SWEDISH SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES NETWORK

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Division of Paediatrics, Department of Clinical Sciences, Sahlgrenska Academy at Göteborg University

Postal address: Avdelningen för pediatrik, Institutionen för kvinnors och barns hälsa, SU/Östra, SE 416 85 Göteborg, Sweden
Visiting address: Queen Silvia Children’s hospital, Östra Sjukhuset, Smörslottsgatan
Web page Dept. of Clinical Sciences: http://www.clinsci.gu.se/
Web page Division of Paediatrics: http://katagu.gu.se/katagu.taf?oid=5612&lang=en

Contact person: Lotta Mellander, Professor in International Medicine, phone: +46 (0)31 37 46 69

Research connected to South Asia

The department was involved in the major long-term research and research training project on Early Child Health in Lahore carried out during the years 1976 to 1995 in collaboration with several other Swedish and International departments, with support from Sida/SAREC. The aim of the project was to do a ”community based prospective study to get accurate information about child health determinants” from four different socio-economic areas of living representing different degrees of urbanisation in and around the city of Lahore1. Many parameters were studied including: growth and development, nutrition, clinical genetics, infectious diseases, immunology and psychosocial aspects. The studies showed differences between the village and the urban slum. For example, higher income per capita in the urban slum, higher illiteracy among mothers and fathers in the village, a generally higher status of the father”s occupation in the urban slum and also better sanitary conditions in the urban slum Prof. Lotta Mellander was a key person in the project. More information about the Lahore project.
As an outcome of this project the department has continued to be engaged in a long-term collaboration on research and education with the Department of Social and Preventive Paediatrics at King Edward Medical University (KEMU) in Lahore, Pakistan. The collaboration is concentrated on yearly medical student exchange between Göteborg and Lahore, and a follow-up studies of the effects of prenatal growth retardation, which was seen in up to 30 % of the material. The main contact person at KEMU has been Dr Shakila Zaman at the Dept. of Social and Preventive Peaditrics.

The research has resulted in a large number of published papers and articles over the years. A few examples from later years:
• Childhood Stunting in Relation to Adolescent Living Environment and Resilience: A Follow up Study in Lahore, Pakistan, published in Journal of Ayub Medical College, Abbottabad 2003;15(1), and with contributions by three students – Nils Ekvall, Linus Bengtsson and Kristina Berg Kelly – going to Pakistan on MFS grants.

• High turnover rate of Escherichia coli strains in the intestinal flora of infants in Pakistan, published in Epidemiology and infection 1998 Dec;121(3):587-98. Among the writers are Prof. Lotta Mellander and Prof. Lars-Åke Hansson, Dept. of Clinical Immunology, Göteborg University.

• Specific antibodies to poliovirus type I in breastmilk of unvaccinated mothers before and seven years after start of community-wide vaccination of their infants with live, oral poliovirus vaccine, published in Acta paediatrica Scandinavica 1991 Dec;80(12):1174-82.

Education connected to South Asia

Every year 10 credits courses in International Medicine with an introduction to Development studies are organised by the department. The course leader is Prof. Lotta Mellander. The courses, carried out during the tenth semester of the training for medical doctors, include three weeks of study and work at a university hospital in either Africa (Tanzania) or Asia.