Archive for the ‘Tropical Diseases’ Category
Imagine a mosquito-borne virus that has already infected millions of people in recent outbreaks in South and Southeast Asia, the islands of the Indian Ocean, Africa and northern Italy. Although seldom fatal, it causes highly painful arthritis-like symptoms that can linger for months or even years. It's capable of adapting to spread through a mosquito species common in much of North America...
Travellers Beware: UQ Research Shows Canecutter’s Disease On The Rise
A team led by PhD researcher Dr Colleen Lau from the School of Population Health http://www.sph.uq.edu.au/, has discovered the disease, known medically as leptospirosis, was traditionally a concern for males working in the agricultural and livestock industries, as it is contracted from contact with the urine of host animals...
Immune Protein Fends Off Exotic Virus
A study published online on February 1 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine shows that antiviral proteins called type I interferons (IFNs) are needed to fend off infection with an exotic mosquito-borne virus called Chikungunya virus...
Over 125M Pregnant Women Worldwide Exposed To Malaria Annually, Study Finds
More than 125 million pregnant women worldwide are exposed to malaria each year, according to a study published Tuesday in PLoS Medicine, ANI/oneindia reports. Previously, such estimates were limited to malaria risk in Africa...
Malaria Prevention In Pregnancy: Insecticide-Treated Net Program In Tanzania
A Tanzanian program to supply insecticide treated nets to prevent malaria in pregnant women successfully delivers the intervention to only 30% of women, but simple changes could increase effectiveness, according to an article http://www.cmaj.ca/embargo/cmaj090268...
New Disease Among HIV-infected Gay Men
A rare parasitic disease, which normally only is transmitted by contaminated water, has been shown to be transmitted by gay sex between hiv-positive men. In the industrial world the disease is virtually absent, but from now on that could change...
New Disease Among HIV-infected Gay Men
A rare parasitic disease, which normally only is transmitted by contaminated water, has been shown to be transmitted by gay sex between hiv-positive men. In the industrial world the disease is virtually absent, but from now on that could change...
School-Age Children Most Vulnerable To Malaria Infection In Africa, Study Says
Children and adolescents between the ages of 5 and 19 in malaria-endemic African countries are "the most vulnerable group to malaria following the successful distribution of the free bednets to protect children under five and pregnant women against the killer fever," according to a study published in the journal BMC Public Health, the
Insecticide-Treated Bed Nets Reduce Infant Deaths In Democratic Republic Of Congo: UNC Study
Giving insecticide-treated bed nets to nearly 18,000 mothers at prenatal clinics in the Democratic Republic of Congo prevented an estimated 414 infant deaths from malaria, a study by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers concludes. The bed nets cost about $6 each. When costs for transporting and distributing the nets and educating people how to use them are factored in, it cost just over $411 per infant death prevented.
Scientists Discover How New Drug Kills Roundworms
A PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases study found how a new drug developed by scientists in China effectively kills roundworms - "a parasite that lurks in the intestines and which affects nearly two billion people in tropical countries," Reuters reports.
New Study Highlights Threat Of Resistance To Artemisinin-Based Anti-Malarial Drugs
Malaria parasites in western Cambodia have become resistant to artemisinin-based therapies, the first-line treatment for malaria, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Resistance to the drugs makes them less effective and could eventually render them obsolete, putting millions of lives at risk. Signs of artemisinin resistance have been reported in the region already, but this new research is the first detailed study of the problem.