FW: Concept Note - The Neonatal Septisome

Interested?

A bunch of super crazy neurosurgeons. A little would go a long way. They are at Harvard and a few other places.

-----Original Message-----
From: Steven Schiff [mailto:
Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2011 12:13 PM
To:
Cc: Schiff Steven; Benjamin Warf; Greg Lucier,
Subject: Concept Note - The Neonatal Septisome

Dear

The World Health Organization estimates that 1.6 million neonates die of infection each year, and almost half of these cases of neonatal sepsis (NS) occur in sub-Saharan Africa. We have uncovered the magnitude of the neurological burden in survivors of NS, postinfectious hydrocephalus (PIH), which has not been appreciated by the global health community. The brains of children with PIH are devastated, with new estimates in sub-Saharan Africa of human capital lost of $1.2-1.4 billion, and the values of statistical lives lost of $2648 billion per year. The potential economic benefits from a modest reduction of such cases would be extraordinary, and solid medical investigation would lead to prevention of the majority of these cases. PIH and other severe sequelae are generated from inadequately treated NS. If we knew the organisms that caused NS, we could both design inexpensive point-of-treatment diagnostics to optimize therapy, and institute public health preventative strategies to decrease the incidence of NS. But we don't know the majority of agents - and they will be geographically and seasonally distinct. We wish to dramatically affect this situation in the near term with a 4-pronged approach: 1) define and predict the neonatal Septisome, 2) optimize treatment of NS in a sustainable fashion to reduce serious sequelae such as brain damage, 3) institute cost-effective rational public health and vaccination strategies for prevention of NS, and 4) develop a template for instituting 1-3 sustainably in other developing countries.

We have attached a Concept Note expanding on these ideas for your consideration.

With our best regards,

Steve and Ben

Steven J. Schiff, MD, PhD
Brush Chair Professor of Engineering
Director, Center for Neural Engineering
Penn State University
http://www.esm.psu.edu/schiff

Benjamin C. Warf MD

Director, Neonatal and Congenital Anomaly Neurosurgery Department of Neurosurgery Children's Hospital Boston Harvard Medical School

EFTA00878993