CORE Group Spring Meeting to Focus on Implementation Research, Registration Now Open
The CORE Group will hold its annual Spring Meeting April 14-18, 2008 in Atlanta. The conference, Child Survival Investigation: CSI-Atlanta will allow CORE members and partners to gather and discuss strategies for improving quality of global child health programs; exchange technical information; and explore partnerships across organizations. Registration is now open on the CORE Group website. A draft agenda will be posted in late February.

Meeting Registration

CORE Group Presents at USAID on CS Programs
On January 10th, CORE Group, the US Coalition for Child Survival, CSTS+, and Future Generations presented at USAID (Washington) on the current state and impact of child survival (CS) programming. The presentations included information on the cost-effectiveness of CS programs, the current American public opinion on CS issues, as well as the critical need for stronger strategic partnerships with PVOs and NGOs.

Presentations can be found online:
CS Programs Presentations

CORE Group HIV/AIDS Working Group to Present SOTA on Pediatric HIV Care in April
The CORE Group's HIV/AIDS Working Group will be holding a one day state of the art update on pediatric HIV care on April 4th in Washington DC. Key topics include: essential care for HIV-exposed and infected infants; missed opportunities for identifying children and for providing care; models for delivering family centered care approaches; promising approaches to early infant diagnosis (where mother's status is known and where mother's status is not known); HIV testing in children (issues and current developments in program and policy guidance): nutrition and pediatric AIDS (CTC/CMAM); age specific needs and considerations for HIV care and treatment.

Information on workshop logistics and registration

US Child Survival Coalition Seeking Testimony for Child Survival Hearing
The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health hearing on child survival will be held on February 14th from 10am to 12:30pm in Room 2220 of the Rayburn building. The US Coalition for Child Survival is asking its member organizations to submit brief testimony that can be included in the record when David Oot, Chairman of the Coalition, testifies.

This is an opportunity for your organization to highlight its success stories in child survival and to thank the Sub Committee for their support of the Global Child Survival Act (HR 2266). In addition to submitting formal testimony, please send in any questions that you would like the Committee to pose to the panels. All testimony and suggested questions should be directed to Liz Creel (ecreel@usccs.org) by February 1st.

Upcoming Elluminates

Rapid Health Facility Assessment Training

On Thursday January 31st from 1-3pm (EST), Jim Ricca, Capacity Building Advisor of CSTS will give a presentation on the Rapid Health Facility Assessment (R-HFA), version 2.1. The R-HFA was originally designed for use by NGOs within the CSHGP to assess quality of MNCH service delivery and to strengthen relations with District Health Medical Teams. Key areas of information the tool is designed to collect include: availability of a minimal level of infrastructure, supplies, and medications; adherence to national (based on IMCI) protocols for assessment, classification, and management of children under five; and caretaker knowledge of how to administer drugs received for common childhood illnesses (i.e., diarrhea, malaria, and/or pneumonia).

Meeting Registration

**The R-HFA 2.1 tool and supporting materials should be downloaded from the CSTS website before signing on to the Elluminate. Download Supporting Materials

Pandemic Influenza Elluminate Series

Part I: Pandemic Influenza: Epidemiology, Prevention, Treatment, History, & Current Threat

On February 6th, from 1-3 pm (EST) Eric Starbuck, public health advisor for the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness project, will provide international public health professionals with a comprehensive overview of the current threat of pandemic influenza. The presentation will cover the following:

1. Relationships between avian, pandemic, and seasonal flu
2. Meaning of "H" and "N" and the relationship to virulence and immunity
3. Natural reservoirs of influenza A and mechanisms of evolution into pandemic strains
4. Modes of person-to-person transmission, serial interval, reproductive number, incubation period, etc.
5. Pandemics of the 20th century, focusing on 1918 (waves, attack rate, mortality, risk groups, & non-pharmaceutical interventions [NPIs])
6. Current spread and distribution of H5N1 HPAI, the relationship between HPAI and LPAI, and control of HPAI
7. Human cases of H5N1, distribution, clusters, mortality, treatment, transmission
8. Current pandemic threat, WHO containment strategy and Phases of Pandemic Alert, potential social and economic impact, key unpredictables
9. Pandemic vaccines and current approaches to community mitigation and use of NPIs
10. A little bit of bird flu humor to partly make up for the grim content above

Register for either pandemic influenza session

Publications of Note

Lancet Series on Nutrition
More than a third of child deaths and 11% of the total disease burden worldwide are due to maternal and child under nutrition. These and other stark findings are the conclusions of an international collaboration of investigators publishing their findings in The Lancet's maternal and child under nutrition series. Other findings from the series include:

• Poor fetal growth or stunting in first two years of life leads to huge negative consequences in later life
• Maternal and child nutrition interventions could prevent a quarter of child deaths in poor communities
• 80% of world's undernourished children live in just 20 countries
• The international nutrition system: fragmented, dysfunctional and desperately in need of reform