Baylor Foundation Malawi

Texas Children’s Global Health Network, in partnership with the Baylor College of Medicine, hosted its first-ever virtual Research. Art. Innovation. Scholarship. Education (RAISE) Symposium from June 28 to July 2, drawing more than 500 registered participants from more than 20 countries across the world.

With generous philanthropic support, Texas Children’s has partnered with the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) to help provide life-altering surgery to the millions of women worldwide who suffer with obstetric fistula.

Texas Children’s Global Health partners at the Area 25 Health Centre in Malawi planted giant bamboo seedlings in its permaculture garden to recognize Earth Day, and to celebrate the lasting connections between human and environmental health.

An average of 20 babies are delivered each day at the health centre in the Malawian capital city of Lilongwe, where Texas Children’s and Baylor College of Medicine launched a Global Women’s Health program in 2012 in partnership with the Ministry of Health of Malawi and Baylor Foundation Malawi.

Even if children are largely spared from COVID-19 direct effects, the pandemic will still cause long-lasting indirect impacts on children globally, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.

Building on a 20-year legacy of improving health systems for children, families and communities in limited-resource settings across the globe, Texas Children's Hospital and the Baylor College of Medicine International Pediatric AIDS Initiative (BIPAI) Network are working hard to prepare for and respond to COVID-19 in the 10 countries where we work.

Building upon the energy of Global TB Program staff members and with nearly a decade of robust TB experience and innovation, the Global TB Program was most recently awarded a five-year, $5 million Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) grant that will operate from September 2020 through September 2025. This five year project, “Closing – TB GAPS – for people living with HIV: TB Guidance for Adaptable Patient-centered Services” (TB GAPS), will focus on finding and preventing TB in children and youth, while simultaneously determining the most cost-effective prevention strategy and promoting best practices to sustain the impact of our work.

As a recognized leader in global health, Texas Children’s has worked diligently to create adaptive solutions for our clinics in sub-Saharan Africa, South America and Eastern Europe.

One of those solutions was rolled out this week in Malawi, Africa, at the Baylor College of Medicine Children’s Clinical Centre of Excellence-Malawi (COE) where children and young adults with HIV/AIDS are tested, diagnosed and treated. The InTouch Lite V2 (often referred to as ‘Lite’) device was deployed to the COE as part of our efforts to provide patient care during the COVID-19 crisis in sub-Saharan Africa by utilizing available resources.

“Children with cancer in Africa don’t have the benefit of a central line,” Hockenberry said. “All chemotherapy is done through a peripheral vein, creating challenges for both our patients and our providers.”

The use of the RediStik PIV Trainer has greatly reduced these challenges, lessening both the number of PIV attempts and IV extravasation incidents. Hockenberry introduced the innovation to her clinics in Botswana, Malawi and Uganda more than a year ago holding regular hands-on training workshops, many of which are still being held today.