Leprosy News and Research

Latest Leprosy News and Research

Johns Hopkins scientist wins $2.5M NIH Director's Pioneer Award

A Johns Hopkins scientist who proposes to design and create an all-new series of novel drugs is one of 17 winners of a special grant known as a Director's Pioneer Award from the National Institutes of Health.

27 Jul 2010

New multimillion dollar BSL-3 laboratory complex at Nigerian National TB and Leprosy Training Center

This week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director, Dr. Tom Frieden, visited the Nigerian National TB and Leprosy Training Center (NTBLTC) to tour a multimillion dollar laboratory complex established by the Institute of Human Virology (IHV) of the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, and the Institute of Human Virology-Nigeria. This U.S.-Nigeria partnership was established in 2004 through funding from the CDC and the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

18 Jun 2010

Novartis employees organise events to contribute to community organizations

In a spring tradition that has become well entrenched at the company over the past 14 years, employees of Novartis from across Canada are today joining their colleagues around the world in taking time away from their work to contribute to community organizations.

15 May 2010

China lifts decades-old HIV/AIDS travel ban

Late Tuesday, China's State Council lifted a decades-old restriction that banned foreigners with HIV/AIDS from entering the country, Reuters reports (Buckley, 4/27). The amended rules, which appear on the government website, also lift a travel ban on foreigners with other sexually transmitted diseases and leprosy, and "narrow the travel restriction on people with tuberculosis, to those with an infectious form of the lung disease," according to Bloomberg Businessweek (Randall, 4/28).

29 Apr 2010

China lifts ban on tourists suffering from HIV/AIDS

In a new development China has lifted its decades old reservations towards travelers and tourists suffering from HIV and AIDS in the wake of the Shanghai World Expo this weekend.

28 Apr 2010

New report assesses optimal future for REMS

Two years after the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007 gave FDA new powers to require Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies for higher risk drugs and biologics, a new report concludes that an optimal future for REMS is possible if the agency adopts a systems approach when designing REMS programs and takes advantage of new technologies -- from electronic medical records to genetic testing -- that are changing the way medicine is practiced.

5 Apr 2010

Novel ways of killing TB causing bacteria discovered

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have found two novel ways of killing the bacteria that cause tuberculosis (TB), a disease responsible for an estimated two million deaths each year. The findings, published in the March 21 online issue of Nature Chemical Biology, could lead to a potent TB therapy that would also prevent resistant TB strains from developing.

22 Mar 2010

Gene involved in susceptibility and resistance to TB identified

University of Washington researchers have identified a gene involved in susceptibility and resistance to tuberculosis. This same gene, they have found, has a role in the severity of leprosy, which is caused by a related pathogen. The researchers also have learned why this gene is important for susceptibility.

5 Mar 2010

Study: Genetic variant of LTA4H offers protection against TB and leprosy

A study into why some people are more resistant than others to diseases such as tuberculosis (TB) and leprosy has identified a new genetic variant which affects susceptibility to these diseases. The findings, published today in the journal Cell, may have implications for future treatments for the two conditions.

5 Mar 2010

Global health community to be engaged in using resources of GSK and Alnylam IP Pool

BIO Ventures for Global Health, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), and Alnylam announced today that the organizations are partnering to engage the global health community in using the powerful resources of the GSK and Alnylam Intellectual Property (IP) Pool.

21 Jan 2010

Scientists determine structure of enzyme essential to the survival of protozoan parasites

After many years of study, a team of researchers is releasing data today that it hopes will lead to new drug therapies that will kill the family of parasites that causes a deadly trio of insect-borne diseases and has afflicted inhabitants of underdeveloped and developing nations for centuries.

18 Jan 2010

Reuters examines TB in China

Reuters examines efforts to control tuberculosis in China, which has the "world's second largest tuberculosis burden after India." The news service writes, "China has 4.5 million TB cases currently; and each year 1.4 million people fall ill with the disease. TB killed 160,000 people in China in 2008, according to the World Health Organization."

7 Jan 2010

DNA reveals earliest proven case of leprosy, Turin Shroud not from Jesus-era Jerusalem

The DNA of a 1st century shrouded man found in a tomb on the edge of the Old City of Jerusalem has revealed the earliest proven case of leprosy. Details of the research will be published December 16 in the PloS ONE Journal.

16 Dec 2009

Guardian Technologies International introduces Signature Mapping TBDx to diagnose TB

Guardian Technologies International is bringing the diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) into the 21st century with Signature Mapping TBDx™ (SM TBDx), an automated diagnostic solution using sophisticated detection algorithms to identify TB under microscopy in sputum samples, at the laboratory level.

2 Dec 2009

Scientists solve 50-year-old thalidomide puzzle

Research into the controversial drug thalidomide reveals that the mechanism through which the drug causes limb defects is the same process which causes it to damage internal organs and other tissues. The article, published in Bio-Essays, outlines the challenges surrounding thalidomide research and claims that confirmation of a 'common mechanism' could lead to new treatments for Leprosy, Crohn's Disease, AIDS and some forms of cancer..

17 Nov 2009

Leprosy: Man's persistent companion

For thousands of years an undesirable and persistent companion has been travelling with man wherever he goes. Mycobacterium leprae, the bacterium that causes leprosy, has only one known natural host - mankind.

4 Nov 2009

Opinions: Obstetric fistula; malaria and climate change

In a New York Times opinion piece, columnist Nicholas Kristof examines a new plan to tackle obstetric fistula, "a childbirth injury, often suffered by a teenager in Africa or Asia whose pelvis is not fully grown." According to Kristof, "Just about the happiest thing that can happen to such a woman is an encounter with Dr. Lewis Wall, an ob-gyn at Washington University in St. Louis.

3 Nov 2009

New York Times examines journal editorial on neglected tropical diseases in Islamic nations

The New York Times examines the conclusions drawn in a recent PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases editorial that the Islamic world is suffering from a "devastating burden" of neglected tropical diseases.

27 Oct 2009

Fero Industries to complete acquisition of Pyro Pharmaceuticals by November 30, 2009

Fero Industries, Inc. is pleased to provide certain disclosures relating to the ten pending patent applications of Pyro Pharmaceuticals, Inc. As previously announced, the Company has initiated the process of acquiring Pyro Pharmaceuticals, Inc. through an exchange of Pyro’s capital stock for shares of the Company’s common stock, with Fero remaining as the parent entity and Pyro as a subsidiary. The acquisition of Pyro is expected to close by November 30, 2009.

27 Oct 2009

Researchers to investigate Buruli ulcer outbreaks

Knowing what causes a disease may not make it easier to control and contain infection, but understanding how humans become infected and where the pathogens live may improve control.

6 Oct 2009