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School children with no malaria symptoms could be super-spreaders of the disease

School-age children with no malaria symptoms could serve as super-spreaders of the disease, an observation that could open a new chapter on malaria control, a meeting has heard. The new findings from a study that was conducted in Uganda were reported at the virtual annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene last month (18 November).

3 Dec 2020

KU Leuven vaccine candidate works against yellow fever and SARS-CoV-2 infection

Virologists at the Rega Institute at KU Leuven (Belgium) have developed a vaccine candidate against Covid-19 based on the yellow fever vaccine, which as a result also works against yellow fever. Results published today in Nature show that the vaccine protects hamsters from infection with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus after a single dose.

1 Dec 2020

Widely used antibiotic shows promise for fighting against Zika infections

In 2015, hundreds of children were born with brain deformities resulting from a global outbreak of Zika virus infections.

24 Nov 2020

Lancaster University to help control the spread of invasive malaria mosquito

Lancaster University is involved in a major research project which aims to control the spread of an invasive malaria mosquito in Sudan and Ethiopia.

20 Nov 2020

Royal Government of Cambodia commits to eliminating the deadliest strain of malaria

The Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) today committed to eliminating Plasmodium falciparum within the next few months, and to maintaining zero cases by 2023, through the launch of an innovative and targeted approach for the ‘last mile’ of malaria elimination in the country.

16 Nov 2020

Promising new antivirals target arboviruses and SARS-CoV-2: Nodosome inhibitors

A new study describes two promising small molecules that inhibit a host cell factor, called nucleotide binding oligomerization domain-containing protein 2 (NOD2), that inhibits the replication and spread of many arboviruses. This could lead to the development of broad-spectrum antivirals. The study's findings have been published on the preprint server bioRxiv*.

10 Nov 2020

Genomic surveillance of yellow fever outbreak in São Paulo

Yellow fever virus is normally confined to the Amazon region, but the virus circulated in the Southeast of Brazil between 2016 and 2018, causing the worst epidemic and epizootic outbreaks there for decades.

5 Nov 2020

Study shows T cells can prevent Zika infection in mice

Where Aedes mosquitoes fly, Zika virus may not be far behind. Although the explosive 2015–2016 Zika epidemics in the Americas are behind us, Zika may re-emerge, and "in many countries, Zika may be spreading in silence," says Sujan Shresta, Ph.D., a professor at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI).

5 Nov 2020

Chikungunya can infect central nervous system and impair cognitive, motor functions

A study conducted by an international team of researchers with FAPESP's support shows that infection by chikungunya virus can produce even more severe manifestations than the typical symptoms of the disease, such as acute fever, headache, rash, and intense joint and muscle pain.

4 Nov 2020

New, effective CRISPR-based gene drive approach to control transmission of malaria parasites

Employing a strategy known as "population modification," which involves using a CRISPR-Cas9 gene drive system to introduce genes preventing parasite transmission into mosquito chromosomes, University of California researchers have made a major advance in the use of genetic technologies to control the transmission of malaria parasites.

3 Nov 2020

Exposure to artemisinin drug could increase sexual conversion rate of malaria parasite

Exposure to suboptimal doses of the antiparasitic drug artemisinin could increase the sexual conversion rate of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum, thereby increasing the probability of transmission, according to a study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), an institution supported by "la Caixa" Foundation.

29 Oct 2020

Nigeria safely relaunches accelerated yellow fever vaccination campaigns

While combatting multiple public health challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of Nigeria, with support of the World Health Organization (WHO) and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance will safely relaunch an accelerated series of mass preventive vaccination campaigns to protect Nigerians against yellow fever (YF).

23 Oct 2020

Increasing levels of light pollution could impact transmission of diseases through mosquitoes

Artificial light abnormally increases mosquito biting behavior at night in a species that typically prefers to bite people during the day, according to research from the University of Notre Dame that was published in The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

21 Oct 2020

New position statement clarifies WHO's stance on the use of genetically modified mosquitoes

Each year, more than 700 000 people die from vector-borne diseases (VBDs) such as malaria, dengue, schistosomiasis, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, yellow fever and Japanese encephalitis, among others.

14 Oct 2020

Molecular stilts help deadly parasites to invade host cells

In biological terms, gliding refers to the type of movement during which a cell moves along a surface without changing its shape. This form of movement is unique to parasites from the phylum Apicomplexa, such as Plasmodium and Toxoplasma.

13 Oct 2020

Female mosquitoes can detect a combination of four different substances in blood

Mosquitoes spread diseases like malaria, dengue, and yellow fever that kill at least a half a million people each year. Now researchers are learning what humans taste like to mosquitoes, down to the individual neurons that sense blood's distinctive, delectable flavor.

13 Oct 2020

SARS-CoV-2 infection analysis could help fight against COVID-19

Researchers in the United States has provided a detailed catalog of the interactions that occur between host cell proteins and RNA and the RNA of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) during the course of infection.

7 Oct 2020

Understanding how the malaria parasite can withstand fever's heat

Even when a person suffering from malaria is burning up with fever and too sick to function, the tiny blood-eating parasites lurking inside them continue to flourish, relentlessly growing and multiplying as they gobble up the host's red blood cells.

5 Oct 2020

Midges and mosquitoes unlikely to spread SARS-CoV-2

A recent study published on the preprint server bioRxiv* in September 2020 looked to see if biting insects pose a risk for transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to humans or animals following a SARS-CoV-2 infected blood meal.