Elephantiasis News and Research

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Elephantiasis is a disease that is characterized by the thickening of the skin and underlying tissues, especially in the legs, male genitals.

New diagnostic test for lymphatic filariasis

A new diagnostic test for a worm infection that can lead to severe enlargement and deformities of the legs and genitals is far more sensitive than the currently used test, according to results of a field study in Liberia, in West Africa, where the infection is endemic.

21 May 2013

VOA News reports on pilot program against lymphatic filariasis in Nigeria

VOA News reports on "a new public health strategy, tested in Nigeria," which is "raising hopes" that the tropical disease known as lymphatic filariasis, or elephantiasis, can be eliminated.

9 Apr 2013

Anacor signs research agreement to discover drug candidates to treat neglected diseases

Anacor Pharmaceuticals today announced that it has signed a research agreement with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (the Gates Foundation) to discover drug candidates intended to treat two filarial worm diseases (onchocerciasis, or river blindness, and lymphatic filariasis, commonly known as elephantiasis) and tuberculosis.

9 Apr 2013

UCSF teams to study new ways to reduce childhood mortality and disease in developing nations

Two UCSF teams have received a total of $16 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to study new ways to significantly reduce childhood mortality and disease in developing nations.

11 Jan 2013

Avermectin family of drugs shows promise against TB

A well-established family of drugs used to treat parasitic diseases is showing surprising potential as a therapy for tuberculosis (TB), according to new research from University of British Columbia microbiologists.

26 Nov 2012

Global development partners meet in Washington to discuss NTD control efforts

"'Hundreds of millions of children and adults in Africa live at risk of disfigurement, impaired development, blindness, and even death from seven major preventable so-called neglected tropical diseases [NTDs], including river blindness, elephantiasis, trachoma, and various types of intestinal parasites,' said World Bank President Jim Yong Kim at the opening of a November 16-18 conference in Washington D.C.: Uniting to Combat NTDs: Translating the London Declaration into Action," the World Bank reports in an article on its webpage.

20 Nov 2012

Washington Post examines Haiti's efforts to fight lymphatic filariasis

The Washington Post reports on Haiti's efforts to fight lymphatic filariasis, a parasitic mosquito-borne disease that can cause elephantiasis and is present in 80 percent of the country.

2 Oct 2012

Huffington Post series of opinion pieces examines NGO priorities for G8

The Huffington Post is running "a series of blogs by leading NGOs to call attention to a range of issues that should be raised at the G8 summit at Camp David in rural Maryland from May 18-19," according to the news service. The following summarizes some of the posts published this week.

18 May 2012

First international podoconiosis initiative launched

The Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases' "End the Neglect" blog highlights "the first-ever international podoconiosis initiative, Footwork," launched on March 15.

19 Mar 2012

'Humanosphere' blog examines roles of former President Carter, researcher Foege in fighting NTDs

This post in KPLU 88.5's "Humanosphere" blog examines how former President Jimmy Carter gave the fight against neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) "a good first shove nearly 30 years ago," writing, "Neglected diseases like river blindness, Guinea worm, parasitic (lymphatic) elephantiasis and schistosomiasis have been in Carter's cross hairs since the mid-1980s."

4 Feb 2012

Abbott, DNDi partner to research on new treatments for NTDs

The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) and Abbott have signed a four-year joint research and non-exclusive licensing agreement to undertake research on new treatments for several of the world's most neglected tropical diseases, including Chagas disease, helminth infections, leishmaniasis and sleeping sickness.

31 Jan 2012

U.K. government to increase NTD spending fivefold between 2011 and 2015

"The U.K. government has announced a fivefold increase in spending on combating neglected tropical diseases [NTDs] as part of an international effort to help rid the world of a group of infectious diseases that currently affect one billion people and kill more than half a million every year," BMJ reports.

25 Jan 2012

END7 campaign aims to combat seven major NTDs by 2020

Launched today, the END7 campaign is dedicated to eliminating seven major neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) as a public health threat to poor communities by the end of 2020.

10 Jan 2012

Kenya launches 5-year strategic plan to fight NTDs

"The Kenyan government launched a five-year national master-plan on Thursday to address neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) that have become a public health challenge in remote parts of the country," making Kenya "the first country in Africa to launch a broad-based strategic plan on combating neglected tropical ailments that include bilharzia, trachoma, kalaazar, intestinal worms, elephantiasis and Hydatid disease," Africa Science News reports.

11 Nov 2011

MSU professor focuses on new formulation for old drug to treat parasitic diseases

With the help of another $2 million in funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, researchers are moving closer to setting up human clinical trials for a reformulated drug that could be the linchpin of treatment efforts against two debilitating tropical diseases.

11 Jul 2011

Heartworm medication Ivermectin prevents malaria transmission in Africa

A cheap, common heartworm medication that is already being used to fight other parasites in Africa could also dramatically interrupt transmission of malaria, potentially providing an inexpensive tool to fight a disease that kills almost 800,000 people each year, according to a new study published in the July edition of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

7 Jul 2011

Rinderpest - fatal animal disease eradicated

Rinderpest, German for cattle plague, has finally met its match and does not exist anymore. It is the first animal disease to be eradicated and only the second disease ever, after smallpox in 1980. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization declared Tuesday that the world was rid of Rinderpest.

30 Jun 2011

NIAID team completes analysis of most proteins produced by elephantiasis parasite worm

A team led by Thomas B. Nutman, M.D., of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, has completed a large-scale analysis of most of the proteins produced by Brugia malayi, one kind of parasitic worm that causes lymphatic filariasis, or elephantiasis.

24 May 2011

Scientist receives grant for research on parasitic diseases through African biodiversity medicines

McGill University and McGill University scientist Dr. Timothy Geary received a $1-million grant today for landmark research into addressing parasitic diseases through medicines derived from African biodiversity.

25 Jan 2011

Opinions: Kangaroo care; NTDs, Women's health

New York Times contributing writer Tina Rosen, on the newspaper's "Opinionator" blog, examines the success of a system known as kangaroo care, which has helped to improve the survival rates of premature infants by using skin-to-skin contact with mothers in place of incubators in low-resource settings. The post notes the potential value of such a strategy in poor countries "where pregnant women are unlikely to get the food and care they need," and "low birth weight babies are very common."

16 Dec 2010