Chronic undernutrition is a major global health burden affecting one in every five children around the world, leaving them more vulnerable to infection and increasing their risk of mortality. A major contributor to the global burden of undernutrition is Environmental Enteric Dysfunction (EED), a condition which results from exposure to unsafe water.

Three biomarkers will be validated to assess for EED. LBP, a biomarker for intestinal permeability, will be measured using the highly portable sampling technique of dried blood spot (DBS) collection. In this procedure, five drops of blood are collected from a finger stick.

Analysis of three biomarkers and lifestyle surveys of participants will develop an extensive image of illness in the individual. In this poster session, we focus on Lipopolysaccharide Binding Protein, which is a biomarker of intestinal permeability and systemic inflammation. In the future, we hope to comprehensively evaluate the health status of an individual with DBS technology and correlate this to risk of malnourishment in low-resource communities.