Supporting eradication of maternal child malnutrition in developing countries: a case from Nicaragua scenario.

World Health Organization actively stresses the importance of health, nutrition and well-being of the mother to foster children development. This issue is critical in the rural areas of developing countries where monitoring of health status of children is hardly performed since population suffers from a lack of access to health care. The aim of this research is to design, implement and deploy an e-health information and communication system to support health care in 26 rural communities of Cusmapa, Nicaragua. The final solution consists of an hybrid WiMAX/WiFi architecture that provides good quality communications through VoIP taking advantage of low cost WiFi mobile devices. Thus, a WiMAX base station was installed in the health center to provide a radio link with the rural health post "El Carrizo" sited 7,4 km. in line of sight. This service makes possible personal broadband voice and data communication facilities with the health center based on WiFi enabled devices such as laptops and cellular phones without communications cost. A free software PBX was installed at "San José de Cusmapa" health care site to enable communications for physicians, nurses and a technician through mobile telephones with IEEE 802.11 b/g protocol and SIP provided by the project. Additionally, the rural health post staff (midwives, brigade) received two mobile phones with these same features. In a complementary way, the deployed health information system is ready to analyze the distribution of maternal-child population at risk and the distribution of diseases on a geographical baseline. The system works with four information layers: fertile women, children, people with disabilities and diseases. Thus, authorized staff can obtain reports about prenatal monitoring tasks, status of the communities, malnutrition, and immunization control. Data need to be updated by health care staff in order to timely detect the source of problem to implement measures addressed to alleviate and improve health status population permanently. Ongoing research is focused on a mobile platform that collects and automatically updates in the information system, the height and weight of the children locally gathered in the remote communities. This research is being granted by the program Millennium Rural Communities of the Technical University of Madrid.

Effectiveness of improved cookstoves to reduce indoor air pollution in developing countries. The case of the Cassamance Natural Subregion, Western Africa

The Spanish NGO "Alianza por la Solidaridad" has installed improved cookstoves in 3000 households during 2012 and 2013 to improve energy efficiency reducing fuelwood consumption and to improve indoor air quality. The type of cookstoves were Noflaye Jeeg and Noflaye Jaboot and were installed in the Cassamance Natural Subregion covering part of Senegal, The Gambia and Guinea-Bissau. The Technical University of Madrid (UPM) has conducted a field study on a sample of these households to assess the effect of improved cookstoves on kitchen air quality. Measurements of carbon monoxide (CO) and fine particle matter (PM2.5) were taken for 24-hr period before and after the installation of improved cookstoves. The 24-hr mean CO concentrations were lower than the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for Guinea-Bissau but higher for Senegal and Gambia, even after the installation of improved cookstoves. As for PM2.5 concentrations, 24-hr mean were always higher than these guidelines. However, improved cookstoves produced significant reductions on 24-hr mean CO and PM2.5 concentrations in Senegal and for mean and maximum PM2.5 concentration on Gambia. Although this variability needs to be explained by further research to determine which other factors could affect indoor air pollution, the study provided a better understanding of the problem and envisaged alternatives to be implemented in future phases of the NGO project.