AsianScientist (Dec. 9, 2013) – A cartoon that has helped halve parasitic worm infection rates among rural Chinese children has earned a University of Queensland (UQ) researcher a prestigious award.
Dr. Franziska Bieri, from UQ’s School of Population Health, has won the Research Australia Discovery Award for developing “The Magic Glasses,” a cartoon that promotes good hygiene behavior to children in rural China.
“Intestinal worms are one of the most wide-spread and disabling chronic infections, affecting nearly a third of the world’s population,” said Bieri. “This work has the potential to help eliminate infections globally and we’re continuing to develop the program in collaboration with QIMR Berghofer and colleagues in China, the Philippines and Switzerland.”
Bieri undertook the project, featured in the New England Journal of Medicine, and collaborated with QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute and the Hunan Institute of Parasitic Diseases.
The rate of parasitic worm infection in children in the rural province of Hunan halved after the cartoon was shown in schools.
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Source: The University of Queensland.
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