Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS)
The
CHAMPS network aims at identifying the cause of death for under-5 mortality and stillbirths at 7 sites in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia through epidemiologic surveillance, by utilizing
Minimally Invasive Tissue Sampling (MITS), laboratory diagnostics including conventional and advanced histopathology and molecular screening of various pathogens, verbal autopsy, and available clinical and demographic data.
Pakistan is among the ten countries in the world with the highest under-5 mortality. The new CHAMPS site is in three catchment areas in Karachi, Pakistan. The program in Karachi is being carried in collaboration with Aga Khan University Hospital and University of Texas, Southwestern.
Principal investigator
Dr. Momin Kazi
Project outline:
The CHAMPS network expanded its network to Karachi, Pakistan in 2022. The project has targeted 3 low-income catchment areas within Karachi which are:
Ali Akbar Shah
Ibrahim Hyderi Extension
Bhains Colony
The project aims at conducting the study in two major phases the first would be the formative research phase and the second is the Mortality Surveillance and MITS procedure
Project activities:
The first phase, namely the formative phase would include the following:
- Conduct in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with key community leaders and informants for insights into the community's acceptability and CHAMPS in three low-income catchment areas in Karachi.
The second phase, the Mortality Surveillance and MITS procedure, would include the following:
- Year 1: to collect 50 MITS and approximately 450 non-MITS samples (These numbers would increase every year)
- Conduct a verbal autopsy (VA) on all under-5 deaths and stillbirths
- Assess and determine causes of death via a systematic review of all available, relevant data for each death (i.e., through the DeCode Panel) Perform in-process quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) measures, including monitoring and training to ensure high quality data and protocol compliance
- Create an archive of clinical specimens in each site country, as well as contribute to an international archive located in Atlanta
- Disseminate results to family members, community members, local and national public health authorities, and other key stakeholders on a routine basis
News and updates
Dr Saad B. Omer from the Yale Institute of Global Health visited Karachi for a series of meetings on Champs in April 2024. Dr Omer is one of the principal investigators of the CHAMPS network that is attempting to ascertain (and address) causes of childhood deaths in low-income settings, using minimally invasive tissue sampling
Ahsan, N., Malik, F.A., Mughis, W. et al.
Postmortem minimally invasive tissue sampling in communities: exploring perceptions of families, funeral workers, religious and community leaders and healthcare providers from Pakistan. BMC Health Serv Res 23, 1402 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-023-10438-2
Mauricio T Caballero, Ashish Satav, Christopher J Gill, Saad B Omer, Rachel C Pieciak, Abdul Momin Kazi, Eric Af Simões, Fernando P Polack, Challenges of Assessing Community Mortality Due to Respiratory Viruses in Children Aged Less Than 5 Years, Clinical Infectious Diseases, Volume 73, Issue Supplement_3, 1 September 2021, Pages S248–S254, https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciab487
