Trachoma News and Research

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New findings hold promising implications for blindness caused by limbal stem cell deficiency

Researchers at the University of Oslo have made discoveries that can have great consequences for the treatment of blindness caused by so-called limbal stem cell deficiency.

4 Sep 2015

Children exposed to indoor cooking fire at greater risk for severe trachoma

Children who sleep in unventilated rooms with cooking fires are at greater risk for severe trachoma, a leading cause of preventable blindness in developing countries, according to the findings of a recent study conducted in Tanzania. The study was supported by the National Eye Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health.

5 Aug 2015

WHO/UNICEF: Lack of progress on water and sanitation threatens to undermine child survival, health benefits

Lack of progress on sanitation threatens to undermine the child survival and health benefits from gains in access to safe drinking water, warn WHO and UNICEF in a report tracking access to drinking water and sanitation against the Millennium Development Goals.

1 Jul 2015

WHO Press Release: World Health Statistics reports on global health goals for 194 countries

Progress in child survival worldwide is one of the greatest success stories of international development. Since 1990, child deaths have almost halved – falling from an estimated 90 deaths per 1000 live births to 46 deaths per 1000 live births in 2013...

13 May 2015

COUNTDOWN research consortium focuses on neglected tropical diseases

The COUNTDOWN research consortium has been launched today following a £7 million grant allocation from the UK Department for International Development earlier in the year.

18 Dec 2014

Probe mimics pathogen's amino acids, solving mystery behind Chlamydiae cell wall

Biochemical sleuthing by an Indiana University graduate student has ended a nearly 50-year-old search to find a megamolecule in bacterial cell walls commonly used as a target for antibiotics, but whose presence had never been identified in the bacterium responsible for the most commonly reported sexually transmitted disease in the United States.

12 Dec 2013

Research to encourage more effective and efficient management of water resources

Born and raised in a rural village in Northern Ghana, Dr. Braimah Apambire knows the value of resources in a critically deprived country.

30 Jan 2013

WHO reports unprecedented progress against 17 neglected tropical diseases

WHO reports unprecedented progress against 17 neglected tropical diseases, thanks to a new global strategy, a regular supply of quality assured, cost-effective medicines and support from global partners.

17 Jan 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

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

Key areas of disease neglected by UK funding for infectious diseases

UK funding for infectious diseases research is neglecting some of the diseases that result in the highest rates of death and disability, according to an Article published Online First in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

8 Nov 2012

Ghana to contribute $1M to fight NTDs

Ghana "will contribute about $1 million towards the prevention and control of endemic neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in order to protect the gains made by the country in Guinea worm eradication and the elimination of trachoma," the country's health minister announced on Monday at the opening of a Regional Stakeholders' Consultative Meeting on NTDs, PANA/AfriqueJet reports. Health Minister Albin Bagbin "also called on African countries to support interventions to address NTDs and improve coordination among all stakeholders in implementing NTD programs," the news agency writes.

28 Jun 2012

Innovative tool for tracking movement of infectious diseases

It may seem like a game of tag, but it's an innovative tool for teaching the fundamentals of epidemiology, the science of how infectious diseases move through a population.

7 Apr 2012

IU biologist to genetically modify variants of chlamydia

An Indiana University biologist has been awarded over $2.3 million from the National Institutes of Health to genetically modify variants of the human pathogen chlamydia in hopes of finding a vaccine for the most commonly reported bacterial infectious disease in the United States.

27 Mar 2012

Bringing together NTD and WASH sectors of public health

In this post in the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases' "End the Neglect" blog, Stephanie Ogden -- a water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and neglected tropical disease (NTD) consultant with Emory's Center for Global Safe Water, Children Without Worms, and the International Trachoma Initiative -- writes about a partnership among these organizations.

23 Mar 2012

Chlamydia has evolved more actively than previously thought

In a study released today in Nature Genetics, researchers have found that Chlamydia has evolved more actively than was previously thought. Using whole genome sequencing the researchers show that the exchange of DNA between different strains of Chlamydia to form new strains is much more common than expected.

12 Mar 2012

First comprehensive framework to close the gap on Indigenous eye health for Australians

Presently Indigenous Australians suffer six times the blindness of mainstream Australians and 94 percent of vision loss in Indigenous Australians is unnecessary, preventable or treatable.

24 Feb 2012

Access to, use of sanitation systems cuts odds of worm infection in half, study review shows

When sanitation systems are available and used, the odds of contracting one of a group of diseases, known as soil-transmitted helminths (STH), is cut in half, according to a systemic review and meta-analysis published this week in PLoS Medicine, Examiner.com reports (Herriman, 1/25).

30 Jan 2012

Azithromycin shows promise against trachoma-related blindness

A UCSF study shows a popular treatment for a potentially blinding eye infection is just as effective if given every six months versus annually. This randomized study on trachoma, the leading cause of infection-caused blindness in the world, could potentially treat twice the number of patients using the same amount of medication.

22 Dec 2011

Coordinated efforts needed to eliminate blinding trachoma

Elizabeth Kurylo, communications manager with the International Trachoma Initiative, describes the International Coalition for Trachoma Control's plan "to eliminate blinding trachoma, one of the seven neglected tropical diseases targeted by END7, ... called 2020 INSight: The End in Sight," in this post on the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases' "End the Neglect" blog.

21 Dec 2011