Chikungunya News and Research

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Researchers successfully test new method for rapid diagnosis of Ebola in Guinea

An international team of researchers, including Ahmed Abd El Wahed, scientist at the University of Göttingen and the German Primate Center, has tested a new method for rapid diagnosis of Ebola in a field trial in Guinea. The test procedure was carried out using a portable suitcase laboratory. The mobile suitcase lab is operated with solar power and enables simple on-site diagnostics in remote areas without the need of an equipped laboratory.

6 Nov 2015

UTMB scientists work with InBios International to develop novel diagnostic test for chikungunya

A novel and affordable diagnostic test for chikungunya will soon be available thanks to the work of researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston in partnership with a commercial lab.

30 Oct 2015

Researchers test effectiveness of commercially available mosquito repellents

Researchers at New Mexico State University tested 10 commercially available products for their effectiveness at repelling mosquitoes, and the results were published in the Journal of Insect Science.

29 Oct 2015

Generex agrees to acquire 51% equity interest in Hema Diagnostic Systems

Generex Biotechnology Corporation today announced that it has entered into a non-binding Letter of Intent (LOI) with Hema Diagnostic Systems, LLC (HDS), a Florida company that designs and manufactures proprietary infectious disease detection technologies.

30 Sep 2015

Real-time blood test based on DNA sequencing can rapidly diagnose Ebola and other acute infections

Using technical advances not yet developed when the 2014 Ebola outbreak began, UC San Francisco-led scientists completed a proof-of-principle study on a real-time blood test based on DNA sequencing that can be used to rapidly diagnose Ebola and other acute infections. The researchers said that the test can be used even where lab space and medical infrastructure are scarce.

From Oxford Nanopore Technologies 29 Sep 2015

Scientists discover genetic markers for mosquito resistance to insecticides

Controlling mosquitoes that carry human diseases is a global health challenge as their ability to resist insecticides now threatens efforts to prevent epidemics. Scientists from the CNRS, IRD, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Université Joseph Fourier in Grenoble and Institut Pasteur in French Guiana have identified new genetic markers for mosquito resistance to insecticides, which could improve its detection in the field.

24 Jul 2015

Vanderbilt investigators develop potential antibody treatments against chikungunya

In late 2013 the Caribbean had its first case of the mosquito-borne chikungunya virus. Today there have been almost 1.2 million cases in 44 countries or territories, including 177 cases in 31 U.S. States. Vanderbilt University Medical Center's James Crowe, M.D., Ann Scott Carell Professor and director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Center, and his team are reporting the first large panel of antibody treatments against this disease in the current issue of Cell Host and Microbe.

9 Jul 2015

Dengue and chikungunya-carrying mosquitoes spreading to new areas, warn scientists

Scientists behind the first global distribution maps of two species of dengue and chikungunya-carrying mosquitoes warn they are spreading to new areas where they could cause disease.

1 Jul 2015

Sex-determining gene in mosquitoes may help reduce disease transmission

Researchers with the Fralin Life Science Institute at Virginia Tech have identified a gene responsible for sex determination in mosquitoes that can transmit yellow fever, dengue, and chikungunya viruses.

22 May 2015

Health workers now have rapid test to detect presence of chikungunya virus within an hour

Scientists at a U.S. Army research center have modified an assay that tests whether or not a sample of mosquitoes harbors the virus responsible for the disease known as chikungunya (CHIKV), long a problem in the Old World tropics but recently established in the Americas.

12 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

Researchers harness gene editing technique in mosquito that infects people with deadly diseases

Traditionally, to understand how a gene functions, a scientist would breed an organism that lacks that gene - "knocking it out" - then ask how the organism has changed. Are its senses affected? Its behavior?

30 Mar 2015

Animated film deals with the biology of tiger mosquito

The tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, draw more and more attention. Native to Asia, it is invading all the continents, causing a considerable nuisance, and being able to transmit viruses responsible for such serious diseases as dengue or chikungunya.

25 Mar 2015

Insect-borne diseases increase with warmer climate

Insects, such as mosquitoes and ticks, are responsible for transmitting a range of diseases, such as malaria, chikungunya, dengue fever, and West Nile virus. The risk of contracting such illnesses is generally only considered when booking an exotic holiday. However, experts from the Emergency Response Department at Public Health England have warned that climate change could allow such vector-borne diseases to emerge closer to home.

23 Mar 2015

Climate change could accelerate emergence of vector-borne diseases in UK

Climate change could accelerate the emergence of vector-borne diseases such as chikungunya, dengue fever, and West Nile virus in the UK, warn leading public health experts Dr Jolyon Medlock and Professor Steve Leach from the Emergency Response Department at Public Health England, writing in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal.

23 Mar 2015

GHTC report confronts key challenge of renewing US leadership in global health technology

Today, the world is looking to the United States for cutting-edge diagnostics, drugs, and vaccines that could have the last word on an Ebola outbreak that is down but not out. But those innovations are the product of past US investments in research and development (R&D).

13 Mar 2015

Modified measles vaccine effective against Chikungunya virus, study finds

A modified, conventional measles vaccine has the potential to act against the Chikungunya virus. This is the result of a study at the University Clinic for Clinical Pharmacology of the MedUni Wien (Medical University of Vienna), which has now been published in the top journal "The Lancet Infectious Diseases".

2 Mar 2015

Blood tests for Chikungunya virus and rheumatoid arthritis could produce similar results

A mosquito-borne virus that has spread to the Caribbean and Central and South America and has caused isolated infections in Florida often causes joint pain and swelling similar to that seen in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

31 Jan 2015

Rutgers researcher receives NIH grant to develop rapid test to diagnose Ebola

Rutgers researcher David Alland, working with the California biotechnology company Cepheid, has received a grant of nearly $640,000 from the National Institutes of Health to develop a rapid test to diagnose Ebola as well as other viruses that can cause symptoms similar to Ebola.

8 Dec 2014

UTMB researchers receive awards at American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene meeting

Scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch were recognized with prestigious awards for their contributions in research at the annual American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene meeting.

21 Nov 2014