Every year, thousands of women die from a condition that is both common and largely preventable: preeclampsia. It’s a silent threat in pregnancy, but one that can be managed — if it’s caught in time.
Recently, the PAPAGAIO NIHR Global Health Research group achieved a remarkable milestone: they recruited their 1000th participant to a global clinical trial. Funded by the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), the study is being rolled out across Brazil, India, Sierra Leone and Zambia and is evaluating a novel point-of-care test to diagnose preeclampsia.
Preeclampsia is one of the leading causes of maternal mortality worldwide, which affects millions of women and results in more than 40 000 deaths a year, most of which are largely preventable. The condition also claims the lives of over half a million babies annually. While the only cure for preeclampsia is delivering the baby, outcomes can be excellent when the condition is identified early and managed well. In the UK, for example, only one woman in a million died from preeclampsia in 2016. The key to this lies in timely diagnosis and safe delivery before complications set in.
The PAPAGAIO project builds on years of collaboration by the CRIBS Global team, who have pioneered innovations and inventions to improve maternal care for pregnant women in low-and middle-income countries. The team have also pioneered social innovations that have saved lives in these challenging settings, as evidenced by the 2YoungLives project. This locally designed community and relationship-based mentoring intervention runs from pregnancy to one year after birth for adolescent girls in Sierra Leone where maternal/ perinatal mortality for adolescent girls and their babies was high. 2YoungLives
One of their standout successes is the development of the Cradle Vital Signs Alert (VSA) device, a simple blood pressure device, which allows frontline healthcare workers to identify women at risk of preeclampsia. Recently scaled up and rolled out nationally in Sierra Leone (Lancet Global, 2025), it has transformed how women are triaged and treated. Alongside this, the team has evaluated new affordable point-of-care blood tests which can predict which mothers and babies face serious risk and outcomes, in Sierra Leone. (Point of care tests). These tests are already in use in the UK, but are expensive laboratory tests, but as an affordable point-of-care technology, PAPAGAIO marks the first time such technology is being introduced in low-resource settings.
Previous studies have shown the impact of timely delivery. The Cradle 4 trial (Cradle 4, Lancet) found that acting quickly and delivering women with preeclampsia early could safely reduce stillbirths by three-quarters. The current project aims to make diagnosis easier and more reliable, ensuring that women in high-risk environments get the care they need, when and where they need it.
What makes PAPAGAIO stand out is not just the science, but the way it’s being done. Recruiting large numbers of high‑risk women across three continents, ahead of schedule, is no small feat. More importantly, the programme invests in local researchers, giving them a central role in designing, running, and sharing the results of these studies. CRIBS Global has already nurtured a new generation of research leaders, particularly in Africa — showing that the future of maternal health research is being shaped where it matters most.
The PAPAGIO project shows what’s possible when research is rooted in the realities of the communities it aims to serve. By combining cutting‑edge science with local leadership, the CRIBS Global team is proving that lifesaving innovation doesn’t have to be confined to high‑income countries. Each step forward — from simple blood pressure devices to affordable diagnostic tests — brings us closer to a world where preventable maternal and newborn deaths are dramatically reduced. This trial isn’t just about numbers; it’s about giving women and babies everywhere the chance of a safer future.