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Cholera outbreak on African island Sao Tome - U.N. rushes in aid

Local authorities on the tiny African island of Sao Tome say an outbreak of cholera which has already claimed three lives is now up to 131 cases. Sao Tome is the smallest country in Africa.

10 May 2005

Salmonella now linked to pet rodents

An investigation into outbreaks of salmonella poisoning by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has prompted U.S. health officials to warn the public to take care when handling mice, rats and hamsters after human cases of salmonella have been linked to pet rodents.

5 May 2005

Schistosomiasis has a greater effect than previosly thought

Schistosomiasis, an infection caused by a parasitic worm, affects more than 200 million worldwide, most of them in Africa and many health workers believe the disabling effects of schistosomiasis have never been adequately quantified.

1 May 2005

Rimonabant appears to reduce risk factors for heart disease in obese people

A new drug could substantially reduce the bodyweight, waist circumference, and risk factors for heart disease in obese people, according to results of a randomised trial published in this week’s issue of The Lancet.

19 Apr 2005

Locals resist efforts to control the worst ever outbreak of Marburg

The World Health Organisation (WHO) have sent communications experts into Uige, the epicentre of the outbreak of Marburg epidemic to help Health experts in the fight to contain and eradicate the killer virus. It is hoped they will send a clear message to Angolans to take the necessary measures to fight the virus.

12 Apr 2005

Attacks on WHO staff - progress on Marburg epidemic halted

The World Health Organization (WHO) has suspended its efforts to contain the outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus in Angola, in the northern province of Uige, after staff in their mobile surveillance vehicles have been attacked.

10 Apr 2005

Millions of mothers and children are dying unnecessarily

The millions of seemingly preventable deaths of women and children each year has prompted the United Nations to devote this year’s World Health Day to highlighting their plight.

7 Apr 2005

International commitment to reduce maternal and child deaths by 2015 will not be met

An international commitment to reduce maternal and child deaths by 2015 will not be met at the current pace unless rapid and coordinated action is taken now, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.

5 Apr 2005

How E.Coli became deadly to humans

Twenty-three years ago a harmless gut bacterium called E. coli developed the ability to kill people through food poisoning, bloody diarrhoea and kidney failure. Normally E. coli bacteria live in the intestine and don’t pose any danger, but some varieties can cause fatal food poisoning.

4 Apr 2005

Marburg death toll in Angola now up to 122

Carlos Alberto, a spokesman for the Angolan health ministry, says the death toll in the Marburg hemorrhagic fever outbreak in Angola has now risen to 122, just one fewer than in the largest previous outbreak of the disease, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1998 to 200 and killed 123 of 149 people infected.

28 Mar 2005

Most accurate estimates of the causes of child deaths to date

The most accurate estimates of the causes of child deaths to date, published in this week’s issue of The Lancet, reveal that worldwide more than 70% of the 10·6 million child deaths that occur annually are attributable to six causes: pneumonia (19%), diarrhoea (18%), malaria (8%), neonatal sepsis or pneumonia (10%), preterm delivery (10%), and asphyxia at birth (8%).

28 Mar 2005

African genome research given impetus

Millions of victims in Africa, die each year from preventable diseases like tuberculosis and malaria and researchers say only a relatively small proportion of money is spent on developing vaccines, much more is spent on drugs aimed at tackling diseases more prevalent among rich, Western consumers.

21 Mar 2005

Lancet neonatal survival series

Three million of the four million newborn babies who die worldwide each year could be saved by low-tech and low-cost interventions, concludes a landmark series of articles published online by The Lancet (Thursday March 3, 2005).

3 Mar 2005

Genome clues to amoebic dysentery

Each year, there are an estimated 50 million cases of amoebic dysentery, causing up to 100,000 deaths, mostly in developing countries. On Thursday 24 February 2005, researchers at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and their colleagues reported in Nature magazine the genome sequence of the parasite that causes the disease, Entamoeba histolytica.

1 Mar 2005

Shigella infects cells by using a secretion system to inject proteins into human cells

According to research published in Science, the team from Imperial College London and Institut Pasteur, Paris, found that shigella, the bacteria which causes dysentery, is able to invade cells, while stopping any response from the immune system.

27 Feb 2005

The UN Millennium Project

Every year, more than 11 million children die, six million of them from preventable diseases, like malaria, measles and diarrhoea. The UN Millennium Project, in its report to be released next week, outlines a plan to stop those children's deaths, cut poverty in half and change the lives of billions of poor people the world over by the year 2015.

16 Jan 2005