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.

Portable scanner can measure limb disfigurement easily in patients with elephantiasis

An estimated 120 million people worldwide are infected with lymphatic filariasis, a parasitic, mosquito-borne disease that can cause major swelling and deformity of the legs, a condition known as elephantiasis.

16 Oct 2017

New research could lead to improved therapies for global parasitic disease

Recently published research from Iowa State University biomedical scientists details new methods for studying a parasitic nematode that sickens millions worldwide, a development that could lead to improved therapies.

9 May 2017

WHO marching toward extraordinary progress against neglected tropical diseases, report reveals

Since 2007, the World Health Organization (WHO) has been reporting outstanding success in dealing with neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) with 1 billion people estimated to have received treatments in 2015.

19 Apr 2017

People with lymphatic filariasis more likely to acquire HIV infection, study shows

People infected with a parasitic worm called Wuchereria bancrofti in areas where HIV is endemic may be more likely to acquire HIV than people who are not infected with the worm, according to a new study in southwest Tanzania, published in The Lancet.

4 Aug 2016

People with filariasis show two to three-fold increased risk for HIV

Since the start of the HIV epidemic, there have been speculations as to why HIV and the immunodeficiency syndrome it causes have spread so much more in Africa than in other countries around the world.

3 Aug 2016

PATH and SD/Alere announce commercial availability of two diagnostic tools for NTDs

PATH and Standard Diagnostics/Alere announced today the commercial availability of two rapid diagnostic tools for onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis. Designed for use in disease surveillance, the antibody-based tests are part of a suite of diagnostic innovations intended to support the elimination of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), a group of illnesses that affect more than a billion people worldwide.

12 Apr 2016

Researchers receive Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant to eliminate neglected tropical diseases

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have received a $7 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation aimed at eliminating river blindness and elephantiasis, two neglected tropical diseases that annually sicken millions.

14 Aug 2015

Smartphone checks blood for parasitic disease

New Smartphone technology has been developed that can detect and count wriggling parasitic worms in a drop of blood...

7 May 2015

Purdue researchers identify new class of chemical insecticides to control mosquitoes

Purdue researchers have identified a new class of chemical insecticides that could provide a safer, more selective means of controlling mosquitoes that transmit key infectious diseases such as dengue, yellow fever and elephantiasis.

2 Apr 2015

DNDi awarded USAID grant to develop new treatments for river blindness, elephantiasis

The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative has been awarded US$ 10 million by the United States Agency for International Development to develop new treatments for onchocerciasis (river blindness) and lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis) - the first-ever USAID grant for neglected tropical disease research and development (R&D).

17 Dec 2014

Gates Foundation provides $2 million grant to help fight major parasitic diseases

Almost $2 million is being invested by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help fight major parasitic diseases of the developing world.

25 Nov 2014

Celgene Global Health, DNDi expand partnership to identify new drug candidates for NTDs

Celgene Global Health, a division of Celgene Corporation, and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative strengthen their collaboration with a four-year Research Collaboration Agreement to identify and optimize new drug candidates for the treatment of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).

24 Sep 2014

Janssen expands collaboration with IPM for development of dapivirine to prevent HIV

Janssen R&D Ireland Ltd. (Janssen) today announced that it has expanded its collaboration with the International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM) for the development and delivery of dapivirine (TMC120) for the prevention of HIV.

8 May 2014

Researchers developing new medication to tackle river blindness and elephantiasis

Researchers are developing new drug treatments to tackle river blindness and elephantiasis, which affect up to 150 million people across the world.

24 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

New tools for neglected diseases: an interview with Dr. BT Slingsby, CEO, GHIT Fund

Nearly 3.3 billion people, a little less than half of our world’s population, are at risk of malaria, TB and what we call “neglected tropical diseases”—diseases caused by worms, parasites, viruses and bacteria like Chagas disease, river blindness, elephantiasis, sleeping sickness, etc.

24 Dec 2013

Eisai supplies diethylcarbamazine citrate 100 mg tablets to WHO

Eisai Co., Ltd. announced today that it has begun the free supply of diethylcarbamazine citrate (DEC) 100 mg tablets produced at its Vizag Plant in India to the World Health Organization in line with its commitment to help WHO in its global effort to eliminate lymphatic filariasis in targeted developing and emerging countries.

29 Oct 2013

LSTM professor awarded The Manson Medal for outstanding contribution in field of tropical medicine

The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) is delighted that Emeritus Professor and Senior Professional Fellow, David Molyneux, has been awarded The Manson Medal, the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene's highest mark of distinction.

21 Sep 2013

Low-cost intervention reduces transmission of lymphatic filariasis to undetectable levels

An international team of scientists have demonstrated that a simple, low-cost intervention holds the potential to eradicate a debilitating tropical disease that threatens nearly 1.4 billion people in more than six dozen countries.

22 Aug 2013