Joint Icross/RCSI research projects

Solar disinfection: Icross/RCSI demonstrated that using sunlight to disinfect drinking water significantly reduced the chance of diarrheal disease - a major killer in children. They are planning to extend the work to people with Aids, for whom diarrhoea is also an important health problem.

Dr Conroy, notes: "If you can keep these people eating and keep diarrheal disease at bay then we could hold degeneration at bay. In the end, Aids will get them but by eliminating diarrheal disease it will improve their quality of life."

Trachoma-fighting fly-traps: Icross/RCSI designed a simple fly-trap, using two plastic bottles and urine for "bait". Dr Conroy said the design was greatly improved by the Maasai children who took part in the pilot programme. The trap now features in World Health Organisation guidelines for reducing malaria and trachoma, a disease that leaves about six million people blind each year, mostly in Africa.

Advocacy and micro-economic aid to commercial sex workers: Icross/RCSI research found that prostitutes had fewer partners than had been previously thought, thus disproving claims by the World Bank that sex-workers were the "motor of the Aids epidemic". Along with local women's groups, they also showed that small loans to prostitutes enabled them to leave the trade and set up their own sustainable micro-businesses.

Neo-natal tetanus:Without vaccines, Icross has managed to reduce the death rates from neo-natal tetanus from around 10 per cent to almost zero. This is done though a culturally-appropriate health promotion project driven by traditional Maasai birth attendants.

Female circumcision: Icross/RCSI are engaged in an ongoing programme to both reduce infection and scarring and highlight the health risks from the practice. About two-thirds of communities have agreed to participate.

AIDS orphans: A study is being developed to assess levels of trauma and distress caused to children who were forced to nurse family members through the final stages of Aids. Dr Meegan said up to 45,000 children from five countries are due to participate in the study, which will seek to inform Aids policy in the UK, and elsewhere.