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.

U.S. Senators introduce legislation to encourage R&D aimed at neglected pediatric diseases

"New bipartisan legislation was introduced in the U.S. Senate last week which seeks to encourage innovative [research and development] R&D by drugmakers aimed at treating rare and neglected pediatric diseases," PharmaTimes reports.

11 Aug 2010

Kids v Cancer applauds Senators for Creating Hope Act of 2010

Kids v Cancer applauds Senators Sam Brownback (R-KS), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Al Franken (D-MN) for their dedication to curing childhood diseases and supporting the bipartisan "Creating Hope Act of 2010."

7 Aug 2010

Equatorial Guinea, ECCAS partner to form network to fight H1N1, HIV

Equatorial Guinea (Republica de Guinea Ecuatorial) and the Global Viral Forecasting Initiative, along with several Central African States, have partnered with the Economic Community of Central African States to form a network to fight H1N1 and HIV. The purpose of the network's recent forum was to share knowledge and best practices, and to collect data and prevention procedures among military health professionals in the region.

7 Aug 2010

Researchers map malaria parasite P vivax; Nearly 3B people at risk of infection in 2009

A new evidence-based map estimates that in 2009 2.85 billion people lived "at risk of infection" with the malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax, BMJ News reports. As described in a study, published Tuesday in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, P vivax "is more widespread and potentially represents a greater burden on human health in some parts of the world than P falciparum, the species usually associated with the greatest mortality and morbidity," BMJ News writes (Moszynski, 8/3).

5 Aug 2010

Alnylam second-quarter revenues increase to $26.6 million

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a leading RNAi therapeutics company, today reported its consolidated financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2010, and company highlights.

5 Aug 2010

Asian ministers review MDGs progress

South Asia is "lagging behind" in poverty and hunger reduction and is "in danger" of missing key Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets, a U.N. official told Asian ministers gathered to discuss MDGs progress, Agence France-Presse reports. At the meeting, "senior officials told delegates from dozens of countries that global food, energy and financial crises in recent years had jeopardized progress toward achieving the goals set for 2015," the news service writes.

4 Aug 2010

Mapping NTDs is critical for controlling, treating diseases

Mapping neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) is vital for efforts to control and treat diseases, write the authors of an editorial published Tuesday in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, ANI/Sindh Today reports (7/28).

29 Jul 2010

EFINTD awards 850,000 Euros for medical research on neglected tropical diseases in Africa

More than one billion people all over the world suffer from tropical diseases which are mostly unknown to the wider public and have also been neglected economically. In a joint effort with four other European foundations, the Volkswagen Foundation has opened a second round of funding for African scientists conducting research on these neglected diseases.

27 Jul 2010

Early HIV treatment can save more children's lives

Efforts worldwide on access to treatment for children with HIV have reached a new milestone, with 355 000 children receiving life-saving HIV treatment at the end of 2009, compared to 276 000 at the end of 2008; but many more lives could be saved if more infants started on medication earlier according to new recommendations from WHO.

21 Jul 2010

AIDS 2010: Number of HIV positive patients on arvs grew to 5.2m in 2009 with 10m still in need, who says

"The number of HIV-positive people receiving antiretroviral drugs [ARVs] for their infections jumped by more than a quarter in 2009, growing from 4 million to 5.2 million, the World Health Organization said Monday at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna," the Los Angeles Times reports (7/19).

21 Jul 2010

WHO announces new approaches to HIV prevention and treatment among children

20 Jul 2010

WHO advises earlier treatment for people with HIV

An estimated 5.2 million people were receiving life-saving HIV treatment at the end of 2009, according to the latest update from the WHO. WHO estimates that 1.2 million people started treatment in 2009, bringing the total number of people receiving treatment to 5.2 million, compared to 4 million at the end of 2008.

20 Jul 2010

Abbott presents 48-week PROGRESS study results at 28th International AIDS Conference

Abbott today presented 48-week findings comparing an HIV regimen of its protease inhibitor (PI), Kaletra® (lopinavir/ritonavir), and Merck's integrase inhibitor, Isentress® (raltegravir), to a traditional HIV regimen of Kaletra and the nucleotide/nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) in Truvada® (tenofovir and emtricitabine) in antiretroviral-naive adult patients. Efficacy data were collected over the first 48 weeks of the 96-week PROGRESS (PROtease/InteGRasE Simplification Study) study.

20 Jul 2010

AIDS 2010 opens: Leaders weigh in on global HIV/AIDS funding; Clinton, Gates on efficiency

The six-day International AIDS Conference-AIDS 2010 kicked off Sunday in Vienna, Austria "amid resurgent fears that advances in the 29-year war against the disease were threatened by a slump in funding," Agence France-Presse reports.

20 Jul 2010

Opinions: Haitian rebuilding; Nuclear state vaccine initiatives; HIV rights abuses in China; HIV vaccine

The "paltry scale of the Pentagon's reconstruction endeavor [in Haiti] -- 1.6 million people displaced and the American military is contributing a few classrooms? -- is emblematic of the international response," columnist Dana Milbank writes in a Washington Post opinion piece.

14 Jul 2010

Efficacy data of Caldolor Injection in treating fever associated with falciparum malaria published

Cumberland Pharmaceuticals Inc. today announced that data supporting the efficacy of Caldolor in treating fever associated with falciparum malaria was published in the July edition of the peer-reviewed American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. The study, which is the first to document an antipyretic effect of an injectable non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug on fever caused by malaria, demonstrated that patients who received intravenous ibuprofen experienced a greater reduction in their temperatures than those who received placebo.

13 Jul 2010

UC San Diego professor to establish new Peru/Brazil ICEMR to help control malaria

Tropical disease specialist Joseph Vinetz, MD, of the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine will lead an ambitious multi-national effort to help control and eventually conquer malaria, establishing a new Peruvian/Brazilian International Center of Excellence in Malaria Research Center with a seven-year, $9.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

9 Jul 2010

TB Alliance, DNDi announce inter-PDP agreement to develop potential anti-TB compounds

The Global Alliance for TB Drug Development and Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative announced today a unique first-ever royalty-free license agreement between two not-for-profit drug developers that speeds progress toward markedly improved therapy of multiple neglected diseases. The TB Alliance has granted rights to DNDi to develop a class of potential anti-TB compounds that also show significant promise for treating other neglected diseases that largely affect the world's poor.

8 Jul 2010

Recent releases in global health

Looking ahead to AIDS 2010 which will be held in Vienna, Austria, July 18-23, a Lancet editorial writes that 2010 marks "the deadline set by global leaders to achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, and care. Sadly, the world will not meet these ambitious goals." However, the latest issue of the Lancet "offers some new insights to progress," the editorial notes.

3 Jul 2010

House Subcommittee approves $52.7B FY11 Foreign Ops appropriations bill

The Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs approved a $52.7 billion FY 2011 spending bill on Wednesday that withheld $3.9 billion in aid for Afghanistan over concerns about corruption in the country, CongressDaily reports. The bill "already cut $4 billion from President Obama's request to fund the State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development and dozens of foreign assistance and cooperation programs," the publication writes.

2 Jul 2010

Tropical Disease News and Research

Further Reading

U.S. Senators introduce legislation to encourage R&D aimed at neglected pediatric diseases

Kids v Cancer applauds Senators for Creating Hope Act of 2010

Equatorial Guinea, ECCAS partner to form network to fight H1N1, HIV

Researchers map malaria parasite P vivax; Nearly 3B people at risk of infection in 2009

Alnylam second-quarter revenues increase to $26.6 million

Asian ministers review MDGs progress

Mapping NTDs is critical for controlling, treating diseases

EFINTD awards 850,000 Euros for medical research on neglected tropical diseases in Africa

Early HIV treatment can save more children's lives

AIDS 2010: Number of HIV positive patients on arvs grew to 5.2m in 2009 with 10m still in need, who says

WHO announces new approaches to HIV prevention and treatment among children

WHO advises earlier treatment for people with HIV

Abbott presents 48-week PROGRESS study results at 28th International AIDS Conference

AIDS 2010 opens: Leaders weigh in on global HIV/AIDS funding; Clinton, Gates on efficiency

Opinions: Haitian rebuilding; Nuclear state vaccine initiatives; HIV rights abuses in China; HIV vaccine

Efficacy data of Caldolor Injection in treating fever associated with falciparum malaria published

UC San Diego professor to establish new Peru/Brazil ICEMR to help control malaria

TB Alliance, DNDi announce inter-PDP agreement to develop potential anti-TB compounds

Recent releases in global health

House Subcommittee approves $52.7B FY11 Foreign Ops appropriations bill

Achieving and maintaining ISO/IEC 27001 and BS 10012 certifications

Expanding research and clinical options for children with cancer

Examining how pain could play a direct protective role in the gut

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