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.

New malaria study in Africa offers evidence of method to bypass, or delay, insecticide resistance

Indoor spraying with the insecticide bendiocarb has dramatically decreased malaria transmission in many parts of Benin, new evidence that insecticides remain a potent weapon for fighting malaria in Africa despite the rapid rise of resistance to an entire class of mosquito-killing compounds, according to a study published today in the October edition of The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

5 Oct 2011

Post-Soviet economic breakdown may have contributed to re-emergence of NTDs in Central Asia

According to an article by Peter Hotez, president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, and Ken Alibek of Nazarbayev University in Astana, Kazakhstan, published Tuesday in the journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Central Asia "continues to suffer from a post-Soviet economic breakdown that may have contributed to a re-emergence of several NTDs in the area, especially among its most economically disadvantaged groups," a PLoS press release states.

29 Sep 2011

High prevalence of NTDs in Central Asia after 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union

The open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases will publish an article emphasizing the rising burden of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) in Central Asia on Tuesday, Sept. 27th.

28 Sep 2011

Burundi makes significant progress against NTDs

In this "End the Neglect" blog post, Alan Fenwick, director of the Schistosomaisis Control Initiative and professor of Tropical Parasitology at Imperial College in London, examines Burundi's progress in combating neglected tropical diseases.

28 Sep 2011

Nigeria expected to sign agreement with UNESCO for international biotech center targeting food security, disease

The Nigerian government is expected to sign an agreement with UNESCO at the 36th session of the General Conference of UNESCO, which begins next month, for an international biotechnology center that will focus on strengthening food safety, tropical disease research and the conservation of bio-resources across Africa, SciDev.Net reports, adding that "UNESCO's executive board approved the establishment of the center earlier this year."

23 Sep 2011

Supplement in USA Today highlights global NTD eradication efforts

This supplement (.pdf) by Mediaplanet, distributed in the September 15 issue of USA Today in select cities nationwide, examines the latest programs dedicated to eradicating neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) worldwide.

17 Sep 2011

Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification test for human African trypanosomiasis

The Geneva-based not-for-profit foundation FIND and Japanese diagnostics company Eiken announced today that a next-generation molecular test designed specifically for sleeping sickness - a deadly parasitic disease also known as human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) - is ready to enter accelerated field trials in sites across the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.

16 Sep 2011

U.K. Coalition against NTDs officially launched in London

This "End the Neglect" blog post reports that the U.K. Coalition against Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) was officially launched on Tuesday at the All Parliamentary Group on Malaria and NTDs meeting in London.

15 Sep 2011

Researchers at South Korean lab make advance in fight against neglected tropical diseases

VOA News reports on a scientific breakthrough, which researchers call a "game changer" for developing new drugs, developed at Institut Pasteur Korea [IPK], a South Korean branch of the 124-year-old French research institute that is developing new drugs to combat diseases mainly affecting developing countries, including neglected tropical diseases.

14 Sep 2011

University of Antioquia and IBM partner for Leishmaniasis research

IBM and University of Antioquia's Tropical Disease Study and Control Program (PECET) today announced a joint research project, Drug Search for Leishmaniasis, using computer power from IBM's World Community Grid.

14 Sep 2011

ASTMH annual meeting to explore latest research on infectious diseases

The 60th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) -- the largest of its kind in the world -- will bring together in one place global experts who are battling a wide range of bacteria, viruses, parasites and other pathogens that each year kill or sicken hundreds of millions of people.

12 Sep 2011

International public health spending ignores neglected tropical diseases, some experts argue

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism examines what some experts are calling a serious inequity in public health spending, writing that neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) "together kill more people than maternal mortality and have a higher disease burden than malaria or tuberculosis (TB) and nearing that of HIV/AIDS. However, despite the severity of the situation, funding for NTDs is just a fraction of that spent on other diseases."

7 Sep 2011

Water and sanitation, NTD sectors should work together

In a post on the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases' "End the Neglect" blog, Kerry Gallo of Children Without Worms writes, "Effective control strategies for several NTDs such as soil-transmitted helminthiasis (STH), trachoma, and schistosomiasis require that communities have access to water and latrines to break the cycle of infection," concluding, "The intertwined nature of water and sanitation issues and NTD control shows that our two sectors should work together in partnership to improve the health of communities and maximize impact".

30 Aug 2011

World Water Week seminar examined Integrating Water and Health Initiatives

In this "End The Neglect" blog post, Ann Kelly, representative of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation's Global Water Initiative and co-founder of Partner at Global Philanthropy Group, provides an overview of a Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases co-hosted seminar at World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden.

30 Aug 2011

ABC News features six videos on global health issues

ABC News on Thursday posted six videos in its "World In 3" health series. The three-minute videos examine malaria in Uganda, neglected tropical diseases in Niger, pneumonia in the Philippines, sleeping sickness in the Democratic Republic of Congo, tuberculosis in South Africa and parasitic worms in Brazil.

26 Aug 2011

Disease mapping could help control and eliminate loiasis, other NTDs, study says

In this End the Neglect blog post, Linda Diep, communications and grassroots assistant with the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases, discusses how "mapping of Loa Loa Filariasis could help in the innovation of new strategies to eliminate and control onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis (LF), according to a recently released article from the open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases."

20 Aug 2011

Researchers turn their attention to Chagas disease as developed countries see rise in infection rates

Chagas disease, a historically neglected tropical disease that the WHO estimates affects about 10 million people worldwide, is drawing increased attention as infection by the parasite spreads from Latin America to developed countries, such as Spain and the United States, Science reports.

20 Aug 2011

Neglected tropical diseases becoming more common in Europe, study shows

"Worm infestations, food parasites, Chagas disease, sand fly-transmitted infections and other neglected tropical diseases usually found in Africa and Asia are turning up more often in Europe, according to a new study" published recently in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases by researchers from the Sabin Vaccine Institute, the New York Times reports.

3 Aug 2011

Control and elimination of neglected tropical diseases can help treat HIV/AIDS

There is a growing body of evidence revealing the connection between neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and HIV/AIDS, prompting experts to call for greater integration of national NTD treatment programs with HIV/AIDS initiatives.

28 Jul 2011

Efforts to fight HIV/AIDS, NTDs should be integrated

"The neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) produce a devastating level of chronic disability in sub-Saharan Africa, with some estimates suggesting that the NTD disease burden exceeds tuberculosis and is one-half that of malaria," Julie Noblick and Richard Skolnick of George Washington University and Peter Hotez of the Sabin Vaccine Institute write in a PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases editorial.

28 Jul 2011