eBusiness Weekly
Roselyne Sachiti
Scientists have discovered a potential link between pre-term labour and six genes, and how a simple at home DNA test could help prevent premature labour and save millions of lives globally each year.
In their 2019 Annual Letter “Things We Didn’t See Coming” billionaire couple, Bill and Melinda Gates revealed how a simple blood test for prematurity during pregnancy could minimise risks of pre-term labour.
“When police used genetic test results to catch the Golden State Killer last year, the story made headlines around the world. But it’s not the only discovery to come out of at-home DNA tests.
“By looking at more than 40 000 samples voluntarily submitted by 23andMe users, scientists discovered a potential link between pre-term labour and six genes — including one that regulates how the body uses a mineral called selenium,” Bill wrote in the annual letter.
He said some people have a gene that prevents them from processing selenium properly and such individuals were likely to experience pre-term labour.
Selenium is an essential mineral that is a component of an antioxidant enzyme, glutathione reductase, that is key in tissue respiration.
“The 23andMe study (which our foundation helped fund) found that expectant mothers who carry that gene were more likely to give birth early.
“This suggests that selenium plays a role in determining when a woman begins labour,” explained the tech giant.
He added that understanding what causes prematurity was hugely important as 15 million babies are born premature every year, making it the leading cause of death in children under age five.
“Pre-term birth affects mothers in every part of the world — although some groups experience it at a higher rate, and premature babies in low-income countries are much more likely to die than the ones in richer countries.
“Researchers won’t know until later this year how exactly the mineral affects pre-term birth risk. But if the link proves substantial, selenium could one day be a cheap and easy solution to help women extend their pregnancy to full term,” he explained.
Bill added this connection was one of several breakthroughs they have made in recent years.
“Better tools and more data sharing mean that we’re finally starting to understand what causes babies to be born early — and what we can do to keep them in the womb longer.
I’m particularly excited by the simple blood test for prematurity being developed by a team at Stanford. It can tell a woman how soon she’ll give birth, so she can work with her doctor to minimise risks.”
In a teleconference with African journalists, Melinda Gates said despite all the promising discoveries, what was amazing was how little the world knew about prematurity.
“I can’t think of anything else that affects 10 percent of people in every part of the world but gets so little attention.
“For the vast majority of pre-term births, we can’t identify the cause, nor do we know why some groups of women are more prone to delivering their babies early.
“For example, it’s a mystery why taller women have longer pregnancies. And in the US, it’s a mystery why African-American women deliver prematurely more often than women who emigrate here from African countries,” she said.
Melinda said one theory was sociocultural — that the racism and discrimination African-American women have faced their whole lives leads to stress that damages their health.
“Another is that the mix of micro-organisms in women’s bodies may be different when they are raised here. We just don’t know.
But here’s one thing we do know: Prematurity is not binary. It matters a lot how early a baby is born; a baby born at 36 weeks is much better off than a baby born at 34 weeks. Our goal should not be to prevent prematurity categorically, which may be impossible anyway. Instead, it should be to extend pregnancies closer to full term for everyone. And we’re finally starting to fill the gaps in our knowledge about how to do so,” she said.
The philanthropists’ annual letter also focuses on global issues that they say should spur us all into action one of them being water and sanitation.
Toilets
While they might not be the sexiest innovations in the world, the toilets of the future will save millions of lives.
With more than 2 billion people around the world lacking access to a decent toilet, Bill and Melinda have for the better part of the past eight years, challenged engineers and scientists around the world to reinvent the toilet. They say this has a potential to save 800 lives each day.
“Their waste often ends up in the environment, untreated, killing nearly 800 children every day. And exporting rich-world sanitation solutions isn’t an option, because they require sewer systems that are too expensive to build and need a lot of water.
“Last year we organised a toilet fair in Beijing, where I got to check out a number of next-gen toilets in person and even shared the stage with a beaker of human faeces,” Bill wrote.
He revealed that several companies were business-ready as their inventions check almost all the boxes.
“They kill pathogens, can keep pace with the needs of fast-growing urban areas, and don’t require sewer infrastructure, external water sources, or continuous electricity to operate. The only area where they currently fall short is cost — which is why our foundation is investing in more R&D to help make them affordable for the poor.”
So what does the next generation of toilets look like?
“At first glance, not that different. They don’t exactly look like something out of a sci-fi novel.
“The real magic happens out of sight. Unlike today’s commodes, the toilets of the future are self-contained. They’re essentially tiny treatment plants capable of killing pathogens and rendering waste safe on their own. Many of them even turn human faeces and urine into useful by-products, like fertilizer for crops and water for hand-washing,” he added.
Melinda said toilets would also improve lives — especially for women and girls.
“Life without a toilet is hard for anyone, but it tends to be women and girls who suffer most.
“Bill and I have both met women who have suffered kidney damage from holding in urine all night to avoid a risky trip to dangerous public facilities.
“We’ve met others whose only place to defecate is in an open field, so they restrict their food intake all day and wait for cover of darkness to relieve themselves in relative privacy,” she disclosed.
One in 10 girls in sub-Saharan Africa and one in four girls in India miss school during their periods, most often because their schools don’t have anywhere they can go to change or dispose of menstrual hygiene products.
“When you learn just how entrenched stigma around periods still is in many places, you can start to understand why someone would rather fall behind on her studies or miss wages than risk humiliation.
“If you’re anything like me, I’m guessing toilets aren’t your favourite topic of conversation. But if you care about keeping girls in school, expanding women’s economic participation, and protecting them against violence, then we have to be willing to talk about toilets,” she notes.
Once the world’s richest person, the software entrepreneur-turned-philanthropist, along with his wife, established the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000 to donate the bulk of their fortune to improving health care and reducing poverty around the world.
They created the foundation, which has an endowment of more than $50 billion, after reading that hundreds of thousands of children in poor countries were dying of diarrhoea.
Their philanthropy work also spread its wings to Zimbabwe where they funded a low cost housing program for Harare’s poor. A total of 480 housing units built at a cost of $5 million were commissioned in April 2015.
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