Tropical Disease News and Research

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Tropical diseases encompass all diseases that occur solely, or principally, in the tropics. In practice, the term is often taken to refer to infectious diseases that thrive in hot, humid conditions, such as malaria, leishmaniasis, schistosomiasis, onchocerciasis, lymphatic filariasis, Chagas disease, African trypanosomiasis, and dengue.

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

Money spent on presidential campaigns could go far in fighting NTDs

Noting that an estimated $2 billion was spent on the U.S. presidential campaigns, Peter Hotez, president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and founding dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, writes in the Huffington Post "Healthy Living" blog, "Many of us in the global health community can only look upon that $2 billion figure in awe because of the potential for those dollars to be repurposed to immediately and dramatically improve the lives of the poorest people who suffer from disease."

15 Nov 2012

Malaria Box helps identify three chemical series that target treatment of NTDs

The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) and Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) announce today the identification of three chemical series targeting the treatment of deadly neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), through DNDi's screening of MMV's open access Malaria Box.

14 Nov 2012

Malaria vaccine reduced severe and uncomplicated malaria by a third in young infants when given with other routine vaccines

Experts from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine today comment on the results of a malaria vaccine trial.

9 Nov 2012

RTS,S vaccine candidate can help protect African infants against malaria

International African Vaccinology Conference, Cape Town, South Africa-Results from a pivotal, large-scale Phase III trial, published online today in the New England Journal of Medicine, show that the RTS,S malaria vaccine candidate can help protect African infants against malaria.

9 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

Researchers divided over effects of climate change on NTD transmission, IRIN reports

IRIN examines the relationship between climate change and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), writing, "Many researchers are concerned changes in rainfall patterns could result in a loss of 'endemic stability' for diseases carried by mosquitoes, ticks, and other disease hosts, and that environmental conditions could become favorable for disease transmission." However, "many researchers believe there is simply not enough information available to warrant alarm," the news service adds.

7 Nov 2012

PLoS NTDs celebrates 5th anniversary with special collection on 'Geopolitics of NTDs'

To commemorate its fifth anniversary PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) on Thursday "compiled editorials and research papers published over the last five years to create a collection called 'The Geopolitics of NTDs,'" the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases' "End the Neglect" blog reports.

1 Nov 2012

UC Riverside entomologists reconstruct the evolutionary history of assassin bugs

Assassin bugs, so named because these insects lie in ambush for prey that they attack with speed and precision, are found all over the world. Nearly 140 species of these bugs are blood-sucking; because they can bite humans around the mouth, they are also called kissing bugs. All kissing bugs can spread Chagas disease, a neglected tropical disease that imposes an economic burden on society.

26 Oct 2012

Financial Times features special report on NTDs

The Financial Times has published a special report on neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) featuring 10 articles examining issues including prevention, research, and treatment.

12 Oct 2012

African governments take steps to increase political support for NTD control

"This past June, more than 100 participants gathered in Accra, Ghana, for the Regional Stakeholders' Consultative Meeting on Neglected Tropical Diseases hosted by the WHO-AFRO to discuss the challenges, resources requirements, and goals to controlling and eliminating Africa's NTDs," the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases' "End the Neglect" blog reports.

11 Oct 2012

Global Network for NTDs working on policy engagement in Europe

A post on the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases' (NTDs) "End the Neglect" blog describes how representatives of the Global Network recently "traveled through Europe to raise the profile for NTDs and encourage support from European bilateral aid agencies, policymakers and other key stakeholders in France, Germany, Denmark, and Norway."

8 Oct 2012

IPS examines debate over impact of climate change on health

"More intense rainfall, rising temperatures and climate-driven migration of human and animal populations due to repeated drought all affect the spread of tropical diseases," Inter Press Service writes in an article examining the impact of climate change on health, a topic that "generated debate among the experts attending the 18th International Congress on Tropical Medicine and Malaria, held Sept. 23-27 in Rio de Janeiro."

2 Oct 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

New clinical trial to evaluate DEX-M74 against hereditary inclusion body myopathy

Researchers have launched a clinical trial to evaluate the drug candidate DEX-M74 as a treatment for a rare degenerative muscle disease, hereditary inclusion body myopathy (HIBM). National Institutes of Health scientists from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) and the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) will conduct the clinical trial at the NIH Clinical Center.

25 Sep 2012

FIOCRUZ, DNDi and Brazil collaborate on R&D for neglected diseases

At the opening ceremony of the XVIII International Congress for Tropical Medicines and Malaria (ICTMM) and the XLVIII Congress of the Brazilian Society of Tropical Medicine in Rio de Janeiro, the Ministry of Health of Brazil signed a Cooperation and Technical Assistance Agreement with the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ) and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) Latin America, uniting the three actors into a strategic partnership to collaborate on research and development (R&D) for new therapies and diagnostics for neglected diseases.

25 Sep 2012

Senate Working Group on Malaria expands to congressional caucus including NTDs

"A bipartisan pair of senators is expanding an existing working group on malaria issues to become a congressional caucus that will focus on efforts to combat 17 tropical diseases including malaria," CQ HealthBeat reports.

24 Sep 2012

'Greater commitment' needed to fight NTDs

In a guest post on USAID's "IMPACT Blog," Rachel Cohen, regional executive director of DNDi North America, writes, "The United States government and its country partners should be commended for the tremendous achievements in the fight against neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) as part of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) NTD Program" and the National Institutes of Health.

20 Sep 2012

Dengue Vaccine Initiative launches redesigned website, new blog

The Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases' "End the Neglect" blog reports that the Dengue Vaccine Initiative has launched a redesigned website, including a new blog that "will include regular posts about the disease, dengue in the news, the work of DVI and the development of a dengue vaccine."

19 Sep 2012

Bed nets and insecticides could fail to protect people from new malaria-transmitting mosquitoes

A potentially dangerous new malaria-transmitting mosquito has been discovered in Kenya by scientists from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. This species, which has never been implicated in the transmission of malaria before, poses a threat because it bites humans at times when they are not protected by current malaria control techniques.

17 Sep 2012