New techniques needed to help children with gut disease in developing countries

Imperial experts discuss a new way of combating EED, a debilitating disease in children that is prevalent in the developing world. Environmental Enteric Dysfunction , or EED, is widespread in developing countries and has severe negative impacts on children's physical and cognitive development. The condition is poorly understood, and the techniques currently used to study and identify the disease are invasive and difficult to administer. Because it restricts mental development, EED has a huge socioeconomic burden: it leads to poor performance in education and subsequent reduced income as an adult. Dr Alex Thompson Department of Medicine Researchers from the Hamlyn Centre at Imperial College London, along with their international collaborators, have published a position paper that identifies and recommends less invasive techniques for identifying and treating the condition. Caroline Brogan spoke to Dr Alex Thompson (AT) of Imperial's Department of Medicine , and Professor Guang-Zhong Yang (GZY), director of the Hamlyn Centre and PI for the grant, about their new paper. Please give me some background to the current research.