Communicable Disease News and Research

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Communicable Disease is a disease capable of being transmitted from an infected person or species to a susceptible host.

Chagas disease presents real public health problem to Canadians

Believe it or not, a tropical blood parasite native to Latin America could be harmful to Canadians. Infectious diseases like malaria or Zika may have dominated recent headlines but Chagas - the "Kissing Bug" disease - is in the spotlight following the publication of a new case study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

13 Dec 2017

Study reveals that air pollution may cause Northern China to suffer a lifespan reduction of 3 years

A study conducted in China has revealed the effect that high-level air pollution has on a person’s life expectancy.

12 Sep 2017

Researchers identify gene variants linked to both type 2 diabetes and CHD risk

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) has become a global epidemic affecting more than 380 million people worldwide; yet there are knowledge gaps in understanding the etiology of type-2 diabetes.

4 Sep 2017

New Global Burden of Disease study estimates vast impact of asthma and COPD

Latest global estimates illustrate the vast impact of the two most common chronic respiratory diseases, with 3.2 million deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and 0.4 million deaths caused by asthma in 2015, according to a new Global Burden of Disease study published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal.

18 Aug 2017

Research findings advance development of HIV vaccines that induce broadly neutralizing antibodies

A Duke Health-led research team has described both the pathway of HIV protective antibody development and a synthetic HIV outer envelope mimic that has the potential to induce the antibodies with vaccination.

16 Mar 2017

Study finds link between air pollution and daily cause-specific mortality in China

In the largest epidemiological study conducted in the developing world, researchers found that as exposures to fine particulate air pollution in 272 Chinese cities increase, so do deaths from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.

10 Feb 2017

European Cancer Patient Coalition makes recommendations for improved access to innovation in oncology

At the European Cancer Congress 2017 in Amsterdam, the European Cancer Patient Coalition launched a new white paper on the Value of Innovation in Oncology. It make recommendations for sustainable and equitable access to innovative cancer treatments and care pathways.

1 Feb 2017

UCLA-led researchers identify potential TB drug regimen that may cut treatment time up to 75%

Taking a new approach toward tuberculosis therapy, a UCLA-led research team has devised a potential drug regimen that could cut the treatment time by up to 75 percent, while simultaneously reducing the risk that patients could develop drug-resistant TB.

25 Jan 2017

Genomic sequencing reveals new insights into major shigellosis outbreaks in California

In a study that could have significant impact on how disease outbreaks are managed, researchers at UC Davis and the California Department of Public Health have sequenced and analyzed genomes from Shigella sonnei (S. sonnei) bacteria associated with major shigellosis outbreaks in California in 2014 and 2015.

23 Dec 2016

Brazil makes progress in reducing gap in health status, but inequalities persist

Brazil, through a combination of public policies and its Unified Health System, has significantly improved access to medical care for a wide swath of its population, but more can be done to eradicate health inequalities there, according to a special edition of the International Journal for Equity in Health.

18 Nov 2016

Global high blood pressure has almost doubled over past 40 years, shows study

In the past 40 years, there has been a large increase in the number of people living with high blood pressure worldwide because of population growth and ageing—rising from 594 million in 1975 to over 1.1 billion in 2015.

17 Nov 2016

Poor, remote Indigenous Australians have increased risk of sexually transmissible infections

A unique 21-year study of more than 2.4 million cases of infectious disease across Australia reveals a major social divide where being poorer, living remotely or being an Indigenous Australian means having an increased risk of sexually transmissible infections (STIs).

25 Oct 2016

Study estimates impact of six common healthcare-associated infections

A study published today by PLOS Medicine, estimates the combined burden of six healthcare-associated infections as being higher than that of diseases such as influenza, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis together.

19 Oct 2016

IFPA, ILDS and IPC launch first-ever global epidemiological psoriasis database

Today’s Global Psoriasis Atlas (GPA) launch will create the first-ever, comprehensive global database on psoriasis. It responds to an urgent World Health Organization call to fill global knowledge gaps on the incidence and prevalence of this serious non-communicable disease.

4 Oct 2016

Global study assesses countries on health-related Sustainable Development Goals

Worldwide, good progress has been made towards some of the health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) since 2000, particularly in reducing under-5 and neonatal mortality, family planning, and the rollout of universal health care.

24 Sep 2016

Arab uprising linked to detrimental effects on health and life expectancy in several countries

The Arab uprising in 2010 and subsequent wars in the eastern Mediterranean region have had serious detrimental effects on the health and life expectancy of the people living in many of the 22 countries in the region, according to a major new analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013 (GBD 2013), published in The Lancet Global Health journal.

26 Aug 2016

Report highlights need to strengthen response to major public health threats

In a report released today by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, an Independent Panel formed to review HHS's response to Ebola made several recommendations on how the nation's federal public health system should strengthen its response to major public health threats, both internationally and domestically.

1 Jul 2016