of the major diseases that threaten the lives of children under five years of age in developing countries. Based on the course of the disease, diarrhoea can be classified as acute or persistent. Persistent diarrhoea refers to diarrhoea persisting two weeks or longer. Persistent diarrhoea (PD) is a common illness among Ethiopian children and it is estimated to be the reason of more than half of the diarrhoea mortality in the country. Besides being an important cause of childhood mortality, PD is thought to cause growth retardation because of the vicious cycle of diarrhoea and malnutrition-with severe health consequences in both early and later childhood.
PD can therefore be understood as a nutritional disorder, and optimal nutritional therapy is generally considered a cornerstone of its management. Previous studies demonstrated that low lactose, energy dense and micronutrient rich food can ameliorate the nutritional status of children with persistent diarrhoea and improve the treatment outcome.
The overarching aim of our study is to develop a therapeutic food for home based management of PD using locally available ingredients, to allow subsequent adoption and scale-up into the current treatment guideline in Ethiopia. Our aim is to bridge science, practice and policy through innovation, which will require expertise from different disciplines including nutrition, food science and gasteroenterology.
Funding source: Grand Challenges Ethiopia
Study period: July 2017-June 2018
Future perspectives: A study to invesigate the effectivness of the therapeutic food will be conducted if funding