Tropical Disease News and Research

RSS

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.

Fogarty receives three grants for research focused on biodiversity conservation

In addition to diseases for which there are ineffective or no cures, key pathogens are becoming increasingly drug-resistant.

10 Sep 2014

Plan International outlines strategies to combat Ebola outbreak

The current Ebola outbreak, the most severe and complex in history, is now making its impact felt worldwide.

12 Aug 2014

New momentum: WHO welcomes progress in tackling viral hepatitis

On World Hepatitis Day, 28 July, WHO welcomes new progress in tackling one of the world's most serious diseases. Viral hepatitis - a group of infectious diseases known as hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E - affects millions of people worldwide, causing acute and chronic liver disease and killing close to 1.4 million people every year.

23 Jul 2014

Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes increase risk of West Nile virus

Mosquitoes infected with the bacteria Wolbachia are more likely to become infected with West Nile virus and more likely to transmit the virus to humans, according to a team of researchers.

11 Jul 2014

Researchers discover analgesic mechanism that prevents pain in Buruli ulcer patients

When the body receives an injury to the skin, a signal is sent to the brain, which generates a sensation of pain.

20 Jun 2014

Anthrax, brucellosis and bovine TB fail to receive official recognition, say researchers

Decades of neglect have allowed infectious diseases to devastate the lives of thousands of people in the developing world, a study reveals.

9 Jun 2014

Researchers take another promising step toward developing universal antidote for snakebite

A team of researchers, led by Dr. Matthew Lewin of the California Academy of Sciences and Dr. Stephen P. Samuel of Trinity College Dublin, Ireland has taken another promising step toward developing a universal antidote for snakebite.

29 May 2014

Human impact on environment plays a larger role in spread of schistosomiasis, says study

National Museum of Natural History scientist Bert Van Bocxlaer and an international team of researchers revealed that anthropogenic changes in Africa's Lake Malaŵi are a driving force behind the increase of urogenital schistosomiasis, a debilitating tropical disease caused by parasitic flatworms.

22 May 2014

Nanoviricides develops new drug candidates against MERS infection

...

6 May 2014

Researchers examine effects of introducing rapid diagnostic tests for malaria in Africa

Researchers from the Cochrane Infectious Diseases Group conducted a review of the effects of introducing rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) for diagnosing malaria in primary healthcare settings in Africa where laboratory services are unavailable.

17 Apr 2014

Researchers uncover mechanism that may help explain severe forms of schistosomiasis

Researchers at the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts and Tufts University School of Medicine (TUSM) have uncovered a mechanism that may help explain the severe forms of schistosomiasis, or snail fever, which is caused by schistosome worms and is one of the most prevalent parasitic diseases in the world. The study in mice, published online in The Journal of Immunology, may also offer targets for intervention and amelioration of the disease.

17 Apr 2014

WHO to highlight increasing threat of vector-borne diseases on World Health Day 2014

More than half the world's population is at risk from diseases such as malaria, dengue, leishmaniasis, Lyme disease, schistosomiasis, and yellow fever, carried by mosquitoes, flies, ticks, water snails and other vectors. Every year, more than one billion people are infected and more than one million die from vector-borne diseases.

2 Apr 2014

TSRI scientists receive $2.3M to study viruses that cause tropical diseases

The outbreak of dengue fever that infected some 20 people in Florida's Martin County late last year unnerved many who feared the tropical disease had once again established a foothold in Florida. The last outbreaks occurred in 2009 and 2010 in Key West—before that, the disease hadn't struck Florida in more than 70 years.

28 Mar 2014

GHIT Fund announces grants to speed up innovative drug development for neglected diseases

The Global Health Innovative Technology Fund, a new public health partnership that is bringing Japanese know-how and investment to the global fight against infectious diseases, today announced three grants worth a total of US$6.8 million to speed the development of innovative drugs for some of the world’s most neglected diseases—schistosomiasis, Chagas disease and parasitic roundworms.

20 Mar 2014

LSTM and University of Liverpool receive GHIT Fund to target lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis

The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) together with colleagues at the Department of Chemistry (University of Liverpool (UoL)) and Japanese pharmaceutical company Eisai are pleased to announce that they have been awarded a Global Health Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund to develop new drugs to target lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis.

20 Mar 2014

Warmer temperatures allow malaria to spread to higher elevations

Malaria, a mosquito-borne disease, infects more than 300 million people each year. Cooler highland regions have historically provided havens from malaria, but it has been predicted that the disease could be especially sensitive to climate change, since both the Plasmodium parasites that cause it and the Anopheles mosquitoes that spread it thrive at warm temperatures. The potential impact of global warming on the worldwide incidence of malaria has been debated for more than two decades.

7 Mar 2014

Indonesia's commitment, investment in eliminating NTDs could lift millions of people out of poverty

The control and elimination of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) is one of the most cost-effective ways Indonesia can sustain economic growth and reduce inequality, said scientists today in an analysis published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

3 Mar 2014

University of Texas researchers reveal ancient mysteries behind leprosy

Research at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is finally unearthing some of the ancient mysteries behind leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease, which has plagued mankind throughout history.

21 Feb 2014

New research may provide insight on how dengue virus gains entry into cells

Dengue fever, an infectious tropical disease caused by a mosquito-borne virus, afflicts millions of people each year, causing fever, headache, muscle and joint pains and a characteristic skin rash. In some people the disease progresses to a severe, often fatal, form known as dengue hemorrhagic fever.

18 Feb 2014

Researchers to highlight biomedical breakthroughs, new discoveries at Biophysical Society Meeting

Ask a question about how the human immune system fights a tropical disease, or how viruses like HIV use genetic tricks to resist drugs, or how plant cells capture light, or how Alzheimer's takes hold in the brain, or how we can better fight diseases like cancer, or why some sperm cells are fertile while others are not, and you may have to narrow your gaze to the nanoscale to find answers.

10 Feb 2014