LabelsPlus Supplies Labels to The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

Nov. 27, 2013 - PRLog -- The labels will be used on the health records of children. These records are an important part of a trial which could ultimately reduce incidences of pneumonia.

Malawi has one of the highest death rates for infants and children under the age of five. In 2009, 69 infants and 110 under fives from every 1,000 died. Pneumonia remains the leading cause of death in the age group and one of the most common illnesses in general. Every year, more than 300 children from every 1,000 under the age of five are diagnosed with pneumonia.

One of the major avoidable risk factors for pneumonia is the smoke produced when biomass fuels are burned in open fires. But in Malawi, at least 95% of households depend on biomass fuels. This smoke can also cause a host of other health problems such as chronic lung disease, lung cancer, heart disease, still birth and low birth weight.

Nor is the problem limited to Malwai, with more than 700 million people throughout Africa burning biomass fuels every day to provide energy for cooking, heating and lighting; and many other regions around the globe rely on biomass fuels for energy, at the cost of more than 4 million lives per year.

Thankfully, a range of particularly efficient biomass-burning cookstoves are now available which could reduce harmful emission by 90%. Better ventilation, cleaner fuels and changes in cooking behaviour could also reduce exposures considerably. But access to smoke reducing technology is limited by poverty in most of the developing world.

Now, a research team from Liverpool will conduct a trial which could benefit communities in these areas. Experts from Aintree University Hospital (AUH) and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) will lead the project, in which 150 villages will be randomly assigned to an intervention or control group. In the intervention group, families with children ages 4.5 or less will receive two Phillips fan-assisted stoves to replace their traditional open fire cooking methods. In the control villages, families with children aged 4.5 or less will continue with their traditional cooking methods.

The LSTM team will monitor the effects of these stoves on pneumonia rates in the intervention villages, in addition to measuring air pollution, economic and social impacts of the new stoves.

The 3 different labels LabelsPlus will supply are to be used during the trial. The first label is sheeted, containing medical details of the child participating in the cooking and pneumonia trial. The second is a barcode type label which serves as a unique identifier for each individual child. The third is colour coordinated to denote which stage of the trial each child is at.

Jane Ardrey, the Project Support Manager at The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine is keen to start using the health record labels produced by LabelsPlus.

She said:  “We look forward to receiving the labels. The project is interesting and your company’s labels are an important part of the process to collect information about the incidence of pneumonia”.

As one of the UK’s leading providers of self adhesive labels, LabelsPlus can produce bespoke labels in any amount, from a wide variety of material and adhesive combinations. A number of printing methods are utilised to ensure that each label is fit for purpose. If required these labels can also be supplied varnished or laminated.

For more information call the friendly and helpful LabelsPlus team today on 01663 736 250 or pay a visit to http://www.labelsplus.co.uk.