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.

Philippines receives $5 million from Chevron for TB eradication efforts

Chevron Corporation has pledged 235 million Philippine pesos, or about $5 million, to the Tropical Disease Foundation in the Philippines to scale up efforts to fight tuberculosis in the country as part of the company's $30 million contribution over three years for TB eradication efforts in Asia and Africa, GMA News reports.

5 Oct 2008

New role for Natural Killer cells

Scientists at the University of York have discovered a new role for a population of white blood cells, which may lead to improved treatments for chronic infections and cancer.

28 Aug 2008

VioQuest Pharmaceuticals issued new U.S. patent for Lenocta

VioQuest Pharmaceuticals today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued the first patent for the company's investigational product candidate Lenocta (sodium stibogluconate). U.S. Patent No. 7,416,723 entitled "Therapeutic compositions and methods useful in modulating protein tyrosine phosphatases," encompasses novel compositions including Lenocta for the treatment of cancer and a broad range of other diseases.

26 Aug 2008

Old bones could hold the key to tuberculosis

Close to 50 boxes of human and animal bones excavated in Jericho and held in the University of Sydney's Nicholson Museum could hold the key for an international medical team to unlock the causes of tuberculosis.

16 Jul 2008

Neglected infectious diseases go untreated, undiagnosed in hundreds of thousands of low-income residents in the U.S.

Hundreds of thousands of low-income U.S. residents in inner cities, the Mississippi Delta, Appalachia, areas near the Mexico border and tribal reservations remain undiagnosed and untreated for diseases that are prevalent in Africa, Asia and Latin America, according to an analysis published on Monday in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, USA Today reports.

24 Jun 2008

Neglected infections of poverty in the U.S. are disabling hundreds of thousands of Americans every year

An analysis published June 25th in the open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases highlights that diseases very similar to those plaguing Africa, Asia, and Latin America are also occurring frequently among the poorest people in the United States, especially women and children. These diseases - the "neglected infections of poverty" - are caused by chronic and debilitating parasitic, bacterial, and congenital infections.

24 Jun 2008

Integrated control of malaria and other vector diseases is crucial

Combating malaria and other so-called vector diseases with chemical controls is increasingly ineffective, besides being hazardous for humans and the environment. These chemical controls must therefore be eliminated. In order to combat the diseases that insects and ticks transmit, all possible strategies must be united.

15 Jun 2008

Scientists demonstrate feasibility of preventing malaria parasite from becoming sexually mature

Researchers have demonstrated the possibility of preventing the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, which is responsible for more than a million malaria deaths a year, from becoming sexually mature.

5 Jun 2008

More attention to neglected tropical diseases

An opportunity to contribute to a major initiative to alleviate poverty in the world's poorest populations.

28 May 2008

Heatwaves, floods and health concerns - special lecture on climate change and how we're dealing with it

Extreme floods, droughts and heatwaves, and how scientists are battling to deal with the effects of our rapidly warming planet, will be the subject of the first annual Grantham Lecture at Imperial College London on Thursday 22 May 2008.

15 May 2008

Impact of environment and social gradient on Leptospira infection in urban slums

A study conducted in an urban slum setting in Salvador, Brazil has found that open sewers, accumulations of refuse, and inadequate floodwater drainage are acting as sources for transmission of the disease leptospirosis. The study is published in this week's PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

23 Apr 2008

Simplified economical method of giving rabies vaccine

A simplified economical method of giving rabies vaccine is just as effective as the expensive standard vaccine regimen at stimulating anti-rabies antibodies.

23 Apr 2008

Scientists solve arsenic's cancer paradox

Cancer Research UK scientists have discovered how arsenic works as an effective treatment for leukaemia - according to a report in Nature Cell Biology.

15 Apr 2008

Doxycycline effective against filariasis in Southeast Asia

Doxycycline alone is more effective against the most common form of filariasis in Southeast Asia than the standard treatment, with significantly fewer side effects, according to a new study published in the May 1 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases and currently available online.

10 Apr 2008

Leptospira licerasiae, a new species of infectious disease found in Amazon

While investigating the tropical disease leptospirosis in the Peruvian Amazon, an infectious disease specialist from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has uncovered new, emerging bacteria that may be responsible for up to 40 percent of cases of the disease.

3 Apr 2008

Experts call for a global fund to combat neglected tropical diseases

An international team of tropical disease control experts has urged the global health and development community, and particularly the G8 leaders, to establish a new financing mechanism to combat the neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) of poverty.

28 Mar 2008

Scientists isolate, characterize the organism that causes Buruli ulcer

An international team of 17 researchers from four countries has for the first time isolated from the environment and fully characterized the organism that causes Buruli ulcer.

28 Mar 2008

Parasitic worm Schistosoma mekongi more widespread than previously thought

A new genetic analysis, published March 19th in the open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, suggests that the parasitic worm Schistosoma mekongi is more widespread than previously thought.

20 Mar 2008

Reasonable Rx: Solving the drug price crisis

The mounting U.S. drug price crisis can be contained and eventually reversed by separating drug discovery from drug marketing and by establishing a non-profit company to oversee funding for new medicines, according to two MIT experts on the pharmaceutical industry.

18 Mar 2008

Tackling antimicrobial resistance

Drug resistance is making many diseases increasingly difficult and sometimes impossible to treat, according to Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.

11 Mar 2008