Description of Collaborative Activity: |
In November 2007, the NICHD launched the Iron and Malaria Project to identify and examine factors that affect the safety and effectiveness of interventions to prevent iron deficiency in the context of malaria and other infections. The Project is funded, in part, by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with additional support from the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. The Project aims not only to generate new data to address this high-priority global health issue, but also to support efforts of the World Health Organization (WHO) to develop evidence-based guidelines with specific regard to the use of iron interventions. The Project and its goals grew out of new research that examined historical concerns about the safety of iron supplementation and, in particular, evidence of an increased risk for poor health outcomes among those (primarily young children) who were not iron deficient, but who received iron supplementation as part of “universal” supplementation programs in regions where malaria and other infections are common. The objective of this meeting was to assess progress of the funded grants and discuss the research project. This project has 3 sub-projects with direct collaborations with CDC: Inflammation and nutrition science for programs/policy and interpretation of research evidence (INSPIRE); Soluble transferrin receptor (sTfr) standard material development project to help provide standards to evaluate reliability and validity of assays to measure sTfr, a biomarker of iron status - Biomarkers reflecting inflammation and nutritional determinants of anemia (BRINDA) |
