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Linda Hansen
Around 200,000 children each year are born with clubfoot, with around 80% of these in low and middle-income countries.
If left untreated, clubfoot becomes a painful and severely disabling deformity, where the feet point down and inwards and with the soles of the feet backwards; however, the simple Ponseti treatment is successful in up to 95% of cases, especially if this is initiated early.
NDORMS Professor Chris Lavy has worked with children with clubfoot for the last 30 years, both in the UK and Africa. He currently leads a project that is strengthening training and delivery capacity for clubfoot treatment in 15 sub-Saharan countries - the Africa Clubfoot Training Project.
Researchers, surgeons, and physiotherapists from the University of Oxford and the NOC have helped develop a new instructor training course for clubfoot practitioners in sub-Saharan Africa. The course is still in its pilot stages, but once rolled-out, more instructors in the region will be able to deliver training to practitioners, independently from the British team.
This Friday 3 June we are celebrating World Clubfoot Day. Join us at the NOC to meet the team and find out more about our work on clubfoot both in the UK and abroad.
You can find our stand on the NOC Foyer, 10:00 - 14:00, where our team will be on hand to answer questions, and demonstrate how the clubfoot deformity is corrected using training models and braces. We will also have a photo exhibition of our training courses in Ethiopia.
The ACT Project is a partnership between the NDORMS at the University of Oxford, CURE Ethiopia Children's Hospital, CURE Clubfoot, Global Clubfoot Initiative (GCI), CURE International UK and local ministries of health, funded by the UK Department for International Development.
