India, Canada to work together to eliminate Kala Azar in Bihar

India and Canada will partner in health innovations in India focussing on maternal, newborn and child health and Visceral Leishmaniasis elimination and will make an invest of US dollar 2.5 million.
The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and Grand Challenges Canada (GCC), funded by the Government of Canada, will work to eliminate Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL, Kala Azar) in Bihar.
In 2011, Grand Challenges Canada supported Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) to detect and refer individuals with VL, a point-of-care diagnostic and a single-dose therapy at primary health centres.
The approach helped save the lives of 110 people and contributed to a major reduction of VL in four Primary Health Centres (PHCs). They will jointly invest US dollar 465,000 in ASHA training in 25 highly endemic PHCs and case tracking in five PHCs.

"While maternal, newborn and child health is a major challenge for the Government of India and Canada's flagship development priority, India is one of the six countries that bear 90 per cent of the global burden of Visceral Leishmaniasi.
"This was stated in the joint statement issued by the two sides on the occasion of meetings of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the Canadian Prime Minister Stephan Harper," said a statement issued by the Department of Biotechnology.

Minister of State for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences Y S Chowdary said, "Innovation-driven technology development underpins sustainable and inclusive growth. To partner with Canada, a major hub for innovation and start-ups, provides the right stimulus at the right time for India's drive for equitable growth."

Highlight the links between the two countries, K VijayRaghavan, Secretary Department of Biotechnology, said disease and poor nutrition affect early growth including the development of brains.
"Using our shared strengths to collaborate and address these problems will directly help the lives of many and also demonstrate ways of scaling such interventions to populations which need it most," he said.
GCC has also partnered with the National Council of Indo-Canadians to ensure engagement of Indian diaspora in Canada in the Grand Challenges partnership.
Saving Brains is an initiative that promotes fulfillment of human capital potential by focusing on interventions that nurture healthy child and brain development in the first 1,000 days of life so children can reach their full potential.

"DBT and GCC will be supporting two innovative approaches to promote healthy brain development -- pairing private resources with the Anganwadi programme and kangaroo mother care for low birth weight infants in communities," the statement added.