Category: Tropical Diseases

The fight against the deadly tropical disease Leishmaniasis, also known as black fever, has been boosted by scientists at the University of Durham, whose new screening system has raised the possibility of new, safer drugs. The work is highlighted in the quarterly Magazine of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) this week.

Researchers at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet (KI) and the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control (SMI) have identified the biochemical mechanism behind the adhesive protein that give rise to particularly serious malaria in children. The knowledge of how the malaria parasite makes blood vessels become sticky paves the way for a future vaccine for the disease, which currently kills some 2 million people every year.

JHPIEGO, an international health organization affiliated with The Johns Hopkins University, has been named Non-Governmental Organization of the Year by the Malaria Foundation International (MFI). JHPIEGO was honored for its work in advocacy, education, and training with a special emphasis towards preventing and treating malaria in pregnant women throughout Africa.

When West Nile virus first struck New York City in 1999, news of the potentially fatal illness alarmed citizens and public health officials alike, showing that even affluent, urban societies are vulnerable to vector-borne diseases. Although West Nile virus has been widely studied, there is still little known about how the ecology of mosquito-borne diseases differs between urban and rural areas.

The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) prepares nurses and physicians to face the unique challenges of battlefield medicine in locations such as Iraq and Afghanistan. Faculty members deploy to combat zones, conduct research on threats such as anthrax, and provide humanitarian support in response to events like 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina.

ITNs (insecticide-treated bednets) can bring child mortality down by 44%. An approach that includes social marketing and free ITN distribution leads to a significant child survival boost, according to an article appearing in The Lancet, this week’s issue. In Kenya ITN coverage was 7% in 2004, by the end of 2006 it reached 67%.

Immtech Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Amex: IMM) announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Orphan Drug Designation to pafuramidine (DB289) for treating Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT), also known as African sleeping sickness.

The 2007 American Society for Microbiology (ASM) sanofi-aventis U.S. Award will be presented to Thomas E. Wellems, M.D., Ph.D., Chief, Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Bethesda, Maryland. Supported by an unrestricted grant from sanofi-aventis U.S., this award honors outstanding accomplishment in antimicrobial chemotherapy.Dr.

About 2 million people die of malaria every year, of which more than a million are children in sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria is caused by a protozoan parasite belonging to the genus Plasmodium, and Plasmodium falciparum is responsible for the most severe form of malaria. Due to the increasing incidence of resistance to existing drugs, there is a growing need to discover new and more effective drugs against malaria. In a new study publishing in

Articles selected from the Sept. 2007 issue of Molecular & Cellular Proteomics (Vol. 6, No. 9):Finding better ways to treat schistosomiasis, a tropical disease caused by a parasitic wormResearchers provide new details about the inner workings of a parasitic worm that causes a tropical disease called schistosomiasis, which leads to itchy skin, fever, chills, muscle aches, and liver disease that, in some cases, can be fatal.