Departments of Health Research (DHR) and Biotechnology (DBT), in association with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare will jointly promote research to generate evidence for development of practical and scalable treatments to medically rehabilitate children suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) without serious complications.

The research, under the alliance of the two Departments, will aim at development therapies for rehabilitating the children with SAM at home, community level and peripheral inpatient facilities. Severe acute malnutrition without complications is defined as per WHO guidelines and those affecting them are without chronic medical disorders or do not require hospitalisation.

The research will develop operationally feasible approach to identify children in the community who have SAM without complications using currently available community workers and resources. It will also compare different therapeutic regimes incorporating dietary, nutritional and supportive care components in the community and peripheral health facilities for management of SAM without complications, sources said.

“Scientific justification for the choice of the intervention and control therapeutic regime should be explicitly stated. Primary outcomes of the proposed research study should include recovery from SAM in the short term as well as sustenance of recovery (at least six months after starting treatment). Secondary outcomes should include acceptability, feasibility and safety of the regimes being tested. The studies can be designed as individual or cluster randomized or quasi randomized controlled trials,” according to the call for proposals in this regard.

The proposed study, which can be single or multi-centric, will also look for indigenous development of product(s) suitable for rehabilitation of SAM children, development of stable and acceptable multi-micronutrient and mineral mixture used as part of regimes for management of SAM. The Steering Committee and the Technical Advisory Group have been established to select the interested scientists and guide the research.