# Cholera and other tropical diseases



## waltky

483 Dead Of Cholera In Papua New Guinea...

*PNG cholera death toll nearly 500*
_February 16, 2011 - NEARLY 500 people have died from Papua New Guinea's prolonged cholera outbreak, a top PNG medical official says._


> Health Secretary Doctor Clement Malau has told PNG's National newspaper 483 people have died while 10,066 have been diagnosed with cholera since the first outbreak in September 2009.  Seven of PNG's 19 provinces, including the capital Port Moresby, have been affected by cholera with Dr Malau adding Western Province was the worst hit with 300 deaths.  "I am urging the provinces to sustain the response momentum and widen surveillance and awareness activities," he said.  "I appeal again to local authorities at the district and provincial levels to respond effectively to the cholera outbreaks in their areas".
> 
> In December last year, there were grave concerns that cholera would spread across the Torres Strait into Australia when it was detected in Western Province and on its island centre of Daru.  Travel between Australia's Torres Strait Islands and neighbouring PNG communities was restricted, with hundreds turned away in an effort to contain the potentially deadly outbreak.  In relief efforts to contain the various outbreaks, the World Health Organisation (WHO), along with Australian aid agency AusAID, flew medical supplies and offered experts for logistics to contain the spread.
> 
> But it was an initial poor response and lack of funding by the PNG government that has been blamed for cholera spreading throughout the country.  Australia provided $1.7 million in assistance including supplies of intravenous fluids, oral salts and water purification tablets, as well as emergency experts being flown to outbreak centres.  Cholera usually makes people only mildly sick, but up to 10 per cent of patients develop a severe illness.  It is transmitted by water contaminated by bacteria from an infected person or food contaminated by dirty water, soiled hands or flies.
> 
> Read more: PNG cholera death toll nearly 500 | News.com.au


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## Douger

I missed out on the Cholera party. I had Dengue several years ago.
A hiking partner got yellow fever in Venezuela. Didn't take the vaccine.


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## waltky

Outbreak bigger than first thought...

*Haiti Cholera Epidemic Could Sicken 779,000 This Year*
_TUESDAY, March 15,`11 -- New estimate much higher than U.N. projections, which were used to allocate resources_


> The cholera epidemic in Haiti this year will be far worse than the 400,000 cases predicted by the United Nations, new study findings indicate.  There could be nearly twice as many cases of the potentially deadly diarrheal disease -- an estimated 779,000 -- between March and November of this year, according to researchers at the University of California, San Francisco and Harvard Medical School.
> 
> The discrepancy is important because U.N. projections determine the allocation of resources to fight the disease, said the authors of the study, published March 16 in The Lancet.  "The epidemic is not likely to be short-term," Dr. Sanjay Basu, a UCSF medical resident, said in a university news release. "It is going to be larger than predicted in terms of sheer numbers and will last far longer than the initial projections."
> 
> The cholera epidemic erupted in Haiti after last year's devastating earthquake. Cholera -- spread from person-to-person through contaminated food and water -- can be deadly if untreated. In most cases, treatment for the diarrhea caused by the disease involves rehydration with salty liquids.
> 
> Late last year, the U.N. projected that a total of 400,000 people in Haiti would eventually become infected with cholera. They reached that total by assuming that cholera would infect 2 to 4 percent of Haiti's population of 10 million. But the U.N. estimate did not take into account existing disease trends, or factors such as where water was contaminated, how the disease is transmitted, or human immunity to cholera, Basu said.
> 
> MORE


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## waltky

Cholera alert for Santo Domingo...

*Dominican Republic's capital on alert for cholera*
_17 May 2011 - Controls were stepped up on the Haiti-Dominican border after the outbreak began last year_


> Health authorities in the Dominican Republic have issued an alert in parts of the capital, Santo Domingo, amid suspected cholera cases.  The health ministry has ordered increased monitoring and urged people to take extra care with hygiene.  Some 16 people are in hospital with suspected cholera.
> 
> The Dominican Republic has had 14 cholera deaths in recent months, while more than 4,500 have died in neighbouring Haiti since late 2010.  Monitoring has been stepped up in 17 mainly poor neighbourhoods of Santo Domingo.  Like Haiti, the Dominican Republic had not had a confirmed case of cholera in more than a century until the outbreak began in October.
> 
> The Dominican Republic tightened its border controls and stepped up health checks to try to stop cholera from spreading from Haiti soon after the first cases were reported.  The first case in the Dominican Republic was detected in November and the first death in January.
> 
> BBC News - Dominican Republic&#039;s capital on alert for cholera


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## hendrickL

That's so alarming.


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## waltky

Filtering out dengue virus from mosquitoes...

*Specialized mosquitoes may fight tropical disease*
_Wed Aug 24,`11  Scientists have made a promising advance for controlling dengue fever, a tropical disease spread by mosquito bites. They've rapidly replaced mosquitoes in the wild with skeeters that don't spread the dengue virus._


> More than 50 million people a year get the dengue virus from being bitten by infected mosquitoes in tropical and subtropical areas, including Southeast Asia. It can cause debilitating high fever, severe headaches, and pain in the muscles and joints, and lead to a potentially fatal complication. There's no vaccine or specific treatment.  Some scientists have been trying to fight dengue by limiting mosquito populations. That was the goal in releasing genetically modified mosquitoes last year at sites in Malaysia and the Cayman Islands.
> 
> Australian scientists took a different tack, they report in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.  First, they showed that Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, the chief carriers of the dengue virus, resist spreading that virus if they are infected with a particular kind of bacteria. Then they tested whether these resistant mosquitoes could displace their ordinary cousins in the wild, thus reducing the number of dengue-spreading mosquitoes.
> 
> The resistant mosquitoes have an advantage in reproduction. Resistant females can mate with either resistant or ordinary mosquitoes, and all their offspring will be resistant. But when ordinary females mate with a resistant male, none of the offspring survive.  For the experiment, scientists released more than 140,000 resistant mosquitoes over 10 weeks in each of two isolated communities near Cairns in northeastern Australia, starting last January. By mid-April, monitoring found that resistant mosquitoes made up 90 percent to 100 percent of the wild population.
> 
> The result is a "groundbreaking first step," Jason Rasgon of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore wrote in a commentary accompanying the paper. Rasgon, who did not participate in the study, said the next hurdle is to test the idea in areas where dengue is spread constantly, rather than sporadically as in Australia. Researchers will also have to show it works against varied strains of the dengue virus, he said.
> 
> Source


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## Skull Pilot

One more reason not to visit third world countries.


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## editec

*Famous cholera victims*

Cholera has claimed the lives of several well known people over its long history. Some were positively affected by the disease while others have only been speculated to have passed away due to cholera. For example, the crying and pathos in the last movement of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's last symphony made people think that 





> Tchaikovsky had a premonition of death. "A week after the premiere of his Symphony No. 6 (Tchaikovsky)(Sixth Symphony), Tchaikovsky was dead&#8212;6 Nov. 1893. The cause of this indisposition and stomach ache was suspected to be his intentionally infecting himself with cholera by drinking contaminated water. The day before while having lunch with Modest Tchaikovsky (his brother and biographer), he is said to have poured faucet water from a pitcher into his glass and drunk a few swallows. Since the water was not boiled and cholera was once again rampaging Saint Petersburg, Russia, such a connection was quite plausible &#8230;."[25]
> Other famous people who succumbed to the cholera disease include:
> 
> James K. Polk, ex-President of the United States
> Mary Abigail Fillmore, daughter of ex-U.S. president Millard Fillmore
> Elliott Frost, son of American poet Robert Frost
> Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, French physicist responsible for such concepts as Carnot efficiency, Carnot theorem, Carnot heat engine, and others
> Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, considered one of the representatives of German idealism
> Samuel Charles Stowe, son of Harriet Beecher Stowe
> Carl von Clausewitz, Prussian soldier famous for his military treatise, _Vom Kriege_
> George Bradshaw, originator of the railway timetable
> Adam Mickiewicz, Polish poet and writer
> August von Gneisenau, Prussian field marshal
> William Jenkins Worth, U.S. general during the Mexican-American War
> John Blake Dillon, one of the founding members of the Young Ireland movement
> Daniel Morgan Boone, founder of Kansas City, Missouri and son of Daniel Boone
> James Clarence Mangan, Irish poet
> Mohammad Ali Mirza, Dowlatshahi of Persia
> Ando Hiroshige, Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock print artist
> Juan de Veramendi, Mexican Governor of Texas and father-in-law of Jim Bowie
> Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich of Russia
> William Shelley, son of Mary Shelley
> William Godwin, father of Mary Shelley
> Judge Daniel Stanton Bacon, father-in-law of George Armstrong Custer
> Inessa Armand, mistress of Lenin and the mother of his son, Andre
> Honinbo Shusaku, famous Go (East Asian board game) player renowned for his play
> Alexandre Dumas, père, French author of _The Three Musketeers_ and _The Count of Monte Cristo,_ also contracted cholera in the 1832 Paris epidemic and almost died, before he wrote these two novels.


 


Cholera is another good reason to have governments.


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## Douger

Skull Pilot said:


> One more reason not to visit third world countries.


Amen !


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## Douger

CDC - Salmonella Heidelberg Infections Linked to Ground Turkey


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## Douger

Scary !
Study: 1 in 4 adults in NYC have herpes virus


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## waltky

Source of cholera pandemic found...

*Cholera pandemic has a single global source*
_25 August 2011 How cholera has spread from the Bay of Bengal_


> A major cholera pandemic has spread in at least three waves from a single global source: the Bay of Bengal.  A study in Nature reveals cholera's spread over the last 60 years into Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas, continent-hopping on long-haul flights.  The research by a team from Cambridge's Sanger Institute showed the infection is evolving, with the newest waves showing antibiotic resistance.
> 
> A UK expert said it was "a scandal" cholera was still affecting people.  Cholera is a bacterial infection of the intestine that causes diarrhoea. It affects 3-5m people annually in 56 countries, killing between100,000 and 150,000.  If untreated, it can kill within hours through dehydration. It is easily treated by drinking clean water, but without this, severe cases have a 30-50% mortality rate.
> 
> 'Only explanation'
> 
> In this study, the researchers sequenced the genome of 154 samples collected from patients around the world. Genome sequencing technologies have been getting better, faster and cheaper. Until recently, sequencing would be carried out on just four or five bacteria samples.  Similarities between cholera genomes showed how the various strains are related, while subtle differences showed how it is evolving.  By investigating these bacteria at the genetic level, the authors were able to piece together the story of the latest, and ongoing, global cholera pandemic.  "We were surprised to see that the pattern we see is very clear. All of the samples were related. There is a single global source of cholera in the Bay of Bengal," said co-author Dr Nick Thomson of the Sanger Institute.
> 
> It is not yet clear why the Bay of Bengal is at the centre of the pandemic, though cholera bacteria exist naturally within some marine ecosystems.  The local ecology, climate, and the presence of large river deltas are likely to be key factors in its presence there.  The results show several cases of cholera suddenly jumping between continents, suggesting that it was spread by passengers on long-haul flights.  "I think that's the only possible explanation. Our data show that this has happened, for example from Angola to South America.  "Many people can have cholera with no symptoms, so they transmit it without realising," added Dr Thomson.
> 
> *'One fell swoop'*


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## whitehall

Cholera isn't a "tropical" disease. There is a deep sea fishing area area off the coast of NY still called the "cholera banks" after the epidemic in the early 1900's where (depending on the story) bodies were dumped or people lived on boats to escape the disease.


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## waltky

Preventing ebola...

*Critical Protein Discovery Could Help Prevent Lethal Ebola Virus*
_August 25, 2011 - An international team of scientists has discovered a biochemical route used by the deadly Ebola virus to infect human cells._


> Scientists say the discovery points the way to new drugs that could prevent or treat one of the worlds most lethal viral diseases.  The Ebola hemorrhagic virus, which got its name from the central African river near where the disease first emerged in 1976, kills an estimated 90 percent of the people and non-human primates it infects.
> 
> The disease causes very high fever, both internal and external bleeding, and has led to thousands of deaths in many sub-Saharan African countries, including Gabon, Sudan, the Ivory Coast and Uganda, since the first reported outbreak 35 years ago.  Although considered a rare disease, Ebola causes panic whenever there is an outbreak, in part because little is known about where the illness comes from or how it spreads.
> 
> Experts believe infected bats may be one source of these sporadic occurrences of Ebola, and the disease is then spread from person to person through tainted body fluids or blood.  To better understand the biology of Ebola, a team of researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, the Whitehead Institute at MIT and the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases studied how the virus actually infects cells.
> 
> Kartik Chandran, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Albert Einstein, is a senior author of the study.  The critical step that we were studying is what we call viral entry," Chandran explained.  "And its basically the step that results in the virus getting into the cytoplasm where the [genetic] goodies are for making copies of itself.  Researchers looked at normal cell proteins that the Ebola virus might be hijacking, in effect, to get inside and infect mammalian cells.  Investigators focused on one protein in particular - called Neimann-Pick C1  or NPC1.
> 
> MORE


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## waltky

Vaccination leaves fewer people to pass around the infection...

*Rotavirus Immunization Protects People Who Don't Get Vaccine*
_September 07, 2011 - Protection of the rotavirus vaccine seems to extend beyond the children who receive it._


> Rotavirus causes severe diarrhea that kills more than a half-million people each year, mostly very young children. A recently-introduced vaccine has proved to be very effective and has shown some unexpected benefits, extending protection beyond the children who received the vaccinations.  Rotavirus fatalities are rare in the United States, but the disease does send tens of thousands of children to the hospital each year.  Nationwide vaccinations began in the U.S. in 2006, and now researchers are evaluating the results.
> 
> They already know that the vaccine is effective, with diarrhea-related hospitalizations down 50 percent just two years after the immunization program started. But researcher Ben A. Lopman, with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says the protection went far beyond the children who actually got vaccinated.  "The vaccine program also was providing indirect protection against hospitalizations in older children, and adults and in the elderly. [There] were fewer hospitalizations in 2008 - over 10,000 fewer hospitalizations in these older age groups - than in previous years."  This indirect protection - sometimes called herd immunity - occurs when there are fewer people to pass around an infection, as Lopman explains.  "The idea here is that by vaccinating young children, you stop them from transmitting infection to their older siblings, their parents, their grandparents, etc., because those children themselves are not becoming infected because they've been vaccinated."
> 
> There's another surprise here - that older children and adults were getting rotavirus infections in significant numbers. While the vaccine is only recommended for young children, Lopman says his study suggests that doctors should be aware that patients with rotavirus symptoms may be infected, regardless of age.    Although this study was done in the United States, rotavirus is a much more serious problem in low- and middle-income countries, and the vaccine hasnt been as effective in those areas. So Lopman says he can't say if his findings would apply there.  "The kinetics of rotavirus transmission are very different in low-income settings, where there seems to be just much more rotavirus around. So it's not clear at this stage whether these indirect benefits would be afforded in low-income settings or not."
> 
> In a commentary published with the research paper, a senior official of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, Roger I. Glass, director of the NIH Fogarty International Center, says more research is needed to measure the effectiveness of a rotavirus vaccination program conducted where the disease is a much more serious threat. But the official writes that Lopman's study suggests the indirect protection benefit should be considered in assessing the value of a vaccination program.  The research study by Ben A. Lopman and colleagues is published online by the Journal of Infectious Diseases.
> 
> Source


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## Xchel

Douger said:


> I missed out on the Cholera party. I had Dengue several years ago.
> A hiking partner got yellow fever in Venezuela. Didn't take the vaccine.



which of the two dengue fevers did you have? I have had classic dengue fever a couple of times...it sucks big time and you hurt like hell for days feels almost like your bones are going to snap in two...and yeah it comes from skeeters and it is a certain type of skeeter that lives in tropics.  The other type is fatal quite often which is why I asked which one you had.


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## asedeL

O.k better be careful than be sorry.


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## waltky

Granny says, "Dat's right - gonna be a plague like it says inna Bible, an' den we all gonna die...

*Uh-oh: Scientists say film 'Contagion' is for real*
_Thu Sep 15,`11  Yes, it could happen. But it's a stretch._


> "Contagion," a Hollywood thriller that opened last weekend, rocketed to No. 1 at the box office through its gripping tale of a fictional global epidemic driven by a new kind of virus. Audiences have gasped in horror at what happens to Gwyneth Paltrow.  Before it was out, the movie made real-life disease investigators anxious, too, though for a different reason: They had worried the filmmakers would take so many artistic liberties with the science that the result would be an incredible movie that was ... not credible.
> 
> Well, cue the applause.  "It's very plausible," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which would investigate such an outbreak.  A new virus jumping from animals to humans? Nothing fictional about that. Global spread of a disease in a few days? In this age of jet travel, absolutely. A societal meltdown if things get bad? Plan on it.  Yikes. The only bit of relief here is that several experts think the odds are pretty long that a new virus could be both so deadly and contagious at the same time.
> 
> The team behind the film used several expert consultants and went to other lengths to get scientific details correct. That included working with esteemed Columbia University epidemiologist Dr. W. Ian Lipkin to create the fictional MEV-1 virus. It's modeled on the Nipah virus  a dangerous bug first seen in Malaysia a dozen years ago that spread from pigs to farmers. Efforts also involved actress Kate Winslet sitting down with a female CDC disease investigator so she could correctly copy such things as the investigators clothes, mannerisms and even how the scientist might wear her hair on a field assignment.
> 
> Overall health officials say they were very pleased with what resulted. During an advance screening for CDC employees in Atlanta last week, some in the audience laughed appreciatively to see visual details and even lingo that they never imagined would be used in a mass-market motion picture.  "It was very accurate. It kind of made us all chuckle because there were things that we thought only people at CDC might get," said Laura Gieraltowski, an expert in foodborne illnesses.  Indeed, CDC officials have embraced the film. The agency allowed the movie's makers to film at their main campus  the first time the agency has allowed a major motion picture studio such access. And CDC officials have opened up their schedules for media interviews, panel appearances and live Internet chats to talk about the movie and potential real-life contagions.
> 
> MORE


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## waltky

There is no cure or vaccine for guinea worm...

*Fresh push to rid the world of guinea worm by 2015*
_5 October 2011 - The UK government is backing a new campaign to try to rid the world of guinea worm by 2015._


> There were almost 2,000 cases of the debilitating parasitic disease in Africa last year.  The push to eradicate guinea worm has been led by The Carter Center - set up by the former US president, Jimmy Carter - since 1986.  The Department for International Development (DfID) is ready to donate £20m to the drive.
> 
> It's thought this will fill about a third of the funding gap. Ministers are now calling for other donors to make significant contributions.  Although it doesn't usually kill, guinea worm causes agonising pain and leaves some sufferers bed-ridden after they contract it by drinking contaminated water.  Months after drinking the water, a metre-long spaghetti-like worm emerges from the patient's body through a blister in the skin.
> 
> Perpetual cycle
> 
> The worm ejects many thousands of larvae if it comes into contact with water - perpetuating a cycle of disease.  There is no cure or vaccine, so the UK aid money will be used by the Carter Center to help train people in tracking outbreaks and using cloths to filter drinking water.  Last year, there were 1,797 cases of guinea worm in South Sudan, Ethiopia, Mali and Chad.  Nigeria, Niger and Ghana have succeeded in recent efforts to wipe out the disease.  When the Carter Center began its work on guinea worm 25 years ago, there were about 3.5m cases in 21 countries in Africa and Asia.
> 
> Mr Carter said: "Guinea worm has horrendous consequences for sufferers in terms of their immediate health, and their education and employment.  "It prevents people from escaping poverty.  "I welcome the challenge laid down by the British government. I call on other donors to match their efforts."  If the campaign succeeds, it will be the first time a disease has been wiped out through education - rather than the use of a vaccine or medicine.  The international development minister, Stephen O'Brien, said: "President Carter's commitment has brought guinea worm to the brink of eradication.  "It has never been a question of if we can rid the world of this ancient disease - but when."
> 
> BBC News - Fresh push to rid the world of guinea worm by 2015


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## waltky

New drug protocol for sand fly borne tropical disease...

*Cheaper, Safer Pill Targets Tropical Parasite*
_October 28, 2011 - New version of leishmaniasis drug overcomes drawbacks_


> Scientists have developed a new version of a drug used to treat leishmaniasis. The new formulation may help better battle this tropical parasitic disease.  Leishmaniasis is transmitted by the bite of certain sand flies.  The World Health Organization says as many as 12 million people are infected with the leishmaniasis parasite.  Cutaneous leishmaniasis, which affects the skin and mucus membranes, is the most common form.
> 
> But the more serious form, called visceral leishmaniasis, attacks the immune system. Without proper treatment, it's often fatal. One of the drugs used against leishmaniasisis is amphotericin B.  Amphotericin is effective, but it has from numerous drawbacks. It's expensive, it has to be given as an injection, it's highly toxic to the kidneys, and it loses effectiveness if exposed to high temperatures.  University of British Columbia researcher Kishor Wasan has been testing an improved version he developed.
> 
> He says his new formulation addresses all these shortcomings: it's much cheaper, for one, and it can be taken by mouth.    "It's tropically stable,"  Wasan says. "We've been able to develop a formulation that does not need refrigeration, and that's a huge factor in the developing world. And finally, we're looking at a formulation that is very effective, but does not have that kidney toxicity."  To test the effectiveness of his new version of amphotericin B, Wasan sent samples to a laboratory at another university, where it was used to treat mice infected with visceral leishmaniasis.  "And the results were just remarkable," he says. "We found greater than 99 percent reduction in the parasitic load in less than five days, and remarkably, in 60 percent of the animals, we completely eradicated the infection."  After the positive animal-test results, Wasan is now seeking funding to begin human trials.
> 
> The new formulation for amphotericin B may be useful against other conditions, too. The drug is also used to treat fungal infections in people with compromised immune systems, such as HIV patients and organ transplant recipients.  "The impetus originally to do the work was actually in the fungal infections,"  Wasan says. "Physicians wanted a cheaper, more accessible form of amphotericin B than the injectable. So the oral formulation was going to help in those situations as well. So, yeah, there actually are multiple uses for this formulation."
> 
> Source



See also:

*Rotavirus Kills 500,000 Children Annually Despite Vaccine*
_October 28, 2011 - Fatal outcomes more likely in developing countries_


> Vaccines against rotavirus, a leading cause of diarrhea-related deaths among young children, first became available in 2006. However, a new study indicates vaccination has been slow to blunt the spread of the infection.  The study combines findings from numerous other studies as well as data collected in a World Health Organization-coordinated program, the Global Rotavirus Surveillance Network.
> 
> Study co-author Umesh Parashar, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says rotavirus infection is common throughout the world.  But he points out that children in richer countries usually get proper treatment if they get sick.  "In contrast, in developing countries, you get a lot more fatal outcomes," he says. "And this latest analysis that we have just completed, indicates there are about 453,000 deaths from rotavirus diarrhea globally."
> 
> Of the nearly half-million rotavirus deaths each year among children younger than age five, India alone accounted for almost 100,000. Add in Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and those five nations account for more than half the rotavirus deaths worldwide.  Researchers wanted to establish a baseline of rotavirus-related deaths prior to the introduction of vaccines, which were licensed in 2006 but were just starting to be used in the timeframe covered by the study. Vaccinated populations were not included in this study.
> 
> Parashar says the vaccines were initially limited to more developed countries, because more testing was needed before they could be used in resource-poor settings.  "In 2009, we actually had data available from these clinical trials in Africa and Asia, and then the World Health Organization expanded to a global recommendation for rotavirus vaccines. So the vaccines are just about to be rolled out over the next two years."
> 
> The authors of this new paper say that as the vaccine is rolled out in the developing countries, rotavirus-related deaths should be substantially reduced.  "And so it really highlights the need to introduce these vaccines so we can really reap the full reward of vaccination in reducing diarrheal mortality."  Umesh Parashar and colleagues published the results of their study online in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
> 
> Source


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## waltky

Vaccine for Ebola virus...

*Vaccine developed against Ebola*
_6 December 2011 - Around 1,200 people have died of Ebola virus infection since 1976_


> Scientists have developed a vaccine that protects mice against a deadly form of the Ebola virus.  First identified in 1976, Ebola fever kills more than 90% of the people it infects.  The researchers say that this is the first Ebola vaccine to remain viable long-term and can therefore be successfully stockpiled.  The results are reported in the journal Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences.
> 
> Ebola is transmitted via bodily fluids, and can become airborn. Sufferers experience nausea, vomiting, internal bleeding and organ failure before they die.  Although few people contract Ebola each year, its effects are so swift and devastating that it is often feared that it could be used against humans in an act of terroism.  All previously developed vaccines have relied on injecting intact, but crippled, viral particles into the body.  Long-term storage tends to damage the virus, paralysing the vaccine's effectiveness.
> 
> The new vaccine contains a synthetic viral protein, which prompts the immune system to better recognise the Ebola virus, and is much more stable when stored long-term.  The vaccine protects 80% of the mice injected with the deadly strain, and survives being "dried down and frozen," said biotechnologist Charles Arntzen from Arizona State University who was involved in its development.  He said the next step is to try the vaccine on a strain of Ebola that is closer to the one that infects humans.
> 
> BBC News - Vaccine developed against Ebola


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## waltky

Using drugs to block bacteria from entering human cells...

*New Strategy Being Developed in the War on Infectious Diseases*
_January 11, 2012 - Many of the drugs we use to fight infections lose their effectiveness as the targeted pathogens acquire resistance to them.  So researchers have begun adopting a new strategy. Instead of using drugs to kill the offending pathogens, they're trying to design drugs that can block their entry into human cells before they can cause disease._


> Sooner or later, says Abhay Satoskar, a professor of pathology at Ohio State University, drug resistance becomes a problem in the battle against disease-causing organisms or pathogens. Any time you have an agent that targets a pathogen, the pathogens are smart and eventually come up with a strategy to make that drug or agent ineffective, said Satoskar.  Most bacteria, viruses and parasites must enter human immune system cells to reproduce and cause illness.  Satoskar is leading an effort at Ohio State to develop a compound that blocks a pathogens entry into the cells.
> 
> The experimental drug targets a natural cell enzyme, called P13K, that allows pathogens to pass through the cell wall.  The compound changes the chemical activity of P13K, blocking entry into cells.  The team demonstrated the effectiveness of the cell-blocking strategy with the parasite that causes leishmaniasis, a tropical illness caused by a parasite transmitted in the bite of a sand fly.  Also known as leishmania, an estimated 1.5 million new cases are diagnosed each year.  The disease causes disfiguring open sores on the skin. Not only is the illness indigenous in many parts of the world, but experts say it is now turning up in U.S. troops returning home from Afghanistan.
> 
> There is a drug to treat leishmania, says Satoskar, thats up to 90 percent effective in curing the disease.  But Satoskar says the medication has a lot of side effects, including anemia, weight loss and neurological problems, and many people dont complete the 21-day course of injections.  Using laboratory mice, Satoskar says researchers compared the effectiveness of the existing drug to the targeted,  therapy his team is developing.  Satoskar says the new agent worked just as well in treating leishmania, and the cell-blocking strategy could potentially work against other disease-causing organisms or pathogens.
> 
> Now the issue is how to do you fine-tune it?  And that could be fine tune(d) based on different pathogens, because different pathogens could use different pathways to get in, Satoskar said.  Satoskar also is interested in learning whether the experimental compound could be used as a skin spray to prevent infection with leishmania when someone is bitten by a sand fly.  An article on preventing leishmania by blocking parasites from mice immune cells is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
> 
> Source


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## editec

The USA has seen plenty of Cholera epidemics.  

It is not a tropical disease.


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## waltky

Granny says, "Dat's right, it's dat end-times plague inna Revelation inna Bible - we all gonna die...

*Scientists: UN Soldiers Brought Deadly Superbug to Americas*
_Thu, Jan 12, 2012 - Compelling new scientific evidence suggests United Nations peacekeepers have carried a virulent strain of cholera -- a super bug -- into the Western Hemisphere for the first time._


> The vicious form of cholera has already killed 7,000 people in Haiti, where it surfaced in a remote village in October 2010. Leading researchers from Harvard Medical School and elsewhere told ABC News that, despite UN denials, there is now a mountain of evidence suggesting the strain originated in Nepal, and was carried to Haiti by Nepalese soldiers who came to Haiti to serve as UN peacekeepers after the earthquake that ravaged the country on Jan. 12, 2010 -- two years ago today. Haiti had never seen a case of cholera until the arrival of the peacekeepers, who allegedly failed to maintain sanitary conditions at their base.  "What scares me is that the strain from South Asia has been recognized as more virulent, more capable of causing severe disease, and more transmissible," said John Mekalanos, who chairs the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Harvard Medical School.
> 
> "These strains are nasty. So far there has been no secondary outbreak. But Haiti now represents a foothold for a particularly dangerous variety of this deadly disease."  More than 500,000 Haitians have been infected, and Mekalanos said a handful of victims who contracted cholera in Haiti have now turned up in Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, and in Boston, Miami and New York, but only in isolated cases.  How cholera landed in Haiti has been a politically charged topic for more than a year now, with the United Nations repeatedly refusing to acknowledge any role in the outbreak despite mounting evidence that international peacekeepers were the most likely culprits. The UN has already faced hostility from Haitians who believe peacekeeping troops have abused local residents without consequence. They now face legal action from relatives of victims who have petitioned the UN for restitution. And the cholera charge could further hamper the UN's ability to work effectively there, two years after the country was hobbled by the earthquake.
> 
> Over the summer, Assistant Secretary General Anthony Banbury told ABC News that the UN sincerely wanted to know if it played a part in the outbreak, but independent efforts to answer that question had not succeeded. He said the disease could have just as easily been carried by a backpacker or civilian aid worker.  Banbury said the UN, through both its peacekeeping mission and its civilian organizations "are working very hard ... to combat the spread of the disease and bring assistance to the people. And that's what's important now."  "The scientists say it can't be determined for certainty where it came from," Banbury said. "So we don't know if it was the U.N. troops or not. That's the bottom line."  A UN spokeswoman repeated the answer when asked again last week: "The [scientists] determined it was not possible to be conclusive about how cholera was introduced into Haiti," said the UN's Anayansi Lopez.
> 
> *Scientists Trace Cholera Superbug to UN Peacekeepers*


----------



## waltky

Granny says dat what Uncle Ferd got - anytime there's work to be done Ferd gets sleepy an' takes a nap...

*Scientists Develop Tool to Unmask Sleeping Sickness Resistance*
_January 26, 2012 - A special genetic screening technique is shedding new light on why drug treatment often is ineffective against a dreaded tropical disease called sleeping sickness. The work could lead to the development of new and better drugs to control this often fatal illness._


> African sleeping sickness is caused by a parasite called Trypanosoma brucei that is transmitted by the bite of a tsetse fly.  Left untreated, the disease attacks the central nervous system and is often fatal.   Sleeping sickness, or trypanosomiasis, is endemic throughout sub-Saharan Africa.  It killed an estimated 48,000 people in 2008.  Experts say trypanosomiasis cases are largely underreported, so the death rate could be higher.  There are five drugs used to treat African sleeping sickness, but little is know about how and why they are effective, or how the parasite has managed to develop resistance to the drugs.
> 
> An older drug, called melarsoprol, is a highly toxic arsenic-based compound that can cause symptoms of arsenic poisoning - convulsions, fever, loss of consciousness, nausea and vomiting.  But because sleeping sickness can be a lethal illness and because some of the other drugs are so expensive and difficult to administer, melarsoprol continues to be used to treat trypanosomiasis patients.  David Horn is a molecular biologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who led the effort to find the source of the parasite's resistance to existing treatments.
> 
> By understanding resistance, we can actually maybe develop tests for resistant parasites and that can guide the intervention strategies that are used in a particular patient, Horn said.  The single-celled trypanosome contains 7,000 genes.  Researchers used a special technique that switched off each gene individually.  That enabled them to find 50 genes that produce proteins associated with the parasite's drug resistance.
> 
> Horn says the researchers immediate goal was to understand how the protozoan developed that resistance.  In time, Horn says, the research could lead to the development of new drugs using the same mechanisms or pathways that render existing African sleeping sickness drugs ineffective.  If we understand how the current drugs work, we may be able to exploit that information to make new drugs that exploit similar pathways, Horn said.  An article on drug resistance in the treatment of African sleeping sickness is published in the journal Nature.
> 
> Source


----------



## waltky

Typhoid outbreak in Zimbabwe...

*Zimbabwe doctors report 800 typhoid cases*
_Sun Jan 29,`12  An independent doctors' group in Zimbabwe is reporting 800 cases of the bacterial disease typhoid in a recent outbreak._


> No deaths have been reported in the past three weeks. The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights said Sunday that the nation's troubled coalition government lacked urgency in dealing with public health woes.
> 
> In a statement, the group said that amid heavy rains clean water supplies were still irregular or "completely absent" in most impoverished townships in Harare. It said burst sewers were left unattended and meat and fish were sold on streets nearby.
> 
> A cholera outbreak in 2009 blamed on the collapse of water, sanitation and prevention services in Zimbabwe killed more than 4,000 people.
> 
> Zimbabwe doctors report 800 typhoid cases - Yahoo! News



See also:

*World-travelling superbugs worry scientists*
_Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012 - Superbugs in Antarctica_


> The discovery of bacteria that are massively resistant to antibiotics wont make the front page these days  but when it happens in Antarctica, it is time to sit up and take notice, says an editorial in the New Scientist. The superbugs arent infecting penguins  yet  or even troubling the researchers who carried them there in their intestines and unwittingly deposited them in the sea via their sewage outfalls. But the discovery is further evidence that antibiotic resistance is no longer just a medical problem  it is an environmental one, too. And that makes fighting it much harder.
> 
> MORE


----------



## waltky

Push to eradicate tropical diseases...

*A Call to Wipe Out Neglected Tropical Diseases*
_January 31, 2012 - A global initiative to control or eradicate 10 neglected tropical diseases within the decade was officially launched this week in London.  Experts say the initiative is the largest coordinated effort ever undertaken to combat diseases - including sleeping sickness and guinea worm - that affect more than a billion people around the world. Tropical disease experts shared their thoughts with VOA about what impact the initiative is likely to have._


> In an unprecedented show of unity, leaders of government, public and private health groups and major drug companies have pledged to work closely to combat neglected tropical diseases, or NTDs. These debilitating infections affect 1.4 billion people in the worlds poorest countries. The so-called London Declaration calls for the eradication and elimination of 10 of these tropical illnesses by the year 2020.  The World Health Organization says NTDs cost billions of dollars in lost productivity. But the maladies have been largely overlooked by medical researchers because they affect relatively small and mostly poor populations.
> 
> Dr. Margaret Chan, WHO Director General, called the initiative a roadmap for an ambitious but achievable journey.  Just think of the prospect of freeing millions of people - most of them are children and women - so that they could have a healthy and productive life. On that we need your support. Come with us. This is going to be a long journey but we have [taken] a very good first step, said Chan.  With funds from various partners totaling $785 million, the project aims to eliminate many ancient scourges - such as leprosy, sleeping sickness, lymphatic filariasis, blinding trachoma, and guinea worm.
> 
> Microsoft chairman and philanthropist Bill Gates pledged $363 million through his namesake foundation. He called the London Declaration 'a milestone event.'  We have very ambitious goals that we have set. For example, for guinea worm we have got that 2015 eradication so we have a nice little competition going on between polio and guinea worm to see which would get to be the second disease eradicated and which will get to be the third disease eradicated, and the sooner the better for both of those, said Gates.  To speed the search for new drugs to fight the diseases, 13 drug companies have for the first time agreed to share their libraries of experimental compounds. And they also have agreed to donate and deliver billions of doses of drugs every year to aid the poorest of the poor, in the most remote corners of the world.
> 
> Dr. Mwele Malacela is director-general of Tanzanias National Institute of Medical Research in Dar es Salaam.  She said people in her country have been suffering because drug delivery always has been a challenge, but the London pledges give her hope.  Even when we have the donations, funding the delivery of the drugs has been a major problem. Now that we hear that there is more funding in the delivery side, we feel that we will be in a better position, said Malacela.
> 
> There have been many initiatives against NTDs, although on a small scale. Dr. Neeraj Mistry, Managing Director of Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases, said they were not very effective because access to drugs was limited.  It's only now that with raised awareness and increased commitments from drug companies, as well as foundations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the US and UK government, that we can actually take the response to NTDs to scale - which means that we can treat more communities and more people, said Mistry.  Experts hope that by decade's end, the focus this initiative brings to neglected tropical diseases will mean they will no longer have to be called neglected.
> 
> Source


----------



## Zumardkeet

Hi
Cholera and other tropical diseases,develops in the body due to use of  conteminent food during our daily routine diet.


----------



## waltky

Sounds like an environmental toxin such as pest control chemicals to me...

*Mystery disease attacks kidneys*
_Mon, Feb 13, 2012 - Jesus Ignacio Flores started working when he was 16, laboring long hours on construction sites and in the fields of his countrys biggest sugar plantation._


> Three years ago, his kidneys started to fail and flooded his body with toxins. He became too weak to work, wracked by cramps, headaches and vomiting.  On Jan. 19, he died on the porch of his house. He was 51. His withered body was dressed by his weeping wife, embraced a final time, then carried in the bed of a pickup truck to a grave on the edge of Chichigalpa, a town in Nicaraguas sugar-growing heartland, where studies have found more than one in four men showing symptoms of chronic kidney disease.
> 
> A mysterious epidemic is devastating the Pacific coast of Central America, killing more than 24,000 people in El Salvador and Nicaragua since 2000 and striking thousands of others with chronic kidney disease at rates unseen virtually anywhere else. Scientists say they have received reports of the phenomenon as far north as southern Mexico and as far south as Panama.  Last year it reached the point where Salvadoran Minister of Health Maria Isabel Rodriguez appealed for international help, saying the epidemic was undermining health systems.
> 
> Wilfredo Ordonez, who has harvested corn, sesame and rice for more than 30 years in the Bajo Lempa region of El Salvador, was hit by the chronic disease when he was 38. Ten years later, he depends on dialysis treatments he administers to himself four times a day.  This is a disease that comes with no warning, and when they find it, its too late, Ordonez said as he lay on a hammock on his porch.
> 
> Many of the victims were manual laborers or worked in sugar cane fields that cover much of the coastal lowlands. Patients, local doctors and activists say they believe the culprit lurks among the agricultural chemicals workers have used for years with virtually none of the protections required in more developed countries. -However, a growing body of evidence supports a more complicated and counterintuitive hypothesis.
> 
> The roots of the epidemic, scientists say, appear to lie in the grueling nature of the work performed by its victims, including construction workers, miners and others who labor hour after hour without enough water in blazing temperatures, pushing their bodies through repeated bouts of extreme dehydration and heat stress for years on end. Many start as young as 10. The punishing routine appears to be a key part of some previously unknown trigger of chronic kidney disease, which is normally caused by diabetes and high-blood pressure, maladies absent in most of the patients in Central America.
> 
> Mystery disease attacks kidneys - Taipei Times


----------



## alicewatson

Cholera has killed several people well known in its long history. Some were positively affected by the disease while others have only been speculated to have disappeared due to cholera. For example, crying and pathos in the last movement of the last symphony of Tchaikovsky that people think.


----------



## waltky

Usin' bacteria to kill sleeping sickness parasite...

*Bacteria used to fight sleeping sickness*
_14 February 2012 - The sleeping sickness parasite gets into the bloodstream_


> Scientists believe they have found a way to beat sleeping sickness using a bacterium against the tsetse fly host that spreads the disease to humans.  In the same way that we have friendly bacteria in our intestines, the tsetse fly harbours bacteria in its midgut, muscle and salivary glands.  Experts in Belgium have genetically modified these "good bugs" so they attack the culprit parasite carried by the fly.  But work is needed to hone the process.  The latest findings are published in the open access journal Microbial Cell Factories.
> 
> The disease
> 
> Sleeping sickness, or human African trypanosomiasis, is a potentially fatal disease that plagues many regions of Africa.  Although the number of people being infected with the disease has been going down thanks to better diagnosis and treatment, there were still more than 7,000 new cases recorded in 2010.  The parasite causing sleeping sickness is transmitted to humans through the bite of the infected tsetse fly.  This causes fever, headaches, aching joints and itching. Then follows the second stage of disease as the parasites cross the blood-brain barrier to infect the central nervous system.  The person then becomes confused, poorly co-ordinated and experiences the sleep disturbances which give the disease its name.  Without treatment, sleeping sickness is fatal.  But current therapies often have unpleasant side-effects.
> 
> Alternatives
> 
> The drug most commonly used to treat the condition is a derivative of arsenic developed more than 50 years ago. And the treatment can be excruciatingly painful and potentially fatal. Often described by patients as "fire in the veins," between 5% and 20% of those treated die of complications from the injected drug.  And so scientists are seeking alternatives.  The Belgium team at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp have focused on finding a way to destroy the sleeping sickness parasite - trypanosome - that the tsetse fly carries.
> 
> They found bacteria called Sodalis glossinidius, which naturally live in the fly and can be used to mount an attack from the inside.  Altering the genes of the bacteria led it to release fragments of antibodies known as nanobodies against the parasite.  With more work, the researchers hope to be able to produce targeted nanobodies which could kill or block the development of trypanosome.  Dr David Horn of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said: "This is a neat and promising concept. The goal now will be to develop a deliverable toxin, not necessarily a nanobody, which exhibits anti-trypanosomal activity in the fly."
> 
> BBC News - Bacteria used to fight sleeping sickness


----------



## waltky

Political instability leads to rise in tropical diseases...

*Rise in Tropical Diseases Blamed on Turmoil in Mideast, N. Africa*
_March 01, 2012 - Years of conflict and political struggle have caused massive human and animal migrations in the Middle East and North Africa. Now a new study blames these upheavals for the spread or re-emergence of a variety of tropical diseases - some previously eliminated or controlled - affecting an estimated 65 million people._


> A family of illnesses called Neglected Tropical Diseases [NTDs] adds to the troubles in the Middle East and North Africa. These diseases traditionally affect poor countries, but the new study says NTDs also are prevalent in many middle-income countries, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Yemen.  Cutaneous leishmanaisis, Dengue, Rift Valley fever, Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever, said Dr. Peter Hotez of the National School of Tropical Medicine, listing some of the diseases.
> 
> Hotez, lead researcher of the study, said he and his colleagues found a huge hidden burden of tropical diseases in the region.  Neglected Tropical Diseases disproportionately affect Egypt and Yemen. So these two countries have some of the greatest number of cases of intestinal worm infections, elephantiasis, and schistosomiasis, as well as diseases such as fascioliasis. I would like to call them the most important diseases that you have never heard of, said Hotez.
> 
> Researchers also were surprised by the reemergence and prevalence of infections like cutaneous leishmaniasis, caused by a sandfly, and infections transmitted from animals to humans, such as brucellosis - a bacterial infection originating in cattle and sheep.  They say diseases of the poor are not a priority in conflict-ridden nations where community and public health systems often have broken down.  Hotez said the immediate strategy for controlling the rising infection rate is to step up mass drug administration efforts, especially for schistosomiasis, intestinal helminthes infections, and leprosy.
> 
> Dr. Julie Jacobson is senior program officer at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a  leading advocate of a global campaign to eliminate NTDs. She said the research points to a public health problem seen in many conflict-ridden countries, and it underscores the need for vigilance.  People see most health problems as being too onerous, too difficult and unsolvable - and here we have some very solvable problems with not a huge price tag," said Jacobson. "It is very cost effective. Fifty cents per person, per year, on average will take care of seven of these diseases, and a lot of drugs are donated for the program outside of that.  The elimination of NTDs also will require the development of new drugs, and new vaccines. Hotez said he is hopeful funds will be found to support more research in this area, especially on drugs to treat some of the deadliest and most prevalent of the tropical diseases, such as dengue fever and leishmanaisis.
> 
> Source


----------



## waltky

Rotavirus vaccine passes muster...

*Rotavirus Vaccine Is Safe, Study Finds*
_March 02, 2012 - Nearly every child in the world gets infected with rotavirus by age three, and the diarrhea it causes can result in severe dehydration and death._


> Rotavirus is the most common cause of severe diarrhea in babies worldwide. The pathogen kills more than 500,000 children each year, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. A vaccine against rotavirus was in wide use until it was pulled from the market a few years ago because of safety concerns. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association examines the safety and effectiveness of another rotavirus vaccine now being used.  Nearly every child in the world gets infected with rotavirus by age three. The diarrhea it causes can result in severe dehydration and death.  More than 85 percent of the deaths from this virus occur in Asian and African countries. As many as 2 million children are hospitalized each year because of rotavirus infections.
> 
> The younger a child is, the more life-threatening the infection can be, which is why an oral vaccine is given to babies.  Babies normally get two or three doses starting when they are two months old. Several years ago, a rotavirus vaccine was taken off the market because it increased a baby's risk of developing a rare, but potentially deadly, intestinal blockage.  Other vaccines have since taken its place. But a manufacturer's study of one of them, the RotaTeq vaccine, suggested it, too, might cause intestinal blockage after the first dose. Epidemiologist Irene Shui, at the Harvard School Of Public Health, decided to investigate.  Because the rotavirus vaccine is given to almost every child in the United States, its crucial to monitor the vaccines safety, said Shui.
> 
> Shui and other researchers examined the records of almost 800,000 babies who received this vaccine, including 300,000 first doses. They were looking for incidents of intussusception, the medical term for this kind of blockage.  We did not find an elevated risk of intussusception following any dose of the vaccine, and especially following the first dose, she said.
> 
> Shui said even though the intestinal blockage is rare, it is important to continue to monitor these vaccines with additional studies like hers.  And she noted that the World Health Organization recommends the vaccine be included in all infant immunization programs.  The benefits from rotavirus vaccine in terms of reducing the number of hospitalizations and deaths from rotavirus disease far outweigh the potential risk of intussusception that might exist.  In the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control, the vaccines are up to 98 percent effective in preventing severe rotavirus disease in infants and young children.
> 
> Source


----------



## waltky

Cholera epidemic in Haiti...

*Clinton urges officials to stem Haiti cholera outbreak*
_Fri, Mar 09, 2012 - Former US president Bill Clinton said on Wednesday that a UN peacekeeper was responsible for bringing cholera to Haiti, but that he may not have known that he was doing so and efforts need to focus on stemming the outbreak._


> Clinton was asked after a hospital tour if he agreed with a statement by US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice about holding accountable those who brought cholera to Haiti. Studies have suggested that peacekeepers from Nepal likely introduced the disease to Haiti for the first time, months after the January 2010 earthquake.  First of all, the United Nations has spent a great deal of money in Haiti, Clinton told reporters. Secondly, I dont know that the person who introduced cholera in Haiti, the UN peacekeeper or soldier from South Asia, was aware that he was carrying the virus.  It was the proximate cause of cholera. That is, he was carrying the cholera strain. It came from his waste stream into the waterways of Haiti, into the bodies of Haitians, he said.
> 
> However, Clinton added that what really caused the cholera outbreak was the countrys lack of proper sanitation.  Unless we know that he knew or that they knew, the people that sent him, that he was carrying that virus and therefore that he could cause the amount of death and misery and sickness, I think its better to focus on fixing it, Clinton said.  Clinton, the UN Special Envoy to Haiti, made the remarks after he toured a new public teaching hospital in the Central Plateau that was built by the Boston-based Partners in Health.
> 
> Partners in Health co-founder Paul Farmer, a public health expert who serves as Clintons deputy at the UN, hosted Clinton as the two toured the hospital, a fish farm and a smaller hospital.  An international panel appointed by the UN produced a report that blamed the outbreak on a confluence of circumstances that included bad sanitation.  The cholera outbreak prompted a Haitian law firm to file a complaint against the UN last year on behalf of the victims, which is under review by the world bodys legal office.  Cholera has killed more than 7,000 people and sickened more than 526,000 others since 2010.
> 
> Clinton urges officials to stem Haiti cholera outbreak - Taipei Times


----------



## editec

The cholera epidemic in Haiti is fairly easy to unmderstand.

Haiti never recovered from the earthquakes, people are living without shelter in croded conditions without proper santiation.

This outbreak  has absolutely nothing to do with them being in the tropics and everything to do with them living in abject poverty.


----------



## Douger

The island of Hispaniola no different than The Nation Formerly Known as USA ? It contains two entirely different groups of people. Black folk and *******.
Guess which is which down there ?
P.S. If you're a Haitian reading this comment please return the computer to it's rightful owner.


----------



## waltky

Translated: Don't be kissin' no Hispexicans...

*Poverty Source of Tropical Infections in Texas, Gulf of Mexico*
_March 30, 2012 - A new study examines the rising incidence of highly infectious tropical diseases in a number of impoverished communities outside of the tropics, and recommends stepped-up surveillance and treatment of infected groups. The researchers focused on south and southwestern U.S. states and Mexico._


> Debilitating tropical infections
> 
> Chagas is an infectious disease transmitted by the kissing bug. The kissing bug looks a little bit like a cockroach but it has the ability to feed on blood and it lives in the very poor quality dwellings, said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine in Texas.  He says a serious heart infection caused by the chagas trypanosome parasite now affects a million people in the United States and more than six million in Mexico.  But he and his colleagues believe that the disease is often overlooked. It is a disease that could be associated with severe heart disease, often times aneurisms, even electrical disturbances and sudden death. So that if someone dies from what often times physicians or health care providers in Texas might think is a heart attack - its in fact chagas disease, Hotez explained.
> 
> Emerging health problem
> 
> Researchers say they are trying to understand the full extent of many of the debilitating tropical infections in the region. For example, cysticercosis is now one of the major causes of epilepsy in children in Texas and California. The report notes that another tropical disease, dengue fever, is an emerging problem from Texas to Florida.
> 
> It's called bone break fever. It causes severe pain in the joints and bones and rash - its a very severe fever, lasts for seven days and totally lays you out [severely weakens you], said Dr. Dan Stinchcomb, chief executive officer of Inviragen, which is developing a vaccine against the multiple dengue viruses. "In order for a vaccine to be safe and effective, it has to be able to induce a neutralizing antibody response - an antiboyd resp[onsde that will knock out four different viruses simultaneously," he said.
> 
> Researchers recommend developing a new generation of diagnostics and drugs to detect and control tropical diseases in the U.S. Dr. Hotez says there is also an urgent need to educate public health workers, cardiologists, and obstetricians about the growing incidence of these neglected infections.
> 
> Source


----------



## waltky

Malaria superbug...

*Deadly resistant malaria spreads fast*
_Sat, Apr 07, 2012 - INFECTION: Increased use of artemisinin has lowered the death toll from malaria in Africa, but experts are worried that it could return following the resurgence in Asia_


> Deadly malaria that is resistant to drug treatment has spread rapidly from Cambodia to the border between Thailand and Myanmar, raising concerns of an uncontrollable epidemic, scientists said on Thursday.  A pair of studies published in the Lancet and the journal Science showed how the disease is moving fast into new territory and identified a region of the parasites genome that may be responsible for mutating in order to survive.  Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease commonly caused by a parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, that kills up to 1.2 million people a year, according to 2010 estimates by the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, Seattle.
> 
> Malaria that was resistant to treatment with the current standard therapy, artemisinin, was confirmed in Cambodia in 2006 and has since spread 800km westward to the Thailand-Myanmar border, the researchers said.  By studying 3,202 patients along the northwestern border of Thailand near Myanmar from 2001 and 2010 and measuring the time it took them to clear malaria infections from their blood after treatment, scientists were able to show a steady increase in drug resistance.  The number of slow-clearing infections rose from 0.6 percent of cases treated in 2001 to 20 percent in 2010.
> 
> In western Cambodia, 42 percent of malaria cases were resistant between 2007 and 2010, indicating that the Thailand-Myanmar region was swiftly catching up to Cambodias rates.  Genetically determined artemisinin resistance in P. falciparum emerged along the Thailand-Myanmar border at least eight years ago and has since increased substantially, the Lancet study said.  At this rate of increase, resistance will reach rates reported in western Cambodia in two to six years, it said.
> 
> The research in the journal Science focused on what was making these parasites different, and found that a region on chromosome 13 of the parasite was strongly associated with slow clearance of infection.  They sequenced the genomes of 91 P. falciparum parasites from Cambodia and western Thailand and compared them with parasites from Laos, where resistance to the latest artemisinin-based drugs has not yet emerged.  They found seven genes that may be responsible for making the parasite resistant to drugs and which may explain up to 35 percent of the growing resistance in Southeast Asia.
> 
> MORE


----------



## uscitizen

Douger said:


> CDC - Salmonella Heidelberg Infections Linked to Ground Turkey



Well of course they would be disease ridden with no legs to keep them up out of the crap and such.


----------



## Peach

Love in the Time of Cholera: Marquez........................


----------



## waltky

Resistance to the front-line treatments for malaria is increasing...

*Resistance spread 'compromising' fight against malaria*
_5 April 2012 - Scientists have found new evidence that resistance to the front-line treatments for malaria is increasing._


> They have confirmed that resistant strains of the malaria parasite on the border between Thailand and Burma, 500 miles (800km) away from previous sites.  Researchers say that the rise of resistance means the effort to eliminate malaria is "seriously compromised".  The details have been published in The Lancet medical journal.  For many years now the most effective drugs against malaria have been derived from the Chinese plant, Artemisia annua. It is also known as sweet wormwood.  In 2009 researchers found that the most deadly species of malaria parasites, spread by mosquitoes, were becoming more resistant to these drugs in parts of western Cambodia.  This new data confirms that these Plasmodium falciparum parasites that are infecting patients more than 500 miles away on the border between Thailand and Burma are growing steadily more resistant.
> 
> The researchers from the Shoklo Malaria Research Unit measured the time it took the artemisinin drugs to clear parasites from the bloodstreams of more than 3,000 patients. Over the nine years between 2001 and 2010, they found that drugs became less effective and the number of patients showing resistance rose to 20%.   Prof Francois Nosten, who is part of the research team that has carried out the latest work, says the development is very serious.  "It would certainly compromise the idea of eliminating malaria that's for sure and will probably translate into a resurgence of malaria in many places," he said.
> 
> 'Untreatable malaria'
> 
> Another scientist involved with the study is Dr Standwell Nkhoma from the Texas Biomedical Research Institute.  "Spread of drug-resistant malaria parasites within South East Asia and overspill into sub-Saharan Africa, where most malaria deaths occur, would be a public health disaster resulting in millions of deaths."  The scientists cannot tell if the resistance has moved because mosquitoes carrying the resistant parasites have moved to the Burmese border or if it has arisen spontaneously among the population there. Either way the researchers involved say it raises the spectre of untreatable malaria.  "Either the resistance has moved and it will continue to move and will eventually reach Africa. Or if it has emerged, now that artemisinin is the standard therapy worldwide then it means it could emerge anywhere," Prof Nosten told the BBC.  "If we were to lose artemisinin then we don't have any new drugs in the pipeline to replace them. We could be going back 15 years to where cases were very difficult to treat because of the lack of an efficacious drug."
> 
> Artemisinin is rarely used on its own, usually being combined with older drugs to help fight the rise of resistance. These artemisinin based combination therapies are now recommended by the World Health Organization as the first-line treatment and have contributed substantially to the recent decline in malaria cases in many regions.  Prof Nosten says the current spread of resistance could be similar to what happened in the 1970s with chloroquine, a drug that was once a front-line treatment against the disease.  "When chloroquine resistance reached Africa in the middle of the 1970s it translated into a large increase in the number of cases and the number of children who died increased dramatically."  In a separate paper published in the journal Science researchers have identified a region of the malaria parasite genome that is linked to resistance to artemisinin.
> 
> Dr Tim Anderson, from Texas Biomed who led this study, says that while mapping the geographical spread of resistance can be challenging it may be hugely beneficial.  "If we can identify the genetic determinants of artemisinin resistance we should be able to confirm potential cases of resistance more rapidly. This could be critically important for limiting the further spread of resistance."  According to the World Malaria Report 2011 malaria was responsible for killing an estimated 655,000 people in 2010 - more than one every minute. A majority of these were young children and pregnant women.
> 
> BBC News - Resistance spread 'compromising' fight against malaria


----------



## waltky

New malaria test could save lives...

*New Test for Malaria Could Make Diagnosis Faster, Simpler and Cheaper*
_April 22, 2012 - Getting a diagnosis quickly means getting treatment fast  and that can make a life-or-death difference for some malaria patients._


> Italian researcher Dan Cojoc said that was the primary motivation behind his recent project to develop a new screening technique for the mosquito-born illness.  He said a friend from Ivory Coast provides a good example of why faster tests are needed. He told me about his kid who was touched by malaria, Cojoc explained. And when he was at the hospital, the father was dispirited, because the doctors said you will have the [diagnosis] in 12 hours. In 12 hours, the person can die.  Cojoc said his international team has developed a new technique that can get a diagnosis in minutes.  He said the current standard method to test for malaria requires special training and expensive equipment. This actual technique can only be applied in hospitals, which are very few in Africa. Cojoc said his team wanted to create a device which can be used in every corner of a country.
> 
> Cojoc's technique involves taking a one-second video of a red blood cell, while shining a tinted light through it. The recording is done at a high frame rate, meaning that the second is broken down into many separate slides. The light shows up in the video in what he called a speckle pattern  created by vibrations of the cell membrane.  Cojoc said when viewed this way, the difference between a healthy cell and one infected with the malaria parasite is immediately obvious. A healthy cell vibrates in one way, and infected cells in a different way, because when a parasite enters into a cell, the cell [membrane] becomes stiffer.  He is working on the final phases of developing a low-cost instrument that would implement this technique. He says he expects the final product will include a special, portable microscope, costing around $400, and disposable microchips to hold the blood sample, costing less than a dollar each.
> 
> Cojoc, a senior scientist at the Istituto Officina dei Materiali, added his team also hopes to apply his speckle pattern technique to other diseases.  We do think that this technique can be applied also to characterize other types of cells, he said, the healthy cells and the cancer cells, for instance.  According to the World Health Organization, a child dies from malaria every minute in Africa. The organization says prompt and effective treatment is a key component in controlling the disease.
> 
> Source


----------



## waltky

Malaria parasite shows drug-resistance...

*Study finds early signs of malaria drug resistance in Africa*
_Africa's deadliest malaria parasite has shown resistance in lab tests to one of the most powerful drugs on the market -- a warning of possible resistance to follow in patients, according to scientists._


> Researchers in London found resistance to artemether in test tube analysis of blood from 11 of 28 patients who had fallen ill after travelling in countries mainly in sub-Saharan Africa -- what they said was a "statistically significant" result.  Artemether is one of the most effective drugs in the artemisinin group most commonly used in malaria cocktails known as ACTs.  "Resistance in a test tube usually leads to resistance at some stage down the line in patients," study leader Sanjeev Krishna told AFP of the findings published in BioMed Central publishers' Malaria Journal.  "The question is how far down the line."  The study did not look at the patients' actual response to drugs, and "what that might mean in terms of treatment failure, we have yet to assess. We don't know."  A statement said the resistance was caused by genetic mutations in a parasite transmitted by infected mosquitoes, and meant that "the best weapons against malaria could become obsolete."
> 
> The laboratory tests on the Plasmodium falciparum parasite, which causes the deadliest form of malaria and is responsible for 90 percent of deaths, showed artemether's effectiveness reduced by about half in the infected samples.  "This study confirms our fears of how the parasite is mutating to develop resistance," said Krishna, adding the genetic changes "occurred relatively recently".  "Drug resistance could eventually become a devastating problem in Africa, and not just in east Asia where most of the world is watching for resistance."  Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 90 percent of people killed by malaria every year.  The World Health Organisation (WHO) said Tuesday it was optimistic drug-resistant malaria that has emerged along Thailand's borders with Cambodia and Myanmar could be contained within the region.
> 
> While global campaigning and wide distributions of mosquito nets have helped curb malaria, it is still regarded as the worst parasitic disease in the world.  The WHO says 655,000 people died of malaria in 2010, making it the world's fifth biggest killer in low-income countries.  "What we should be doing is to use the drugs we have as effectively as we can, to make sure they are working and to stop using combinations that are not working," said Krishna.  And the focus should be on monitoring and further research.  "We must be very alert to the risk of there being increased treatment failures," the scientist warned.  "We need to know more, we need to know it fairly quickly."
> 
> Source


----------



## Old Rocks

Cholera was one of the primary reason that the "Lost Meek Wagontrain" lost more people than did the Donner Party.


----------



## waltky

Bednets help reduce malaria deaths...

*UN: Bed Nets Sharply Reduce Malaria Deaths Among Sudanese Refugees*
_May 12, 2012 - The United Nations is reporting that malaria has dropped from being the leading cause of death among refugees living along the Sudan border. Among the locations where the new malaria-reducing strategies are being employed is the Kakuma Camp for Sudanese refugees in northern Kenya._


> Not long ago, malaria killed more Sudanese refugees than any other disease. But now, while it is still deadly, the U.N. reports it is only the fifth leading cause of death among the estimated 50,000 Sudanese refugees living in the Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya.    The reason - a five-year campaign called Nothing-But-Nets run by The United Nations Foundation. Nothing-But-Nets is the largest grassroots campaign in the world and it hopes to end malaria deaths by 2015.
> 
> Now, Nothing-But-Nets has launched an emergency appeal to send 100,000 life-saving bed nets to help thousands of South Sudanese refugees fleeing conflict and violence along the Sudan border.  Thirty-seven-year-old Achol Deng is a mother of three from Jonglei state. She is among thousands of new arrivals in the Kakuma refugee camp. Deng received mosquito nets that she will need to save her young family during the rainy season.    Deng says the mosquito net she received will protect her children if she uses it the way she was instructed. She says she hopes because of the net, her family will be free from malaria.
> 
> Refugees free from the disease are what malaria campaigners, partners, and supporters want to see as they make a two-day visit to the Kakuma refugee camp to distribute mosquito nets.  Chris Helfrich is the Director of the U.N. Foundations Nothing-But-Nets campaign. On a recent visit to the Kakuma camp he says life is tough enough for refugees, and they should not have to worry about dying from malaria.  Its a tough situation here in Kakuma, obviously, but we are happy to bring hope and do a little of something; these people, they have very tough lives but we are happy to bring nets because with everything else they have to deal with, malaria shouldnt be one of them.
> 
> MORE


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## Derrick

When I visited Asia, I met the people to observe their every aspect of life. That was interesting.
I saw they cure cholera with red chili seeds and I was wondering that how this ordinary and
common thing can be use for that. They grind the seeds(dried) and gave to patient with water.
comments...!


----------



## Douger

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqV1MCDLcMM&feature=related]Monster "Alien" Human Bot Fly Removal 0n Mellowvision/MellowGlen - YouTube[/ame]


----------



## bussclinton

This one is awesome knowledge providing by you for cholera. In 1960 and ago cholera was danger disease in America and other state  but now a day there are many medicine are available for this.


----------



## waltky

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound o' poop...

*Unicef: Tackling diarrhoea and pneumonia saves 2m lives*
_8 June 2012 - Unicef wants countries to focus on treating diarrhoea and pneumonia_


> Two million of the world's poorest children could be saved by introducing routine vaccination programmes against diarrhoea and pneumonia, says Unicef.  It says focusing on these diseases would narrow the survival gap between the richest and poorest children.  Pneumonia and diarrhoea account for one-third of all global deaths among children under five.  Unicef's report, in advance of a child-survival initiative, calls for better access to vaccines and antibiotics.
> 
> Anthony Lake, its executive director, said it was a question of commitment and funding.  "We know what works against pneumonia and diarrhoea - the two illnesses that hit the poorest hardest," he said.  "Scaling up simple interventions could overcome two of the biggest obstacles to increasing child survival and help give every child a fair chance to grow and thrive."
> 
> New vaccines available
> 
> Nearly 90 per cent of deaths from pneumonia and diarrhoea occur in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.  The report says that more than two million children's lives could be saved in the 75 countries with the highest death rate if the poorest children received the same care and treatment as the wealthiest 20% in those countries.  New vaccines against the major causes of pneumonia and diarrhoea are already available.
> 
> While most low-income countries have introduced the Haemophilus influenza type b (Hib) vaccine and pneumococcal conjugate vaccines, they urgently need to introduce them into routine immunisation programmes, the report said.  The prevention and treatments for both diseases include increasing vaccine coverage, encouraging breastfeeding, hand-washing with soap and expanding access to safe drinking water and sanitation.  Giving oral rehydration salts to children with diarrhoea and antibiotics to children with bacterial pneumonia are also basic steps to combat the diseases, it says.
> 
> BBC News - Unicef: Tackling diarrhoea and pneumonia saves 2m lives



See also:

*Pneumonia, diarrhea are top killers of kids: UNICEF*
_8 June`12 - Pneumonia and diarrhea are among the top causes of childhood deaths around the world, particularly among the poor, said a report out Friday by the UN Children's Fund._


> UNICEF said that while these two diseases kill more than two million children each year, making up 29 percent of child deaths under age five worldwide, some simple interventions could save lots of lives in the coming years.  The report urges the 75 countries with the highest mortality rates to aim to treat poor children with diarrhea and pneumonia the same way they do those from the top 20 percent of households, a so-called "equity approach."
> 
> Key interventions include vaccinating against the major causes of pneumonia and diarrhea, encouraging infant breastfeeding, improving access to clean water and sanitation, offering antibiotics for pneumonia and rehydration solutions for diarrhea.  "Modeled estimates suggest that by 2015 more than two million child deaths due to pneumonia and diarrhea could be averted across the 75 countries with the highest mortality burden," said the report.  "If national coverage of key pneumonia and diarrhea interventions were raised to the level in the richest 20 percent of households in each country," it added.
> 
> About half of childhood deaths in the world due to diarrhea or pneumonia take place in five countries: India, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan and Ethiopia, said the report.  There has been some progress in offering vaccines against Hemophilus influenza type b, as well as pneumococcal conjugate vaccines and rotavirus vaccines in the poorest countries, but more effort is needed, it said.
> 
> Water and sanitation is another key hurdle, with 783 million people globally not using an improved drinking water source, and 2.5 billion not using sanitation facilities.  "Nearly 90 percent of deaths due to diarrhea worldwide have been attributed to unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene," said the report.  "Hand washing with water and soap, in particular, is among the most cost-effective health interventions to reduce the incidence of both childhood pneumonia and diarrhea."  Pneumonia is responsible for 18 percent of childhood deaths worldwide each year, and diarrhea is linked to 11 percent.  In contrast, AIDS is responsible for two percent of global childhood deaths annually and malaria for seven percent, according to the report.
> 
> Source


----------



## waltky

Granny says Uncle Ferd got the sleepy sickness when it comes to work...

*African sleeping sickness shrouded in superstition*
_10 June`12 : A frail 65-year-old woman sitting under the mango trees in a rural village in Chad suffers from a tropical disease that eats into the brain, and the locals blame on witchcraft._


> "I've been suffering for more than two months now. I have headaches, fever, and I just feel very tired," said Lea Sadene, who has just been tested and diagnosed.  She has Human African trypanosomiasis, commonly known as sleeping sickness, which is transmitted by tsetse flies found in 36 sub-Saharan African countries.  Sadene is in the first phase of the often fatal illness. Without treatment in four months to a year, "the parasite penetrates into the brain, causing serious neurological symptoms, until death," said Doctor Benedict Blaynay, head of neglected tropical diseases at French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi.  "The symptoms can cause a change in personality, mental deterioration, leading to a long sleep or coma," which gives the illness its name, he said.
> 
> Chadian health officials say around 3,300 people were infected between 2001 and 2011 in several areas of the landlocked central African nation, one of the poorest in the world.  "With more than 100 cases per year Chad is considered an endemic country," said Doctor Peka Mallaye, who is in charge of the national programme to fight against sleeping sickness.  In Kobitoi in southern Chad recently, village women lined up with their children, many with swollen bellies, in the scorching sun as temperatures hit 43 degrees Celsius (109 degrees Fahrenheit) to undergo tests for the disease organised with Sanofi.  The team found 14 cases of sleeping sickness out of 120 people examined, Mallaye said.  "This village is located next to a forest where the tsetse flies live. During the rainy season, people pass through the forest to go fishing or hunting," he said.
> 
> Fighting the disease, however, takes more than testing and drugs. For the people living in Chad's rural communities, the strange symptoms of sleeping sickness have long been shrouded in superstition about witchcraft and demonic possession.  "Before we didn't know that it was the disease that was killing people. People died like flies, they blamed witches," said Alngar Legode, a village mother trying to comfort her eight-month child still crying after being pricked for the blood test for the disease.  "Witchcraft is seen as a real phenomenon in traditional societies," said sociologist Serferbe Charlot. "They think that a man or a woman suspected of witchcraft is eating away at a person's soul."
> 
> In the advanced stages of the disease the infected person experiences severe neurological problems.  "When this disease reaches the brain, the patient loses control of his life, he even becomes violent. That is when the villagers believe that the sick person is possessed by evil spirits," said Charlot.  "It is up to the health specialists to prove" to the population that it is not witchcraft, he said, adding: "The fight against sleeping sickness calls for raising awareness."
> 
> More African sleeping sickness shrouded in superstition - Yahoo! News


----------



## waltky

Dat other malaria parasite...

*Scientists unravel 'other' malaria parasite's DNA code*
_5 Aug.`12 - Scientists said Sunday they had unravelled the genetic codes of parasites responsible for the bulk of malaria cases outside Africa, and found they were scarily diversified and may be harder to kill._


> In a study published in Nature Genetics, researchers said they had sequenced the genomes of four strains of Plasmodium vivax -- a parasite that infects about 100 million people every year.  Other research had found that 10 to 20 percent of P. vivax cases occur in Africa south of the Sahara -- a region mainly affected by the P. falciparum parasite which causes the most malaria deaths worldwide.  Outside of Africa, P. vivax accounts for half of all malaria cases, mainly in the Middle East, the Western Pacific and Central and South America.
> 
> Both parasite species are transferred by Anopheles mosquitos.  P. vivax is more resilient than its deadlier, tropical cousin, and can stay in remission for longer and tolerate cooler climates.  Yet much less is known about P. vivax, and less attention has been paid to unravelling its genetic code than that of P. falciparum.  With their research, a team from India and the United States say they have tripled the number of genome sequences available for P. vivax.
> 
> They said they observed an "extremely high genomic diversity", suggesting it may be even harder than for P. falciparum to develop a single vaccine targeting several different strains of P. vivax.  In 2010, malaria infected about 216 million people and claimed an estimated 655,000 lives -- mainly in Africa where a child dies of the disease every minute, says the World Health Organisation.  Symptoms include fever, headache, chills and vomiting which if not treated within 24 hours can progress to severe illness and even death.
> 
> In a second Nature Genetics report, scientists in Japan and the United States said they had sequenced the genomes of three strains of P. cynomolgi -- a sister species to P. vivax and a cause of malaria in Asian Old World monkeys.  Since it is so closely related, information on the DNA code of P. cynomolgi "provides the foundation for further insights into traits... that will enhance prospects for the eventual elimination of vivax-caused malaria and global malaria eradication," they wrote.
> 
> Scientists unravel 'other' malaria parasite's DNA code - Yahoo! News


----------



## editec

Chorlera outbreaks are one of those events that describe why having something that some of you might call a NANNY STATE isn't really such a bad idea.


----------



## waltky

West Nile outbreak bad in Texas...

*West Nile virus kills 17 in Texas, sickens hundreds*
_15 Aug.`12 - The southwestern US state of Texas is battling an outbreak of the West Nile virus, with 17 deaths blamed on the mosquito-borne disease, authorities said Wednesday._


> Throughout the state 465 people have been sickened since the start of the year, putting it on track to have the most cases since the disease first emerged a decade ago, the Texas Department of State Health Services said.  The county incorporating Dallas, the ninth-largest city in the United States, has been the hardest hit, prompting the mayor to declare a local state of disaster.  "The city of Dallas is experiencing a widespread outbreak of mosquito-borne West Nile virus that has caused, and appears likely to continue to cause, widespread and severe illness and loss of life," Mayor Michael Rawlings said in a proclamation of emergency that took effect Wednesday.  The virus has claimed ten lives in the county so far, local and state health authorities said.
> 
> First discovered in Uganda in 1937, the virus is carried by birds and spread to humans by mosquitoes.  Severe symptoms of the virus include high fever, vision loss and paralysis, while milder symptoms range from headaches to skin rashes.  At least 693 cases -- both confirmed and probable -- of the virus have been reported in the United States this year, including 26 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Texas tops the list in both total cases and fatalities.  In 2011, Texas saw a total of 27 cases and two deaths, the CDC said. Across the United States, 712 confirmed and probable cases and 43 fatalities were reported over that same 12-month period.
> 
> The worst year on record in Texas was 2003, with 40 deaths related to the West Nile virus, said Christine Mann, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of State Health Services.  Mann told AFP that the outbreak could be linked to a mild winter and rainy spring in the state. "It's really not clear at this point," she said.  In an effort to stem the number of new infections, Texas authorities have urged residents to use insect repellent before heading outdoors, remain inside at dusk and at dawn, dress in protective clothing and drain standing water that could become a breeding ground for mosquitoes.  Last month, officials in New York City said the West Nile virus had been detected on Staten Island, one of the city's five boroughs.
> 
> Source



See also:

*Dallas in state of emergency after West Nile virus*
_15 August 2012 - The virus is carried by birds and transmitted to humans via mosquitoes_


> The city of Dallas in the US state of Texas has declared a state of emergency as it struggles to contain an outbreak of mosquito-borne West Nile virus.  At least 14 people have died after contracting the virus in the state so far this year.  Almost 700 cases have been reported across the country - the highest number since 2004.
> 
> Texas residents have been urged to use insect repellent and avoid going out at dusk and dawn.  "The city of Dallas is experiencing a widespread outbreak of mosquito-borne West Nile Virus that has caused and appears likely to continue to cause widespread and severe illness and loss of life," Michael Rawlings said.  The move clears the way for aerial spraying to kill infected mosquitoes that transmit the disease.
> 
> Protective clothing
> 
> Aerial spraying is also being used elsewhere, including in New York City - where the virus was discovered on Staten Island last month - and Sacramento, California.  There have been cases of infection reported in people, birds or mosquitoes in 42 US states, with 80% of the cases in Texas, Mississippi and Oklahoma.  In Texas, the worst-affected state, residents have been urged to get rid of stagnant water, where the insect can breed, and to wear protective clothing.
> 
> Officials say it is too early to say what has caused the fresh outbreak, though some suggest that a mild winter and wet spring may have been a factor.  The virus was first discovered in 1937 in Uganda. It is carried by birds and spread to humans by mosquitoes.  In extreme cases, symptoms can include high fever, loss of vision and paralysis. Milder manifestations can include headaches and skin rashes.  Those at greater risk of a serious case of the illness are those over the age of 50, or people who already suffer from a major health problem.
> 
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19276240


----------



## Douger

BUT. What if a TSA guy(or lez) sticks its finger in Mandingoz ass and gets interrupted by a text message,forgetting to change it's gloves ?
The fourth world is a hard place.
The cure ?Bath water. I imagine you can get it on Ebay by now.


----------



## waltky

Granny says, "Kill dem skeeters!...

*Airplanes spray Dallas to kill mosquitoes*
_Aug. 16,`12 (UPI) -- Texas officials say spraying pesticides is the best way to fight West Nile virus-carrying mosquitoes, despite concerns over exposing people to the chemicals._


> Two twin-engine planes loaded with 200 gallons of pesticide are set to spray Dallas, which has so far had 111 reported infections of West Nile virus that caused 65 hospitalizations, the Dallas Morning News reported. The planes are expected to take off Thursday night.  "This is very much like a battle plan," Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said Wednesday. "We're going to hit them with this weapon, and we expect the result to be knocking them back in most places. But we'll do our reconnaissance and adjust our battle plan as necessary."
> 
> So far, 11 cities north of Interstate 30 have decided to spray pesticide to kill the mosquitoes.  "I think this is the right thing to do," said Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings. "I cannot have any more deaths on my conscience because we didn't take action."  Jim Olson, a retired entomologist at Texas A&M University, said the pesticide being sprayed poses little risk to humans.  "It's just like the disclaimer on medicine," he said. "Do you not take what the doctor prescribes for you because of the low chance you'll have a side effect? No, you take your medicine."
> 
> Nationwide, a total of 693 cases of West Nile virus disease in people have been reported, including 26 deaths, the Center for Disease Control reported.  Of those cases, 406 of those cases were classified as neuroinvasive disease, such as meningitis or encephalitis, and 287were classified as non-neuroinvasive disease, the CDC said.  More than 80 percent of the cases have been reported from six states -- Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and California.
> 
> Source


----------



## Douger

Googel up "Chagas".
No. You can't get it in the drive through at BurgerThing.
It's great fun ! Even better than Lyme disease !


----------



## waltky

Outbreak of cholera in Sierra Leone...

*Cholera emergency declared in Sierra Leone*
_Aug 20,`12 -- An outbreak of cholera in West Africa has infected more than 13,000 people and killed at least 258 people in Sierra Leone and Guinea, authorities said as they appealed for international assistance._


> Sierra Leone's President Ernest Bai Koroma has declared the outbreak there an "emergency issue," and has set up a task force to prepare the budget that will be needed to stem the outbreak.  "All of this is the aftermath of the 11 years rebel war when we had a huge rural-to-urban migration and a huge population clustered in the urban area where adequate provision has not been made for water and sanitation. This is what we have been witnessing today," Minister of Health and Sanitation Zainab Hawa Bangura told The Associated Press.
> 
> She said that in the capital, Freetown, there have been about 100 deaths during the past month, especially in congested areas. That brings the total to at least 176 dead in Sierra Leone, while 82 deaths have been reported in neighboring Guinea.  "It is important to request help from the international community in order to spread the mobilization of resources," she said.  Cholera is an infection of the small intestine, contracted by eating or drinking contaminated food or liquids. It can cause acute diarrhea and vomiting and can kill within hours.
> 
> The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said there has been a spike in reported cholera cases since mid-July and the onset of the rainy season. Over the past five weeks, 6,000 cases alone have been confirmed in Sierra Leone and many other cases might not been officially reported.
> 
> "This current outbreak of cholera has the potential to be devastating and is proving very difficult to control," said Amanda McClelland, IFRC emergency health coordinator. "We are particularly concerned by the rising numbers in Freetown, which suffers from overcrowding, poor sanitation and lack of safe water access - all factors which contribute to this deadly disease."  Parts of Mali and Niger have also been affected by the outbreak, the Red Cross said.
> 
> Source


----------



## waltky

Granny be swattin' any skeeters dat land on her so's she don't get dat West Nile virus...

*CDC: West Nile outbreak one of largest in US*
_22 Aug.`12   The current West Nile outbreak is one of the largest in the U.S., with four times the usual number of cases for this time of year, federal health officials said Wednesday._


> It's still too early to say how bad the year will end up because most infections are reported in August and September. But never before have so many illnesses been reported this early, said Dr. Lyle Petersen, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  "We're in the midst of one of the largest West Nile outbreaks ever seen in the United States," said Petersen, who oversees the CDC's mosquito-borne illness programs.  So far, 1,118 illnesses have been reported, about half of them in Texas. In an average year, fewer than 300 cases are reported by mid-August. There have also been 41 deaths this year, the CDC said.  And cases seem to be accelerating: about 400 of the cases were reported in just the last week.
> 
> Experts think the mild winter, early spring and very hot summer helped stimulate mosquito breeding and the spread of the virus. Mosquitoes pick up the virus from birds they bite and then pass it on to people.  CDC officials are also looking into the possibility that the virus mutated, but so far have no information showing that happened, Petersen said.  West Nile virus was first diagnosed in Uganda in 1937, but no cases were reported in the U.S. until 1999 in New York. The virus gradually spread across the country.
> 
> It peaked in 2002 and 2003, when severe illnesses reached nearly 3,000 and deaths surpassed 260. Last year was mild, with fewer than 700 cases.  Only about 1 in 5 infected people get sick. Early symptoms can include fever, headache and body aches. Some recover in a matter of days. But 1 in 150 infected people will develop severe symptoms including neck stiffness, disorientation, coma and paralysis.  Many illnesses probably go unreported, especially milder cases. In this year's case count, more than half are severe, CDC officials said.
> 
> MORE


----------



## waltky

Granny says if dey'd castrate dem skeeters, dey wouldn't be able to breed...

*US West Nile cases, deaths jump 60%*
_Fri, Aug 24, 2012 - The number of West Nile virus infections in the US has jumped more than 60 percent in the past week in what federal officials say is one of the country&#8217;s biggest-ever outbreaks of the disease._


> The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Wednesday that 1,118 cases and 41 deaths had been reported so far this year, up from fewer than 700 cases and 26 deaths just one week ago.  That is the highest number of West Nile virus infections reported through the third week of August since the virus was first detected in the US in 1999, the CDC said. The worst US outbreak occurred in 2003, with 9,862 cases and 264 deaths that year.  &#8220;We&#8217;re in the midst of one of the largest West Nile virus outbreaks ever seen in the United States,&#8221; said Lyle Petersen, director of the division of vector-borne infectious diseases for the CDC.  Federal officials are stumped by the severity of the outbreak.
> 
> Cases usually flare up in the summer because the illness is most often transmitted from infected birds to people by mosquitoes.  Victims may suffer fever and aches that can become severe or even cause death, especially in the elderly, children and other at-risk groups. There is no specific treatment for the infection.  Symptoms are often mild and many people stricken do not see a doctor, meaning cases are likely underreported.  More than half of this year&#8217;s cases are in Texas, but the disease now has been detected in 47 states, and 38 states have reported cases in humans, with only Alaska, Hawaii and Vermont reporting no cases.  About 75 percent of the cases have been in Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma and South Dakota, officials said.
> 
> Nationwide, 56 percent of cases are of the more serious type that can cause paralysis, meningitis or encephalitis, the CDC said. The remaining 44 percent are the milder form of West Nile Fever.  Officials said they were uncertain why this year&#8217;s outbreak had been so severe. A mild winter, a hot summer and other factors such as fluctuations in the bird population are contributors, officials said.  &#8220;We don&#8217;t really know why it&#8217;s worse this year than in previous years,&#8221; Petersen said. &#8220;One observation that has occurred over many decades ... has been that hot weather seems to promote West Nile virus outbreaks.&#8221;
> 
> Dallas, where a health state of emergency was declared this month, is experiencing an unprecedented epidemic, Petersen said.  Latest figures show there have been 640 cases of the disease in Texas. Texas state health officials said 23 people had died, including 15 in north Texas.  &#8220;Dallas has been hardest hit,&#8221; Texas Department of State Health Services commissioner David Lakey said.  So far, 11 deaths have been reported in Dallas County this year, compared with 10 in the period between 2003 &#8212; when the disease was first detected in Dallas &#8212; and last year.
> 
> US West Nile cases, deaths jump 60% - Taipei Times



See also:

*Birth Control Plugs Male Malaria Mosquitoes *
_ August 22, 2012 - A team of scientists at Yale University is working on a new birth-control drug for male mosquitos that could slow the malaria epidemic, a disease that sickens more than 215 million people, killing 655,000 each year._


> Only female Anopheles gambiae mosquitos transmit malaria to humans and they are the principle vector for the disease. But chemistry professor Richard Baxter and his team at Yale University are focused on the males.  Malaria mosquitos mate in airborne swarms. Unlike any other insect, the male inserts a gooey plug to seal its sperm inside the female during mating to ensure reproductive success.
> 
> At a meeting of the American Chemical Society in Philadelphia this week, Baxter and his colleagues announced a new approach for screening chemical compounds that would inhibit formation of the mating plug.  This sterile insect technique has been successfully deployed in Africa against tsetse flies that transmit sleeping sickness, and in the United States to control the screwworm fly, which was once responsible for millions of dollars in losses in the cattle industry and has since been eradicated.
> 
> Baxter says this is important because malaria mosquitos are becoming resistant to insecticides and adapting to indoor control measures by biting outdoors, during the day.  &#8220;So the idea is if we can actually suppress the mosquito, we will prevent the transmission of the disease and then eventually if you prevent transmission for several seasons, you will eradicate the parasite that itself causes the disease without eradicating the mosquito.&#8221;
> 
> Over the next several months, Baxter will test various chemicals to see which ones disable the proteins, so mating would be unsuccessful.   &#8220;If that works in the lab, then we can move on to semi-field trails, where we have a large cage, which is outdoors," he says.  "That would test the efficacy of the compound in a more realistic setting.&#8221;  After mosquitos are fed the inhibiting compound, the modified males would be released to mate with wild females. With no resulting offspring, the population would be reduced without the use of pesticides.
> 
> Source


----------



## waltky

Drug-resistant malaria in Cambodia could have global ramifications...

*Drug-Resistant Malaria Vexes Health Workers in Cambodia*
_ August 24, 2012  A little-known battle being fought in Cambodia could have global ramifications. The fight is against drug-resistant malaria._


> The problem is more severe in Cambodia than anywhere else in the world, says Steven Bjorge, the World Health Organization's malaria team leader in Cambodia.  About 17 percent of all cases in the Cambodian-Thai border area of Pailin were drug-resistant in 2011, up from 10 percent the year before, according to Char Meng Chuor, director of the governments National Malaria Center. He says the drug-resistant disease has also spread to parts of Preah Vihear and Pursat, border provinces in Cambodias north and west.   Drug-resistant malaria first evolved in Cambodia in the 1950s and 1960s, according to Bjorge.
> 
> Since then, every new drug seems to first become resistant in Cambodia or on the Thai-Cambodian border before anywhere else in the world, he said.  Drug resistance occurs when a patient infected with the Plasmodium falciparum parasite takes an incomplete or incorrect course of anti-malarial drugs. This allows the parasite to evolve resistance to that medicine, so patients must take another course of drugs under the supervision of a doctor, says Char Meng Chuor.
> 
> Beyond Borders
> 
> The problem is greatest in border towns with a lot of traffic. Here, migrant workers might buy the wrong drugs without seeing a doctor, or misuse treatment in other ways, says Uth Sophal, Pailin field officer for the health group the Malaria Consortium.   Migrant people move from one province to another, so when they come to Pailin, which already has resistant malaria, when the mosquitoes bite those people, they will get that parasite and pass it from one province to another province, from one country to another, he said.   With some help, health workers are hoping that will change.
> 
> The Malaria Consortium has created a network of volunteers at Pailins border crossing to check and evaluate migrant workers and treat them if they have malaria.  When Cambodians cross the border, we measure their temperature, Uth Sophal said. If they have any kind of illness, we have to immediately treat them.  University Research, a global health company fighting drug-resistant malaria in sub-Mekong Region countries, is trying to ensure migrant workers are given bed nets before they move through malaria-prone areas. It is also training local people to provide malaria.
> 
> *Global Ramifications*


----------



## American Horse

editec said:


> Cholera is another good reason to have governments.


Good governance


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## waltky

Cameroon makin' progress in the fight against malaria...

*Cameroon Winning Battle to Reduce Malaria*
_August 24, 2012  Its a Monday morning at the Yaounde central hospital, and one of the busiest days of the week for the doctors and nurses who work here. Hundreds of sick people wait for their turn in one of the consultation rooms. For many, their fate is known in advance. One in four will be diagnosed with malaria._


> Malaria is a leading cause of hospital visits  and death - in the country. Victims are mostly children and pregnant women.  Everyone in Cameroon is considered at risk. Last year, the disease inflicted more than 1.8 million people.  Sunny and humid, most of Cameroon is a breeding ground for anopheles mosquitoes that transmit the malaria parasite.  The countrys 20 million people are now on the frontline of the war on malaria in Africa.  Dr. Esther Tallah is the manager of the Cameroon Coalition against Malaria and a major player in the struggle against the disease. She says the war is being won by expanding effective prevention and treatment.  "Once you invest in the right things that we know work for malaria prevention and control, you see results immediately," she said,  "The world has shown and repeatedly proven that when [people] adopt the habit of sleeping under mosquito nets and that you achieve universal coverage you see a drop in the incidence of malaria.  "If the country decides that they want to do indoor residual spraying, and they do it effectively," she continued, "you see a drop in the incidence of malaria. In some cases, countries decide to combine indoor residual spraying and sleeping under long-lasting insecticidal mosquito nets."
> 
> The government and NGOs like Tallahs coalition distributed more than eight million long-lasting insecticidal nets nationwide.  The government has also scaled up affordable treatment using a combination of anti-malaria drugs including artemisinin.  Together, they attack the reproductive cycle of the malaria parasite, thereby curing and reducing transmission at the same time.  As part of the push to end malaria, patients pay less than $1 (U.S.) for several days treatment. Pregnant women and children under that age of five are treated for free.  Health officials say universal protection and effective treatments are paying off. Doctors across the country are seeing fewer and fewer patients each year.  Cases reported by hospitals dropped to 28 percent in April 2012 from 30 percent in April 2011. The National Malaria Control Committees reports show a steady fall since the end of 2008, when the sickness rate was around 44.5 percent.  But the gains remain fragile.
> 
> In most of Cameroon, poor drainage leaves standing water in which mosquitoes breed. Health workers say many people have nets but are not using them. The mosquitoes are also developing resistance to insecticides.   Talla says such problems are being tackled.  "The national anti-malaria commission has conducted studies, and we have a map of resistance to insecticides by the anopheles mosquitoes that transmit malaria," she said. "There is a plan to follow up on that and put in place a system that ensures that that is taken into account."
> 
> She said  that even where there's resistance, the nets are still effective, "though the people who produce the nets are conscious of resistance and are coming out with a third-generation nets that combine two products."  Cameroon hopes to reduce malaria infections in the country by 50 percent in a few years. For the first time, campaigners are already talking about ending the scourge.  But to eradicate malaria in Cameroon, Tallah says the public must play its part. Early treatment, correct use of long-lasting insecticidal mosquito nets and hygienic living can greatly reduce new infections.
> 
> Source


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## waltky

Lingerin' leprosy lurkin' in Liberia...

*Liberia Steps Up Fight Against Leprosy*
_ August 28, 2012
In an effort to combat the spread of lebrosy, Liberia's Health Ministry has set up its first-ever TB & Leprosy Treatment Center in the northeastern town of Ganta in Nimba County - where dozens of people have contracted the diseases.  The treatment center is trying to battle not only the disease but also the belief that lepers have been cursed by their ancestors._


> The Ganta Leprosy Center treats some 300 men, women and children living with leprosy. John Saah Brimah, who runs the center, says one priority is to educate the community on how to prevent the transmission of leprosy.  The first line of prevention is somebody who you know has leprosy and is not on treatment, when they are coughing or sneezing you ask them to cover their mouth and nose while coughing," Brimah says. "The second line could be you take all of the children that are born, to be vaccinated. Because one of the vaccines, which is BCG help you to reduce the getting of the worst part of leprosy. I am not saying that when you take the vaccine you will not get leprosy but you will not get the worst one.
> 
> The spread of the disease in rural Liberia is due to widely held belief that the disease is caused by mystical powers and one that cannot be cured by modern medicine, according to Brimah, who adds more health workers are being trained to educate patients and their families.  We have trained people who are working in those TB clinics more about leprosy. So whenever you see these things I am talking about, a red mark on you that is not hurting and it is not itching, you have to report to these clinics," he says. "Any of the big hospitals in Liberia are all having TB clinics open in them because this leprosy and TB they are like uncle and nephew. It is the same germ that can cause both of them. So every TB clinic should have the facility of also treating leprosy.
> 
> Abraham Tamba, 40, a patient at the center, has been receiving treatment for more than seven months. His hands are deformed and he says family members abandoned him because of his condition.  My conditions are terrible. All of my hands are deformed. I have been suffering from this illness for several months now," Tamba says. "And to make my situation more worsen, my family members have turned against me and no one wants to care for me. I am doing everything be myself. Thats how it looks.
> 
> Leprosy is a chronic bacterial disease of the skin and nerves in the hands and feet and, in some cases, the lining of the nose. It is not clear how the leprosy germ is spread, but household and prolonged close contact is important. The germs probably enter the body through the nose and possibly through broken skin. The germs get in the air through nasal discharge of untreated lepromatous patients. Patients with leprosy should be treated by a doctor who has experience with the disease. Treatment is with multiple drugs for six months to two years.  The TB and Leprosy Control program of Liberia plans to publish nationwide figures on instances of leprosy in Liberia soon. But, for now, it is providing treatment and shelter for more than 1,000 patients suffering from the disease.
> 
> Source


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## waltky

Encephalitis outbreak in India...

*Numerous Encephalitis Cases Devastate North India*
_ September 21, 2012 - Health officials in northern India report that a serious outbreak of Japanese encephalitis has infected hundreds of children. The viral brain disease, which can cause permanent disabilities and sometimes death, is a common seasonal disease in Asia. Experts say it is likely the virus also is spreading in other countries in the region, but is going undetected due to inadequate surveillance and diagnostics._


> In India every year, during the rainy monsoon season, hundreds of children die or become disabled, physically or mentally, after contracting Japanese encephalitis. Doctor K. P. Kushwaha is a senior pediatrician at a government hospital in Gorakhpur, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.   "We have the highest number of patients admitted in one day, which is 550 patients," said Kushwaha. "We have never got such figures in the past. In the current cases of encephalitis, the children not only have swelling in their brains, but their skin, kidney, liver and heart also show swelling.  "Japanese encephalitis is interesting because it is in animals as well as in people. This is a virus that will never be eradicated or eliminated, said Dr. Julie Jacobson, who is trained in clinical tropical medicine and is a senior program officer at the Gates Foundation, a private  philanthropy.
> 
> She explained that encephalitis is a zoonotic infection that is found in humans, as well as in a variety of domesticated and wild animals. Pigs and migratory birds pose a special danger because they are so-called "amplifying hosts" - they store the virus in large amounts in their systems without getting sick.  When mosquitoes bite an infected pig or bird, they pick up the virus and can transmit it to humans when they bite them.
> 
> Jacobson said Japanese encephalitis, when it is not fatal, can leave victims with severe physical and mental damage.  Peoples personality changes - they have behavioral issues," she said. "A very striking finding is that within families when you are talking to them, the children who have survived, kids will not recognize a family member. So they will be crying, crying to talk to their sister, 'I want my sister, I want my sister I want to talk to my sister' - it is very devastating for families to have that kind of disability that comes to the household.
> 
> Health experts say the best way to protect people against this crippling disease is to immunize them with the encephalitis vaccine. They recommend that children especially be routinely vaccinated. Jacobson said there also is an urgent need for public health agencies to step up surveillance and diagnostic operations in endemic countries - to look for early signs of encephalitis and take steps to limit its terrible toll.
> 
> Source



See also:

*16 Die from Disease at Refugee Camp in South Sudan*
_September 21, 2012: The international humanitarian agency Oxfam is warning that living conditions of refugees in a camp in Upper Nile state are becoming increasingly desperate, and more people will probably die if help does not arrive soon._


> More than 100,000 refugees have fled fighting between Sudanese armed forces and rebels in Sudans Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan states.  At least 16 refugees have died in the past two weeks from an outbreak of Hepatitis E, according to the U.N.
> 
> Pauline Ballaman, Oxfams South Sudan director, said the best way to curb the spread of the water-borne disease is to relocate thousands of Sudanese refugees to a safer place.  The government of South Sudan and UNHCR, who are the lead agencies, would encourage them to look at all other possibilities because this is not going to be a sustainable job or solution, Ballaman said.
> 
> South Sudan and the UN refugee agency considered relocating the refugees to areas along the Nile River, according to Ballaman, but she said no decision has been made so far.  Ballaman said more people are showing symptoms of Hepatitis E.  She added, there are a lot more people affected and, of course, it is far more serious for the nursing and pregnant mothers and young children, and malnutrition kicks in as well,
> 
> According to Ballaman, no season is favorable to housing more than 100,000 refugees.  Widespread flooding during South Sudans rainy season is the problem right now, but when the dry season arrives the problem will be not enough water.
> 
> Source


----------



## waltky

Wide distribution of malaria drugs can significantly reduce the number of new cases of the disease...

*Study: Malaria Drugs Significantly Prevent Disease in Africa*
_ September 24, 2012 - A new study shows that widely distributing anti-malaria drugs to healthy children in African countries can significantly reduce the number of new cases of the disease._


> The medical aid group Doctors Without Borders says it gave intermittent doses of anti-malaria drugs to 175,000 children in Mali and Chad. It says the result was a 67 percent decrease in the number of simple malaria cases in the region of Mali where the study took place, and up to an 86 percent drop in Chad.
> 
> Doctors Without Borders says there also was a significant decrease in the number of cases of severe malaria.
> 
> The study was launched in July and will continue through next month, a period of high transmission for malaria. Children between three months and five years were given a dose of anti-malaria drugs (amodiaquine and one of sulphadoxine or pryrimethamine) over a three-day period once a month.
> 
> The World Health Organization estimates that 650,000 people die from malaria each year. It says 90 percent of the cases occur in sub-Saharan Africa, mainly among young children.
> 
> Source


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## waltky

Uncle Ferd says is God gettin' `em fer all dat spam emails dey been sendin' us...

*Polio Surges in Nigeria*
_ September 28, 2012  Polio is again on the rise in Nigeria and doctors said the entire region should be on alert. An alarming number of new cases have been found in the north, where authorities are already dealing with the unrest caused by the militant group Boko Haram. Health officials warn that even a few cases of polio can lead to a devastating outbreak._


> These young men say that polio not only robbed them of the use of their legs, but of their ability to work for a living. They say they beg for money in this Abuja market for food and school fees.  &#8203;&#8203;I believe that getting polio eradication  is one of the smartest allocations of resources that the world can make," said billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates. "The world is coming together to do something truly amazing -- protect every single child everywhere from this crippling virus.  On Thursday in New York, Gates spoke to world leaders, calling for a renewed commitment to polio eradication, saying $2 billion yearly will be enough to wipe the disease off the face of the planet by 2018.
> 
> On Thursday in Nigeria, 20-year-old Mohammad Shehu was seated on a wooden slat with wheels.  His thin, useless legs were folded underneath him.  He pushed himself through the markets, calling for spare change to pay for food.  Shehu said he was one of three boys in his town to get polio when he was about four years old.  As he spoke, two friends crowd around him. One young man wais also seated on wooden slat, with pink flip-flops on his hands. The other was propped up on a single good leg and a crudely-made crutch.  The friends said they have never been to a doctor, and they dont know why their legs dont work. Health workers say it is undoubtedly polio, a disease that can kill or cripple.  This year, all but three countries in the world are polio-free, but the disease is spreading in Nigeria.
> 
> There have been 90 new cases reported this year, including 13 since September 5.  Frank Mahoney, Centers for Disease Control Chief Health Officer for Polio Response says these numbers may seem small, but its a big deal.  "One of the things people dont remember, since the eradication program began, the case counts have remarkably gone down so very few people are getting paralytic polio like it used to be," said Mahoney. "And so if the program were to fail, and we dont eradicate polio the number of children that would get paralytic disease would certainly increase. So thats the big concern.  If we dont complete the job, polio will come back and there will be many, many cases."  Mahoney said the rise in polio in northern Nigeria is particularly worrying because nomadic life-styles and cross-border trade are common there, and the disease could spread to other countries.  Northern Nigeria has also been struggling with an Islamist insurgency in recent years, and Mahoney says the threat to health workers is partially responsible for the recent surge in polio cases. Health workers also struggle with access to remote, transitory communities, he says.
> 
> Polio is preventable with a vaccine, but there is no cure. Spokesperson for the State Minister of Health, Tashikalmah Hallah, says health workers struggle with fear and rejection of the vaccine in many communities, and the government is working to convince people that the vaccine is not dangerous for children.  There are some that still reject it. If vaccinators approach them, theyll say, No.  But on this issue, with the help of traditional rulers as well as religious leaders within the communities, that case of rejection has gone down," said Hallah.  As he spoke, Nigerian leaders and officials, including President Goodluck Jonathan, were in New York, partially to meet with leaders like Bill Gates on strategies to combat the rise of polio in Nigeria, and its continued presence in Pakistan and Afghanistan.  At the same time, the three young polio victims in the Abuja market decided to take a break from begging and use their earnings, in bills worth 1-30 cents, to have a small lunch.
> 
> Polio Surges in Nigeria


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## waltky

Typhoid vaccine crisis in England...

*Typhoid vaccine failure warning*
_8 October 2012 - Typhoid fever is uncommon in England, with an estimated 350 cases occurring each year_


> More than 700,000 people recently immunised against typhoid may not have full protection because of a dud vaccine that has now been recalled, say experts.  Manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur MSD has recalled 88% of its stock - 16 batches - of Typhim Vi vaccine because tests found some samples were too weak.  Anyone immunised with the vaccine since January 2011 could be affected.  Officials stress that the vaccine was safe and posed no health threat.
> 
> But it could mean as many as 729,606 people who potentially received the affected vaccine are not fully immunised against typhoid, according to the body that regulates drugs in the UK, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).  Experts say people should not get revaccinated but should take precautions against typhoid when abroad. If you received this vaccine and have recently returned from abroad, and are unwell, you should contact your doctor.
> 
> Precautions
> 
> Typhoid fever is uncommon in the UK, but people visiting South Asia and South East Asia, where the life-threatening bacterial disease is most common, are at greater risk.  Typhoid is very contagious. An infected person can pass the bacteria in their faeces.  If someone else eats food or drinks water that has been contaminated, they can catch typhoid fever.  It can be treated with antibiotics if diagnosed early enough.
> 
> The MHRA said: "There are no concerns over the safety of this vaccine, but the recall has taken place because the vaccine may not be as effective as it should be.  "Anyone who has been to a typhoid region of the world and has a fever, abdominal pain and vomiting should contact a healthcare professional. They can also give them information and advice about minimising the risk of getting typhoid."
> 
> More BBC News - Typhoid vaccine failure warning


----------



## waltky

Dial M for malaria...

*Mobile Phones Used to Track Malaria Transmission Patterns*
_ October 11, 2012  WASHINGTON  Scientists are studying the use of mobile phones to track patterns of malaria transmission in endemic nations. The research is part of an effort by many countries to control or eliminate the mosquito-borne disease.  _


> On their own, malaria-carrying mosquitoes cant travel very far. But the insects that are responsible for nearly one million deaths around the world each year can, and do, hitch rides in the belongings of people who travel. Malaria can also be transmitted to healthy individuals by asymptomatic people who venture from an area where many people are sick with the disease, to a location, such as a city, where residents are seldom exposed to malarial mosquitoes.  Such is the case in Kenya, where researchers have determined the disease primarily spreads east from the countrys Lake Victoria region toward Nairobi with people who travel to the countrys capital.
> 
> Their finding is based on an analysis of the mobile phone data of 15 million Kenyan subscribers, by researchers at Harvard University's School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts. Kenya has a population of 43 million people.  Caroline Buckee says many countries are launching aggressive efforts to eliminate malaria. One of the first steps in the campaign is to figure out how human travel patterns might be contributing to its spread.    Buckee, an assistant professor at the Harvard school, says until recently, its been difficult to track large population movements. Traditional methods, using census data and road networks, have not worked very well.  But mobile phones offer a really unique way, on an unprecedented scale, to understand how a whole population is moving around, said Buckee.
> 
> In Kenya, Buckee explains, the researchers calculated the destination and duration of each phone user's trip away from their primary home, based on transmissions to and from the mobile phone carriers 12,000 transmission towers.  Then, overlaying a map of malaria prevalence data in different regions of the country, researchers calculated each residents probability of being infected in a particular area as well as the likelihood that a visitor to that destination would become infected.  The result was a pattern showing malaria transmission routes emanating from Lake Victoria.
> 
> Buckee says having such data could influence malaria control efforts, particularly in non-endemic regions.  One thing you could consider is sending text messages to people coming to high risk cell towers, for example, reminding them to use a bed net," she said. "And I think those types of approaches are simple but they would hopefully target people who are asymptomatic and are unaware that they are carrying parasites, reminding them that they can still contribute to malaria in that region.  Buckee says researchers are investigating using mobile phone records in other countries to help identify malaria transmission routes, where pockets of the disease are less obvious than in Kenya.    An article on this approach is published in the journal Science.
> 
> Source



See also:

*Health Officials Report Rise in US Meningitis Deaths*
_ October 11, 2012: U.S. federal health officials say the number of deaths from an outbreak of rare fungal meningitis caused by a contaminated steroid has risen to 14._


> The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that there are 169 confirmed cases of the disease.  It says 90 percent of all patients who received the tainted medicine have been identified.  Officials say more than 50 vials of the steroid manufactured by the New England Compounding Center in Massachusetts have tested positive for the fungus.
> 
> They also say the company may have broken state law by making large batches of the steroid and selling it out of state.  Under Massachusetts law, compounding pharmacies are only permitted to make small doses of made-to-order prescription drugs.
> 
> The patients who have come down with meningitis were being treated for back pain.  Others patients were injected in the knee, neck, or ankle joints and are only at a slight risk for meningitis.  Health experts say they do not know how many people will actually become sick. They say it could take several months for a fungal infection to develop.
> 
> Meningitis is a disease infecting membranes protecting the brain and spinal cord.  There are five different types. Fungal meningitis is the rarest form.  Other types are caused by bacteria, a virus or a parasite.
> 
> Contaminated Steroid Injections Spotlight Role of Custom Drug Firms


----------



## waltky

Like Granny says, "It's the lil' things in life dat'll sneak up an' get ya...

*West Nile Surge Keeps Exterminator Busy*
_ October 15, 2012  Four years ago, the mosquitoes around Virginia resident Stephanie Samples house and neighborhood were voracious._


> They would get into the car and before you could shut the car doors," Sample says. "We would be driving and getting bitten by mosquitoes.  So she hired the Mosquito Squad to spray her yard. Damien Sanchez, who owns the pest control company, says the chemical spray not only kills mosquitoes, but has a long-term repellent effect as well.  Since he started his company five years ago, Sanchez says the demand for his services has increased considerably, especially this year.  Aided by a mild winter and rainy spring, West Nile disease has been confirmed in 48 U.S. states.  "Sales-wise, weve increased sales 10 times, Sanchez says.
> 
> That doesnt surprise mosquito expert Jorges Arias, a supervisor at the Fairfax County Health Department in Virginia.  The CDC [Centers for Disease Control] has reported over 3,100 cases in the U.S.," Arias says. "We have had over 130 fatalities so far.  Most people infected with West Nile have no symptoms and recover completely. About 20 percent get headaches, muscle pain and fever.  Then a percentage of that 20 percent could develop what we call neuroinvasive disease, it's either encephalitis or meningitis," Arias says. "Then these are much more serious. These people can go into coma. Then there is a certain percentage of these people that do die.
> 
> The entomologist speaks from experience. Arias contracted West Nile last year and was in a coma for six days. He came out of it with a neurological problem: he couldnt sit up or walk.  I received therapy for six months and then it took me four months to be able to walk again," he says, "and Im here walking.
> 
> Arias believes raising awareness about the disease is essential to preventing it. His office prepares and distributes dozens of publications showing people how to protect themselves and their family from West Nile.  Wear an insect repellent. Wear long, loose-fitting, light-colored clothing, because mosquitoes like dark clothing," he says. "Eliminate anything with water around your house. If you cant eliminate it, treat it.  That's because mosquitoes breed in standing water. And that means the mosquito control industry will likely stay very busy as the threat of West Nile Disease in the United States continues.
> 
> Source


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## waltky

Are pharmas gettin' rich off international malaria scheme?...

*Concern raised about finance scheme for malaria drugs*
_24 October 2012 - Combining drugs can reduce the risk of resistance_


> The charity Oxfam has cast doubt on an international scheme that aims to boost the provision of the most effective treatment for malaria.  The UK government has contributed £70m to the Affordable Medicines Facility for malaria (AMFm).  Oxfam says there is no evidence the programme has saved the lives of the most vulnerable people.  The body behind the AMFm says an independent study shows it has improved access and reduced drug prices.
> 
> The scheme was introduced three years ago by the Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria.  It acts as a global subsidy to provide greater access to combination therapy for malaria, particularly through private-sector drug retailers in developing countries.  The idea is to reduce the use of older treatments that carry a higher risk of resistance, and to untap the potential of the private sector in reaching remote communities.
> 
> More than 200 million people contract malaria every year and 655,000 die from the disease - most of them are young children.  The scheme is being piloted in seven countries including Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria. Its future will be considered at a meeting of the Global Fund's board next month.  Oxfam has criticised it as "risky and dangerous".
> 
> The charity's senior health policy advisor, Dr Mohga Kamal Yanni, said: "It is dangerous to put the lives of sick children in the hands of a shopkeeper with no medical training, and to pursue a scheme that doesn't help those people who need it the most.  "There is no cheap option or short cut to combat malaria.  "The AMFm is a dangerous distraction from genuine solutions like investing in community health workers, who have slashed the number of malarial deaths in countries such as Zambia and Ethiopia.  "The Global Fund board must act on the evidence and put a stop to the AMFm now."  The Global Fund said Oxfam's claims were "simply untrue".
> 
> More BBC News - Concern raised about finance scheme for malaria drugs



See also:

*Uganda Faces Fresh Outbreak of Hemorrhagic Fever*
_ October 24, 2012 &#8212; Uganda is struggling to contain the spread of the deadly Marburg virus, just weeks after an outbreak of Ebola killed at least 16 people._


> Last week, health officials declared an outbreak of the rare and deadly Marburg virus, a type of hemorrhagic fever similar to Ebola.  Five people have died so far, six have been placed in isolation and over 150 more are being monitored for symptoms.  One of the cases is being treated in the capital, Kampala.  The outbreak comes just two weeks after Uganda was declared free of Ebola earlier this month. At least 16 people died of Ebola, a virus which in the past has killed hundreds.
> 
> The cases of Marburg have all come from the southwestern district of Kabale, a heavily forested area where the vectors for the disease, monkeys and bats, are most commonly found.  Ministry of Health spokesperson Rukia Nakamatte says the medical team working to contain the outbreak has considerable experience handling such diseases, which have been recurring in Uganda for decades.  &#8220;There is a team of experts that is in Kabale district.  These are experts that have handled the previous outbreaks, like the Ebola we had in Gulu in 2000.  Most of these people are trained in handling patients of Ebola and Marburg," she said.
> 
> According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, this is the first outbreak of Marburg in Uganda since 2008, when a Dutch tourist died after visiting a cave filled with bats.  But in terms of the number of fatalities, the current outbreak is the most severe in Uganda since the first reported cases in the 1960s.  The Marburg virus kills around 80 percent of those infected.  It is highly contagious, and is spread through contact with bodily fluids.  Symptoms of the virus include fever and headache, followed by a skin rash and, eventually, severe hemorrhaging.
> 
> MORE


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## waltky

Outdated drugs have no affect on DR-malaria...

*Outdated Drugs Slow Nigerian Malaria Treatment*
_ October 25, 2012  A large percentage of people killed by malaria each year are in Nigeria, and the disease is the countrys number one killer of small children.  Health officials say modern life-saving drugs are available but the widespread use of out-dated drugs on a resistant strain of malaria continues to cost lives._


> In this hospital in Nigeria's Zamfara State, these small patients have malaria.  Mothers travel for hours to get to treatment for their children because there is no medicine in their villages.  "I brought the baby here because I noticed he had a high fever, and then he got diarrhea, explains a mother.  Aid workers say the current surge in malaria began over the summer, and patients continue to pour in.   "At the end of July, my team called me and said, Malaria exploded," says Chloe Wurr, a physician with Doctors Without Borders in the northern state of Sokoto. "We have so many children coming.  Some of them arrived and we could barely keep them alive.  They died before we could give them treatment."
> 
> Wurr says one out of every 10 children with severe malaria here dies, and that's with the best of care.   "Heath personnel are often very committed and want to help their community but they often dont have the resources to treat people," she said. "If I do find any treatment present, its usually that that health worker has gone to a local pharmacy and purchased a drug and the drug they are most likely to purchase is chloroquine.  The doctor says chloroquine can treat malaria in some countries.  But in Nigeria, the disease has been resistant to the drug since the 1980s.  There are drugs that have been effective against malaria in Nigeria for the past decade and they are known as ACTs.
> 
> However Doctors Without Borders says the vast majority of clinics they have visited in the country don't have them, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control says they are not available to most Nigerians.  The Nigerian government says its planning to increase ACT availability along with providing more bed-nets, which can keep the mosquitoes that transmit the disease from biting in the night.  But with the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) saying that 250,000 Nigerian children under the age of five die every year from malaria, aid workers claim the program has a long way to go.
> 
> Source


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## waltky

Malaria rates still high in Asia...

*Asia needs new response to malaria threat: experts*
_Sat, Nov 03, 2012 - DEADLY SCOURGE:Tougher political leadership and regionally coordinated action are needed against the parasite, which is becoming increasingly drug-resistant_


> Asia is hit with 30 million cases of malaria a year resulting in 42,000 deaths, a report said yesterday as experts called for an urgent response to the disease that stalks billions in the region.  Most international efforts to defeat malaria have so far been concentrated on Africa, where the majority of the 650,000 worldwide deaths occur.  However, out of the 3.3 billion people at risk from the mosquito-borne disease, 2.5 billion live outside the African region  mostly in Asia, where growing resistance to the frontline drug treatment is also causing concern.  Leading scientists and health experts meeting in Sydney this week at the Malaria 2012: Saving Lives in the Asia-Pacific conference flagged the need for tougher political leadership and regional coordination.
> 
> Fatoumata Nafo-Traore, director of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, the global framework for coordinated action against the disease, called for a renewed focus in Asia, which has the second-highest malaria burden after Africa.  In the face of persistent economic uncertainty and profound changes in the landscape of global development aid, the region needs strong political leadership, she said.  It also needs to develop financing strategies that include substantive and sustained domestic investment, traditional multilateral and bilateral aid, and truly innovative sources of funding, Nafo-Traore added.
> 
> She was speaking at the launch of a new report, Defeating Malaria in Asia, the Pacific, Americas, Middle East and Europe, a joint initiative with the WHO.  It showed that the parasite threatens more than 2 billion people each year in the Asia-Pacific region, while smaller numbers are at risk in the Americas (160 million) and Middle East (250 million).  There were about 34 million cases of malaria outside Africa in 2010, claiming the lives of an estimated 46,000 people.
> 
> The Asia-Pacific, which includes 20 malaria-endemic countries, accounted for 88 percent, or 30 million, of these cases and 91 percent, or 42,000, of the deaths.  India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Myanmar and Papua New Guinea were hardest hit.  Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr, who attended the three-day Sydney conference, yesterday pledged US$100 million over the next four years to fight the scourge in the Asia-Pacific.  Malaria does not respect borders, he said. Our focus must be on cross-regional action alongside traditional single-country strategies.
> 
> MORE


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## waltky

Doctors: West Nile Virus May Have Dangerously Mutated...

*Hints of a more virulent, mutating West Nile virus emerge*
_Nov 9, 2012 - But CDC says it hasn't seen evidence of that_


> Last month, Leis asked a Food and Drug Administration scientist who studies the genetics of the virus whether a new, more virulent strain was circulating.  You are absolutely right .&#8201;.&#8201;. that new genetic variants of WNV might have appeared this year, the scientist replied in an Oct. 23 e-mail obtained by The Washington Post. The scientist continued that it is not easy to correlate the new mutations with any specific type of brain damage.   Thirty minutes after Leis *received the message, another *e-mail from the same scientist arrived. It said the previous message had been recalled.
> 
> When contacted by phone, the FDA scientist, who works at the agencys Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, declined to discuss the messages, saying that his superiors had instructed him not to talk to reporters.  In an e-mail, FDA spokeswoman Heidi Rebello said that the agency is studying the genetics of West Nile viruses collected from 270 blood donors this year but that it is premature for us to draw any conclusions about new genetic variants .&#8201;.&#8201;. or of any possible association of new genetic variants with increased virulence.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Reuters - West Nile virus, spread by mosquitoes, can lead to inflammation of the brain, damaging its speech, language and thinking centers.
> 
> West Nile virus, made of error-prone RNA instead of the hardier DNA found in human cells, can evolve rapidly. In 2002, a new strain appeared that quickly churns out copies of itself inside mosquitoes. This fast-replicating version swiftly replaced the earlier dominant variety.  In 2003, another genetic variant, now dubbed the Southwestern strain, appeared in New Mexico and Arizona.  The West Nile virus, first described in Uganda in 1937, arrived in New York City in 1999, killing eight in the city. Infected birds transmit the virus to mosquitoes, which then infect people, who cannot infect one another. By 2003, the virus had crossed the country.
> 
> So far this year, health authorities have reported more than 5,000 cases of West Nile illness and 228 deaths in 48 states, with Texas, California, Illinois and Michigan having the most cases. The CDC has classified about half of the illnesses as neuroinvasive  meaning the virus has gotten into the spinal cord or brain, causing encephalitis or other brain ailments. Thats the most dangerous type of illness caused by West Nile virus. In the other cases, patients come down with fevers or other flulike symptoms.
> 
> MORE


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## 52ndStreet

waltky said:


> Preventing ebola...
> 
> *Critical Protein Discovery Could Help Prevent Lethal Ebola Virus*
> _August 25, 2011 - An international team of scientists has discovered a biochemical route used by the deadly Ebola virus to infect human cells._
> 
> 
> 
> Scientists say the discovery points the way to new drugs that could prevent or treat one of the worlds most lethal viral diseases.  The Ebola hemorrhagic virus, which got its name from the central African river near where the disease first emerged in 1976, kills an estimated 90 percent of the people and non-human primates it infects.
> 
> The disease causes very high fever, both internal and external bleeding, and has led to thousands of deaths in many sub-Saharan African countries, including Gabon, Sudan, the Ivory Coast and Uganda, since the first reported outbreak 35 years ago.  Although considered a rare disease, Ebola causes panic whenever there is an outbreak, in part because little is known about where the illness comes from or how it spreads.
> 
> Experts believe infected bats may be one source of these sporadic occurrences of Ebola, and the disease is then spread from person to person through tainted body fluids or blood.  To better understand the biology of Ebola, a team of researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, the Whitehead Institute at MIT and the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases studied how the virus actually infects cells.
> 
> Kartik Chandran, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Albert Einstein, is a senior author of the study.  The critical step that we were studying is what we call viral entry," Chandran explained.  "And its basically the step that results in the virus getting into the cytoplasm where the [genetic] goodies are for making copies of itself.  Researchers looked at normal cell proteins that the Ebola virus might be hijacking, in effect, to get inside and infect mammalian cells.  Investigators focused on one protein in particular - called Neimann-Pick C1  or NPC1.
> 
> MORE
Click to expand...


The next killer disease to visti America. Ebola.
You don't have to travel to the third world to get it, it will eventually come here to America.


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## waltky

Experimental malaria vaccine shows disappointing results...

*Experimental Malaria Vaccine Falls Short*
_ November 09, 2012 - The world's first experimental malaria vaccine produced disappointing results in a large-scale test among African infants, raising questions about its potential for fighting the disease._


> The vaccine, promoted as a new weapon in the malaria fight, reduced the risk of malaria by only 30 percent. The study involved more than 6,500 babies aged six to 12 weeks.  The results, released Friday, showed the vaccine providing less than half the protection it did in a previous smaller trial involving infants. The report said the "modest protection" the vaccine, which is also known as RTS,S or Mosquirix, has been provided in this latest trial was also lower than the 50 percent reported last year among older children.
> 
> Dr. Jennifer Cohn, a doctor with Doctors Without Borders, told the Associated Press that the vaccine&#8217;s effectiveness was &#8220;unacceptably low.&#8221;  Vaccinating babies is seen as a more cost effective way of battling the disease since it could be added to the regimen of other infant vaccinations.  Billionaire Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, whose foundation is helping fund the vaccine, said the effectiveness rate came back lower than hoped.
> 
> But the top British drug manufacturer developing the vaccine, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), will continue its efforts. Chief executive Andrew Witty said the drugmaker remains convinced the vaccine has a role to play in tackling malaria.  &#8220;We&#8217;ve been at this for 30 years, and we&#8217;re certainly not going to give up now, he said during a conference call with reporters.
> 
> The company, which has invested $300 million in the drug, does not expect to profit from the drug, which will be sold only in poor countries.  &#8220;The results look bad now, but they will probably be worse later,&#8221; said Adrian Hill of Oxford University to the Associated Press.  The results were released during a conference in South Africa Friday as part of a continuing study that will end in 2014.  The World Health Organization estimates that more than 650,000 people die from the mosquito-borne illness each year. The vast majority are children in sub-Saharan Africa.
> 
> Source



See also:

*In Nigeria, Time Running Out for Kids Poisoned by Lead*
_ November 09, 2012 &#8212; The medical aid group Doctors Without Borders estimates that 1,500 children are suffering from lead poisoning in a northern Nigerian village, and can not be treated until the lead is cleaned up.  The organization says if the cleanup does not begin soon, it may not be able to treat the children when, or if the cleanup ever happens._


> In the quiet village of Bagega, in northern Nigeria, the children were exposed when small-scale gold mining near the village released poisonous lead dust into the air.  Hours away at a café in the capital, Abuja, Doctors Without Borders humanitarian affairs officer Hosanna Fox says it is not just medical workers that are alarmed.  "All the state agencies, all the community leaders, people that are involved in various aspects of mining.  They&#8217;re all joining forces with one message: There&#8217;s no more time left," Fox explains. "Children are suffering and dying from lead poisoning.  Further government delay will have catastrophic effects for a group of children that have already been victims for two years.&#8221;
> 
> Fox says cleanup of the lead is possible, and the government set aside more than $4 million in May for the project, but the money is tied up in the bureaucracy.  She says unless the money is released by the middle of this month, there won't be enough time to complete the cleanup before the rainy season begins in April or May.  If the cleanup is delayed until next year, she says, the treatment of the children will have to be delayed too, because treatment cannot be successful if lead dust is still in the environment.
> 
> Fox says Doctors Without Borders will not commit to taking Bagega children into the group's lead poison treatment program unless the cleanup begins soon.  &#8220;We&#8217;ve had really great success medically, but unfortunately we can&#8217;t wait indefinitely for the government of Nigeria to take action and at some point we will have to put limitations on our commitment,&#8221;  he warns.  The Zamfara lead poisoning outbreak began in 2010 and has been called the largest in recorded history.  Hundreds of children died and others continue to suffer long-term mental and emotional problems and disabilities like paralysis and cerebral palsy.  Aid workers say lead poisoning also affects adults in Zamfara state but treatment is not available.
> 
> MORE


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## waltky

107 Dead In Sudan Yellow Fever Outbreak...

*WHO: 107 dead from yellow fever in Sudan*
_November 13. 2012 - Sudan is working on an emergency vaccination drive for yellow fever, which is spreading._


> A yellow fever outbreak in Sudan's Darfur region has killed 107 people in the last six weeks, the World Health Organization reported Tuesday, warning that the disease could spread all over the country.  The number of deaths from the outbreak is steadily rising, and Sudan is working on an emergency vaccination drive. Officials reported last week that 67 people had died in the outbreak.  There is no medicinal cure for yellow fever, which is spread by mosquitoes. Doctors treat the main symptoms  dehydration, fever, bleeding and vomiting  and wait for the viral infection to pass.  The WHO estimates that more than 500 million people in 32 countries in Africa are at risk of yellow fever infection.
> 
> As part of the emergency response program, 2.4 million doses of the yellow fever vaccine are scheduled to arrive in the Sudanese capital next week, Dr. Anshu Banerjee of the WHO office in Sudan told the Associated Press by phone on Tuesday.  More than 350 suspected cases of yellow fever have been reported in Darfur since late September, and more than 30% of people showing symptoms have died, according to a WHO statement.  Around 70% are under 29 years old, according to a statement released Monday by the Sudanese Health Ministry and the WHO.
> 
> Banerjee warned that yellow fever cases are "definitely spreading" to new areas of the remote region of Darfur, where Sudan's government has been battling rebel groups since 2003. More than 300,000 people have been killed in the conflict, and health care services are not available to many residents as a result of the turmoil.  He said that while no yellow fever cases have been found outside Darfur, the WHO is planning a risk assessment in the next two weeks on the assumption that all areas in Sudan may be at risk of infection.  Banerjee said that Darfur's heavy rainy season this year created additional breeding sites for the disease-carrying mosquitos.  Sudan's last outbreak of yellow fever killed 160 people in the South Kordofan region in 2005.
> 
> WHO: 107 dead from yellow fever in Sudan



See also:

*Study Reveals Need to Tailor Vaccines to Developing World*
_ November 13, 2012  The research arm of Doctors Without Borders reports vaccines created for industrialized countries are not being adapted for use in the developing world, meaning that millions of children born each year could be receiving less-effective vaccines, or missing out on the basic vaccination package._


> The results of a new study by Epicentre, the research division of Doctors Without Borders, have added to what the group calls a growing body of evidence that vaccines may not be one-size-fits-all.  Rebecca Grais, director of Epidemiology and Population Health at Epicentre, says vaccines against life-threatening diseases must be modified for use in Africa if they are to protect children.  "We want to make sure that the living vaccine and the vaccines that we do have are both adapted to the population where we are working, in presentation and composition, and we want them to be as easy to use as possible for both the mother and for the health infrastructure," she said.
> 
> Many areas in Africa don't have access to adequate refrigeration or electricity to keep vaccines stored at proper temperatures. Bad roads and other logistical issues make getting the vaccines out to communities a challenge. And the vaccines are not always easy to use or administer in proper doses.  Grais said these factors must all be taken into consideration during the development and testing phases of a vaccine.  She and her team spent two years looking at the incidence of diarrhea among more than 10,000 children under the age of five in Niger. Diarrhea is one of the leading causes of child mortality in Africa and is often caused by an infection known as rotavirus.
> 
> Epicentre says the two available vaccines for rotavirus were developed and tested in industrialized countries where they have been found to be 90 percent effective. However, those same vaccines are estimated to be only 50 to 60 percent effective when used in Africa and Asia.  "Theres been great success in the U.S. and Europe with, in particular, two currently available rotavirus vaccines," said Grais.  "We've seen a great decline in the incidence of rotavirus and of course subsequently severe rotavirus gastroenteritis, which may lead to death, and so this has been a success.  So the question is: how can we use these vaccines in the best way in the areas of the world with the highest diarrheal burden, which is sub-Saharan Africa?"
> 
> Grais said that while their study focused on the rotavirus vaccine, its findings are relevant to vaccinations in general.  Epicentre has launched two additional studies looking at alternative methods to deliver tetanus vaccine in Chad and the vaccine for pneumococcal disease in Uganda.  Researchers hope the findings will further convince pharmaceutical companies that they need to tailor vaccines to the challenges of the developing world.
> 
> Source


----------



## waltky

Polio almost gone the way of smallpox...

* Polio Mostly Eradicated Globally*
_ November 15, 2012 - But pockets of the disease remain in South Asia and Africa_


> The global scourge of polio has been virtually eradicated, reaching historically low numbers this year.  But pockets of the disease remain in South Asia and Africa because of the refusal of some parents to immunize their children.  International public health officials counted 177 polio cases worldwide for the first ten months of this year.  Thats a drop from just over 500 cases in 2011.  Public health officials credit the drop to successful immunization campaigns against the illness, which attacks the nervous system and can cause partial or total paralysis.  The malady has disappeared from most countries where it was once epidemic.  For example, in India, there have been no cases of polio reported in two years.
> 
> But in neighboring Pakistan and Afghanistan, and in Nigeria, West Africa, reservoirs of the viral illness remain. Experts say that is due to the refusal of many parents to vaccinate their children against the infection.  Anita Zaidi is head of pediatrics at Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan. She says intensive public health efforts are underway to vaccinate children against polio.  But she says the gains are fragile in some areas and among some ethnic groups, particularly among the country's Pashtun community.
> 
> Zaidi says seventy-four percent of Pashtun children go unvaccinated because many parents believe the immunization is harmful.  They believe that it can cause sterility in their children or that its a conspiracy to sterilize Muslim populations so that their population growth falls, or they believe in the ..value of a vaccine so they think its not harmful but it wont do anything so why take it," she said.  Polio is acquired through contact with feces-contaminated water.  Often, Zaidi says, infected children dont develop symptoms right away so they are unaware that they are exposing other children to the disease. This scenario is common in very dense urban slums, where the availability of clean water is low.
> 
> But polio is easily preventable with a series of oral vaccines beginning in infancy.  Zaidi says the key to a successful vaccination campaign in these pockets of polio infection is to engage members of the community to help.  So that is you have a refusal, [so] you get somebody from that community that youve built up trust with, that the community has built up trust with, and you get them to talk to the family," she said.  Pediatrician Anita Zaidi presented a progress report on polio eradication efforts at a meeting this week of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in Atlanta, Georgia.
> 
> Polio Mostly Eradicated Globally


----------



## waltky

Controlling malaria outbreaks with new test...

*Test Could Revolutionize Malaria Treatment*
_ November 29, 2012 - A new diagnostic test could revolutionize the treatment of malaria, one of the worlds most persistent and deadly diseases, making it possible to diagnose the illness from a single drop of blood or saliva._


> The test, developed by researchers at Aarhus University in Denmark, detects very low levels of an enzyme produced by the Plasmodium parasite, the organism that causes malaria. This could allow intervention before an outbreak develops, researchers say.  The great advantage of our method is that we can test for malaria using saliva samples and the the detection limit is very low - less than one parasite per microliter, said Birgitta Knudsen, an associate professor at Aarhus Universitys Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Centre and the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics. This means that it will be possible to also screen non-symptomatic individuals and discover cases with very low parasite concentrations. Hence, it will be possible to treat even mildly infected patients and thereby prevent outbreaks before it is too late.
> 
> The two most common forms of malaria testing both require blood samples, and there are drawbacks to each. One requires a skilled technician to test the blood, while the other cannot detect low levels of the parasite, Knudsen said.  The new method, which uses a technology called REEAD (Rolling Circle-Enhanced Enzyme Activity Detection), could prove more time- and cost-effective than current diagnostic methods, and could be performed by personnel who have no specialized training. It could also be used in developing areas, where expensive equipment, clean water and electricity might not be readily available.
> 
> Knudsen said the team hopes to conduct extensive field testing in about two years.  The Danish team was assisted by molecular biologists, doctors, engineers and statisticians at various universities around the world including Duke University, the University of Rome, the University of St. Andrews and the University of Lyon.  The World Health Organization estimates that more than 650,000 people die from malaria each year. The vast majority are children in sub-Saharan Africa.  Earlier this month British drug manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline, revealed disappointing results for what would be the worlds first vaccination against the mosquito-borne disease.
> 
> Source


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## waltky

Yellow Fever outbreak in Sudan prompts vaccination drive...

*Sudan Begins Emergency Vaccinations to Fight Yellow Fever Outbreak*
_ December 07, 2012  Sudans Federal Ministry of Health is organizing an emergency mass vaccination campaign against mosquito-borne yellow fever in the Darfur region. The latest figures from the World Health Organization put the number of suspected cases of yellow fever at 732, including 165 deaths._


> This is the worst yellow fever epidemic to strike Africa in two decades. The last outbreak 20 years ago, also was in Sudan. At that time, 604 cases, with 156 deaths were reported in South Kordofan state, the epicenter of the disease. Given the number of cases and deaths reported in Darfur, the World Health Organization notes the current epidemic already has surpassed the last one.
> 
> WHO reports the emergency-response vaccination campaign will cover 5.5 million people. It is being conducted in three phases. The first phase of the campaign began November 21 to cover 2.2 million people in 12 districts with the highest number of cases.
> 
> Targeting Cities
> 
> The second phase of the campaign aims to reach 1.2 million people and is to start next week. Vaccines are due to arrive in Sudan on Sunday and will cover urban areas.  WHO Representative in Sudan, Dr. Anshu Banerjee, said people in urban areas are more vulnerable to getting Yellow Fever than are people in rural areas. He explained this is because the disease is quickly transmitted from mosquitoes to humans in the cities, whereas in the rural areas, monkeys are the reservoir of the virus and the spread is slower.
> 
> Banerjee said an additional 2.2 million people will be vaccinated in a third round in all other districts where positive cases are found.  The challenges mainly are to reach the remote areas, partly because of transportation - no roads, etcetera, and also because of insecurity, because of high risk of hijacking of cars, etcetera," said Banerjee. "So, transport modalities, which are being used now are like using donkeys to transport vaccines, which takes about eight to 10 hours for people to transport vaccines to remote areas.
> 
> *Nomads hit hard*


----------



## waltky

Granny says, "Dat's right - dey need to spend more money on public health...

*Tools to Fight Infectious Diseases Rely on Public Health Programs*
_ December 14, 2012  WASHINGTON  Epidemics have sickened and killed millions of people throughout history. HIV/AIDS has claimed 25 million lives since it was first identified in 1981. It's one of the new infectious diseases, but much older diseases still cause countless deaths and suffering: cholera, yellow fever, tuberculosis and malaria, to name a few._


> A simple bite from a mosquito can end someone's life or change it forever. A sneeze, a handshake or even sharing of a desk can do the same thing. That's how H1N1 - or swine flu - spread around the world a few years ago. Infectious diseases such as malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis are among the leading causes of death globally. Diarrheal diseases like cholera kill more than 100,000 people every year. Haiti and the Dominican Republic say they need $2 billion to fight the cholera epidemic that first erupted in 2010. Since then, it has killed nearly 8,000 people and sickened more than half a million.
> 
> At a Washington symposium, leading U.S. health experts met to discuss the challenge of confronting persistent and newly-emerging infectious diseases. Dr. Anthony Fauci, with the National Institutes of Health, said most of these diseases result from the fact that as human populations grow, people come into closer contact with animals.  "When you have encroachment upon the environment, and you put humans in greater contact with animals that they would not have been in contact with, often that is one of, not the only, but one of the major contributors to the issue of emerging infectious diseases," said Fauci.
> 
> New threats, better tools
> 
> New infectious diseases also emerge when bacteria or viruses mutate and no longer respond to drugs that once killed them. An example is drug-resistant tuberculosis. Other factors include climate change or the expanded habitat of an infectious agent.  Dengue is now found in half the countries of the world. It's caused by a bite from a mosquito infected with the virus.  While these threats are great, we now have better tools to fight these diseases, said Dr. Thomas Frieden, head of the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:  "Weve got new technology, weve got better communication, weve got better lab work, more people who are trained," he said.
> 
> Vaccines prove crucial
> 
> This means less time elapses between the discovery of a new disease, identifying its genetic makeup and developing drugs or a vaccine to protect against it.  "Immunization is really one of the great discoveries of the past century. Todays vaccines prevent about three million deaths every single year. And the vaccines that are being rolled out can prevent millions more," said Frieden.  Controlling these diseases depends on the continued vigilance of public health systems throughout the world. A recent study found that weaknesses in public health infrastructure are the major driving factors in infectious disease outbreaks. A case in point: the cholera outbreak in Haiti after the massive 2010 earthquake destroyed the country's ability to care for its sick.
> 
> Source



See also:

*Cheap vitamin D 'would boost health'*
_14 December 2012 - Greater access to cheap vitamin D supplements would improve the health of at-risk groups, experts say._


> The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) says up to 25% of UK children are vitamin D deficient, leading to a rise in rickets cases.  In the BBC's Scrubbing Up column, the college's Prof Mitch Blair called for concerted action to tackle the problem.  The government said those with the greatest need already received free supplements.  The RCPCH said other options to increase vitamin D levels, such as fortifying a wider range of foods, should be considered.  Half of the UK's white population, and up to 90% of the black and Asian people in the country are thought to be affected by vitamin D deficiency.
> 
> The first signs of deficiency include muscle and bone pain as well as swelling around the wrists and ribs.  A lack of the nutrient is linked to a higher incidence of diabetes, tuberculosis, multiple sclerosis as well as rickets - a disease that causes bones to become soft and deformed.  The number of cases of rickets has been rising, from 183 in 1996 to 762 in 2011.  In January this year, the chief medical officer for England, Dame Sally Davies, recommended all pregnant and breastfeeding women, children aged six months to five-years-old and the over-65s should take vitamin D supplements.
> 
> 'Short supply'
> 
> Writing in Scrubbing Up, Prof Blair said: "Vitamin D can be found in some foods such as oily fish, eggs and mushrooms - but only 10% of a person's recommended daily amount is found naturally in food.  "Put bluntly, eating more fish and getting out in the sun a bit more won't make much of a difference to your vitamin D levels."  The RCPCH is also calling for a public awareness campaign to raise awareness of the warning signs of vitamin D deficiency and how to prevent it, and more research into the link between vitamin D deficiency and bone disease.  It says this is needed to help investigations into bone injuries in children.
> 
> Prof Blair added: "The government's Healthy Start programme provides vitamins free to low income families and 'at risk' groups.  "But these vitamins appear to be in short supply and uptake is low. Ensuring people are aware they're available is crucial."  The college is to produce leaflets in a bid to raise awareness of vitamin D deficiency among the profession.  In addition, the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) is looking into proposals for further fortification of food and drink, as happens in countries including the US, Canada and Finland.
> 
> *'Best placed'*


----------



## waltky

Progress against malaria could be lost to funding cuts...

* Malaria Programs at Risk From Funding Cuts*
_December 21, 2012 - World Health Organization also warns in its annual report that latest drugs could soon become ineffective against some deadly malarial parasites_


> Funding for programs to control malaria and provide universal treatment for the mosquito-borne disease is falling short of international goals, according to the World Health Organization. In its annual report, the WHO also warns that the latest drugs could soon become ineffective against some deadly malarial parasites.    Ami Diabate, has brought her three children to a rural clinic to get the latest anti-malarial drugs.  The aid agency Médecins Sans Frontières - or Doctors Without Borders - is rolling out the pilot program across Mali. Results are encouraging - a 65-percent drop in infections a week after distribution.
> 
> Deadly disease
> 
> Diabate said she has noticed an immediate difference.  "My children used to have fevers regularly, she said, but since they started taking this medicine, they haven't run a temperature."  Malaria kills an estimated 660,000 people every year. Over the past decade, advances in prevention and treatment have cut the death rate by 30 percent.  The World Health Organization warns, however, that funding increases over the past two years have slowed significantly - putting such progress at risk.  Simon Wright is head of child survival at the aid agency, Save the Children.  The financial crisis means that a lot of governments - not all by any means - but a lot of governments are tailing off in their aid budgets. And so where we were seeing growth were not seeing growth any more. But also theres a factor of maybe donors changing their interests, said Wright.
> 
> Short on supplies
> 
> In 2011, international donors made $2.3 billion available to fight malaria - less than half the $5.1 billion that the WHO says is needed annually.  The money goes toward some simple tools, said Professor Sir Brian Greenwood of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.  One of those is the humble bed-net, which people have been using for hundreds of years. But the relatively new advance has been in treating the nets with insecticide. Now, the insecticide is actually incorporated into the material, he said.  The number of insecticide-impregnated nets delivered to sub-Saharan Africa fell from 145 million in 2010 to 66 million in 2012. Indoor spraying programs also have leveled off.
> 
> Increased resistance
> 
> Greenwood said the greatest concern is the growing resistance of the malarial parasite to the latest medicines known as artemisinins.  We do have now quite clear evidence that there is resistance to the artemisinins, particularly in Cambodia, but probably in the neighboring countries. Fortunately not yet in Africa, but it would be a disaster if those parasites got loose in Africa, and our main treatment was failing again, like it did with chloroquin, he said.  Until an effective malaria vaccine is developed and made available globally, researchers say it is vital that donors continue to fund prevention and treatment programs that have made such progress until now.
> 
> Source


----------



## waltky

GM mosquitoes to help stop the spread of disease...

*Can genetically modified mosquitoes prevent disease in the US?*
_4 January 2013 - Insecticides are the standard method used worldwide to combat mosquitoes carrying dengue fever_


> After a summer of record-high temperatures in the US in 2012, health officials are still dealing with the repercussions of mosquito-borne diseases. Could genetically-modified insects halt their spread?  The year 2012 ended with an ignoble distinction. According to the United States' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP), it was the worst year for West Nile virus since 2003.  The CDCP says record-high temperatures could well have helped the mosquitoes that transmit the disease to thrive.
> 
> At the same time, new outbreaks of dengue fever on the Mexican side of the Texas-Mexico border had US officials worried that the virus would slowly spread north.  And experts fear that in 2013, it's only going to get worse.  A British company, Oxitec, has come up with a plan to control the bugs and combat dengue fever. Its scientists have designed genetically modified mosquitoes that have one mission - to kill off the rest of their species.  But is the plan too radical for its own good?
> 
> A growing problem
> 
> The World Health Organization says dengue ranks as the most important mosquito-borne viral disease in the world. In the last 50 years, incidence has increased 30-fold.  It is now endemic in Puerto Rico and in many popular tourist destinations in Latin America and South East Asia.  West Nile virus was first identified in Africa in the 1930s, before spreading out from there and appearing in North America in 1999. It is now widely established from Canada to Venezuela.  Climate change and globalisation could be major factors behind the increase in mosquito-borne diseases in the US and elsewhere.
> 
> Walter Tabachnick, director of the Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory at the University of Florida, says warmer and wetter conditions can make it easier for some mosquitoes to multiply and spread disease.  "Viruses replicate more quickly in mosquitoes and are transmitted more easily when average air temperatures rise and increased rainfall in normally dry areas creates more water pools where mosquitoes can thrive," Mr Tabachnick adds.  At the same time, greater and faster movement of humans and cargo allows more infected people and mosquitoes to come into contact with previously unaffected populations and areas.
> 
> In the US the current method of keeping mosquito populations under control is to spray their larvae with pesticides.  This method is only effective when the larvae can actually be found and reached by the spray. Unsprayed eggs can survive for months before hatching. Meanwhile, resistance to the pesticides among mosquitoes is rising.  Pest-control authorities say spraying can therefore be highly labour intensive, inefficient and expensive.  Enter Oxitec, and their genetically modified mosquitoes.
> 
> *'Suicide bombers'*


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## waltky

Progress in Fight Against 17 Tropical Diseases...

*WHO Reports Progress in Fight Against Tropical Diseases*
_ January 16, 2013  The eradication of some of the worlds neglected tropical diseases is in sight, according to the World Health Organization. The U.N. agency said in a report issued Wednesday that a new global strategy enacted in 2010 is resulting in unprecedented progress against 17 such diseases._


> The regular supply of quality assured, cost-effective medicines and support from global partners is at the heart of the new global strategy.  In the past two years, millions of people afflicted with 17 of the worlds neglected tropical diseases have benefited from receiving regular treatment.  The World Health Organization says this achievement is giving new momentum to efforts to eliminate these conditions.  The director of WHOs Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases, Lorenzo Savioli, says WHO is preparing a road map for the elimination, eradication or control of particular diseases between 2015 and 2020.
> 
> He says much of the success of the global strategy is based upon the widespread delivery of safe drugs to treat these ailments.  We have the evidence that over 700 million treatments were delivered regularly every year to the people in need, to the poorest people in the poorest sections of the world. Of the best treatment for the poorest people are delivered every year in a regular way," Savioli said. "In Africa for instance, 36 out of 44 countries have readied plans to implement programs and these programs are expanding progressively and the political commitment from these countries is very much improving.
> 
> WHO is targeting the global eradication of guinea worm disease in 2015 and yaws in 2020.  The report outlines six targets set for the elimination of five diseases in 2015 and another 10 targets for nine diseases for 2020, either globally or in selected geographical areas.  WHO estimates that up to 200 million people are infected with schistosomiasis, a major parasitic disease, in parts of South America, Asia and Africa.  It kills about 280,000 people every year in sub-Saharan Africa.
> 
> In the next five years, WHO projects treatment for schistosomiasis will reach 235 million people.  The United Nations health agency says increasing the availability of donated medicines and improving distribution at the country level will make this possible.  Mario Ottiglio is associate director of Global Health Policy for the International Federation for Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Association.  He says that last year his industry announced the donation of 14 billion treatments to control or eliminate nine NTDs responsible for 90 percent of the total disease burden.
> 
> MORE


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## waltky

New skin cream to counter sand fly parasite...

*Newly Developed Skin Cream Cures Parasitic Illness*
_ February 06, 2013 - The painless but disfiguring lesions of cutaneous leishmaniasis, caused by the bite of a sand fly, may soon be treatable with an antibiotic cream.  Developed by an international team of researchers, the cream would replace lengthy and painful drug treatments for the disease, commonly known as CL, in subtropical and temperate climates._


> Right now, treatment for CL involves a 20-day course of drugs which contain toxic heavy metals that must be injected directly into a vein at hospitals and clinics.  Public health workers in developing countries report some people infected with cutaneous leishmaniasis have tried to burn their disfiguring lesions with battery acid or red hot machetes rather than seek the medical treatment, which is painful, expensive and lengthy.  But CL patients could soon be treated with an antibiotic cream applied directly to the open sores.  Major Mara Kreishman-Deitrick of the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases is a lead author of a study of two antibiotic creams - one containing the drugs paromomycin and gentimicin and the other, paromomycin alone.
> 
> In a clinical trial of 375 people infected with CL in Tunisia, Kreishman-Deitrick says both creams, applied once a day for 20 days, led to a significant reduction in the size of the sores and improvements in skin regrowth after one hundred days.  What we showed in our study, which we are very excited about, was that both creams that we tested cured more than 80 percent of the lesions in the patients that were treated, with a great safety profile," said Kreishman-Deitrick. "The side effects that we saw were mild and moderate and primarily just minor skin reactions around the application site.  Further studies will be conducted to determine whether the cream actually kills the CL parasite, which is why investigators waited six months to see whether there was a flare-up of the treated lesions.
> 
> The Tunisian trial involved infection with L. major, a parasitic species carried by the sand fly in parts of the Middle East and North Africa.  However, Kreishman-Deitrick is optimistic the combination antibiotic cream will treat CL in other regions of the world.  Our animal data and preliminary clinical data show that we could see more of a difference in other species of leishmaniasis in parts of the world like Central and South America," she said.  An estimated 1.5 million cases of CL are diagnosed each year, including among U.S. military personnel serving abroad.
> 
> Service men and women infected with leishmaniasis currently have to return home for treatment.  Kreishman-Dietrick says the cream would allow them to be treated on site.  Because cutaneous leishmaniasis is considered a neglected tropical disease, Kreishman-Dietrick says U.S. regulators have put consideration of the highly-effective cream on a fast track for approval.  An article on the topical treatment for cutaneous leishmaniasis by researchers at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute, the Tunisian Ministry of Health and investigators at the Instituts Pasteur in Tunis and in Paris is published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
> 
> Newly Developed Skin Cream Cures Parasitic Illness


----------



## waltky

Potentially harmful virus missing from a lab at U-Texas Medical Branch...

*Missing virus vial raises concerns at UTMB facility*
_March 24, 2013 | Guanarito is an emerging disease that has caused deadly outbreaks in Venezuela_


> A vial containing a potentially harmful virus has gone missing from a laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch, officials said.  The missing vial, which contains less than a quarter of a teaspoon of an infectious disease, had been stored in a locked freezer designed to handle biological material safely in the Galveston National Laboratory on UTMB's campus, officials said.  During a routine internal inspection last week, UTMB officials realized one vial of a virus called Guanarito was not accounted for at the facility.  Scott Weaver, the laboratory's scientific director, said Guanarito is an emerging disease that has caused deadly outbreaks in Venezuela.  The federal government prioritizes it for research because it has the potential to be used a weapon by terrorists.  On Tuesday, an investigator discovered that only four out of five vials were stored of the virus in the grid system. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was notified immediately.
> 
> Wrongdoing unlikely
> 
> Lab officials searched but have not been able to locate the other vial.  UTMB said that there was no breach in the facility's security and no indication that any wrongdoing was involved, according to the statement. Weaver said it was possible a vial could have stuck to a figure or a glove and fallen to the floor of the laboratory.  "The only way it could pose a risk is if it were stolen and that's unlikely," Weaver said.  This marks the first time that any vial containing a select agent has been unaccounted for at UTMB, officials said.  "We don't think anything that happened this past week endangers the community," Weaver said. "We think this is an error that any one facility is inevitable and we are going to improve to prevent this in the future."  Officials suspect that the virus was likely destroyed during the normal laboratory decontamination and cleaning process, but the investigation is ongoing.
> 
> Venezuelan disease
> 
> Weaver said those trusted to use the laboratory go through a rigorous security screening and training program. He said the lab is reviewing the procedures for maintaining inventory records and hope to implement a new system to help eliminate human error from the process, which would use electronically encoded system to automatically check inventory based on the vials' labels.  Guanarito is native only to Venezuela and can cause hemorrhagic fever. The virus is not known to be transmitted person-to-person and poses no public health risk, according to officials. In the limited area of Venezuela where the virus is found, it is transmitted only by rodents native to the area and is not believe to be capable of surviving naturally in rodents in the United States.
> 
> Lab opened in 2009
> 
> Weaver said Guanarito is probably largely unknown to people in the U.S. and elsewhere, and the federal government does not believe it's one of the most likely viruses sought after by terrorists.  The Galveston National Laboratory has been active since 2009 and the researchers work to control infectious diseases to provide a resource to develop therapies, vaccines and diagnostic tests for naturally occurring emerging diseases as well as microbes that might be employed by terrorists, according to its website.
> 
> Source


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## waltky

Konzo is a crippling neuromotor disease...

*Researchers: Konzo Impacts Brain Function*
_ March 28, 2013 - Konzo is a crippling disease found mostly in Central and East Africa, and affecting mainly children. Now, an international team of researchers has found that it can affect the brains as well as the bodies of its young victims._


> Konzo is essentially a result of cyanide poisoning. The cyanide comes from a staple food, a starchy tuber called bitter cassava, when it is not properly prepared. The name konzo comes from the Yaka language and means tied legs. And there is no cure.  Its irreversible neuromotor damage, explains Michael J. Boivin, PhD, MPH, of Michigan State University. It describes some of the abnormalities in walking and movement of the lower limbs, with the toes pointing in, distention of the heels and of the knees that tends to describe the initial onset of the disease.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A boy sells Cassava leaves at a market in Bunagana, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
> 
> Since konzo is a neurological disease, Boivin wanted to see whether it was affecting brain function as well as control of the victims lower limbs. So he and his colleagues gave standardized tests to konzo-afflicted children in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as to children in the same communities who had no outward signs of the disease.
> 
> The scientists found that children with konzo scored lower on tests of memory and problem-solving than children without konzo.  But even the non-konzo children were very at-risk in terms of certain aspects of memory and visual-spatial processing, when compared to children in similar living situations but from non-konzo affected communities, Boivin said in a telephone interview.  So even children with no physical symptoms had measurable cognitive impairment.
> 
> Theres no cure for konzo, so the focus has to be on prevention. Traditional preparation of bitter cassava includes soaking the tuber in water for several days, followed by drying in the sun.  Those two processing practices," Boivin notes, "will usually break down enough of the cyanide derivatives to make it safe for consumption.
> 
> But when communities face drought and other hardships, people take shortcuts with cassava preparation. So Boivin says the way to fight konzo is to stress traditional ways of preparing bitter cassava as well as to promote substituting other foods for at least some of the potentially toxic cassava.  The research by Michael Boivin, principal investigator Desire Tshala-Katumbay, and colleagues is published in the journal Pediatrics.
> 
> Source


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## waltky

Sand fly fever rises in Syria...

*Health Experts: Leishmaniasis on the Rise in War-Torn Syria*
_ April 22, 2013 - Health workers in northern Syria have reported a dramatic rise in cases of Leishmaniasis -- locally dubbed &#8220;Aleppo Button Disease&#8221; for the sores it produces -- and are calling on the World Health Organization and other international agencies for help._


> Causes and treatment
> 
> Leishmaniasis, transmitted through the bite of the common sandfly, is a complex of diseases affecting different parts of the body. The kind most commonly found in Syria is called cutaneous Leishmaniasis, which is characterized by welts or sores on the skin. These can sometimes become infected.  Mark Wiser is Associate Professor at Tulane University&#8217;s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in the southern U.S. city of New Orleans and an expert on Leishmaniasis. He says the skin sores usually heal on their own, but often not for months or even years, leaving ugly scars.  &#8220;Generally your immune system will control the parasite and eliminate it,&#8221; Wiser said, &#8220;and so for the most part, the disease is not life-threatening.&#8221;
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Sandfly (Phlebotomus papatasi)
> 
> However, he says, cutaneous Leishmaniasis can sometimes cause more serious problems affecting the spleen and the liver.  &#8220;And in that case, it&#8217;s very dangerous and the disease is likely to be fatal,&#8221; Wiser said.  Wiser says he is not surprised to learn about the rise in cases of Leishmaniasis in Syria, as wartime conditions can often compromise immune systems.   &#8220;And that might be why you are seeing it more in children, whose immune systems are less-developed, and then there&#8217;s going to be a lot of malnutrition, which also lowers immunity,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And if a person&#8217;s immune system is not fully able to handle the parasite then it could present fairly serious problems.&#8221;
> 
> Prevention and Treatment
> 
> Before the civil war begin in Syria, health authorities controlled outbreaks by spraying pesticides, but the breakdown of sanitation services has curtailed spraying, and not everyone can afford the price of mosquito nets, at $10 apiece.  Dr. Kerem Kinik, director of Doctors Worldwide in Turkey that provides medical help to doctors inside Syria, says Leishmaniasis was always known in the country, particularly Aleppo, and provinces along the border with Turkey. For several years, the health ministries of both countries worked together to prevent and control the incidence of the disease.  &#8220;But unfortunately, since the beginning of the Syrian uprising two years ago, there are no public services anymore, especially health services,&#8221; Kinik said. &#8220;Basic conditions are very poor for the Syrian people, so this Leishmaniasis is spreading quickly.&#8221;
> 
> Power cuts, fuel and water shortages and poor sanitation and a lack of other public services have combined to create conditions ripe for transmission of the disease. Kinik says it is difficult to assess the exact number of cases inside Syria today.  &#8220;Before the conflict, the program had reduced the number of cases in Syria to 3,000 to 4,000,&#8221; Kinik said. But Turkey&#8217;s Zaman newspaper reported recently that 100,000 cases of leishmaniasis have been diagnosed since the start of the crisis.  The drug Glucantime, which is injected directly into the sores, is usually the first-line treatment, but like so many medicines, it is scarce in war-torn Syria.  &#8220;This is not a commercially-available medicine in Turkey,&#8221; Kinik said, &#8220;because traditionally, we have few cases of Leishmaniasis. Now, we are trying to push the public health authority to import Glucantime, so that we can help more cases in Syria.&#8221;
> 
> Health Experts: Leishmaniasis on the Rise in War-Torn Syria



See also:

*Scientists Try New Tactic Against Schistosomiasis*
_ April 22, 2013 &#8212; Every year, more than 240 million people get a potentially deadly parasitic infection known as schistosomiasis, transmitted by fresh water snails.  Infection rates have risen to as high as 80 percent in some parts of Africa, where communities often rely on rivers and lakes for bathing, cooking and other household chores. In Saint-Louis, Senegal, aid workers are using another indigenous species, the prawn, to keep parasite levels in check in local rivers._


> In mid-morning, Coumba Ngiané washes a bucketful of family dishes and clothes.  She says the tap water is often cut off in the village, and so the women must come to the river to do laundry and bathe. She says when it gets hot, the children come here to cool off and play. People get sick, she says, and they know it is from the water but they can&#8217;t stay away.  Freshwater snails are the host for the microscopic parasite that gives you schistosomiasis.  That parasite gets in the water and the larvae can enter your body through a cut, or even just the pores of your skin.  The larvae then lay eggs in the body, leading to diarrhea, abdominal pain and fever.  It infects the intestines and if left untreated, can lead to organ failure and even death.  In children, it can stunt growth and brain development.
> 
> There is treatment, but that won&#8217;t stop you from being re-infected the next time you enter the water.  The disease isn&#8217;t new to the Saint-Louis region of Senegal.  But it got worse after the government built a dam on the Senegal River in 1986 to stop salt water from flowing onto farmers&#8217; fields.  The indigenous prawns that eat the snails that carry the parasite were nearly wiped out.  Amit Savaia, an Israeli prawn specialist currently working in the Saint-Louis area, said the prawns need to move from fresh water to salt water in order to breed.  &#8220;The dam that was built prevented them from migrating," said Savaia who is from Ben Gurion University. "So upstream [from] the dam, the prawns were almost sure extinct.  And if the prawns are extinct, the snails have a very comfortable habitat to bloom and grow, and spread [schistosomiasis].&#8221;
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The re-introduction of indigenous prawns into this enclosed area in Lampsar village, in northern Senegal is reducing the rate of schistosomiasis infections.
> 
> Savaia says in some villages the rate of infection rose from less than 10 percent to more than 80 percent.  Now, &#8220;Projet Crevette,&#8221; or the &#8220;Prawn Project,&#8221; is trying to change that.  Every three months, the project releases between 50 and 100 prawns into enclosures at seven test sites in the area.  Project officer Nicolas Jouanard says the idea is to restore balance to the ecosystem.  &#8220;The idea with the prawns is that when they arrive they eat the snails that are in place and that are infected," said Jouanard. "You will get new snails because the prawns are not able to eat every snail, but the snails that you will have here will be small snails, a new generation of snails.  So for them it will take time to be infected again.  When they are young and small they cannot be infected.&#8221;  Scientists say dam construction has disrupted river ecosystems and increased schistosomiasis infection rates in several parts of the world, including China, Egypt and Ivory Coast, in recent decades.
> 
> The founder of the prawn project in Senegal, Elizabeth Huttinger, says their experiment with prawns is a first and the results of the 12-month testing phase are &#8220;very promising.&#8221;  &#8220;On the snail info, the very exciting thing is that there are no infected snails there anymore," said Huttinger. "But what is particularly interesting, is that the intensity of the infections at the prawn site are about 15 times lower than what they are at the control site.&#8221;  That means 15 times fewer people are getting sick in the areas where prawns have been re-introduced.  And chronic infections are 40 times lower, as compared to the areas with no shrimp.  Because the dam is still in place, to keep the project going, researchers are teaching villagers at the test sites how to raise and breed prawns in plastic barrels full of fresh water and salt water.  The villagers can then keep transferring prawns to the river to keep infection rates down.  Huttinger said they hope to replicate the project in other villages and, ultimately, apply the model worldwide.
> 
> http://www.voanews.com/content/scientists-try-new-tactic-against-sadomasochist/1646439.html


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## waltky

Yellow fever 10 year booster shot not needed...

*WHO: Yellow Fever 'Booster' Unnecessary*
_ May 17, 2013  The yellow fever booster vaccination given 10 years after the initial vaccination is not necessary, according to the World Health Organization (WHO)._


> The WHO's group of experts on immunization believes one dose of vaccination is enough to provide life-long immunity against yellow fever.  "This is very important because it will allow endemic countries currently using booster doses in their schedule to consider alleviating this schedule, and it also has implications for travelers," said Dr. Philippe Duclos, a senior health advisor in the department of Immunization, Vaccines, and Biologicals at the World Health Organization.  The information was published in an article Friday, noting that during the 80 years since yellow fever vaccination began, there have been only 12 known cases where someone who had been vaccinated developed the disease.
> 
> In all 12 cases, they developed yellow fever within five years of the vaccine, before the 10-year booster would have been administered.  Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease that is transmitted by infected mosquitoes.  It is endemic to 44 countries in tropical areas of Africa and the Americas.  Duclos says Friday's news will have the greatest impact in South America, where many countries have been administering the booster.  In many African countries, he says the booster is not common practice.  "The impact will be mostly for countries in South America," he said. "For countries in Africa, it will be very reassuring for them.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Soldiers clean a backyard to prevent the spread of yellow fever in San Lorenzo, Paraguay
> 
> It will allow a vaccine, which is not in large supply, to be used where it is most needed."  Every year there are an estimated 200,000 cases of yellow fever around the world.  But Duclos says the WHO's most recent figures suggest that the numbers in endemic countries in Africa are much higher than that - with up to 1.9 million people infected every year and up to 68,000 deaths.  He says the revised number is due in part to more precise estimates.  In the past two decades, the number of yellow fever cases worldwide has increased, he says, because of things like declining population immunity to infection, deforestation, urbanization, population movements and climate change.
> 
> A big problem, according to Duclos, is that in a number of African countries, immunization schedules are not in place.  "In Africa there are still countries that have not introduced the vaccine in their routine schedule and also countries that have not done catch-up vaccination campaigns to take care of the pool of susceptibles in their population, so the risk is there," he said.  Duclos says by the end of 2011 nine African countries were not carrying out routine vaccinations, including Sudan, Uganda, Somalia, and Ethiopia.
> 
> WHO: Yellow Fever 'Booster' Unnecessary


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## waltky

NGO fighting cholera and diarrhea in Malawi...

*In Malawi, an NGO Saves Rural Dwellers from Waterborne Illnesses*
_ May 25, 2013  A few years ago, residents of Malawi's southern district of Chikhwawa were often stricken with diarrhea often caused by cholera, an illness spread by unclean drinking water from unprotected sources like wells and rivers. Today, the situation is under control, thanks to an international NGO that's drilling boreholes in the area for fresh drinking water and building latrines for family use._


> The Water and Sanitation Project was prompted by a study showing that Chikhwawa - with nearly half a million people -- has relatively few public toilets or other facilities supporting public hygiene.  Kate Harawa, the country director of Water for the People, the non-governmental organization sponsoring the effort, says " We looked at the statistics and found out that Chikhwawa was one of the least safety [districts] in terms of water supply and sanitation. At that time [2008] it was around 45 percent access to safe water and sanitation was very, very low. And ... there are a high percent of people who openly defecate.
> 
> Harawa says to avert the situation, the organization is drilling boreholes starting with Makhuwira, Kasisi and Chapanganga --- areas under traditional authority where there's a high risk of contracting waterborne diseases.  We have [built] more than 200 water points," she says, "and this year we are doing [additional] 41 and next year we [will build] 100.  The project is also helping to build latrines in individual homes.  Health experts say the initiative has helped reduce incidences of diarrhea among the 8,000 households in the district.  They say before the introduction of the project in 2008,  0.2 percent of the district's population were infected, which is very high by world standards.  Today, it's been reduced to 0.007 percent.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> In Malawi, woman in the central district of Dedza gathers water
> 
> Beatrice Munyowa, one of health Instructors in the district, explains how that level was reached.  To maintain the hygiene standards," she says, "we provide chlorine to the communities for treating the water and we also advise them to always cover the water and always keep clean the borehole surroundings.  Besides advice from health experts, villagers themselves have formed committees responsible for the sanitation and the maintenance of the boreholes.
> 
> Emily Batumeyo, the secretary of the water point committee at Kasokeza village, says apart from the reduced incidents of water borne diseases, the project has made it easier to access clean water.  Before the initiative," she says, "we used to travel long distances to fetch clean water. For example we would wake up early in the morning to battle for clean water at a water point which was as far as three kilometers away. Sometimes we would spend a night [there].
> 
> The organization is implementing the project with support from international NGOs Global Sanitation Fund, Charity Water and Climate Justice Fund. Harawa says funds permitting; the NGO is planning to extend the initiative to the rest of the district to reach its goal of ensuring that everyone has access to safe water by 2018.  Water for the People has similar projects in other parts of Malawi -- in the peri-urban areas of Blantyre, and in the northern district of Rumphi - and in Rwanda and Uganda.
> 
> Source


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## waltky

Doctors seek reduction in blinding illness...

*Doctors Aim to Reduce Trachoma in Kenya*
_ August 09, 2013  Health workers in Kenya say more than 60,000 people are living with trachoma, an infectious eye disease that causes blindness if not treated early._


> But doctors are working to bring an outbreak of the disease under control in Kajiado, a remote rural village in southern Kenya.  A local trachoma monitor in Kajiado is teaching a group of women how to prevent the eye disease and how, and where, to get treatment.  Lester Mortai is well known in this area for his work fighting trachoma. He travels through villages, telling people the best ways to avoid getting the painful disease.  At household level I encourage them face cleanness and even the environment.  [In] the case of trachoma, the main agent is the flies. We also encourage those who sleep [with] animals around them to separate themselves from animals, said Mortai.
> 
> Trachoma is characterized by the swelling of the eyelids and scarring of the outer surface of the eye, the cornea.  Repeated infections make the eye lashes turn in and scratch the cornea, causing pain and, eventually, blindness.  According to the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF), more than 7,000 people in Kajiado suffer from trachoma.  The disease primarily afflicts impoverished pastoral communities.  Ngeyan Nge is one of four trachoma sufferers with an advanced stage of the disease. To avoid blindness, Nge will undergo surgery to correct the positioning of her eye lashes. The mother of six says she decided to seek medical treatment after a long time living with pain.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A woman washes her face. Facial cleanliness is one way to prevent Trachoma
> 
> She said she was now hopeful about the future, even though in the beginning she was opposed to the surgery. She changed her mind, adding, "after continuous advice from people, and also no matter what medicine I use the pain wont go away.  After the surgery, I hope I will be able to see well and carry my daily activities.  One of the "flying doctors" from AMREF, John Soine, travels to remote areas of Kenya every week to operate on those with serious cases of trachoma. He said the disease was easily treatable if caught early.  If these people with active infections are not treated, they end up developing complications whereby the eyelashes start facing inwards and start rubbing on the eye ball.  And at this stage one may lose vision. And the loss of vision in trachoma is irreversible, he said.
> 
> Thirty-nine-year-old Kadogo Salaash had almost lost her vision to the disease more than five years ago. At first she was doubtful that surgery could help her, but eventually she relented.  When I decided to go for the eye surgery, I was worried and uncomfortable, she said.  I thought after the surgery I would not see again. [But now its the opposite; I am confident, happy and I can do my work well.  Health workers said in the last five years active trachoma prevalence has dropped by 11 percent, largely due to vigorous education campaigns and improved access to water, sanitation and hygiene.  The next goal is to reduce active trachoma prevalence to under 10 percent, with hopes of eliminating the disease entirely by 2020.
> 
> Doctors Aim to Reduce Trachoma in Kenya


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## waltky

Follow-up therapy not happening for African children...

*New Research Finds Gap in Diarrhea Care of African Children*
_April 23, 2014 ~ New research recently published online by the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene finds that young children suffering from diarrheal diseases are less likely to receive life-saving oral rehydration therapy (ORT) when seeking treatment in private clinics._


> This first-ever, large-scale study of child diarrhea treatment practices in sub-Saharan Africa found that closing the gap between public and private clinics with regard to access to ORT could each year save the lives of 20,000 children under 5 years of age.   The nine-year study followed the treatment received by 19,000 children in 29 African nations and found that one-fourth of all of the patients sought treatment at private clinics which are less likely to offer the simple inexpensive therapy. The study found that in sub-Saharan Africa, Chad was the only country where private clinics did better in providing ORT over public clinics.
> 
> Zachary Wagner, a co-author of the study, described two factors that motivated the study.  The first is that there are hundreds of thousands of children that die from diarrhea each year, said Wagner, who is a doctoral student in public health at the University of California-Berkeley.  And this is particularly tragic because there is a very effective and very cheap treatment for diarrhea that prevents death. Its called oral rehydration salts, (ORS), or oral rehydration therapy.  ORT is effective because it basically prevents the dehydration caused by diarrhea, which is usually what kills the child.  This treatment is just widely under-used.  Thats why so many children continue to die. Its been around since the 60s, yet it is still widely under-used, Wagner noted.
> 
> Private clinics grow in popularity
> 
> The fact that so many children with diarrhea and diarrheal diseases seek treatment at private clinics was another motivation for the study.  The private health sector is becoming more and more prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa, and throughout the developing world, says Wagner. So, understanding what kind of care is being provided in the private sector is really important.  He and the research team set out to understand how care for diarrhea in the private sector compared to care for diarrhea in the public sector.   We found that ORS - this really important treatment - was way less likely to be provided in the private sector for child diarrhea, than the public sector, he explained.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Hassana Ousmane Hassana Ousmane rests her head against the bed where 21-month-old Zeinab, suffering from diarrhea, Princess Marie Louise Children's Hospital, Accra
> 
> Wagner says oral rehydration salts are widely available and distributed to developing countries. It is a well-known treatment among development organizations such as the World Health Organization, and NGOs that  have promoted the use of the inexpensive and life-saving therapy for treating diarrhea. There is no reason why private clinics should not be using ORT.  If a child has diarrhea, it is important that the mother or caretaker, takes them to a provider.  So, ORS is really important, and its really cheap.  And they can access it themselves, but it is important to understand how to use it.
> 
> The researcher highlighted the important role private health care providers are now playing in sub-Saharan Africa, and a simple solution of salt packets is a major solution to child mortality.  He also said parents and caregivers must make sure children with diarrhea get the care they need to survive.  So, they should definitely seek care. And they should always give their child this ORS.  The World Health Organization recommends that all children with diarrhea, regardless of illness severity, receive this solution after every loose stool, said Wagner.
> 
> New Research Finds Gap in Diarrhea Care of African Children


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## JakeStarkey

Cholera  Cholera: Causes, Symptoms, Treatment, and Prevention  Cholera is an infectious disease that causes severe watery diarrhea, which can lead to dehydration and even death if untreated. It is caused by eating food or drinking water contaminated with a bacterium called Vibrio cholerae.

From our own family history of wagons west in the late 1840s and 1850s, the immigrants, we learned, were particularly susceptible to Asiatic cholera, which wreaked havoc on entire wagon companies.

Haiti has had 210 thousand cases since the earth quake more than four years ago, and 8500 have died.  Considering the magnitude of the quake and after effects, that is an amazing survival rate.


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## waltky

It's here - and it's spreadin' fast...

*Fast-spreading virus gains a foothold in much of Caribbean*
_Sat, May 03, 2014 - A recently arrived mosquito-borne virus that causes an abrupt onset of high fever and intense joint pain is rapidly gaining a foothold in many spots of the Caribbean, health experts said on Thursday._


> There are more than 4,000 confirmed cases of the fast-spreading chikungunya virus in the Caribbean, most of them in the French Caribbean islands of Martinique, Guadeloupe and St Martin. Another 31,000 suspected cases have been reported across the region of scattered islands.  The often painful illness most commonly found in Asia and Africa was first detected in December last year in tiny St Martin. It was the first time that local transmission of chikungunya had been reported in the Americas. Since then, it has spread to nearly a dozen other islands and French Guiana, an overseas department of France on the north shoulder of South America.
> 
> It is rarely fatal and most chikungunya patients rebound within a week, but some people experience joint pain for months to years. There is no vaccine and it is spread by the pervasive Aedes aegypti mosquito that transmits dengue fever, a similar, but often more serious illness, with a deadly hemorrhagic form.  The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is closely monitoring the uncontrolled spread of the new vector-borne virus in the Caribbean and has been advising travelers about how best to protect themselves, such as applying mosquito repellant and sleeping in screened rooms. It is also closely watching for any signs of chikungunya in the US.  &#8220;To help prepare the United States for possible introduction of the virus, CDC has been working with state health departments to increase awareness about chikungunya, and to facilitate diagnostic testing and early detection of any US cases,&#8221; CDC medical epidemiologist Erin Staples said.
> 
> In the Caribbean, concern about chikungunya is growing as many countries enter their wettest months. The only way to stop the virus is to contain the population of mosquitoes &#8212; a task that commonly relies on individual efforts, such as installing screened windows and making sure mosquitoes are not breeding in stagnant water.  Experts say eradicating vector-borne diseases like chikungunya once they become entrenched is an extremely difficult task.  James Hospedales, executive director of the Trinidad-based Caribbean Public Health Agency, recently described the virus as the &#8220;new kid on the block.&#8221;
> 
> Late last month, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Antigua and Barbuda became the latest Caribbean countries to report confirmed cases. In the Dominican Republic, there are now 17 confirmed cases and more than 3,000 suspected ones.  This week, the virus was discussed by health authorities at a two-day conference in the Dominican Republic attended by representatives of Central American countries.  Marie Guirlaine Raymond Charite, general director of the Haitian health ministry, said there are several suspected cases of chikungunya, but none have yet been confirmed.
> 
> Fast-spreading virus gains a foothold in much of Caribbean - Taipei Times



See also:

*US Confirms First Case of MERS Virus*
_May 02, 2014 ~ The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has confirmed the first case of the deadly Middle East Respiratory Virus, or MERS, within the United States._


> CDC officials Friday said an American health care worker who recently traveled to Saudi Arabia has been hospitalized with the virus in the midwestern state of Indiana. They say the patient has been isolated and is in stable condition.  National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases director Anne Schuchat said the case is rapidly evolving, and that the CDC is working to identify people who may have been in contact with the patient. Schuchat said the patient traveled from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on April 24 to London, and then on to Indiana.
> 
> The MERS virus first appeared in September 2012, and all of the cases have been linked to six countries in the Arabian peninsula. Saudi Arabia has seen the most cases.  Schuchat said around 400 people have tested positive for the disease since it first appeared, and that about one-third of those people have died from the virus.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> MERS is a member of the coronavirus family, which includes germs that cause the common cold, as well as severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.  SARS popped up in southern China in 2003, infected about 8,000 people in 29 countries and killed about 800 before it was contained.
> 
> A spike in MERS cases in Saudi Arabia that began last week has raised worries among health experts that the virus has mutated into a more spreadable form. Schuchat said the reason for the increase is not yet known.  It is not yet clear where MERS came from originally, but camels are the lead suspects.
> 
> http://www.voanews.com/content/us-confirms-first-case-of-mers-virus/1906555.html


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## waltky

possum likes donuts and mango juice...

*Study: Schistosomiasis Treatment Better with Snack*
_May 13, 2014 ~ Treatment for the parasitic illness schistosomiasis is more effective if children have a snack before receiving the drug praziquantel._


> That's the finding of a study conducted in Uganda's Jinja district by researchers from Makerere University in Kampala. They worked with students at 12 primary schools. In addition to an educational message about the parasite, children at some of the schools were given donuts and mango juice prior to treatment.  Four weeks later, stool samples were collected from a random sample of 1,284 youngsters to test for the presence of schistosome eggs. Researchers report in the journal PLOS Medicine that children who ate something before getting the medicine had half as many eggs in their stool as those at non-snack schools.
> 
> Because food improved uptake of the drug, researchers also found a lower intensity of infection with the parasite S. mansoni in those who snacked. In addition, the youngsters who ate reported fewer side effects from the drug.  Experts say schistosomiasis is second only to malaria as the most devastating parasitic illness. It primarily affects the urinary tract and intestines. Chronic infection can lead to kidney disease, bladder cancer or infertility.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Biopholaria Glabrata snails, the intermidiate hosts of the Schistosoma mansoni worms, University of Georgia Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases, Athens, Ga.
> 
> According to the World Health Organization, some 250 million people received preventive treatment with praziquantel in 2012 and 42 million were treated for infection. Ninety percent of cases occur in sub-Saharan Africa, although clusters of infection are seen in tropical and sub-tropical regions in Asia and the Middle East. Because children are most vulnerable to infection, the WHO recommends mass treatment campaigns of school children with praziquantel.
> 
> The parasitic worm is carried by freshwater snails and the disease is often contracted through bathing or swimming. The worms burrow into the tissues of internal organs after gaining access through the skin.
> 
> Study: Schistosomiasis Treatment Better with Snack


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## waltky

Chikungunya spreading through the Caribbean...

*Painful and rapid spread of new virus in Caribbean*
_22 May`14   They suffer searing headaches, a burning fever and so much pain in their joints they can barely walk or use their hands. It's like having a terrible flu combined with an abrupt case of arthritis._


> Hospitals and clinics throughout the Caribbean are seeing thousands of people with the same symptoms, victims of a virus with a long and unfamiliar name that has been spread rapidly by mosquitoes across the islands after the first locally transmitted case was confirmed in December.  "You feel it in your bones, your fingers and your hands. It's like everything is coming apart," said 34-year-old Sahira Francisco as she and her daughter waited for treatment at a hospital in San Cristobal, a town in the southern Dominican Republic that has seen a surge of the cases in recent days.  The virus is chikungunya, derived from an African word that loosely translates as "contorted with pain." People encountering it in the Caribbean for the first time say the description is fitting. While the virus is rarely fatal it is extremely debilitating.  "It is terrible, I have never in my life gotten such an illness," said Maria Norde, a 66-year-old woman confined to bed at her home on the lush eastern Caribbean island of Dominica. "All my joints are in pain."
> 
> Outbreaks of the virus have long made people miserable in Africa and Asia. But it is new to the Caribbean, with the first locally transmitted case documented in December in French St. Martin, likely brought in by an infected air traveler. Health officials are now working feverishly to educate the public about the illness, knock down the mosquito population, and deal with an onslaught of cases.  Authorities are attempting to control mosquitoes throughout the Caribbean, from dense urban neighborhoods to beach resorts. There have been no confirmed cases of local transmission of chikungunya on the U.S. mainland, but experts say the high number of travelers to the region means that could change as early as this summer.  So far, there are no signs the virus is keeping visitors away though some Caribbean officials warn it might if it is not controlled. "We need to come together and deal with this disease," said Dominica Tourism Minister Ian Douglas.
> 
> One thing is certain: The virus has found fertile ground in the Caribbean. The Pan American Health Organization reports more than 55,000 suspected and confirmed cases since December throughout the islands. It has also reached French Guiana, the first confirmed transmission on the South American mainland.  The Pan American Health Organization says seven people in the Caribbean with chikungunya have died during the outbreak but they had underlying health issues that likely contributed to their death.  "It's building up like a snowball because of the constant movement of people," said Jacqueline Medina, a specialist at the Instituto Technologico university in the Dominican Republic, where some hospitals report more than 100 new cases per day.
> 
> Chikungunya was identified in Africa in 1953 and is found throughout the tropics of the Eastern Hemisphere. It is spread by two species of mosquitoes, aedes aegypti and aedes albopictus. It's also a traveler-borne virus under the right circumstances.  It can spread to a new area if someone has it circulating in their system during a relatively short period of time, roughly 2-3 days before the onset of symptoms to 5 days after, and then arrives to an area with the right kind of mosquitoes.  For years, there have been sporadic cases of travelers diagnosed with chikungunya but without local transmission. In 2007, there was an outbreak in northern Italy, so health authorities figured it was just a matter of time before it spread to the Western Hemisphere, said Dr. Roger Nasci, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  "With the increase in travelers the likelihood that something like this would happen goes up and eventually it did," said Nasci, chief of a CDC branch that tracks insect-borne diseases. "We ended up with somebody at the right time and the right place infecting mosquitoes."
> 
> The two species of mosquitoes that spread chikungunya are found in the southern and eastern United States and the first local transmissions could occur this summer given the large number of U.S. travelers to the Caribbean, Nasci said. Already, the Florida Department of Health has reported at least four imported cases from travelers to Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Dominica.  "What we're seeing now is an increase in the number of infected travelers coming from the Caribbean, which is expected because there's a lot of U.S. travel, a lot of vacation travel, a lot of work travel," he said.  Around the Caribbean, local authorities have been spraying fogs of pesticides and urging people to remove standing pools of water where mosquitoes breed.  An estimated 60-90 percent of those infected show symptoms, compared to around 20 percent for dengue, which is common in the region. There is no vaccine and the only cure is treatment for the pain and fluid loss.  One consolation for those suffering from the illness is that unlike dengue, which has several variants, people only seem to get chikungunya once.  "The evidence suggests that once you get it and recover, once your immune system clears the virus you are immune for life," Nasci said.
> 
> Painful and rapid spread of new virus in Caribbean


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## waltky

Australia bracing for dengue fever outbreak...

*Vicious mosquito heads to Australia, its bite loaded with dengue fever*
_Thursday 29 May 2014 ~ Queensland researchers studying Asian tiger mosquito, saying it's 'only a matter of time' before it reaches Australia_


> Australia is preparing for an invasion by an aggressive and exotic pest that threatens to spread dengue fever to southern capitals.  Queensland scientists have begun breeding the Asian tiger mosquito, a highly invasive species which is able to bite dozens of times a minute.  They are closely studying the country's only colony of the insect, caged behind a series of locked doors in Brisbane's QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute.
> 
> Associate professor Greg Devine says the research is vital given the mosquito's potential to introduce the debilitating chikungunya virus and spread diseases such as dengue to capital cities.  What we'd like to understand is the real risk of transmission in urban centres like Brisbane and Sydney, he said.  We are also looking at the way it would interact with native mosquitoes so we can determine how rapid its impact will be.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The Asian tiger mosquito is able to bite dozens of times a minute. Photograph: courtesy federal Agriculture Department
> 
> But its greatest impact will be on Australia's outdoor lifestyle because it thrives in and around homes and bites all day.  It's come to be known as the barbecue stopper, and for good reason, Devine said.  The large and aggressive mosquito is capable of spreading several diseases, including Ross River virus, yellow fever and chikungunya.  There is no treatment for the Chikungunya virus, common in south-east Asia, which can leave sufferers with severe joint pain for months.
> 
> When the Asian tiger mosquito will invade Australia is not known but Devine said it would be a case of when, not if.  It's definitely only a matter of time, he said.  It arrived in the Torres Strait about 2005, but of course that's not the only route at which it can come in.  There is no doubt it is coming eventually because it's been picked up so many times at Australia's borders.
> 
> Vicious mosquito heads to Australia, its bite loaded with dengue fever | World news | theguardian.com


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## ArmandoW

One should be aware and take all the vaccination earlier so that it will not create any further problem in future.


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## waltky

possum likes the idea of needle-free vaccines...

*Researchers Develop Needle-Free Ebola Vaccine*
_ November 12, 2014 ~ Researchers have developed a single-dose, needle-free Ebola vaccine that protects monkeys against infection for more than four months. The vaccine is administered through the nose, protecting the primates via the respiratory tract._


> One key advantage, according to researcher Maria Croyle of the University of Texas at Austin, is that the vaccine could potentially prevent transmission of the virus from unintentional needle sticks through the unsafe handling of medical waste.  News of the vaccine is reported in Molecular Pharmaceuticals, a journal of the American Chemical Society.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A researcher holds a vial of an experimental Ebola vaccine in Oxford, England
> 
> The inhaled vaccine uses a harmless adenovirus, which causes the common cold, to deliver the vaccine.  In a study involving macaque monkeys, none of the three primates that received the vaccine become infected when exposed to the Ebola virus at least 21 weeks later.  The researchers also gave the vaccine to the macaques through intravenous injection, which also protected the animals.
> 
> The investigators say more work is needed on the formula.  An under-the-tongue formulation of the vaccine is also in development.  At least two other candidate vaccines against Ebola are in clinical trials in the United States and Africa.
> 
> Researchers Develop Needle-Free Ebola Vaccine



See also:

*Dengue Fever Epidemic Neglected Amid Ebola Scare*
_ November 13, 2014 ~ As the Ebola epidemic rages on in western Africa, there’s concern that another disease - which sickens and kills more people globally - is largely being ignored.  Dengue fever, which is transmitted by mosquitoes, continues to spread in countries, including India and Malaysia, where nearly half of the world’s population resides.  But a long-sought vaccine offering some protection against dengue may soon become available._


> Dengue fever causes debilitating flu-like symptoms, rashes, headaches and severe muscle and joint pains.  For that reason, the infection is sometimes called “breakbone disease.”  Like Ebola, dengue is considered a hemorrhagic disease, resulting in death in the worst cases.  Scott Halstead is senior scientific advisor to the Dengue Vaccine Initiative, an international consortium of scientists and lay people dedicated to the development of a vaccine.
> 
> Unlike Ebola, which - in the current epidemic - has so far infected more than 14,000 people in West Africa, Halstead says the scope of dengue is enormous, with up to 100 million infections every year, mostly across Asia.  “I think people in the dengue field feel, 'Golly, ooh, we’re going to be pushed into the shadows.'  But because hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of people require clinical care, it’s a problem.  It’s in your face but it’s all over the place," said Halstead.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Family members stand next to a patient suffering from dengue fever, in an isolation ward at a local hospital in Rawalpindi, Pakistan
> 
> There are four dengue viruses, all spread by mosquitoes.  Surviving infection by one strain provides lifelong immunity against that type but does not protect the person from future infection by the other strains.  Two years ago, a candidate vaccine developed by the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur was tested in a group of 4,000 Thai schoolchildren and did not perform as well as hoped. Only 30 percent of the children were protected against infection.  The researchers' goal was a vaccine that was 70 percent effective against all types of the dengue virus.  Now, in advanced clinical trials conducted in five Latin American countries involving almost 21,000 healthy children, the company is reporting promising results with the same vaccine.
> 
> In an article published early this month in the New England Journal of Medicine, Sanofi reports the vaccine offered 60 to 80 percent protection, resulting in fewer hospitalizations.  The children were followed for two years to see if they came down with the disease.  Halstead says the drug seems to work best in those who have already been infected with one of the dengue viruses.  “So this seems to be what this efficacy is largely due to, which is boosting the immunity of people who are already partially immune," he said.
> 
> Halstead says the vaccine failed in Thailand because most of the treated kids who became infected were stricken with dengue type 2, the strain of the virus that’s proven to be the most difficult of the four to prevent.  With future clinical trials planned, Sanofi researchers hope to learn more about how the vaccine protects against dengue fever, with an eye toward improving its effectiveness.
> 
> Dengue Fever Epidemic Neglected Amid Ebola Scare



Related:

*Global Campaign to Eliminate Measles Stalls*
_ November 13, 2014 — The World Health Organization (WHO) says the global campaign to eliminate measles is in trouble as progress toward that goal has stalled.  WHO reports about 145,700 children died from measles in 2013, an increase of 23,700 from the previous year._


> WHO says a decline in routine measles vaccine coverage has resulted in large outbreaks of this highly contagious disease in recent years.  It also has stalled global efforts to eradicate measles by 2015.  The U.N. agency says measles immunization efforts are hampered by lack of money, weak health systems and not enough awareness of the importance of vaccinating children against this killer disease.  It notes it only costs about one dollar to vaccinate a child.  WHO estimates 15.6 million deaths have been prevented through vaccination between 2000 and 2013.
> 
> Dr. Robert Perry of the WHO Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals, says these huge reductions in mortality are tapering off because of poor vaccine coverage.  “So, now we are in a crossroads," he said. "We need adequate funding.  We need to find ways to increase the first dose coverage and to increase the uptake of a second dose in routine as well as conducting high quality campaigns or we are likely to see more outbreaks like we have seen in the last few years.”
> 
> The World Health Organization reports in 2013 large outbreaks occurred in China, Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria.  It reports more than 70 percent of global measles deaths occurred last year in just six countries - India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Democratic Republic of Congo.
> 
> 
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> 
> A Syrian girl cries after being vaccinated against the measles at a U.N. registration center in Zahleh, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.
> 
> Perry says conflict-ridden Iraq and Syria and neighboring countries are having serious problems with measles outbreaks.  “These are countries, especially like Syria and Jordan that had very good coverage, had essentially eliminated measles and blocked any measles transmission," he said.  "Because of the conflict in Syria, there has been huge population movement, so now there is - the population that used to be all vaccinated now is not vaccinated in Syria and they have moved to other countries.  So, now these countries have big populations of kids that are not being reached.  And, the conflict in Iraq and Syria is having a bad effect on the ability of teams to reach children.  So, there is a lot of measles in those countries.”
> 
> Perry notes conflict in Africa is having a similar effect on efforts to reduce death from measles.  He says the conflict between the government and Boko Haram militants in northeast Nigeria is creating great instability and making large vaccination campaigns virtually impossible.  Although Central African Republic also is hard hit by conflict, he says it was possible to mount a successful measles vaccination campaign there last year.  But he adds a number of areas were off limits because of fighting, so many children have been missed.
> 
> Global Campaign to Eliminate Measles Stalls


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## waltky

Bacterial Protein Found Effective Against Rotavirus...

*Bacterial Protein Found Effective Against Diarrheal Disease*
_ November 13, 2014 ~ Researchers are using a bacterial protein to both treat and prevent rotavirus, a viral infection that causes an estimated half-million deaths a year among young children._


> A rotavirus vaccine that has reduced the number of cases in the U.S. and other Western countries by 90 percent does not work particularly well in the developing world. The reasons are unclear. Researchers think the vaccine is ineffective because of co-infections, which are common in less developed countries, or the type of bacterial flora that inhabit the children's digestive tracts.  The result, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is an estimated 500,000 deaths annually among children who are not protected against the diarrheal illness.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> An infant infected with rotavirus sleeps at the San Rafael hospital in Santa Tecla, El Salvador
> 
> Now, researchers at the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University in Atlanta have discovered that a protein taken from a bacterium treats and prevents the disease extremely effectively.  Andrew Gewirtz, an immunologist at Georgia State, explains that the protein, called flagellin, prompted an immediate response.  Flagellin "is a very potent activator of the mucosal immune system," he said. "And it — at least in mice — confers a very strong protection to being infected by rotavirus. Or if a mouse is chronically infected with rotavirus, it results in rapid clearance of the infection.”
> 
> Gewirtz envisions using the bacterial protein, which much be injected, "to treat chronic infections and to provide temporary protection ... in the case of outbreaks of infectious disease where other measures were not available.” He said he expected human clinical trials to begin fairly soon.  The rotavirus treatment, reported in the journal Science, was developed in collaboration with researchers at Atlanta’s Emory University, Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Tennessee, Pennsylvania State University and the biotech firm Genentech.
> 
> Bacterial Protein Found Effective Against Diarrheal Disease


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## waltky

Cholera season breaks out in Africa...

*WHO: Tanzania Cholera Epidemic Worsens*
_ August 28, 2015 — The World Health Organization and Tanzanian Ministry of Health are stepping up efforts to contain and discover the source of a cholera epidemic that so far has killed eight people and infected more than 400 others._


> WHO data indicates the fast-spreading epidemic broke out in the Dar es Salaam and Morogoro regions nearly two weeks ago; the Dar es Salaam region has been most adversely affected with 354 cases and seven deaths.  WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier tells VOA the outbreak caught health officials by surprise.  “The spike is an unusual spike right now because it jumped in short time from a few hundred cases to the 404 cases," he said. "Yet cholera is endemic in Tanzania, so, as such, it is not a worrying situation, but it needs to be addressed."
> 
> After assessing needs on the ground in affected areas, WHO officials have begun procuring laboratory reagents for diagnosis. Lindmeier also says the agency is outfitting five operational treatment centers in the affected region with medical supplies and chemicals to treat water and disinfectants.
> 
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> 
> 
> 
> 
> WHO officials have said they see no connection between the current outbreak and a prior, more serious outbreak in western Tanzania's Kigoma region, which border portions of Lake Tanganyika and Burundi.  “The cholera outbreak in Kigoma region reported between May and July related to the refugees coming from Burundi at that time has been brought under control with no new cases from that area for nearly a month," Lindmeier said.
> 
> Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza's April announcement to seek a controversial third term triggered political violence that prompted tens of thousands of Burundians to flee to Kigoma.  The epidemic among refugees resulted in more than 4,800 cases and claimed dozens of lives.
> 
> Source



*Single Cholera Vaccine Dose May Slow Cholera Epidemics*
_ August 26, 2015 : When it comes to a vaccine to prevent cholera, one dose may be as good as two. That is the finding of a new study whose authors say the strategy would make a new vaccine that is in short supply go further._


> The World Health Organization is stockpiling 2 million doses of a recently licensed oral cholera vaccine to prevent the severe diarrheal illness.  An estimated 1.4 billion people around the world, according to the WHO, are at risk for contracting the water-borne illness, making the stockpile woefully inadequate to meet the need.  An outbreak of cholera often follows a natural disaster, when drinking water becomes fouled with human waste.
> 
> Single-dose effectiveness
> 
> In a new study, researchers looked at the cholera epidemic in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, following the 2010 earthquake. Roughly 120,000 people contracted the bacterial disease and more than 800 died.  But writing in the journal PLOS Medicine, they say if a single dose of the oral vaccine had been administered to the population within a year of the earthquake and the first reported cases, more than 78,000 cases of cholera might have been prevented and 783 deaths averted.
> 
> Justin Lessler, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, led the study looking at the effectiveness of a one-dose strategy. He compares it to the current vaccination protocol, which calls for giving a dose of the drug to those at risk, followed by a second dose, two weeks later.  “Even if a one dose isn’t 50 percent as efficacious as a two dose, it’s still the better strategy because when responding to an outbreak, the important thing is to get as much vaccine into the population as quickly as possible," he said.  Using a mathematical model, the researchers found that a vaccination campaign in Haiti using two doses would have protected five percent fewer people than the single-dose strategy.
> 
> Additional factors
> 
> Lessler said that outcome would be due to problems with refrigeration, as well as the effort of tracking down those who had received the first dose.  Investigators also analyzed the 2008-2009 cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe, saying almost 71,000 cases and 3,000 deaths might have been prevented.  “By using a one-dose campaign, you can protect the same number of people and protect them earlier, so you ultimately prevent more cases of the disease than if you’d used the two dose protocol,” he said.
> 
> Cholera, caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, causes severe diarrhea that can lead to dehydration and death without immediate, supportive care. Children under five years of age are most vulnerable.  There is currently an outbreak in Juba, South Sudan, and only 250,000 doses of the oral vaccine are available.  Officials are testing the one-dose strategy in that region to see if they can limit cholera’s toll.
> 
> Source


http://www.voanews.com/content/single-cholera-vaccine-dose-may-slow-cholera-epidemics/2933482.html


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## waltky

... first major cholera outbreak since 2012...

*Cases in Iraq cholera outbreak rise to 121, but no new deaths: ministry*
_23 Sept.`15  - Iraq's first major cholera outbreak since 2012 has risen to at least 121 cases and spread to southern provinces along the Euphrates River, though no new deaths have been reported in days, the health ministry said on Wednesday._


> The illness was detected last week in the town of Abu Ghraib, about 25 km (15 miles) west of the capital, where at least four deaths were recorded. Most of the new cases are in Babel province south of Baghdad.  Cholera is spread mainly through contaminated water and food and, if untreated, can lead to death by dehydration and kidney failure within hours.  Iraq's water and sewerage systems are outdated and infrastructure development has been hindered by years of war and neglect. Poor public services were a catalyst for street protests last month in Baghdad.
> 
> Health ministry spokesman Rifaq al-Araji has blamed the cholera outbreak on low water levels in the Euphrates, from where locals extract water for drinking or farming, and winter flooding that contaminated the river and shallow wells with sewage water.  He said high summer temperatures may also have activated the bacterium that causes cholera. Temperatures topped 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) during July and August.
> 
> Araji said public awareness has helped keep the current outbreak under control.  "If treatment is received within the first 24 to 48 hours of infection, there is no peril to the patient," he told Reuters by phone.  The ministry said it certified four fatalities from cholera in Abu Ghraib last week. Medical sources previously put the death toll at six.  Around 300 people were diagnosed with the illness in 2012 in the northern city of Kirkuk and the Kurdistan region. Five years earlier, at least 24 people died and more than 4,000 cases were confirmed.
> 
> Cases in Iraq cholera outbreak rise to 121, but no new deaths: ministry


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## waltky

Not bad for a peanut farmer turned politician...

*End of Guinea Worm in Sight for Carter Center*
_ September 24, 2015 — Dracunculiasis is a parasitic infection that once afflicted millions primarily in Africa and parts of South Asia.  Thanks to the efforts of former President Jimmy Carter and the Atlanta-based Carter Center working with government health ministries, the disease historically known as Guinea Worm is on the verge of becoming a historical footnote._


> During Carter’s August announcement he was battling cancer, he made it clear he has plenty left to do.  One big wish:  “I would like for the last Guinea Worm to die before I do," he said.  Guinea Worm is relatively unknown in the developed world.  But elsewhere, it is a feared parasite that infects humans through contaminated drinking water.  It grows and causes excruciating pain when emerging through the skin.
> 
> The global campaign to wipe out the disease started at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  “In 1980 CDC proposed that if we wanted to assess sustainable development, clean water systems around the world, the eradication of Guinea Worm would be an indicator of whether we’ve been able to do that," said CDC Director Tom Frieden.
> 
> In 1986, the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution calling for the complete eradication of Guinea Worm.  That’s when the Carter Center stepped in.  “We started out with 3.6 million cases. And I think we have two cases in South Sudan and one case in Ethiopia and one case in Mali and seven cases in Chad. That’s all the guinea worms in the world, and we know where all of them are," said Carter.
> 
> The path to complete eradication depends on Carter Center initiatives to monitor and filter drinking water.  “It’s just an historic effort to be able to drive the incidence of disease from an estimated 3.5 million cases in 1986 to only 14 cases today as of today," said Director of Guinea Worm Eradication Program, Ernesto Ruiz-Tiben.
> 
> If those 14 cases are the last ones on earth, Guinea Worm would join smallpox as only the second human disease in history to be eradicated.  “To think that because of President Carter’s leadership and work, and the CDC and our partners around the world, 80 million people will not have to go through that torture.  That is a legacy that is just unbelievable and inspiring," said Frieden.  For the World Health Organization to declare Guinea Worm eradicated, there must be zero cases of the disease for three calendar years.  “The pressure is on us to try to finish what remains to be done as soon as possible," said Ruiz-Tiben.
> 
> End of Guinea Worm in Sight for Carter Center


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## waltky

Filtering out disease from contaminated water...

*Innovative Nano-Tech Water Filter Prevents Disease*
_ October 02, 2015 - Access to clean water is a problem for hundreds of millions of people around the world. Now, a scientist and chemical engineer in Tanzania [East Africa] is working to change that by creating an innovative water filter that makes dirty water safe._


> Askwar Hilonga said the filter can combat various water problems. He is concerned that in Tanzania “70 percent of households, of 9 million households, are not using any kind of filter.”  The filter can absorb contaminants like copper, bacteria, viruses and pesticides, said Hilonga, who has been successfully trying out his product in Arusha.
> 
> It uses nanotechnology–manipulating matter to control individual atoms and molecules. Dirty water in buckets, connected to tubes, flows through sand to trap debris and harmful bacteria. A layer of “good” bacteria on top of the sand eats microbes that cause disease.  Additional nanomaterials remove chemicals and other pollutants.  “Before I had this filter,” said housewife Catherine Nanyaro, “I used to fetch water from the river, and sometimes I used it without boiling it because it is very time consuming to boil the water.  I had many problems, like typhoid, and other diseases from the water.”
> 
> At a primary school, one filter is cleaning many liters of water. “We have a river 50 meters from here, and we saw that it is not healthy,” teacher Elena Ramos said.  “Then we took water from the government supply, but we also saw that is was not going to be healthy.  And we wanted the best things for our kids, so we decided to buy the filter.”  Currently, each filter costs about 140 U.S. dollars. But Hilonga has received a U.S. government grant to help make his product more affordable and available commercially.
> 
> VIDEO


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## shadow355

About two years ago, I had a boil on the back of my neck that I had drained. The doctor in the plant medical department stuck it, twisting the needle as he opened up a hole for the pus to drain. About 8 hours later.....I had bad flu symptoms.

 Approximately three months after that, I ordered a Orange Juice from a fast food restraint one morning. A fast food restraunt in the town north of where I work - it is at a intersection next to the sub shop. That day; I had bad flu symptoms.

 IS it possible to get injected with the flu?  Is it possible to have someone put a flu culture in your drink so you get the flu? About five years ago, I was terribly sick and extremely weak for 5 days straight.......Was I "Cultured" then?


    Shadow 355


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## waltky

Developed Ivermectin, the world's leading malaria-fighting drug...

*3 share Nobel medicine prize for tropical disease drugs*
_Oct 5,`15 -- The Nobel prize in medicine went Monday to three scientists hailed as "heroes in the truest sense of the word" for saving millions of lives with the creation of the world's leading malaria-fighting drug and another that has nearly wiped out two devastating tropical diseases._


> Tu Youyou - the first-ever Chinese medicine laureate - turned to ancient texts to produce artemesinin, a drug that is now the top treatment for malaria. Inspired by traditional Chinese medicine, Tu discovered that a compound from the wormwood plant was highly effective against the malaria parasite, while working on a project for the Chinese military during the Cultural Revolution.  She will share the 8 million Swedish kronor (about $960,000) award with Japanese microbiologist Satoshi Omura and William Campbell, an Irish-born U.S. scientist.
> 
> Omura and Campbell created the drug avermectin, whose derivatives have nearly rid the planet of river blindness and lymphatic filarisis, diseases caused by parasitic worms and spread by mosquitos and flies. They affect millions of people in Africa, Latin America and Asia, leaving sufferers blind or disfigured and often unable to work.  The Nobel committee said the winners, who are all in their 80s and made their breakthroughs in the 1970s and '80s, had given humankind powerful tools: "The consequences in terms of improved human health and reduced suffering are immeasurable," the committee said.
> 
> The Carter Center called the three laureates "heroes in the truest sense of the word, saving lives through medicine."  Campbell, 85, is a research fellow emeritus at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. He told the AP he made his main discovery in 1975 while working at pharmaceutical company Merck.  "It was a great team effort," said Campbell, who now lives in North Andover, Massachusetts. He said the award came as a "huge surprise."
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> MORE


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## waltky

Cholera outbreaks becoming a problem in Africa, Middle East...

*WHO: Cholera Outbreaks Threaten Africa, Mideast*
_ October 22, 2015 — The World Health Organization is stepping up efforts to control multiple cholera outbreaks in Africa and the Middle East to prevent the disease from spreading and threatening the health of thousands of people._


> More than 10,700 cholera cases and 170 deaths are reported in five countries in the Eastern Mediterranean and African regions, Iraq, Bahrain, Kuwait, Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania.  WHO officials say they are alarmed at the prospect of this deadly disease spreading if urgent control measures are not taken.  WHO's Dr. Dominique Legros, who heads U.N. agency's Department of Pandemic and Epidemic Diseases, says he is particularly worried about the cholera situation in the African Region where the worst El Nino conditions in the past 20 years are forecast.
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> Displaced South Sudanese child receives oral cholera vaccine in a camp for internally displaced people in Juba​
> He says this weather phenomenon is expected to trigger torrential rains in the coming months and cause an upsurge in water-borne diseases, including cholera.  “The last time we had that situation in Eastern Africa was in 1997-‘98 in four countries of the region: Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique, Kenya," he said. "At that time, we had within two years 200,000 cases of cholera and 8,000 deaths ... we have to really be ready for this and try to control the outbreak as soon as possible.”  Tanzania has nearly 5,000 cases of cholera including 74 deaths. The capital, Dar Es Salaam, is hardest hit with 3,500 cases reported since mid-August.
> 
> WHO has recorded nearly 4,000 cases of cholera, including 95 deaths in Democratic Republic of Congo. Legros says a team is being sent to Equateur Province, the scene of a recent cholera outbreak, to see how to prevent spread of the disease down the Congo River.  Iraq has more than 1,800 cholera cases and one death reported. Legros says a vaccination campaign is planned at the end of the month in Erbil and Dohuk to try to contain the disease.  “We have alerted all the countries of the region affected by the Syrian crisis to get them prepared for a possible extent of the cases towards other countries of the Middle East,” he said, adding that control efforts are being hampered by a vaccine shortage.  Legros notes last year only two million doses of cholera vaccines were available in Africa where about 40 million people are exposed to this fatal disease.
> 
> WHO: Cholera Outbreaks Threaten Africa, Mideast


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## waltky

23 Confirmed Cases Of Dengue Fever In Hawaii...

*State launches ‘Fight the Bite’ campaign to stop dengue fever in Hawaii*
_November 9, 2015 - The Hawaii State Department of Health Monday launched “Fight the Bite,” a statewide public education campaign that seeks to end the spread of dengue fever in Hawaii._


> Its launch was announced in partnership with the County of Hawaii in Kailua-Kona.  So far, there have been 27 confirmed cases of dengue fever on Hawaii Island.  One unrelated case of dengue fever was also confirmed on Oahu.  “The health and safety of our community and visitors is paramount, and the Department of Health is working collaboratively with all of our partners – including fellow state agencies, the Counties, healthcare providers, business leaders, nonprofit service providers and more – to address this important situation and end the spread of dengue fever in Hawaii as quickly as possible,” said Virginia Pressler, M.D., director of the Hawaii State Department of Health.
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> 
> Hawaii County Mayor Billy Kenoi announced a series of public information meetings that will offer the community an opportunity to learn more about “Fight the Bite” and engage with county and state officials. The first meet took place Monday evening at Yano Hall with dozens in attendance.  “I’m a Kona coffee farmer here in Captain Cook and I’m interested in making sure if I have mosquitoes on the property, I can get rid of them and to find out exactly what’s going on with dengue fever,” said farmer Mark Schultise.  “I think the community needs to be involved and any time you can have people educated about a subject, there’s less panic and less worry, and I think that’s an obligation to the town and public is to be informed,” said Waimea resident Gary Jarvill.  “The County of Hawaii has been working closely with the State Department of Health to respond quickly and efficiently to the cases of dengue fever in Hawaii and we are dedicated to minimizing its impacts on Hawaii Island and the state,” Kenoi said.
> 
> At a press conference Monday attended by Kenoi, Pressler, and state epidemiologist and chief of the health department’s disease outbreak control division Dr. Sarah Park, Civil Defense Administrator Darryl Oliveira said all parties involved had their first briefing Wednesday, Nov. 4, and to start setting up an emergency operating center to alleviate and mitigate any further outbreak of dengue fever.  “We are getting a lot of reports of ‘Well, I might have this,’ from the public who says, ‘I didn’t see my doctor but it sounds like I might have this,'” Park said, “and right now our threshold is low to test these people because we are in the middle of an outbreak investigation.”
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> MORE


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## waltky

Mosquito-borne chikungunya may cause Encephalitis...

*Mosquito-borne chikungunya may cause fatal brain infection*
_Nov. 30, 2015 -- Encephalitis in patients infected with the chikungunya virus is far more common than previously thought, according to a new study of an outbreak._


> The outbreak on Reunion Island, located in the Indian Ocean, lasted from 2005 to 2006, and affected about 300,000 people. Researchers said they mounted the study to find out if people who suffered neurological problems when they contracted the virus were still afflicted three years later.  Chikungunya, which originated in Africa, was first seen in the Western Hemisphere in the Caribbean island of St. Martin, however has since spread to other islands in the region, as well as Central and South America, and been seen as far north as Florida, Georgia and North Carolina.
> 
> The virus is spread by mosquitoes, causing fever, joint pain, headache, muscle pain, joint swelling and rash. Most people recover from the painful illness, but joint pain may become chronic. Infants and the elderly already were thought to be at higher risk of death from the virus, even before the higher rates of potentially deadly brain inflammation were found by researchers.  The risk of encephalitis is especially high for infants and people over 65, researchers reported in the study, published in the journal Neurology. The overall rate of encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain, was also reported by researchers as higher than the rate of occurrence in the United States due to West Nile or any other cause between 1999 and 2007.
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> With cases of chikungunya continuing to increase, researchers are advising travelers to effected countries be more vigilant at trying to prevent mosquito bites.​
> A total of 24 people had encephalitis linked to chikungunya, which equates to an incidence rate of 8.6 per 100,000 people. The rates are much higher for infants and the elderly, however, as 187 per 100,000 infants and 37 per 100,000 people over age 65 experience brain inflammation because of the virus.  The death rate for people with chikungunya-associated encephalitis was 17 percent, and between 30 and 45 percent of patients who had encephalitis had persisting disabilities after recovering.
> 
> More than 600,000 cases of chikungunya, and 76 deaths, have been reported this year, according to the Pan-American Health Organization. Overall, there have been more than 1.7 million reported cases in 45 countries.  "Since there is no vaccine to prevent chikungunya and no medicine to treat it, people who are traveling to these areas should be aware of this infection and take steps to avoid mosquito bites, such as wearing repellent and long sleeves and pants if possible," said Dr. Patrick Gérardin, a researcher at Central University Hospital in Saint Pierre, Reunion Island, in a press release.
> 
> Mosquito-borne chikungunya may cause fatal brain infection


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## waltky

Deadly Asian bacterial disease more widespread than previously believed...

*Risk of Deadly Melioidosis Rises, Study Finds*
_January 11, 2016 — Melioidosis, a deadly bacterial disease most frequently found in Asia, is more widespread than previously believed and resists a wide range of antibiotic treatments, a just-issued study reports._


> The new journal Nature Microbiology on Monday published findings that the little-known disease likely is present in 79 countries, including 34 that have never reported it. Research was conducted at the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU) here and the University of Washington in the northwestern U.S. city of Seattle, among other institutions.  The study estimates the disease kills nearly as many people as measles, which the World Health Organization cited as responsible for almost 115,000 fatalities in 2014. Melioidosis causes more deaths annually than dengue or leptospirosis, both of which are health priorities for numerous international health organizations.
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> A patient with dengue rests under netting at a hospital in Allahabad, India. The mosquito-borne disease often is a greater priority than melioidosis, which a new study finds is more widespread and dangerous than previously believed.​
> It’s caused by Burkholderia pseudomallei, a highly pathogenic bacterium commonly found in soil and water. It is contracted through the skin, lungs or by drinking infected water.  Symptoms can include fever, weight loss, body aches, coughing and headaches, among other signs, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Patients are frequently misdiagnosed as having pneumonia or suffering from sepsis, a potentially life-threatening complication of an infection.  "Doctors will try to rule out whether [patients] have malaria or dengue infection by rapid diagnostic tests," MORU’s Dr. Direk Limmathurotsakul told VOA. If neither is confirmed, "doctors will suspect that any bacterial infection is the cause of the pneumonia and sepsis" and will prescribe antibiotics, he said.
> 
> Disease resists many drugs
> 
> But this particular bacterium is resistant to a wide range of antimicrobials, including penicillin. Treatment with ineffective antimicrobials can result in fatality rates exceeding 70 percent, according to specialists.  "If they die, they die. If they survive, they survive" without the actual ailment being known, said Direk, one of the world's most prominent specialists on melioidosis.
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> Green spots locate confirmed melioidosis cases in Thailand’s Ubon Ratchathani province.​
> The bacterium is especially common in Asia. The study predicts high infections rates throughout Southeast Asia, notably in Vietnam and India, where there is especially low awareness about it among medical practitioners. The tropical zones of Australia are also considered at high risk for melioidosis, as are East Asia and the Pacific, sub-Saharan Africa and South America.  Some areas in Central America, southern Africa and the Middle East are also at risk, according to researchers.
> 
> *Diabetes, kidney disease raise risks*


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## waltky

Man vs. the mosquito...

*Vaccine to Guard Against Dengue Fever Is Almost at Hand*
_ March 16, 2016 - Researchers are on the cusp of a commercially available vaccine to prevent dengue fever, a viral disease spread by mosquitoes that threatens half of the world’s population.  In addition, a vaccine against the Zika virus, a close relative of dengue, will most likely enter clinical trials this year._


> The dengue virus infects an estimated 400 million people in 120 countries each year. While the symptoms, including a rash, are usually not serious, the disease nonetheless kills some 25,000 people annually. Most succumb to a dreaded hemorrhagic form of the disease.  In a clinical trial, the new vaccine against the dengue virus, for now called TV003, was 100 percent effective in preventing the disease in a study involving 50 volunteers.
> 
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> 
> A nurse prepares an emergency test to diagnose dengue at a medical care unit in the Sao Sebastiao neighborhood of Brasilia, Brazil​
> Twenty-four of the participants who received the experimental vaccine were exposed to the virus and not one became infected. By contrast, all of those in the control group, who were not vaccinated, became infected.  “To see that we got 100 percent protection against infection gives us great confidence in moving forward that the vaccine is going to work. So we were extremely excited,” said Anna Durbin, an infectious-disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland. She was a principal investigator.  There are four versions of dengue. Symptoms become more severe each time a person is infected. So a vaccine has to protect against all four types.
> 
> Existing vaccine
> 
> There is already a dengue vaccine called Dengvaxia. While it raises protective immune system antibodies against dengue, people still get sick.  TV003 successfully shielded those involved in the study against a mild strain of dengue 2, the most aggressive of all the disease types. TV003 requires only a single dose compared with multiple shots of Dengvaxia.  A five-year clinical trial involving 17,000 people in Brazil is in the works. But Durbin said there would probably be enough data by 2018 to seek regulatory approval.  Clinical trials are also expected to begin in September or October of a vaccine against the Zika virus, an emerging threat also spread by mosquitoes. It has been linked to brain defects in newborns, and also to the paralytic disease Guillain-Barre syndrome. Efforts to fight Zika could also help the fight against dengue.
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> Enclosed in a mosquito net, Nadia Gonzalez recovers from a bout of dengue fever at a hospital in Luque, Paraguay​
> Zika is "sort of like a cousin to dengue," Durbin said. "And what that means is that the recombinant DNA technology that the NIH [National Institutes of Health] has developed for Zika virus will be able to be ... applied quite easily to dengue because it has the same genetic structure.”  NIH scientists developed the successful dengue vaccine that researchers reported upon in the journal Science Translational Medicine.  Durbin said the aim is to give the dengue vaccine to children before they become infected for the first time.  Any Zika vaccine would likely be targeted to women of childbearing age as a way to combat any potential birth defects associated with the disease.
> 
> Vaccine to Guard Against Dengue Fever Is Almost at Hand



See also:

*Kenya on High Alert for Yellow Fever*
_ March 17, 2016 — Kenya has reported its first case of yellow fever in 25 years. The patient, who died while receiving treatment, is thought to have arrived five days ago from Angola, a country that is fighting to stop the outbreak of the disease._


> The patient was diagnosed with the virus at an advanced stage, according to Dr. Jackson Kioko, acting director of the Kenya Medical Service.  "We screened him, and we found out that he had a yellow fever virus and, of course, he presented himself to us in three advanced stages when he had a renal and liver failure,” Kioko said. “He succumbed because he presented himself to the facility too late."
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> Staff members of a teaching hospital receive the first vaccination treatment for yellow fever in El Geneina, West Darfur​
> The yellow fever virus is transmitted by an infected mosquito and found in tropical regions of Africa and Latin America. Symptoms of yellow fever include headache, vomiting and fatigue.  Statistics from Angolan health officials show that more than 50 people have recently died of the virus, and 250 are infected.  The Angolan government has vaccinated half a million people against yellow fever, and health officials are targeting another million.
> 
> High alert
> 
> Kenya is on high alert at its entry points, Kioko says.  "We've sent an alert notice to our all health workers to all hospitals, public and private, to ensure that they are on high alert,” Kioko said. Consequently, “all people who have traveled to high-risk countries where Ebola have been reported … [are] put on the list of suspicion and we are able to investigate them thoroughly."  There is no specific treatment for yellow fever. In serious cases, patients are admitted to a hospital and given supportive care, such as pain relievers and intravenous fluids to ward of dehydration.
> 
> Kenya on High Alert for Yellow Fever



Related:

*To Stop Zika, Aedes Aegypti Mosquito Must Be Controlled*
_March 17, 2016 - Scientists are in a race against time in their efforts to stop the spread of the Zika virus. The World Health Organization estimates that as many as 4 million people could be infected with the Zika virus by the end of the year and, of course, the biggest fear is the virus' link to birth defects._


> Until there's a vaccine against the Zika virus, controlling it comes down to controlling the Aedes aegypti mosquito that carries it. Countries in Latin America are aggressively spraying insecticides to kill adult mosquitoes, but more needs to be done.  Professor Peter Armbruster studies the Aedes albopictus, a mosquito that carries dengue, a virus related to Zika, at his laboratory at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.  "Outdoor spraying has limited effectiveness in that these mosquitoes breed in a wide variety of container types that typically aren't going to be exposed when widespread spraying occurs," Armbruster said.
> 
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> Health agents remove plastic bottles during an operation to eradicate the Aedes aegypti mosquito in Niteroi, Brazil​
> The mosquito that carries the Zika virus lays its eggs in old tires, water cisterns, bottle caps — any place where there's a drop or two of water.  "Insecticides can also be used to target the larval stages where the mosquitoes are living in their aquatic habitats," Armbruster said.  The downside to insecticide use is that other insects are also killed, and it leads to broad environmental exposure to insecticides.
> 
> Other options
> 
> Other techniques use the Wolbachia bacterium to either sterilize the males or render the mosquitoes incapable of transmitting the virus.  Some researchers are working to genetically modify the mosquito. Assistant professor Alexander Franz is doing that at the University of Missouri Department of Veterinary Pathobiology.  "We try to manipulate mosquitoes in such a way that they are resistant to these viruses. This way the transmission cycle can be interrupted," he said.  Franz said that in the past, his research group was able to produce genetically modified mosquitoes that were resistant to dengue. The idea is to release the virus-resistant mosquitoes into the wild, where they breed with wild mosquitoes and pass on the particular gene that resists the virus.  Another route is one being followed by Oxitec, a British firm that has modified the male mosquito so its offspring die before they can reproduce. Oxitec scientist Derric Nimmo told VOA that trials in the Cayman Islands and Brazil have reduced the wild mosquito larvae by more than 80 percent.
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> A technician from the British biotec company Oxitec holds with a bag of blood to feed Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that were genetically modified to produce offspring that don't live​
> Nimmo said that, once the Aedes aegypti mosquito population falls to a level where it's no longer a threat, communities can monitor their numbers to determine if additional modified mosquitoes need to be released or if insecticides can do the job. With a plant in Brazil and a larger one in the works there, Oxitec is perhaps the company closest to having a ready solution.  Armbruster said the most effective approach will involve a combination of methods.  "The most effective approach to suppressing the populations is going to be to take an integrated strategy that combines things like these genetically modified mosquitoes as well as traditional use of insecticides and elimination of breeding habitat," he said.  In the meantime, millions of pregnant women are depending on these scientists to come up with something quickly to spare their babies from the risk of enduring lifelong disabilities linked to Zika.
> 
> To Stop Zika, Aedes Aegypti Mosquito Must Be Controlled


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## waltky

Doctors without Borders brings cholera vaccine to Zambia...

*MSF Begins Cholera Vaccination Campaign in Zambia's Capital*
_ April 09, 2016 - The medical charity Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières has begun the largest-ever oral cholera vaccination project in Zambia’s capital, Lusaka, the organization announced Saturday in a statement._


> MSF is closely collaborating with the Zambian Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization to vaccinate more than 570,000 people in two weeks, the statement said.  Eight MSF international staffers, 19 Zambian Ministry of Health personnel and 1,135 community volunteers from Lusaka are conducting the campaign, which began Friday, at 39 sites in four of the most affected townships of Lusaka — Kanyama, Bauleni, George and Chawama.
> 
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> The goal is to curb a cholera epidemic that began in February in Lusaka’s overpopulated township areas. As of Thursday, 664 cases and 12 deaths had been reported in the city, MSF said.  About 1.2 million people live in overcrowded informal settlements within Lusaka. They are at the highest risk of cholera each rainy season, which normally ends in April.
> 
> MSF Begins Cholera Vaccination Campaign in Zambia's Capital



See also:

* Study: Parasites Prompt Need for Safe Waste Management*
_April 08, 2016 - Swiss study in Uganda underlines need for increased protective measures for urban farmers and marginalized groups_


> People who live in rapidly expanding urban areas of low income countries are at the greatest risk of intestinal parasitic infection, according to a new study.  Contact with human and animal fecal matter in areas where safe management of wastewater and fecal waste is lacking causes infections such as hookworms and intestinal protozoa.  The study was conducted by researchers from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and their colleagues in Uganda. They examined the prevalence and risk factors for intestinal parasitic infections in the growing suburbs of Kampala, where only a small proportion of wastewater is treated.  The vast majority of the city's wastewater is discharged without treatment into open storm water channels, jeopardizing the health of people who come into contact with it.
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> Fish waste products from the fish processing plants are dried in the sun in Masese, before being sold to the Congo for protein Masese, Uganda​
> Dr. Samuel Fuhrimann, the study's lead author, says the findings call for increased protective public health measures for urban farmers and marginalized groups. The study also found that wastewater can be successfully recycled to boost food production.  “The study was conducted within the framework of the Resource Recovery and Reuse project with a clear focus on urban centers in low and middle income countries," said Fuhrimann. "There we had one major recourse, which was wastewater, and this generated a lot of livelihood when it is reused, especially in the urban settings. The high nutrient loads and the all-year-round availability has a lot of gains for agriculture and aquaculture in these settings.”
> 
> The study used a cross-sectional survey of five groups totaling about 950 people. The pool included people who would likely be at risk of contact with the wastewater, including workers at wastewater facilities, workers collecting fecal sludge from pits using vacuum trucks, urban farmers and slum dwellers.  While the examination of only one stool sample was used per person, Fuhrimann says the results raise important issues concerning the proper treatment of fecal waste.  “As urbanization continues at a rapid pace, this poses special challenges for the safe management of the wastewater and also fecal sludge, which is actually collected from pit latrines," said Fuhrimann, adding that some 90 percent of Kampalans rely on pit latrines for toilets, causing a huge challenge for safe waste management.
> 
> *Reducing health risks*


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## waltky

Granny says it's one o' dem end time plagues...




*WHO: Angola Yellow Fever Outbreak Spreads to DRC*
_ April 12, 2016 - The World Health Organization said Monday at least 21 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo have died from yellow fever connected to an outbreak in neighboring Angola._


> The WHO said that as of March 22 there were at least 151 suspected cases in the DRC.  It warned that with the high number of people moving between the two countries, a high proportion of people susceptible to infection and the presence of the type of mosquito that transmits yellow fever, there is a "serious risk" for the disease to spread further.
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> Democratic Republic of the Congo​
> The outbreak began in December in Angola's capital, Luanda, and has since spread to most of the country's provinces with more than 1,100 total cases.  At least 168 people have died in Angola.
> 
> Kenya also reported one death and one other infection from people who had traveled to Angola.  The WHO launched a vaccination campaign targeting 6.5 million people to try to prevent further spread of the disease.
> 
> WHO: Angola Yellow Fever Outbreak Spreads to DRC


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## waltky

Yellow Fever outbreak in Angola...

*WHO Issues Yellow Fever Warning As Deadly Outbreak Grows*
_Wednesday 27th April, 2016 - At least 258 people have been killed by the disease._


> Amid rising concern over a deadly outbreak of yellow fever spreading from Angola, the World Health Organization on Tuesday urged travelers to the African country to heed its warnings and get vaccinated.  At least 258 people have been killed and there have been around 1,975 suspected cases of the mosquito-borne disease since an epidemic erupted in December 2015. It has already grown to become the worst outbreak in decades.  Yellow fever is transmitted by the same mosquitoes that spread the Zika and dengue viruses, although it is a far more serious disease with death rates as high as 75 percent in severe cases requiring admission to hospital.
> 
> Angola's outbreak has already spread to other countries in Africa, including the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and at least 11 cases of yellow fever have been imported into China in people traveling from Angola.  "Cases of yellow fever linked to this outbreak have been detected in other countries of Africa and Asia," WHO director-general Margaret Chan said in a statement.  "We are particularly concerned that large urban areas are at risk and we strongly urge all travelers to Angola to ensure they are vaccinated against yellow fever and carry a valid certificate."
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> High-rise buildings are seen behind informal settlements in Luanda, Angola, where a yellow fever outbreak has health experts worried​
> The WHO's regional office for Africa said last week that yellow fever in people who traveled from Angola has been reported in China (11 cases), DRC (10 cases with 1 in Kinshasa) and Kenya (2 cases).  It said three further cases have been reported in Uganda, but these patients had no history of travel to Angola.  The WHO "is working with neighboring countries such as the DRC, Namibia and Zambia to bolster cross-border surveillance with Angola and information sharing to prevent and reduce the spread of infection", it said.
> 
> Jack Woodall, a yellow fever expert who formerly worked for the WHO and the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, said he is worried the outbreak could spread rapidly along a major trucking route from DRC to Uganda's capital Kampala."Surveillance of this trade route should be intensified and vaccination of people living along it should be top priority," he said.  A spokesman for the WHO in Geneva said a nationwide vaccination program that began in Angola in February has reached 7 million people.  But experts are warning the world's stocks of yellow fever vaccines are under sever pressure form the outbreak, with some calling for a radical switch in strategy to use a tenth of the normal dose and aim to cover more people.
> 
> WHO Issues Yellow Fever Warning As Deadly Outbreak Grows


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## waltky

Global Shortage of Yellow Fever Vaccine...

* What is Behind the Global Shortage in Yellow Fever Vaccine?*
_May 05, 2016 — Globally, around 80 million doses of yellow fever vaccine are made each year; manufacturers say it can be hard to predict how much vaccine will be needed and that they can't afford to over produce_


> Angola is battling a yellow fever outbreak amid a global shortage of the vaccine. Cases have also been reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Uganda and China. Health experts worry about further spread. There is no treatment. Mass immunization is the only way to stop yellow fever, but producing more of the vaccine is not easy.
> 
> Making of a vaccine
> 
> The Institut Pasteur de Dakar is one of four places in the world that make the yellow fever vaccine.  Recording is prohibited inside the institute, but there is nothing to hear. The halls are quiet. Two walls of windows separate us from the sterile labs where technicians work in head-to-toe protective gear.  Each week, a carton of special, pathogen-free chicken eggs arrives from Germany. Technicians inject the embryos, one by one, with the live virus. That’s a first step. What follows is weeks of extraction, mixing, incubation and safety checks.  It can take up to six months to produce a batch of usable vaccine.  Globally, around 80 million doses of yellow fever vaccine are made each year. The Institut Pasteur can produce up to 10 million doses.
> 
> Meeting global needs
> 
> Antoine Marie Diatta is the quality control manager for yellow fever vaccine production at the institute. He said unfortunately our production capacity can’t always meet the global needs. It’s the same for other manufacturers, he said. This can be a problem when there is an epidemic, he said, because then there is an immediate need to vaccinate a large number of people.  It can be hard to predict how much vaccine will be needed.  Yellow fever vaccines can be stored for up to three years, but manufacturers can't afford to over produce, as Diatta explained.  He said money is invested to make each batch of vaccine and you must wait for your return. It’s not easy. He said while you wait to sell, you still need to pay salaries and update equipment, but your money is tied up.  Yellow fever is endemic to 34 countries in Africa. It is spread through the bite of an infected mosquito. A single dose of the vaccine can protect you for life.
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> 
> 
> Adam Abdalah (L), a farmer from West Darfur's Adar, accompanies his son Yassim Adam who is being treated for yellow fever at the Teaching Hospital in El Geneina​
> UNICEF’s chief of child survival and development in Angola, Samson Agbo, said 80 percent of people living in high-risk areas need to be vaccinated to prevent an epidemic. In many parts of Africa, immunization rates are below 60 percent.  “The high-risk countries are known. Ideally, those high-risk countries should have a very strong immunization programs, which means you are reaching every child," said Agbo. "We need to invest more if we want to prevent occurrences like this, this kind of outbreak.”  Nearly 2,000 cases have been reported in Angola since the outbreak began in October 2015.  A mass vaccination campaign was launched in February, using 6 million doses from emergency stockpiles.
> 
> *Averting an outbreak*


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## eloiselopez

These tropical disease are mostly caused due to dirty and infectious water and food.


----------



## waltky

WHO cuts back yellow fever vaccine dosage to eke out supplies...
*



*
*WHO backs cut in yellow fever vaccine dose to eke out supplies*
_June 17, 2016 - World Health Organization advisers have recommended using a fifth of the standard dose of yellow fever vaccine in the event of a global shortage to combat the worst outbreak of the deadly disease in decades._


> Fears of a widening outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease were fuelled this week by a spike in cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which now says it has seen more than 1,000 suspected cases since March.  "Experts agreed to propose if necessary, if there is a shortage of vaccine, to divide the vaccine by five," WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said on Friday, reporting on a meeting this week.  "One fifth of a dose according to their evidence would be sufficient to provide immunity for at least 12 months."  Reuters previously reported that a move to stretch vaccine supplies in this was likely.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Staff of the Teaching Hospital receiving the first vaccination treatment for yellow fever in El Geneina, West Darfur​
> The normal full dose of the vaccine confers life-long protection and the WHO emphasised that the low dose endorsed by its independent experts was designed specifically for emergency mass vaccination, not for routine immunisation.  More research is also needed to see if low doses will work for young children, who may have a weaker immune response, and practical challenges remain over obtaining the right syringes.  The current yellow fever epidemic started in Angola but a major outbreak in the DRC's capital city of Kinshasa, which has a population of more than 12 million, is a big worry for healthcare officials.
> 
> The global stockpile of yellow fever vaccines has already been depleted twice this year to immunize people in Angola, Uganda and the DRC. It currently stands at 6 million doses but this may not be enough if there are simultaneous outbreaks in multiple densely populated areas.  Almost 18 million doses have been distributed for emergency vaccination campaigns so far in the three African countries.  Concerns about limited vaccine supplies have been building for some time, with a group of medics calling for low-dose use in an article in The Lancet journal back in April.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A mother holds her child suffering from yellow fever at a hospital in Luanda​
> Yellow fever is transmitted by the same mosquitoes that spread the Zika and dengue viruses, although it is a much more serious disease. The "yellow" in the name refers to the jaundice that affects some patients.  Although approximately 6 million vaccine doses are kept in reserve for emergencies, there is no quick way to boost output when there is a surge in demand since production, using chicken eggs, takes around 12 months.  Manufacturers include the Institut Pasteur, government factories in Brazil and Russia, and French drugmaker Sanofi.  The current outbreak of yellow fever was first detected in Angola in late December 2015.
> 
> WHO backs cut in yellow fever vaccine dose to eke out supplies


----------



## waltky

Yellow fever frontline...

*Angola's front line against yellow fever*
_Tue, 21 Jun 2016 - Angola is struggling to contain a yellow fever outbreak that has killed more than 300 people since December and is threatening other countries._


> In the green and shaded gardens of the Americo Boavida Hospital in Angola's capital, Luanda, women in colourful printed dresses wait patiently for visiting hours to begin.  It is one of the biggest hospitals in the city, serving almost two million people.  Malaria is the most common killer here, but since December last year they have had to counter another, potentially more dangerous, mosquito-borne virus: Yellow fever.  In its 16 June report, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that 345 people are reported to have died from yellow fever in the last seven months among more than 3,000 cases in Angola.  Not since 1971 has there been such a serious outbreak, and the reasons why it has happened now are complex and many.
> 
> Dr Fortunato Silva, the clinical director at Americo Boavida, says that this outbreak is more worrying not only in relation to the number of cases, but also the number of deaths.  He thinks some of the reasons for this may include the virus becoming more virulent, immunity levels amongst the population dropping and most critically, people not vaccinating as they should.  "Ninety patients have been hospitalised with fever, jaundice and haemorrhaging, since 23 February," Dr Silva said.  "There have been 33 deaths, which is a very high mortality rate. All of them had tested negative for malaria."  Angola's health system is well regarded, and there are established countrywide vaccination and awareness programmes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Since 1989, babies have been vaccinated against yellow fever at the age of nine months, and children cannot attend school unless they have a valid yellow fever certificate.  Despite this, Dr Silva says, something is not working, and there are questions that need to be answered in terms of public health strategies.  Dr Francisco Songane, the representative in Angola for the UN children's fund, Unicef, describes what is happening as "a major crisis".  He says critical time was lost between samples being taken, tests being run, and results finally arriving three weeks later.  By the time confirmation of yellow fever came, it had spread from the densely populated area of K30, part of the capital's Viana district, and then across the entire city.
> 
> The spread of yellow fever
> 
> * Angola - 345 reported deaths, 3,137 suspected cases
> 
> * Democratic Republic of the Congo - 71 reported deaths, 1,044 suspected cases (not all linked to Angola)
> 
> * Kenya - two suspected cases (travellers returning from Angola)
> 
> * China - 11 suspected cases (travellers returning from Angola)
> 
> Source: WHO
> 
> MORE


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## regent

New Guinea was not a good place to  fight a war.


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## waltky

WHO responding to yellow fever outbreak...




*WHO to Provide Emergency Yellow Fever Vaccines on Angola-DRC Border*
_ June 23, 2016 - The World Health Organization (WHO) will launch emergency vaccination campaigns for Yellow Fever along the border between Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo, it announced Thursday._


> The WHO emphasized that preventing further international spread of the disease is the current priority.  “While WHO is working with partners and vaccine manufacturers to increase vaccine production and replenish the emergency stockpile currently being used for this outbreak, it is vital to interrupt transmission, especially in cross-border areas to rapidly bring this outbreak under control and halt further international spread,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO Regional Director for Africa.
> 
> The initial phase of the campaign will begin in July, and will focus on areas along the border with the most trade and activity to try to prevent further international spread of the disease. Working in a 75-100 kilometer belt spanning the Angola-DRC border and targeting areas such as capital city Kinshasa will create an "immune buffer to prevent further international spread" of the virus, according to the WHO.
> 
> As of June 13th, three countries, China, Kenya, and the DRC, have reported cases of Yellow Fever connected to the Angola outbreak.  So far, over 15 million doses of the Yellow Fever vaccine have been delivered to Angola and the DRC, but lack of funding, urgent need, and the difficulty of making the vaccine have resulted in significant shortages.
> 
> WHO to Provide Emergency Yellow Fever Vaccines on Angola-DRC Border



See also:

*Key African Anti-Venom About to Permanently Run Out*
_ June 24, 2016 — It sounds like a tale of corporate greed: A particularly effective African anti-venom soon will be completely unavailable because its manufacturer decided it was not profitable.  Remaining stocks of the drug expire at the end of June._


> The situation has prompted aid groups like Doctors Without Borders to sound the alarm over the imminent shortage of Fav-Afrique, which treats bites from 10 types of snakes.  “We are upset about the decision of Sanofi Pasteur to stop Fav-Afrique because we need the anti-venom,” said Dr. Monica Rull, a health advisor for Doctors Without Borders. “We need an anti-venom that is polyvalent and it’s easy to use, not thinking too much about which type of snake has bitten the patient.”  The aid group estimates that 30,000 Africans die of snakebites each year.
> 
> 'Polyvalent' anti-venoms
> 
> Rull said there are other anti-venoms available in Africa, but none are as effective as Fav-Afrique, and few are polyvalent — meaning they can treat multiple poisons. That matters because patients often can’t accurately identify the species of snake that attacked them.  But the sad story of the demise of Fav-Afrique is a complicated one, says Dr. Jean Lang of pharmaceutical company, who contends governments and donors are equally responsible for this poisonous situation.  Lang was part of the team that developed Fav-Afrique two decades ago. He spoke to VOA from Sanofi Pasteur’s facility in Lyon, France.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A member of the Amazonian Tatuyo tribe holds a snake while waiting for tourists in his village in the Rio Negro (Black River) near Manaus city, Brazil​
> While tests have shown that Fav-Afrique is very effective, he says his product has commercial disadvantages. Production is lengthy and complicated, and it will take at least two years to make a batch to replace the one that is now expiring.  Fav-Afrique has to be refrigerated — a tall order for rural African clinics — and treatment is expensive, with the average patient needing multiple courses that total about $500.  “The people who decide at the ministry of health of these African countries, of course considering the price of the product ... when you face a five-fold cheaper product and you consider they are equivalent, because you are not a scientist or a physician,” he said.
> Fav-Afrique's demise
> 
> When the company decided in 2010 to discontinue Fav-Afrique, they announced they would share the technology with anyone who wanted to resume production. No one has stepped up, Lang says.  He says he is worried the death of Fav-Afrique is a symptom of a bigger disease in the healthcare industry. He says his company is urging donors, governments and aid organizations to step up to fund essential pharmaceuticals like vaccines and anti-venoms.
> “I think there are vaccines that are also under threat because no one realizes that even with the market failure, we are going below some fair return for investments,” he said. “And that’s apparent to us with the measles vaccine, for example. So there are other vaccines that, if we don’t rethink, most of the new vaccines we are making are driven out of the business cases of our company.”  As the boardroom battle rages over who will pay for these lifesaving medications, the burden is now falling to those who can least afford it — patients, who may pay with their lives.
> 
> Key African Anti-Venom About to Permanently Run Out


----------



## waltky

Red Cross requesting fund to fight Yellow Fever Outbreak...




*Red Cross Asks for $1.4 Million to Fight Yellow Fever*
_ July 06, 2016 - The Red Cross launched a $1.4 million emergency appeal Wednesday to fight the spread of yellow fever in Angola, which faces its worst outbreak in 30 years._


> The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said in a statement that it would work with the Angola Red Cross to reach 9 million people by engaging communities and promoting health care and hygiene.  “The need for a large-scale community engagement approach is increasingly important as vaccination campaigns scale up,” said Dr. Julie Lyn Hall, IFRC Director of Health. “As much as we try to provide solutions, it is the communities who are the drivers of the response and are the key to the success of it.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A nurse displays a vial of yellow fever vaccine in Brasilia, Brazil. So far, over 15 million doses of the Yellow Fever vaccine have been delivered to Angola and the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.​
> So far, over 15 million doses of the Yellow Fever vaccine have been delivered to Angola and the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, but lack of funding, urgent need, and the difficulty of making the vaccine have resulted in significant shortages.
> 
> Yellow fever is an acute viral disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes. The mosquito that transmits the virus is the same one responsible for the Zika virus, dengue fever and Chikungunya.  The yellow fever virus is usually very mild, and most people who are infected have few or no symptoms. However, about 15 percent of patients become severely ill and up to 50 percent of those die if left without treatment.
> 
> @IFRC Red Cross Asks for $1.4 Million to Fight #YellowFever in #Angola



See also:

*Shortage of Syringes Hampers Congo's Fight Against Yellow Fever*
_ July 05, 2016 — A shortage of syringes is hampering plans to vaccinate people in Democratic Republic of Congo against a yellow fever epidemic despite the arrival of more than one million doses of vaccine, health officials said on Tuesday._


> Congo's government declared a yellow fever epidemic last month in the capital Kinshasa and two other provinces near the border with Angola.  The World Health Organization (WHO) says some 1,400 suspected cases of the hemorrhagic virus in Congo have resulted so far in 82 deaths and is particularly concerned about conditions in Kinshasa, a city of 12 million with poor health services and a climate conducive to mosquitoes.  The disease has killed 350 people in Angola since December.  The WHO plans to begin a vaccination campaign in the province of Kwango near the Angolan border on July 20 but the U.N. body's spokesman in Congo, Eugene Kabambi, said the country had only about four million syringes but needed 10 million.
> 
> Kabambi said some 1.08 million vaccine doses had arrived in Kinshasa in recent days, but declined to say when he thought more syringes might be delivered.  Health officials are reluctant to begin the vaccination campaign in only one zone in densely-populated Kinshasa for reasons of public safety and order.  "If we only organize in Kisenso, there will be huge crowds coming to Kisenso to obtain the vaccine and that could become unmanageable," Kabambi said, referring to the first zone officials plan to target in the capital city. "So we're going to wait a little to obtain more [syringes]."
> 
> Global vaccine shortage
> 
> The global stockpile of yellow fever vaccine stands at about 6 million doses after having been depleted twice this year to immunize people in Angola, Uganda and Congo. The current method for making vaccines, using chicken eggs, takes a year.  Health officials plan to administer a fifth of the standard dose in Kinshasa due to the shortage of the vaccine. The lower dosage provides temporary protection against the disease but does not confer lifelong immunity.
> 
> More than one million people were vaccinated in Kinshasa during a campaign from May 26-June 4 in two health zones. But the effort was hampered by disorganization as residents of other districts flocked to the vaccination sites, preventing many local residents from receiving the injection.  Kabambi said other regions along the Angolan border would eventually be vaccinated, depending on how many more doses are made available, in order to create an "immune buffer".
> 
> Shortage of Syringes Hampers Congo's Fight Against Yellow Fever


----------



## waltky

Granny says, "Dat's right - kill it a-fore it spreads...





*15 Million to Be Vaccinated to Contain Yellow Fever Outbreak*
_July 07, 2016 — Scientists say Central African outbreak in Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo risks spreading internationally if not halted_


> The World Health Organization is leading a mass yellow fever vaccination campaign in central Africa to prevent the national and international spread of this deadly disease.  The campaign, which begins this month, aims to vaccinate 15.5 million people in Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo.  A yellow fever outbreak began late last year in the Angolan capital, Luanda and spread quickly throughout the country. The disease also spread to neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.  The two-month vaccination campaign is being held in advance of the next rainy season in September, when mosquitos come out and transmission goes up.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Staff members of the Teaching Hospital receive the first vaccination treatment for yellow fever in El Geneina, West Darfur​
> Bruce Aylward is WHO executive director of Outbreaks and Health Emergencies.  He says this outbreak is particularly dangerous because it is occurring in large cities.  He says massive outbreaks of yellow fever can occur in urban settings because mosquitos can rapidly infect thousands of people.  “With that explosive spread and the number of cases, you can see very high mortality rates," he said. "These can be very dangerous, destabilizing events; but, the other concern is when urban outbreaks take off in these areas, there is a risk then of international spread of this virus.”
> 
> Aylward says two cases were reported in Kenya and 11 cases were brought to China by Chinese men who had been working in Angola.  Yellow fever is endemic in 47 countries, 33 of them in Africa. Most of the rest are in South America.  Yellow fever is an acute viral disease that in the worst cases, can cause liver damage that begins to turn the skin yellow.  The mosquito that transmits the virus is the Aedes Aegypti, the same one that transmits the Zika virus.  Since the mosquito also exists in Asia, Aylward warns the potential for creating an international crisis exists.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A researcher holds a container of female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes at the Biomedical Sciences Institute at Sao Paulo University in Brazil.​
> Aylward, however, tells VOA the prognosis for containing the geographical spread is good.  “This is not like Ebola or not like Zika, for which we do not have a vaccine, of course. This is a disease for which we have a vaccine and for which there is a vaccination requirement under the International Health Regulations for yellow fever," he said. "So, again a big part of our work with the countries at risk of the disease is to ensure that they have a vaccination of traveler policy.”
> 
> Latest WHO figures show more than 3,500 suspected and over 860 confirmed cases of yellow fever in Angola, with 355 deaths.  In DRC, there are over 1,300 suspected and 68 confirmed cases, with 75 deaths.  The cost of the mass yellow fever campaign is expected to be $34 million.  Aylward says the WHO will launch an appeal for $20 million in the coming days, with Angola and DRC covering the rest.
> 
> 15 Million to Be Vaccinated to Contain Yellow Fever Outbreak


----------



## waltky

Cholera outbreak suspected in So. Sudan...




*Cholera Outbreak Suspected in Beleaguered South Sudan*
_July 20, 2016 : Dozens of people have fallen ill with suspected cholera in South Sudan, a nation already beseiged by civil unrest, the United Nations said._


> UNICEF said the main hospital in Juba, admitted 69 new cases Wednesday, bringing the total number of people being treated in the capital to 112. Nationwide, there were 141 suspected cholera cases, with six reported deaths. This was down from an earlier report of 11 deaths.  In collaboration with the Ministry of Health and partner agencies, UNICEF is providing medical supplies, sanitation services and community awareness.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A South Sudanese baby suffering from cholera is being attended by medics in Juba Teaching Hospital​
> One suspected case came from inside a U.N. base in Juba, raising fears that it could spread among the 4,000 people sheltering there from fighting this month between opposing army factions.  South Sudan's civil war displaced some 28,000 people in Juba after fighting began in late 2013, and renewed fighting last week caused more upheaval, with 15,000 people taking shelter in U.N., aid organization, church and other compounds.
> 
> Last year, 47 people died in South Sudan in a cholera outbreak, and 167 died from the disease in 2014.  Cholera is a gastrointestinal disease, usually spread by contaminated water and food, and can cause severe diarrhea that, in extreme cases, can lead to fatal dehydration and kidney failure within hours.
> 
> Cholera Outbreak Suspected in Beleaguered South Sudan


----------



## waltky

WHO 'loses' a million doses of yellow fever vaccine...




*UN Bungles Response to Africa's Yellow Fever Outbreak*
_ August 05, 2016 — The World Health Organization and its partners shipped more than 6 million yellow fever vaccines to Angola in February to quash an emerging epidemic, yet when they asked country officials the following month what happened to the vaccines, they discovered that about 1 million doses had mysteriously disappeared._


> Of the shipments that did make it to Angola, some vaccines were sent to regions with no yellow fever cases, while others arrived at infected areas without syringes. In neighboring Congo, some vaccines weren't always kept cold enough to guarantee they would be effective.  This lack of oversight and mismanagement has undermined control of the outbreak in Central Africa, the worst yellow fever epidemic in decades, an Associated Press investigation has found.  There is now a shortage of vaccines so severe that WHO has recommended doses be diluted by 80 percent to stretch the supply, even though there is limited evidence they will be effective in African populations.  "We have a major problem on our hands'' UNICEF's Robert Kezaala wrote in capital letters in a June email to his colleagues at WHO, Doctors Without Borders and other partners.
> 
> WHO vowed after its fumbled response to the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa that it would adopt a ``no regrets'' policy to better manage future disease outbreaks with its partners in other health organizations and national governments. But according to hundreds of pages of internal emails and documents obtained by AP, the U.N. health agency is facing many of the same problems that compromised its handling of Ebola, an outbreak that killed 11,000 people in three West African countries.  Health officials now estimate they will be short millions of doses to fight an epidemic that has also spread to Congo. To date, yellow fever is estimated to have caused upward of 5,000 cases and at least 450 deaths. More than 18 million vaccines have been sent to the continent, far short of the 40 million doses some experts think are needed to contain the outbreak.
> 
> Some of the most vulnerable areas of Congo's sprawling capital have been vaccinated, but millions of people still are waiting for doses as fumigation teams spray crowded neighborhoods in an attempt to kill the mosquitoes that spread the disease.  "People are very afraid,'' says Dr. Ernest Mumakubwidi, who treats patients out of a tiny cement-block neighborhood clinic in Kinshasa. "They won't be able to vaccinate everyone, that is clear.''  Amanda McClelland, a senior emergency official at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, or the IFRC, said the crisis is a repeat of WHO's mismanagement of the Ebola epidemic in 2014.  "It was the same people at WHO that made the initial calls during Ebola and it was the exact same response: We've got enough, we don't need any help and it's all under control.''
> 
> Dr. Bruce Aylward, who directed WHO's Ebola response, acknowledged that more changes are still needed to enable WHO to respond quicker to complex emergencies, even though he said the agency has made substantial reforms in the past two years.  "It would be a mistake to think that WHO is now ready,'' he said. "I think a lot of things are better but I don't think we're there yet.''
> 
> *A disaster for this country and the region*



See also:

*Researchers Find ‘Sign Post’ Toward New Way to Fight Roundworms*
_August 04, 2016 | WASHINGTON —  People in developed countries tend to think of roundworm as just a problem for dogs and cats. But more than 800 million people around the world are infected with the parasite. The highest infections rates occur in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and south-central Latin America._


> Those numbers could be brought down, since researchers in Ireland and England have identified a mechanism that could potentially turn a mouse susceptible to roundworm into one that can effectively fight the infection. Their findings are published in PLOS.
> 
> Neglected tropical diseases
> 
> Roundworm is one of many neglected tropical diseases identified by the World Health Organization and it is the most common of the three transmitted from soil. Most humans infected with roundworm do not show symptoms. People find out they are infected after passing the parasite in their stool or vomit.  Fertilized roundworm eggs are deposited in the soil from human feces. If someone ingests these eggs, they hatch in the intestine. The larvae then move into the liver where they mature further and are transported through the bloodstream into the lungs. After a few days, the now mature worms wriggle out of the lungs into the throat, where they are either swallowed or evacuated. If they make it back into the intestines, the female worms can lay up to 200,000 eggs a day which are deposited back into the soil after defecation-- starting the cycle anew.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Roundworm larva mature in the liver before migrating to the lungs.​
> This disease is particularly harmful for young children. The adult worms can live up to 2 years, so intestinal blockage can become severe in tiny tummies. The larvae can also cause breathing issues when they enter the lungs. The WHO combats the disease in highly affected areas with regular deworming of the population.
> 
> Susceptible hosts
> 
> Researchers have noticed that some people are more susceptible to roundworm than others. But human studies are expensive. So researchers use mice that mimic this dichotomy. When infected, susceptible mice show a higher number of parasites in their lungs than those that are resistant. This led previous researchers to conclude that the liver environments in these two genetically different mice also had to be different.  Jim Carolan, a lecturer of biology at Ireland's Maynooth University, finds the roundworm parasite fascinating. “Our bodies should be able to kick that [parasite] up and down the street. But it doesn’t because the [roundworms] have evolved ways to evade … or suppress the system,” he tells VOA.  To find out how, he looked at the liver proteins in these two types of mice. In the liver cells of resistant mice, Carolan and colleagues discovered hundreds of different proteins that are associated with energy production. One of the byproducts of the higher mitochondrial processes that produce energy is chemicals containing oxygen known as reactive oxygen species (ROS).
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Children in Guatemala are at high risk of contracting roundworm.​
> The researchers suggest that if resistant mice have more active mitochondria, they will produce more of these ROS, which could be toxic to parasitic cells.  This work is only preliminary and Carolan stresses that more tests and research are needed before human therapies can be developed. “I like to refer to it as a sign post. It’s pointing us in a direction that we need to focus on.” They still need to determine if there are actually more mitochondria present in the resistant mice and if that mitochondria is more active. To do this they will need to count the mitochondria and measure the levels of ROS to see if it is indeed higher than in susceptible mice.  “This is the easy part. The hard part is yet to come,” says Carolan.
> 
> *Bringing attention to a neglected disease*


----------



## yiostheoy

TB has taken over the #1 spot from AIDS for killing people.

India, Indonesia, and China in that order have the highest number of cases of TB.

AIDS is in 2nd.


----------



## waltky

Cholera outbreak in Congo, CAR...




*Cholera kills 16 people in C. African Republic, 34 in Congo*
_Aug 12,`16 -- Central African Republic's health minister says at least 16 people have died from cholera and there have been 66 recorded cases since the beginning of August._


> Fernande Ndjengbot, Minister of Health, said Friday the government is mobilizing with organizations including the World Health Organization and U.N. Children's Agency to isolate the disease and provide clean water, medicine and aid to the communities. He called on residents to report cases.
> 
> The ministry's emergency health report said it has spread across the Oubangui river to Congo's Libi area where 34 people have died and there are 387 suspected cases.
> 
> Cholera is a gastrointestinal disease, usually spread by contaminated water and food, and can cause severe diarrhea that in extreme cases can lead to fatal dehydration and kidney failure within hours.
> 
> News from The Associated Press


----------



## waltky

ALIMA tryin' to stop outbreak of Rift Valley Fever...




*Rift Valley Fever Outbreak Kills 21 in Western Niger*
_September 21, 2016 — Health workers in western Niger are racing to contain an outbreak of Rift Valley fever that has killed at least 21 people over the past month, an aid agency said Wednesday._


> The highly contagious disease, which is transmitted to humans by mosquitoes or close contact with contaminated animals, has infected 52 people in Niger's western region of Tahoua since late August, the country's health ministry said.  The Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA) and Niger's health authorities have opened an emergency treatment center in the region's hardest-hit district of Tchintabaraden to look after the infected and stop the disease from spreading.  "Unfortunately, the 52 severe cases officially registered at present only represent the tip of the iceberg," ALIMA's medical coordinator Oumarou Maidadji said in a statement.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Mariam Dagane, who is infected with Rift Valley fever, rests on her bed at the Garissa hospital, 390 km (242 miles) from Nairobi​
> With no specific treatment or effective human vaccine, Rift Valley fever can cause blindness and severe hemorrhaging, leading the victim to vomit blood or even bleed to death.  Herders and farmers are deemed at higher risk of infection from the disease, which can devastate livestock.  Niger's health ministry said people in the Tahoua region, especially pastoralists, should avoid handling meat from infected animals, boil raw milk before consumption, and ensure that the corpses of dead animals are buried carefully.
> 
> ALIMA is also working with local partners and doctors to provide a mobile clinic which travels the region to inform the public about the disease and how to prevent it from spreading.  "Awareness is an essential step to contain the spread of the epidemic," Maidadji said. "Vigilance is crucial."
> 
> Rift Valley Fever Outbreak Kills 21 in Western Niger


----------



## waltky

Granny wantin' to know when dey gonna come up with a cure for the epizootics?...




*Two Tropical Diseases on Track for Eradication in 4 Years*
_October 13, 2016 | WASHINGTON — By the year 2020, two neglected tropical diseases, lymphatic filariasis, commonly known as elephantiasis, and trachoma, a blinding illness, may be eliminated in the world’s poorest countries, thanks to a partnership of governments, charitable foundations and pharmaceutical companies._


> The U.S. provides the most funding for elimination of neglected tropical diseases, through the U.S. Agency for International Development. That funding, between 2006 and today, has provided 1.6 billion treatments in about 30 countries.  “In the areas that USAID has supported,” NTD program coordinator Emily Wainwright said, “there are going to be 400 million people who don’t have to worry about getting lymphatic filariasis again. We will have addressed that problem. And there will be about 184 million people who aren’t going to have to worry about getting trachoma, the leading cause of preventable blindness.”
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A doctor examines a trachoma patient in Ethiopia​
> According to the World Health Organization, neglected tropical diseases affect an estimated 1.5 billion people in the poorest countries.  Other diseases that are targeted for elimination include onchocerciasis, known as river blindness, schistosomiasis or snail fever, which causes intestinal and urogenital infections, and soil-transmitted helminthiasis, a systemic illness that causes diarrhea, fever, fatigue and malnutrition.  Children are disproportionately affected by the parasitic and bacterial illnesses, which stunt growth and affect brain development.  Recently, WHO released data showing that in 2015, 979 million people received preventive chemotherapy for neglected tropical diseases, an increase of 121 million from 2014.
> 
> More diseases are predicted to follow the path of elimination, according to Ariel Pablos-Mendez, assistant administrator for Global Health, Child and Maternal Survival Coordinator at USAID.  “Just like in polio,” he said, “which is in the last battle of the disease to remove from the face of the Earth, or leprosy, which is down 95 percent [from] the levels we used to have 50 years ago, these diseases we are in a position right now ... to end all of the diseases of extreme poverty by 2030.”  USAID’s Neglected Tropical Disease Program and the WHO have put a priority on eliminating 17 NTDs in 149 countries, where one in six people suffer from at least one of the illnesses.
> 
> Two Tropical Diseases on Track for Eradication in 4 Years


----------



## waltky

Doctors in Australia have reported a resurgence in patients suffering from scurvy...

*Scurvy makes surprise return in Australia*
_Tue, 29 Nov 2016 - Doctors in Australia report a resurgence in the disease historically associated with sea explorers._


> The disease, historically associated with sea explorers, has been found in about a dozen diabetes patients at Westmead Hospital in western Sydney.  Scurvy is now a rare condition caused by having too little vitamin C, or ascorbic acid, in your diet.  Professor Jenny Gunton discovered the latest cases after treating a patient whose leg wound would not heal.
> 
> The findings have been detailed in the international journal Diabetic Medicine.  "In the report that's just come out I've had seven people with vitamin C deficiencies," said Prof Gunton, who heads the Centre for Diabetes, Obesity and Endocrinology research at The Westmead Institutes.  "Since that time there would have been another six or seven."   She said scurvy could be more widespread than previously thought.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Two oranges growing in a citrus orchard.​
> What is scurvy?
> 
> *    Without vitamin C, the body cannot make collagen - which is essential for your skin, blood vessels, bones and cartilage.
> *    Symptoms include feeling tired all the time, lack of appetite, joint pain, shortness of breath and easily bruised skin.
> *    It affects people who do not have a healthy diet including those on fad diets, the homeless, the elderly and those with eating disorders.
> *    Fruits including oranges, lemons and strawberries are good sources of vitamins C along with broccoli, cabbage and asparagus.
> 
> "There's no particular link to diabetes ... except that if you have a poor quality diet you're more likely to get diabetes," Prof Gunton told the BBC.  "But of course, a lot of people with diabetes eat perfectly reasonable diets."  Health authorities in Australia do not generally test for scurvy or keep statistics on patients suffering from it.  However, Prof Gunton said the disease was easy to prevent.  "Eat some fruit, eat some vegetables - and don't overcook the vegetables," she said.  "If you really can't manage that, take one vitamin C a day. But healthy diet is the better fix."
> 
> Scurvy makes surprise return in Australia - BBC News


----------



## waltky

Malaria and dengue updates...

*Child Anti-Malaria Drug Programs in Senegal a ‘Blueprint’ for Africa*
_November 29, 2016 — Researchers say that giving anti-malarial drugs to older children can significantly reduce overall transmission of disease. Currently, most such programs are limited to the under-fives, but a study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, shows that expanding the intervention can lower the number of malaria cases._


> The World Health Organization estimates there were 214 million new cases of malaria in 2015 — and 438,000 deaths, with by far the majority of fatalities in sub-Saharan Africa.  In Senegal, health workers from charities like Speak Up Africa have been testing a new approach: giving preventive anti-malarial drugs to children up to the age of 10 during the rainy season, when malaria prevalence is highest. It’s known as seasonal malaria chemoprevention, or SMC.
> 
> Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine conducted a study of 200,000 children in the program.  “The treatments then have to be repeated at strictly four-week intervals, and that’s quite challenging in terms of implementing that in rural Africa. But despite that, countries have been quick to adopt this new approach,” said Professor Paul Milligan, who led the investigation.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Child Anti-Malaria Drug Programs in Senegal a ‘Blueprint’ for Africa​
> Major reduction in cases
> 
> And it’s showing results. In Senegal, the SMC program more than halved cases of malaria in children under 10. It also reduced cases in those above 10 years of age by a quarter — by helping to reduce transmission of the disease.  “By expanding the age range, one is then treating a larger fraction of the parasite reservoir, which is the source of infection to mosquitoes,” Milligan said.  The SMC program has been rolled out to 11 countries, reaching about 15 million children up to the age of five in 2016.
> 
> Milligan says the latest results show the programs should be expanded to include older children.  “What we found was that if you’re going door-to-door, it doesn’t take much extra time to treat older children, and that if you go out of school hours then you can get high coverage even during term time,” he said.  Milligan says the next step is to identify other parts of Africa that could benefit from expanding the SMC program to older children.
> 
> Child Anti-Malaria Drug Programs in Senegal a ‘Blueprint’ for Africa



See also:

*Study: Use of Dengue Vaccine Effective in Some Regions, Risky in Others*
_November 29, 2016 - The World Health Organization is continuing to assess the risks and benefits of the first vaccine developed to prevent dengue fever._


> A study, published in September, concluded that the vaccine, called Dengvaxia, could have a positive impact in regions where there is a high incidence of dengue, preventing one in five hospitalizations, but could be problematic in other areas. A new report, commissioned by WHO and spearheaded by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, refined that conclusion.  Researchers used mathematical models to assess data from human trials of Dengvaxia involving some 30,000 people around the world.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A patient has his blood taken to be tested at a fever clinic especially set up to cater to those suffering from fever, one of the main symptoms of several mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue, at a hospital in New Delhi, India, Sept. 15, 2016. The World Health Organization is continuing to assess the risks and benefits of the first vaccine developed to prevent dengue.​
> 
> According to the new report, the vaccine could potentially reduce the incidence of dengue fever between 6 percent and 25 percent in countries with moderate to high transmission rates, where at least 50 percent of children get infected for the first time by their ninth birthday. Investigators concluded a policy of routinely vaccinating 80 percent of 9-year-olds is needed to realize the reduction in cases.  But in places where the disease is uncommon, affecting ten percent of the population or less, Dengvaxia could cause severe illness and hospitalization in individuals who contract dengue for the first time after being vaccinated.
> 
> A double-edged sword
> 
> Approximately half of the world's population is at risk for contracting dengue, a mosquito-borne illness that can cause high fever, joint pain, bleeding and potentially, death by dengue shock syndrome.  A person can potentially be infected by four different strains of the virus, and can be infected more than once. A second infection is generally the worst. In people who have been infected the first time, the vaccine may prevent a serious second infection.  But in those who have never been infected and are vaccinated, as in low burden countries, the vaccine can act like a silent, first infection, making individuals very sick should they actually become infected.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> In an early study, published in the journal Science, researchers found a dengue vaccine could reduce severe illness and hospitalizations by 20 to 30 percent.​
> So Dengvaxia, made by the pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Pasteur, has turned out to be a double-edged sword.  In an early study, published in the journal Science, researchers found a dengue vaccine could reduce severe illness and hospitalizations by 20 to 30 percent.  In an early study, published in the journal Science, researchers found a dengue vaccine could reduce severe illness and hospitalizations by 20 to 30 percent.
> 
> *Vaccine has risks*


----------



## waltky

NGO's helping Zimbabwe with typhoid outbreak...




*Aid Groups Help Zimbabwe Fight Typhoid Outbreak*
_January 12, 2017 — International aid groups have begun helping Zimbabwe fight an outbreak of typhoid. Some stakeholders say President Robert Mugabe’s government has not been taking the outbreak seriously.  Officials say the waterborne disease, which has struck more than 200 people in Harare, killing two, has been detected in other parts of Zimbabwe._


> Health Minister David Parirenyatwa is appealing for international assistance, citing help the country received during a major cholera outbreak in 2008.  “When we had cholera, I called the partners and other countries came out. Yes, with typhoid we will welcome partners, particularly the usual partners like UNICEF, MSF and others,” said Parirenyatwa.  The British charity Oxfam has responded, supplying water treatment chemicals to typhoid-affected areas, and deploying volunteers to educate people on ways to avoid the disease.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> In Mbare township, the “epicenter” of the current typhoid outbreak, sewer water flows and refuse has gone for days without being collected in Harare, Zimbabwe​
> Zimbabwe has been hit hard by waterborne diseases before, most notably a cholera outbreak during the 2008-2009 rainy season that killed 4,000 people.  In an interview, Fortune Nyamande, the spokesman for the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights, said the government is
> not fulfilling the right to health enshrined in the country’s constitution.  ‘We have not seen tangible action from the Harare city council ," said Nyamanda. " At the central government level, what we have seen is more blame game. People should concentrate more on dealing with typhoid. It is unacceptable for anyone to lose his or her life because of typhoid. They are the diseases of the 1900's.
> 
> That is when cholera and typhoid used to kill people. People should come together and deal with the root cause of typhoid and the nation should move forward.”  Typhoid, an infectious bacterial fever, can be treated with antibiotics, but still kills more than 220,000 people worldwide each year. It can be prevented through improved water and sanitation.  In Mbare township, the epicenter of the current outbreak, sewer water can be seen flowing on the streets and garbage has gone for days without being collected.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Residents of Mbare township - navigate through raw sewerage one of the causes of typhoid, a waterborne disease which Zimbabwean authorities are battling to end since the beginning of the rainy season.​
> After the outbreak began, authorities banned vendors from selling food in Harare; but, seller Chenai Mananga says vending is not the cause of typhoid.  “Garbage is not being collected. Burst sewer pipes are not being repaired. It is junk all over, she said. "If there is junk there will be disease outbreaks. So it is not vendors’ problem.”  In some areas, residents say faucets have been dry for days, forcing them to rely on water from open sources like lakes and rivers for daily chores. Those waters are not clean, making it harder to end Zimbabwe’s typhoid outbreak.
> 
> Aid Groups Help Zimbabwe Fight Typhoid Outbreak


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## waltky

The next big pandemic? - Brazil stocking up on yellow fever vaccine...




*Brazil orders 11.5 million yellow fever vaccine doses*
_Thu, 26 Jan 2017 - Brazil is facing the largest outbreak of the disease in the country since 2000._


> Brazil's health ministry has ordered 11.5 million doses of yellow fever vaccine amid the largest outbreak of the disease in the country since 2000. Seventy cases - including 40 deaths - are confirmed, mostly in rural areas of the state of Minas Gerais. More than 300 cases are under investigation. Vaccinations are being recommended for people travelling to Minas and other areas with confirmed cases. Yellow fever is a potentially fatal disease transmitted by mosquitoes. Most of Brazil is considered at risk from yellow fever but the country has only seen a handful of cases in recent years.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Yellow fever vaccine​
> What is yellow fever?
> 
> * Caused by a virus that is transmitted to humans by mosquitoes
> * Difficult to diagnose and often confused with other diseases or fevers
> * Most people recover after the first phase of infection that usually involves fever, muscle and back pain, headache, shivers, loss of appetite, and nausea or vomiting
> * About 15% of people face a second, more serious phase involving high fever, jaundice, bleeding and deteriorating kidney function
> * Half of those who enter the "toxic" phase usually die within 10 to 14 days
> 
> Source: WHO
> 
> The governor of Minas Gerais has declared a 180-day state of emergency. There have also been three confirmed cases in Sao Paulo, Brazil's most populous state, and one each in Espiritu Santo and Bahia, which both neighbour Minas. Around 5.5m vaccine doses have already been sent to five states that have confirmed cases or are at risk. The other 6 million ordered will arrive soon. It is not clear what has caused the rise in cases. Jimmy Whitworth, professor of international public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: "It's unusual. "The more cases you have, the more chance that it's going to light up and take off in urban areas." The Brazilian authorities are taking the situation very seriously and appear to have enough vaccine stocks, he added.
> 
> Brazil orders 11.5 million yellow fever vaccine doses - BBC News


----------



## waltky

Cholera outbreak in Malawi...




*Malawi Registers New Cases of Cholera*
_March 17, 2017  — Malawi has started registering new cases of cholera in areas bordering Mozambique, one week after the government in Malawi warned of a cholera outbreak in the neighboring country._


> The disease — an acute diarrheal infection caused by eating food or drinking water contaminated with a bacterium — affects children and adults, and can kill within hours if left untreated.  Malawi last registered cholera cases in 2015, but now health authorities in Malawi say they have found new cases at a health center in Nsanje district bordering Mozambique.  "So far we have 11 suspected cases, all in Ndamera health center," said Alexander Juwa, the district health officer in Nsanje. "Here we did what we call a Rapid Diagnostic Testing, and it came out positive. We have set up a treatment unit there, and nobody has died."
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A child suffering cholera symptoms receives serum at a hospital​
> Juwa said they haven't confirmed whether the outbreak is a spillover from Mozambique, because none of the cholera patients had contact with anyone from there.  "When we did a follow-up of the cases, it appears communities have clean water supplies," Juwa said, "but probably we are suspecting issues to do with food preparation and food handling that might have caused the problem."  Media reports in Mozambique say cholera has infected more than 1,200 people, killing two this month.  The outbreak is believed to have been triggered by Tropical Cyclone Dineo, which hit the country last month.
> 
> In Zimbabwe, the health ministry says it has detected three suspected cases of cholera in Chipinge district, which borders Mozambique.  "The area where the cases have been reported is adjacent to the border, where there is an influx of people coming from Mozambique," said Aldrin Musiiwa, the deputy minister of health. "There are cases of cholera which have been reported in the adjacent Manica province of Mozambique."  Meanwhile, the governments of Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe are urging people to practice safe hygiene to prevent further spread of the disease.
> 
> Malawi Registers New Cases of Cholera



See also:

*UN: Cholera Reaches South Sudan's Second-largest City*
_March 10, 2017  — The United Nations says South Sudan's cholera outbreak has reached the country's second-largest city, as the number of cases nationwide rises beyond 5,500._


> The U.N. humanitarian agency said Friday that cases of the sometimes fatal gastrointestinal disease have been confirmed in Malakal, which has been ravaged by the country's three-year civil war.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Relatives of Samual Moro, 30, grieve after he died of cholera, outside the cholera isolation ward at the Juba Teaching Hospital in the capital Juba, South Sudan.​
> The U.N. says cholera now has been confirmed in 14 South Sudan counties, with at least 137 deaths since June.  Cholera cases have been reported in the two counties recently declared to be in the grip of famine, Mayendit and Leer.
> 
> Many of the country's cholera cases have been reported around the capital, Juba.  Cholera is a fast-developing, highly contagious infection that can spread in areas without clean drinking water and with poor sanitation.
> 
> UN: Cholera Reaches South Sudan's Second-largest City


----------



## waltky

A diarrheal disease that kills about 600 children a day...




*Researcher: Efficacy of New Rotavirus Vaccine Promising*
_March 23, 2017 - A new vaccine against rotavirus, a diarrheal disease that kills about 600 children a day, has been shown to have almost 67 percent efficacy in preventing the illness._


> "This efficacy of about 70 percent is higher than any other vaccine in similar settings," said Dr. Emmanuel Baron, director of Epicentre, the research arm of Doctors Without Borders, which conducted the trial.  A clinical trial of 3,500 infants in the African country of Niger showed the efficacy of the new vaccine, known as BRV-PV, to be 66.7 percent. Thirty-one cases of rotavirus were reported among children who got the vaccine, compared with 87 cases among those who received a placebo.  Details of the study and the vaccine's effectiveness were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.  "We saw actually three things," Baron said. "The first is that this vaccine is efficient. The second is that this vaccine is safe. And we also saw a good acceptability by the care providers and the families."
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> An infant infected with rotavirus sleeps at the San Rafael hospital in Santa Tecla, El Salvador​
> An estimated 450,000 young children and babies die each year of diarrheal diseases. One of them is rotavirus, which causes a severe infection of the gastrointestinal tract.  Experts say rotavirus is responsible for about 37 percent of deaths among children younger than 5 who succumb to diarrheal diseases each year, or about 215,000 deaths annually.  There are two existing vaccines, but Baron said they are not widely used, as they are relatively expensive and must be refrigerated. Refrigeration is an obstacle in many African countries where rotavirus is most pronounced because electricity there is unreliable.  Even when children are immunized with the older vaccines, Baron says, hundreds die each day around the world.
> 
> The new vaccine does not need refrigeration for up to six months, because it is mixed or reconstituted with liquid before it is given to children in a three-dose schedule, at 6, 10 and 14 weeks of age.  Initially, the BRV-PV is expected to cost $6 dollars for the three shots, a price that is expected to drop as the vaccine gains traction.  Baron said clinicians in countries where rotavirus is a serious health threat are waiting for the green light from the World Health Organization to begin immunizing children with the new vaccine.
> 
> Researcher: Efficacy of New Rotavirus Vaccine Promising


----------



## waltky

Cholera outbreak in Somalia...




*Cholera Spreads in Famine-threatened Somalia*
_March 31, 2017  — Deadly cholera is spreading through drought-ravaged Somalia as clean water sources dry up, a top aid official said, deepening a humanitarian crisis in a country that is on the verge of famine._


> The Horn of Africa nation has recorded more than 18,000 cases of cholera so far this year, up from around 15,000 in all of 2016 and 5,000 in a normal year, Johan Heffinck, the Somalia head of EU Humanitarian Aid, said in an email on Thursday.  The current strain of the disease is unusually deadly, killing around 1 in 45 patients.  Somalia is suffering from a severe drought that means more than half of its 12 million citizens are expected to need aid by July. Families have been forced to drink slimy, infected water after the rains failed and wells and rivers dried up.  "We are very close to famine," Heffinck said.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Internally displaced Somali women gather to collect water from a plastic pan after fleeing from drought stricken regions near a makeshift camp in Baidoa, west of Somalia's capital Mogadishu​
> The Security Information Network (FSIN), which is co-sponsored by the United Nations food agency, said in a report on Friday Somalia was one of four African countries at high risk of famine.  Somalia's rainy season normally runs from March to May, but there has been no rain this month.  The drought has hit particularly hard in the breakaway northern region of Somaliland, where the rains began to fail in 2015, killing off animals that nomadic families rely on to survive.
> 
> 'This is the last bottle'
> 
> Listless, skinny children last week lay in crowded wards in the main hospital in the regional capital Hargeisa.  Three-year-old Nimaan Hassid had diarrhea for 20 days before his mother brought him to hospital. He weighs only 6.5 kilograms, less than half the normal weight for his age.  Doctors say he is suffering from severe malnutrition but his grandmother, 60-year-old Fadumo Hussein, told Reuters the family has no money for food or clean water.  "We don't have mineral water to give to the sick child. This is the last bottle," she said, carefully pouring it into a feeding tube inserted through his nose.  In the malnutrition ward in the general hospital of Somaliland's second city Burao, Doctor Hamud Ahmed said children were also being hit hard by diseases like tuberculosis, meningitis and measles.
> 
> Children's admissions reached almost 60 in March, up fourfold from October.  "This is due to the drought," Ahmed said. "When families lose all their livestock and children do not get milk, this is the famine that causes the children to suffer."  If the rains fail, the country could tip into famine.  Somalia's last famine, in 2011, killed more than 260,000 people. Heffinck said aid agencies were working overtime to try to prevent a similar disaster, trucking in clean water and stepping up the distribution of food and cash.  "The big difference this time is that we have started the preparation and scaling up of the relief operations earlier," he said.
> 
> Cholera Spreads in Famine-threatened Somalia



See also:

*How Ebola Impacted Liberia's Appetite for Bushmeat*
_March 31, 2017 - When Ebola struck Liberia, consumption of bushmeat dropped dramatically. But in an odd twist, poorer households cut their consumption much more than well-to-do households._


> The findings have implications for public health, as well as wildlife conservation. Education campaigns about the risks and consequences of bushmeat hunting have focused on rural villagers near protected nature reserves.  But, it turns out, the more tenacious consumers may be the wealthier city-dwellers.  Bushmeat — wild animals like monkeys, duikers and pangolins — is an essential protein source for many rural West Africans, but it's also a favorite of urbanites.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Alice Jallabah, head of a bushmeat seller group, holds dried bushmeat on Oct. 7, 2014, in Monrovia. The outbreak of the Ebola virus in Liberia led to a ban on eating bushmeat.​
> Satisfying that demand has created, in some places, "empty forests" that are otherwise pristine but are devoid of critical wildlife.  In addition, bushmeat can spread diseases like Ebola because, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "human infections have been associated with hunting, butchering and processing meat from infected animals."  Before the 2015 Ebola outbreak, Jessica Junker and her colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology based in Leipzig, Germany, had studied Liberians' preferences for bushmeat compared to chicken or fish.
> 
> Tradition, taste
> 
> "We asked people, 'If you were at a party and you could choose the type of meat you could eat there, what would you like to eat?'" Junker told VOA. That scenario aimed to take cost out of the equation.  Bushmeat often topped the list.  People prefer the taste, Junker said. Bushmeat also is often cheaper than domesticated meat. Plus, it's a traditional part of their diet.  "Many people have told me, 'Well, we've always eaten bushmeat. Our fathers have eaten bushmeat,'" Junker said.  When Ebola hit, she decided it would be a good time to see how attitudes toward eating wildlife had changed.  Bushmeat consumption dropped, as expected. However, it dropped less among wealthier people.
> 
> Rich or poor, before Ebola, people said they ate bushmeat every other day on average. During the outbreak, that dropped to once a month among the lowest-income survey respondents, but once a week among the highest-income respondents.  It's not clear why that should be, but Junker notes that poorer people hunt bushmeat themselves. "During the Ebola crisis, a lot of people didn't leave their houses," she said.  In the cities, it was illegal to sell bushmeat. But "there was an underground bushmeat market," she said. "If you wanted to get bushmeat, you could still get it," as long as you had money.
> 
> *Awareness campaigns*



Human testing to begin...




*Zika Vaccine Trials Enter Next Phase*
_March 31, 2017 - U.S. researchers have begun enrolling people in the next phase of testing for a vaccine to protect against Zika, the mosquito-borne virus that can cause birth defects in pregnant women._


> Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), told reporters Friday that the Zika vaccine had cleared preliminary safety hurdles and would now be tested on human volunteers to see whether it is effective.  In the study, funded by the U.S. government, researchers aim to enroll more than 2,400 healthy volunteers from areas where mosquitoes carry the Zika virus — parts of the southern United States, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Peru, Costa Rica, Panama and Mexico.
> 
> Researchers at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) said the trial would begin with a small number of people testing different doses or strengths of vaccine. Once the dosage is decided, the larger part of the study could begin by June, when the volunteers will receive either the vaccine or a placebo.  Participants will be monitored for two years to see whether the vaccine protects against Zika infection.  The vaccine being tested is a new type, called a DNA vaccine. Traditionally, vaccines are made using killed or weakened viruses, which increase the recipients' ability to fight off an active infection.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are seen in a mosquito cage at a laboratory in Cucuta, Colombia​
> The DNA vaccine contains no actual virus, but has genes extracted from Zika viruses. Once inside the body, the genes form particles resembling Zika that cannot cause infection. If all goes well, the gene particles should induce volunteers' immune systems to produce antibodies capable of repelling the full virus.  NIH researchers also are studying more traditional Zika vaccines, but those are not yet ready for human trials.  The DNA vaccine trial is expected to cost $100 million, but Fauci said the government was in talks with pharmaceutical companies to share the costs of the final stage of testing, in return for rights to manufacture the vaccine in the future.
> 
> Zika typically causes no symptoms or only mild ones, such as fever and body aches. If the virus infects a pregnant woman, however, it can result in birth defects in newborns, including microcephaly, which is characterized by an abnormally small head and brain, accompanied by marked developmental disorders.  Zika is primarily transmitted by mosquitoes, but it can also be transmitted via sexual contact.
> 
> Zika Vaccine Trials Enter Next Phase


----------



## waltky

Cholera strikes swampy region of So. Sudan...




*Cholera stalks 'refugee islands' in swamplands of South Sudan*
_April 6, 2017  -- Kneeling over a pot of water drawn from the nearby swamp, Veronica feigns a smile as her eyes dart toward the floor of her small hut. "I know it's dirty but I have no other choice," says the 35-year-old South Sudanese mother of four._


> A few years earlier, Veronica lost her 3-year-old daughter to cholera. Several months ago, another of her children contracted the disease and Veronica herself spent 10 days in hospital receiving treatment. On South Sudan's tiny island of Tayar, in Unity State, there's no escaping this debilitating epidemic.  Once a commercial trading island with only 200 inhabitants, Tayar is now home to 2,300 internally displaced people who have sought refuge from South Sudan's three-year civil war. They live with no toilets or running water, openly defecating in the island's surrounding swamplands. This same filthy water is then used for cooking, bathing and drinking. Thus, cholera has become rife in this makeshift community.
> 
> The deadly waterborne disease, which causes crippling diarrhea and kills through dehydration, is flourishing amid the young nation's war.  Every time fighting erupts in villages, people flee their homes seeking safety wherever they can, often in isolated pockets of safety where they have few resources and little access to aid. The war has displaced 1.9 million people inside the country, while 1.6 million have fled its borders.  Many, like Veronica travel for days through swamps, with no food or water until they find sanctuary. Roughly 5,800 people reside on seven remote islands in Panyijiar county, including Tayar.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A young girl in Ganyiel’s health clinic watches her 3-year-old sister who is sick with cholera. Her mother brought her over from Tayar island to seek treatment in the clinic.​
> These shifting populations mean that a growing number of people are crammed into small, unsanitary spaces, spawning a cholera outbreak that is unprecedented for this time of year.  "It would be the worst problem if this doesn't get under control before the rainy season," says Stephen Gatliah, health director for Panyijiar county. Gatliah has seen cholera in this area before, but he says it has never been this bad in the dry season, which usually runs from December to May. After that, the onset of months of heavy rains will make tackling the epidemic even more challenging, as flooding increases the risk of contamination and further restricts humanitarian access.
> 
> A U.N. study found that more than 4,000 cholera cases were reported between June 2016 and January 2017 in 10 counties in South Sudan, of which 83 were fatal, although the true figures are likely much higher due to unreported deaths. The disease has spread to more locations and lasted longer than the previous two years. On Tayar Island 10 people have died from the disease since October and 37 have died in surrounding areas, according to community leaders.
> 
> *A breeding ground for cholera*


----------



## waltky

'Record-breaking' Progress in Fighting Neglected Tropical Diseases...




*WHO Reports 'Record-breaking' Progress in Fighting Neglected Tropical Diseases*
_April 18, 2017 — The World Health Organization said Tuesday that unprecedented progress had been made in tackling many of the world's most disfiguring and disabling neglected tropical diseases over the past 10 years._


> Margaret Chan, WHO director-general, said there has been "record-breaking progress towards bringing ancient scourges like sleeping sickness and elephantiasis to their knees."  About 1.5 billion people in 149 countries, down from 1.9 billion in 2010, are affected by neglected tropical diseases (NTD), a group of 18 disorders that disproportionately affect the very poor.  In 2007, the WHO and a group of global partners devised a strategy for better tackling and controlling NTDs.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan speaks during a news conference on neglected tropical diseases in Geneva​
> Five years ago, a group of nongovernmental organizations, private and public partners signed the London Declaration, committing greater support and resources to the elimination or eradication of 10 of the most common NTDs by the end of the decade.  "That has been a game changer in the expansion of NTD interventions worldwide," said Dirk Engel, director of the WHO's Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases.
> 
> Meeting on Wednesday
> 
> The WHO's fourth report on neglected tropical diseases was launched to coincide with a one-day meeting Wednesday at the agency's headquarters to take stock of what has been achieved in the fight against NTDs and to explore ways to move the process forward.  Engel said health ministers, representatives from pharmaceutical companies, academics, donors and philanthropists "will look at the changing landscape of NTDs" and explore better ways of integrating the fight against these diseases into global health and development.  The report described achievements made in controlling the debilitating diseases. For example, it noted that an estimated 1 billion people received 1.5 billion treatments donated by pharmaceutical companies for one or more NTDs in 2015 alone.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A man with a hand showing symptoms of leishmaniasis waits to be treated at a hospital in Aleppo, Syria​
> It cited dramatic successes in efforts to eliminate visceral leishmaniasis, a parasitic, disfiguring disease that attacks the internal organs.  "If you get it, it kills. There is no way out," said Engel.  The disease is prevalent in Southeast Asia, particularly in Bangladesh, India and Nepal. Engel said a subregional program was organized to provide early treatment with donated medicines and vector control through indoor residual spraying, similar to that used in malaria control.  "With those two interventions, you reduce the incidence of visceral leishmaniasis almost to nothing," said Engel. "And the aim was to have less than one case in 10,000 people at the subdistrict level, which is a tough target."
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Ajak Kuol Nyamchiek watches while John Lotiki, a nurse with the Carter Center, bandages blisters on her leg from where a guinea worm is emerging, Abuyong, Sudan​
> He noted that the disease had been eliminated in 82 percent of subdistricts in India, 97 percent of subdistricts in Bangladesh, and eliminated entirely in Nepal.  "This is a result that we had not anticipated a few years back," he said.  While Asia is burdened with the greatest number of NTD cases, Africa has the highest concentration of the diseases. Engel told VOA that between 450,000 and 500,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa were infected by at least one tropical disease — but usually several — at the same time.  He said Africa was making excellent progress in controlling neglected tropical diseases. African sleeping sickness has been reduced from 37,000 new cases in 1999 to fewer than 3,000 cases in 2015, and Guinea worm disease has gone down "to only 25 human cases, putting eradication within reach," he said.
> 
> MORE



See also:

*Frog Substance Shown to Kill Human Flu Viruses*
_April 18, 2017 - A frog found in India secretes a substance that has been shown to be highly effective at killing influenza viruses._


> Researchers at Emory University in Atlanta say the secreted peptide — a subunit of a protein chain — kills dozens of flu strains that plague humans. It is effective against H1 viruses, including ones that could cause pandemics.   Unlike humans, frogs don't have an immune system that is capable of protecting them against pathogens like viruses and bacteria. But they do produce a slimy mucus that does the job for them.  Researchers at Emory screened 32 peptides derived from the mucus of the frog, called Bahuvistara, and found one that was effective against all H1 viruses. The frog is found in the southern Indian province of Kerala.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> An image of H1N1 influenza virus from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention​
> Joshy Jacob, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Emory's vaccine center and senior author of the study, describing the peptide in the journal Immunity. He and his colleagues administered the peptide to mice and then exposed them to H1 viruses. He said it protected the animals from infection.  "The beauty of this peptide is that it directly kills the virus. It's virucidal. So if you put the peptide and the virus together, it actually destroys the virus," Jacob said.  The researchers named the peptide urumin, after a sword blade that snaps and bends like a whip.  Jacob said the mucus is collected from the frog after exposing it to a mild electric current, which makes the amphibians secrete the antiviral agent.
> 
> Three dozen peptides
> 
> After identifying the more than three dozen immune peptides in the mucus, the protein building blocks were made synthetically in the lab.  Four emerged as antiviral candidates. But one, urumin, killed all H1 viruses.  Jacob said an flu-fighting peptide could be especially useful when vaccines are not available or when circulating viral strains become resistant to current drugs.
> 
> He said one of the next challenges would be turning the effective peptide into a pill or injection to protect humans from viruses.  "It's like when you get a headache, you take a Motrin [a painkiller]. [The peptide] doesn't keep you from getting [the flu] again, but it kills the virus. It's like taking an antibiotic for bacterial infection. You take this for a flu infection," Jacob said.  Jacob said the peptide was not effective against seasonal flu viruses that mutate rapidly. But researchers plan on testing more of the frog-derived peptides to try to find others that work against other types of influenza virus.
> 
> Frog Substance Shown to Kill Human Flu Viruses


----------



## waltky

Cholera outbreak in Kenya...




*Kenya cholera outbreak hits dozens at health conference*
_Thu, 22 Jun 2017 : Delegates were attending a conference organised by Kenya's Ministry of Health in Nairobi._


> Nearly 50 people have contracted cholera while attending a health conference in Kenya's capital.  The infected delegates were among hundreds who had gathered for the four day forum organised by the Ministry of Health at a Nairobi hotel on Tuesday.  They have been isolated in a city hospital, but health officials say the number of people infected may rise.  It is unclear how they caught the disease, which has led to five deaths in the past month.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> It is not clear what triggered the latest cholera outbreak​
> Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholera.  Most of those infected will have no or mild symptoms but, in severe cases, the disease can kill within hours if left untreated.  In Yemen, a large cholera outbreak is fast approaching 300,000 cases, according to UN humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brien. He described it as a "man-made catastrophe" caused by both sides of the country's ongoing civil war.
> 
> In a press release on 24 May, Kenya's Ministry of Health said there had been 146 cases across the country since the outbreak began.  Some of those infected had attended a wedding at an upmarket estate in Nairobi.  As a result, authorities put in place emergency measures to try and curb its spread.  An outbreak two years ago killed 65 people across Kenya.
> 
> Kenya cholera outbreak hits dozens at health conference - BBC News


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## badger2

Bahuvistara mucus (above) compares to Chinese Chan su, a fermentation product from the skin of Bufo:

Chansu
A new indole alkaloid from the traditional Chinese medicine Chansu.  - PubMed - NCBI

Brazilian yellow fever indeed links to hepatitis C virus (U.S. Army) as well as Zika, though Noguchi's vaccine worked for Leptospira, Noguchi thought that it was the cause of yellow fever. Noguchi was astute in tracking the Leptospira to a certain locality in Columbia, and note that in the reports in this thread, Columbia is not mentioned for Zika vaccine (a yellow fever family virus). We recall that Zika apparently did not impact Columbia as it did Brazil, which is a clue to its epidemiology (Zika Forest, Uganda rather than Columbia). We think it a good possibility that yellow fever originated in South America rather than Africa, which if proven, would turn its history topsy-turvy.

Hideyo Noguchi
Hideyo Noguchi - Wikipedia


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## waltky

Granny thinks Uncle Ferd got bit by a tsetse fly `cause he likes to sleep inna hammock alla time...




*Tsetse Fly's Weakness May Be Its Symbiotic Bacteria*
_June 30, 2017 - The fly that carries African sleeping sickness may carry the seeds of its own destruction, according to new research._


> Scientists have detailed the unique relationship between the tsetse fly and bacteria in its gut the fly can't live without.  The tsetse fly spreads African sleeping sickness to humans from wild animals and has caused several major epidemics in the past.  The parasite responsible for sleeping sickness is one of the few pathogens able to pass from the blood into the brain. It disrupts the sleep cycle and leads to mood changes, confusion, tremors and ultimately organ failure.  Researchers have long hoped to take advantage of a number of the fly's unusual properties. Like mammals, the tsetse fly lactates and gives birth to live young.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Dead tsetse flies are seen in a laboratory in Ghibe Valley, southwest of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia​
> The tsetse milk contains bacteria called Wigglesworthia that the mother passes on to its young. Despite having one of the smallest known genomes, Wigglesworthia is a big deal for the tsetse fly. Without it, the fly becomes infertile.  In the report published Wednesday in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, researchers from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and the University of Pavia in Italy described a number of ways that the tsetse fly depends on Wigglesworthia. The bacteria supply B vitamins that the fly can't produce on its own and doesn't get from blood, its only food source. Without B vitamins, the fly can't properly nourish its young, and they starve.
> 
> Proteins' roles
> 
> The scientists also examined the tissue that houses the bacteria. The fly produces a special protein that guides the bacteria where they are needed. Another protein hides the bacteria from the fly's immune system.  This leaves the researchers with several attack strategies as they move forward. They could try to produce drugs that target Wigglesworthia directly, or unleash the flies' immune system on the bacteria, or block one of the several pathways that the bacteria use to support the fly.  "There's a lot of potential places you could throw a wrench into the works," study co-author and entomologist Geoffrey Attardo told VOA. "It's just finding a place that's optimal."
> 
> Recent efforts to stem the spread of sleeping sickness have been largely successful. According to the World Health Organization, the number of reported cases fell from almost 40,000 in 1998 to just 2,804 in 2015.  But researchers say it is still important to develop new control methods that are cheaper, easier to deploy and more effective.  "During epidemics, the political will to address this is there, but then when the disease goes away, the control efforts stop," said Attardo. "Then flies come back in from wild areas, and the cycle starts again. And 20 or 30 years later, you have another epidemic."
> 
> Tsetse Fly's Weakness May Be Its Symbiotic Bacteria



See also:

*Studies Fuel Dispute Over Whether Banned Pesticides Harm Bees*
_June 29, 2017  — Two major studies into how bees are affected by a group of pesticides banned in Europe gave mixed results on Thursday, fueling a row over whether the chemicals, called neonicotinoids, are safe._


> The studies, one conducted across three European countries and another in Canada, found some negative effects after exposure to neonicotinoids in wild and honeybee populations, but also some positives, depending on the environmental context.  Scientists who conducted the European research - in Britain, Hungary and Germany - told reporters their overall findings suggested neonicotinoids are harmful to honeybee and wild bee populations and are "a cause for concern."  But scientists representing companies who funded the work - Germany's Bayer AG and Switerland's Syngenta AG - said the results showed "no consistent effect."  Several independent experts said the findings were mixed or inconclusive.
> 
> The European Union has since 2014 had a moratorium on use of neonicotinoids - made and sold by various companies including Bayer and Syngenta - after lab research pointed to potential risks for bees, crucial for pollinating crops.  But crop chemical companies say real-world evidence is not there to blame a global plunge in bee numbers in recent years on neonicotinoid pesticides alone. They argue it is a complex phenomenon due to multiple factors.  A spokesman for the EU's food safety watchdog EFSA, said the agency is in the process of assessing all studies and data for a full re-evaluation of neonicotinoids, expected in November.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A bee flies over a sunflower on a field near Frankfurt, Germany​
> EFSA's scientific assessment will be crucial to a European Commission decision in consultation with EU states on whether the moratorium on neonicotinoid use should remain in place.  The two studies published on Thursday, in the peer-reviewed journal Science, are important because they were field studies that sought to examine the real-world exposure of bees to pesticides in nature.  Researchers who led the Canadian study concluded that worker bees exposed to neonicotinoids - which they said often came from contaminated pollen from nearby plants, not from treated crops - had lower life expectancies and their colonies were more likely to suffer from a loss of queen bees.
> 
> On the findings of the European study, researchers told a briefing in London that exposure to neonicotinoid crops harmed honeybee colonies in two of the three countries and reduced the reproductive success of wild bees across all three.  They noted, however, that results from Germany showed a positive effect on bees exposed to neonicotinoids, although they said this was temporary and the reasons behind it were unclear.  "This represents the complexity of the real world," said Richard Pywell, a professor at Britain's Center of Ecology and Hydrology who co-led the work. "In certain circumstances, you may have a positive effect ... and in other circumstances you may have a negative effect"  Overall, however, he said: "We are showing significant negative effects on [bees'] critical life-cycle stages, which is a cause for concern."
> 
> Several specialists with no direct involvement in the study who were asked to assess its findings said they were mixed.  Rob Smith, a professor at Britain's University of Huddersfield, said the results were "important in showing that there are detectable effects of neonicotinoid treatments on honeybees in the real world", but added: "These effects are not consistent."  Lynn Dicks at the University of East Anglia said the findings "illustrate the complexity of environmental science."  "If there was a really big effect of neonicotinoids on bees, in whatever circumstances they were used, it would have shown up in both of these studies," she said.  Norman Carreck, an insect expert at Britain's Sussex University, said: "Whilst adding to our knowledge, the study throws up more questions than it answers."
> 
> Studies Fuel Dispute Over Whether Banned Pesticides Harm Bees


----------



## waltky

Despite Boko Haram...




*WHO: Nearly 900,000 Children in Nigeria Receive Anti-malaria Drugs*
_August 04, 2017  — The World Health Organization reports it has provided anti-malaria drugs to nearly 900,000 children in areas in northeast Nigeria formerly held by Boko Haram militants._


> The effort is part of a new strategy to tackle malaria, a major killer of children younger than 5 years old. The director of WHO's Global Malaria Program, Pedro Alonso, tells VOA the agency has completed the first round of an emergency approach to stop the disease.  Alonso estimates about 10,000 lives will be saved by providing anti-malaria drugs to the same 900,000 children every month until November, when the period of high transmission will be over.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A woman carrying a baby holds a treated mosquito net during a malaria prevention action in Nigeria, April 21, 2016. WHO is providing anti-malaria drugs to children in northeast Nigeria in an effort to combat the disease.​
> He says the drug clears the parasites that might already have invaded a child's system and provides protection for three to four weeks.  "By repeating this operation to the same children every month over the next four or five months, which is the high transmission area," Alonso said, "we may potentially — unfortunately, it will not be perfect and therefore we will not be able to stop all deaths — but, we should be able to have a massive impact in terms of prevention of disease and death in that specific population group, which is the highest risk group and where mortality concentrates."
> 
> WHO estimates there are more than 8,000 cases of malaria every week, including seven deaths, among northeastern Nigeria's population of 3.7 million people. There are an estimated 1.1 million children aged three months to five years in the region.
> 
> WHO: Nearly 900,000 Children in Nigeria Receive Anti-malaria Drugs



See also:

*Famine Looms in Former Boko Haram Stronghold in NE Nigeria*
_May 30, 2017  — The United Nations is warning that more than 1.4 million people in northeastern Nigeria could face famine by September because of a severe funding shortage. To date, only 28 percent of the U.N. appeal for more than $1 billion to provide humanitarian aid for nearly seven million people has been received._


> Since Boko Haram militants began their armed rebellion against the government of Nigeria in 2009, the United Nations estimates more than 20,000 people have been killed, nearly two million are internally displaced inside the country, and about 200,000 have taken refuge in neighboring Cameroon, Chad and Niger.  Government forces have recaptured much of the territory held by Boko Haram, but the security situation remains fragile.
> 
> The U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Nigeria, Edward Kallon, says food is in short supply and traditional coping measures have been exhausted.  "Although the humanitarian response has increased substantially, we have not turned the corner yet," he said. "If the funding situation is not sustained, the situation can easily relapse into a famine situation."  Kallon says 43,000 people already are in a state of famine.  Nigeria has entered the so-called lean season when food stocks are at their lowest. U.N. estimates indicate 2.8 million people will be in urgent need of food between June and September. This is also the rainy season, a period when disease outbreaks are expected.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A mother feeds her malnourished child at a feeding center run by Doctors Without Borders in Maiduguri, Nigeria​
> The situation means some of the 450,000 severely malnourished children could die, according to Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria Peter Lundberg.  "If they die, they will most likely die from disease that could be easily prevented if their immune system had been much stronger," Lundberg told VOA. "So, what we will see is that people will die from diarrhea disease or malaria or anything else that they normally would be able to survive if they were in a much better nutritional condition."
> 
> The United Nations says people in northeastern Nigeria also are living through a protection crisis. It says thousands are victims of sexual violence and exploitation. According to government statistics, tens of thousands of children and women have been used by Boko Haram, some as suicide bombers.
> 
> Famine Looms in Former Boko Haram Stronghold in NE Nigeria



Related:

*Insecurity, Underfunding Hamper Nigeria Hunger Relief*
_May 25, 2017  — Aid agencies warn that humanitarian efforts against hunger in northeastern Nigeria are dangerously underfunded and some communities remain cut off from aid and their farms as the military continues to battle Boko Haram._


> Communities in northeastern Nigeria are facing the dual threats of hunger and the terrorist group known as Boko Haram. The zone has been identified by aid agencies as one of four conflict-torn parts of the world at risk of famine this year.  The United Nations Children’s Fund estimates that the number of children suffering from severe acute malnutrition will reach 450,000 this year in the states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.
> 
> Scott Paul, a senior humanitarian policy advisor for the international charity organization Oxfam America, was recently in northeastern Nigeria. He said the biggest driver for the humanitarian emergency is the inability for residents to access their farmlands, fishing sites and the markets.  “I spoke with people who had to flee villages that were captured by Boko Haram and they’ve since come back but they can’t go a kilometer out of town to farm. Right now people are coming home sometimes under false pretenses," he said.  "They’re being told that their homeland and home areas are safe and they’re coming home to find that the towns themselves might be safe but the farmlands outside aren’t safe. The markets aren’t safe. The roads aren’t safe. And in some areas that we’re working in there isn’t even clean and safe water to be procured.”
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Internally displaced persons wait to be served with food at Dikwa camp, in northeast Nigeria's Borno state​
> Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency says people internally displaced by the conflict can voluntarily go back to liberated areas as long as they feel safe. The Nigerian army provides road escorts several times a week from Maiduguri to certain communities.  But aid groups say many communities are simply not prepared for the large numbers of people coming back.  The Norwegian Refugee Council noted more than one million people have returned to northeast Nigeria since October 2015, and they are returning to towns that have no basic services or infrastructure. Nearly one million homes were destroyed or damaged by years of fighting, according to Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima.
> 
> Earlier this month, Shettima told reporters it is still not safe for many internally displaced people to return to their homes. The governor said the IDP camps will remain open indefinitely, but that he hopes Borno state will be safe enough for full rehabilitation very soon.  The state capital, Maiduguri, is home to more than a dozen camps for those displaced by Boko Haram. Those camps have repeatedly been targeted by suicide bombings.
> 
> MORE


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## yiostheoy

You can get/catch cholera anywhere just from drinking water with human sh!t in it.  Not necessarily tropical or exotic.


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## waltky

'Cholera hotspots' Threaten More Than 1M People in Nigeria Refugee Camps...





*Cholera Outbreak Threatens More Than 1M People in Nigeria Refugee Camps*
_September 07, 2017  —  At least 1.4 million people uprooted by Boko Haram's insurgency in northeast Nigeria are living in 'cholera hotspots,' prey to an outbreak of the deadly disease which is sweeping through camps for the displaced, the United Nations said on Thursday._


> An estimated 28 people have died from cholera in the conflict-hit region, while about 837 are suspected to have been infected with the disease, including at least 145 children under the age of five, said the U.N. children's agency (UNICEF).  The outbreak was first identified last week in the Muna Garage camp in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, which is the heart of jihadist group Boko Haram's brutal eight-year campaign to carve out an Islamic caliphate in northeast Nigeria.  About 1.8 million people have abandoned their homes because of violence or food shortages, U.N. agencies say, and many live in camps for the displaced throughout northeast Nigeria.
> 
> Several aid agencies last month told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that Nigeria's rainy season could spread disease in already unsanitary displacement camps, and 350,000 uprooted children aged under five are at risk of cholera, UNICEF said.  "Cholera is difficult for young children to withstand at any time, but becomes a crisis for survival when their resilience is already weakened by malnutrition, malaria and other waterborne diseases," UNICEF's Pernille Ironside said in a statement.  "Cholera is one more threat amongst many that children in northeast Nigeria are battling today in order to survive," added Ironside, UNICEF's deputy representative in Nigeria.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> People displaced by Islamist extremists fetch water at the Muna camp in Maiduguri, Nigeria.​
> UNICEF said aid agencies have set up a cholera treatment centre at the Muna Garage camp, chlorinated water in camps and host communities to curb the outbreak, and mobilised volunteers and local leaders to refer suspected cases to health facilities.  The disease, which spreads through contaminated food and drinking water, causes diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. It can kill within hours if left untreated, but most patients recover if treated promptly with oral rehydration salts.
> 
> The latest figures represent a 3.3 percent fatality rate - well above the 1 percent rate that the World Health Organization rates as an emergency. The short incubation period of two hours to five days means the disease can spread with explosive speed.  More than 20,000 people have been killed in the conflict with Boko Haram, at least 2.2 million have been displaced, and 5.2 million in the northeast are short of food, with tens of thousands living in famine-like conditions, U.N. figures show.
> 
> Cholera Outbreak Threatens More Than 1M People in Nigeria Refugee Camps


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## waltky

Cholera in deepest darkest Africa...




*WHO: Over 500 Dead as Congo Cholera Epidemic Spreads*
_Monday 11th September, 2017 - More than 500 people have died so far in a cholera epidemic that is sweeping the Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.  Outbreaks of the water-borne disease occur regularly in Congo, mainly due to poor sanitation and a lack of access to clean drinking water._


> But this year's epidemic, which has already hit at least 10 urban areas including the capital Kinshasa, is particularly worrying as it comes as about 1.4 million people have been displaced by violence in the central Kasai region.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The WHO said at least 528 people had died and the epidemic had spread to 20 of Congo's 26 provinces.  'The risk of spread remains very high towards the Grand Kasai region, where degraded sanitary and security conditions further increase vulnerability in the face of the epidemic,' the WHO said in a statement.
> 
> So far, health officials have recorded more than 24,000 suspected cases of the disease across the vast nation this year, averaging more than 1,500 new cases per week since the end of July.  The WHO sent a team of experts including epidemiologists and public health specialists to Congo this month in an effort to contain the disease's spread.
> 
> WHO Over 500 Dead as Congo Cholera Epidemic Spreads


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## waltky

WHO: Urgent Action Under Way to Prevent Spread of Cholera in West Africa...




*Urgent Action Under Way to Prevent Spread of Cholera in West Africa *
_September 18, 2017  — An emergency vaccination campaign is getting under way in northeastern Nigeria to prevent a deadly cholera outbreak from spreading to other countries._


> The World Health Organization reports the potentially devastating cholera situation is emerging in Borno State in northeastern Nigeria. During the past few months, it says 2,600 suspected cases of this fatal disease, including 48 deaths, have occurred in this former stronghold of Boko Haram. The militant group has been waging war to establish an Islamic state in northeast Nigeria.  Dominique Legros is cholera coordinator for WHO’s department for pandemic and epidemic diseases. He says the outbreak, which is centered in camps for internally displaced people, is spreading to other areas of northeastern Nigeria, toward Chad and northern Cameroon.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A cholera patient lies in a treatment centre run by Medecins Sans Frontieres on Macauley Street in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown​
> He says 900,000 people in the state will receive the oral cholera vaccine to quickly contain the spread of the disease.  “Once it is out of the box, once it has spread, it is very, very difficult to contain and we have a huge number of cases and deaths," he said. "So, this outbreak in Nigeria, hopefully, will not reach Chad, because in Chad already, we have an alert in the eastern part of the country towards the border with Sudan, 344 cases, 49 deaths.”  Legros says this comes to a 14 percent case fatality. He notes this is very high for a cholera outbreak, which usually has a case fatality rate of less than one percent.
> 
> WHO estimates the global cholera disease burden at around 2.9 million suspected cases, including 95,000 deaths. It reports Yemen has the world's worst cholera epidemic, with nearly 690,000 suspected cases and more than 2,000 deaths.  The agency expresses concern about the situation in Africa, where it reports tens of thousands of suspected cases and thousands of deaths in, among others; Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya and Tanzania.
> 
> Urgent Action Under Way to Prevent Spread of Cholera in West Africa


----------



## waltky

UN steps up aid for cholera outbreak in north-east Nigeria...




*Amid cholera outbreak in north-east Nigeria, UN steps up aid, warns pregnant women most vulnerable*
_26 September 2017  -- Large-scale displacement and a health system in tatters as a result of persistent violence by the Boko Haram terrorist group have left many " most worryingly, pregnant women and their unborn babies " vulnerable to cholera in the wake of an outbreak in August, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has warned._


> "Studies show that cholera infections during pregnancy can lead to sudden loss of the foetus, premature delivery, stillbirth and an increased mortality and morbidity, both for the baby and the mother," said Homsuk Swomen, a UNFPA reproductive health specialist in Maiduguri, north-eastern Nigeria, one of the worst affected areas by the Boko Haram violence.  Due to the ongoing conflict, many pregnant women are malnourished, aggravating their vulnerability to cholera and the consequences if they fall ill.  Furthermore, the "traditional role" played by women and girls in the region is making them all the more susceptible to the disease.
> 
> According to Sylvia Opinia, a UNFPA expert in gender issues, it is usually women and girls who care for sick family members, clean latrines, fetch and handle untreated water, and prepare food for the family.  "We need to understand that cholera is not gender neutralcholera is not gender neutral," she underscored.  On its part, the UN agency is working with local health staff, community and social workers in the camps to impress upon them the need to include women and girls in education messages on the disease, and especially targeting pregnant women with those messages. It is also engaging health workers to identify vulnerable women and girls, including pregnant women, for referral to appropriate care.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> But funds are needed.
> 
> Last Sunday, the UN and partners launched a $9.9 million appeal to respond to the current outbreak in Borno state (north-east Nigeria) and to prevent further outbreaks in high-risk areas. A Cholera Response and Prevention Plan has been developed to address the immediate needs of 3.7 million people that could be affected by the outbreak.  In related news, the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN health agency, concluded an oral cholera vaccination campaign around Maiduguri this weekend, inoculating some 844,000 people in affected areas.
> 
> According to WHO, it takes those immunized about a week to develop the immune response that should protect against the disease, and most individuals vaccinated should be protected for up to six months.  As of 25 September, 3,934 suspected cases of cholera including 54 deaths have been reported in and around Maiduguri. About 14 million people are affected by the crisis in north-eastern Nigeria (Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states), of whom 6.9 million need health assistance.
> 
> Amid cholera outbreak in north-east Nigeria UN steps up aid warns pregnant women most vulnerable


----------



## waltky

18 killed in Tanzanian Cholera Outbreak...

*Tanzanian Cholera Outbreak Kills 18, Health Ministry Says*
_November 11, 2017  — An outbreak of cholera in Tanzania has left 18 dead in two months, the Health Ministry said Saturday, warning that the situation could worsen as the rainy season continues._


> The ministry said the outbreak had left "18 dead out of 570 cases recorded" between September 1 and October 30, and it urged local authorities to take measures to keep the disease from spreading.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Burundian refugees wait to board a U.N. ship, at Kagunga on Lake Tanganyika, Tanzania, to be taken to Kigoma, May 23, 2015. An outbreak of cholera at the time infected 10,000 people in a Tanzanian border region where refugees fleeing political unrest had massed.​
> In 2015, Tanzania was struck by a major outbreak of cholera that infected 10,000 people and left 150 dead.
> 
> Cholera is transmitted through contaminated drinking water and causes acute diarrhea.
> 
> Tanzanian Cholera Outbreak Kills 18, Health Ministry Says


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## waltky

Pharmaceutical highway robbery...




*Why A Pill That's 4 Cents In Tanzania Costs Up To $400 In The U.S.*
_December 11, 2017 - Two pills to wipe out hookworm could cost you 4 cents. Or $400.  It just depends where you live._


> The 4 cents is in Tanzania. That'll cover the two pills it takes to knock out the intestinal parasite. But in the United States, where hookworm has re-emerged, the price for two 200 mg tablets of albendazole can cost as much as $400.  The pill will put an end to the problems hookworm can cause, such as anemia and protein deficiency as well as stunting growth in children.  It's not just a problem with the anti-hookworm pill. Drugs for diseases of the developing world, in particular the so-called "neglected tropical diseases" like hookworm and leishmaniasis, are enormously more expensive in the United States than in the developing world.  "There really is no good reason for this price," Dr. Jonathan Alpern says of the albendazole price tag. Alpern works for the HealthPartners Institute, the research division of a health care organization in Minnesota.  Impax Laboratories is the only pharmaceutical company that offers the drug in the U.S. Impax did not wish to comment on product pricing for this story but stated in an email to NPR: "Given the very different regulatory regimes in the U.S. versus outside the U.S., pricing is a very awkward comparison."
> 
> Because the drug's patent expired decades ago, other companies can sell the generic version. But for medications that fight neglected tropical diseases, pharmaceutical companies have been slow to jump in and manufacture the medicine.  As for those that do: "[Impax] fits into a category of companies that have taken drugs that have been around for many years, acquired the rights and jacked up the price [for the Western market]," says Alpern.  Indeed, prices for generic drugs that treat neglected tropical diseases are skyrocketing in the U.S.  When a disease affects only a small number of patients in the U.S., "there's less incentive for generic companies to enter the market," Alpern explains. That's because there's less potential for profit.  Hookworm, which was recently discovered in a small community in the U.S., is just one example of this trend.  Neurocysticercosis, a parasitic disease that causes seizures and epilepsy, is another example. The disease is rare in the U.S. with an estimated 1,000 to 5,000 new cases every year. Either albendazole or praziquantel are used to treat the disease. Praziquantel is also pricey: about $525 for six 600 mg tablets.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> An employee of GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals holds bottles of albendazole, an anti-hookworm medication.​
> Leishmaniasis, which affects 700,000 to a million people annually throughout the world, is more expensive to treat in the U.S., too. Though rare in the U.S. — only 13 cases were uncovered between 2000 and 2007 — the disease can cause disfiguring skin sores or swelling of the spleen or liver depending on the form of the disease that's contracted. Two 50 mg tablets of miltefosine for 28 days can treat the infection; the price of each pill wholesale is $685, according to Alpern's research.  "When there's limited competition in the market, the company that holds the monopoly is able to price [the drug] however they want," Alpern says. "In these cases, we often see companies taking advantage of their market position."  And some of these disease aren't all that rare. Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, says certain neglected tropical diseases in the U.S. are surprisingly widespread, especially among those who may not be able to afford treatment.  For example, he estimates that 1.1 million Americans are annually diagnosed with a parasitic infection called toxoplasmosis. The treatment is Daraprim; four 25 mg tablets currently cost between $3,000 and $3,400 on the U.S. market.  "We have now identified nearly half-a-dozen neglected tropical diseases that are widespread in the U.S. among the poor, especially in the American South," says Hotez, who last year published Blue Marble Health, a book evaluating neglected diseases in America. "In all, I estimate that 12 million Americans now live in extreme poverty with a neglected tropical disease."
> 
> Some of them are in Lowndes County, Ala., where a community of individuals was recently discovered to have hookworm. The average income in the county is just $18,036.  If patients don't have health insurance, they must pay the full price for prescriptions or skip treatment altogether.  "Some of the people in Lowndes County are living off $600 or $700 a month," says Catherine Flowers, founder of Alabama Center for Rural Enterprise, a nonprofit that addresses poverty. "People have told me they sometimes have to choose between buying medication and eating."  In cases where patients have Medicaid, taxpayers bear the burden.  In the years following albendazole's price hike in 2011, Medicaid spending on the drug went from under $100,000 in 2008 to more than $7.5 million in 2013. Medicaid spending on Daraprim, another tropical disease drug that just experienced a price hike, went from $2.2 million in 2014 to $15.7 million in 2015.  Other times, U.S. patients bypass the system, Alpern says, by asking relatives in other countries to bring them the drug they need. In the United Kingdom, for example, 400 mg of albendazole costs just $2.
> 
> *Why are prices so different in the U.S.?*


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## waltky

Tremendous progress in five years...
*



*
*1 Billion Treated in Battle Against Painful Tropical Diseases*
_ecember 14, 2017  — A pledge by health and development experts to tackle neglected diseases that blind, disable and disfigure millions of the world's poorest people has spurred tremendous progress in five years, a report said on Thursday._


> More than one billion people were treated in 2016 for painful infections, such as sleeping sickness and elephantiasis, as increased funding, drug donations and political will helped health workers reach patients in remote areas, it said.  "There are hundreds of millions more people getting treated now than five years ago," Ellen Agler, head of the END Fund, a philanthropic initiative to combat Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD), told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in emailed comments.  "Effective partnerships and efficient systems to get medicines to those most in need have been built."
> 
> The 2012 London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases, set a goal of controlling, eliminating or eradicating 10 diseases, including leprosy and river blindness, by 2020.  NTDs affect one in five people globally, mainly in areas of extreme poverty, often trapping individuals in a cycle of social exclusion.  The number of people affected by NTDs has fallen to 1.5 billion from almost 2 billion in 2011, the report by Uniting to Combat NTDs, a partnership backing the 2020 goal, said.
> 
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> A giant 25m worm representing the parasitic worm of schistosomiasis is pictured on the Lake Leman on the occasion of the Neglected Tropical Diseases Summit, in Geneva​
> Since 2012, five countries have eliminated trachoma as a public health problem — meaning it no longer poses a major threat to community health — and four countries in the Americas have eliminated river blindness, it said.  A push to train local health workers is an important element behind the campaign's success, the report said, as they are trusted by rural communities never reached before.  "We have an obligation to ensure that [communities] are part of the solution," said Julie Jacobson, a program officer with The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, adding that South Sudan has only had one case of Guinea worm disease so far this year.
> 
> Only 26 cases of Guinea worm disease have been reported so far in 2017, down from more than 1,060 cases in 2011, it said.  British physicist Stephen Hawking said this week that eliminating neglected tropical diseases is "within our grasp."
> 
> 1 Billion Treated in Battle Against Painful Tropical Diseases



See also:

*Half of World's People Can't get Basic Health Services: WHO*
_December 13, 2017 - At least half the world's population is unable to access essential health services and many others are forced into extreme poverty by having to pay for healthcare they cannot afford, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday._


> Some 800 million people worldwide spend at least 10 percent of their household income on healthcare for themselves or a sick child, and as many as 100 million of those are left with less than $1.90 a day to live on as a result, the WHO said.  In a joint report with the World Bank, the United Nations health agency said it was unacceptable that more than half the world's people still don't get the most basic healthcare.  "If we are serious - not just about better health outcomes but also about ending poverty - we must urgently scale up our efforts on universal health coverage," World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said in a statement with the report.
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> A Yemeni health worker marks a finger of a girl after giving her a polio vaccination.​
> Anna Marriott, health policy advisor for the international aid agency Oxfam, said the report was a "damning indictment" of governments' efforts on health.  "Healthcare, a basic human right, has become a luxury only the wealthy can afford," she said in a statement.  "Behind each of these appalling statistics are people facing unimaginable suffering - parents reduced to watching their children die; children pulled out of school so they can help pay off their families' health care debts; and women working themselves into the ground caring for sick family members."
> 
> The WHO and World Bank report did have some positive news: This century has seen a rise in the number of people getting services such as vaccinations, HIV/AIDS drugs, and mosquito-repelling bednets and contraception, it said.  But there are wide gaps in the availability of services in sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia, the report found. In other regions, basic services such as family planning and child immunization are more available, but families are suffering financially to pay for them.  Yong Kim said this was a sign that "the system is broken".  "We need a fundamental shift in the way we mobilize resources for health and human capital, especially at the country level," he said.
> 
> Half of World's People Can't get Basic Health Services: WHO


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## waltky

*Cholera shows up in Cameroon...*
*



*
*Cholera Threatens Cameroon*
_July 21, 2018 — A cholera outbreak in Cameroon has claimed at least a dozen lives. Hundreds of people have been rushed to several hospitals in the central African state. It is feared some of the cases were imported from Nigeria and may contaminate refugees fleeing the Boko Haram insurgency. _


> Arabo Saidou, the highest government official in charge of health in Cameroon's north region says the first cases of cholera were reported along Cameroon's border with Nigeria two months ago.  He says the disease has continued to spread since four cases of cholera were recorded in the northern Cameroon town of Mayo Oulo that borders Nigeria on May 18. He says many people, especially children, have been dying both in and out of hospital.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Cholera in Cameroon​
> In May, the Word Health Organization reported that Nigeria's Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states had been experiencing recurrent cholera outbreaks since February, with a total of 1,664 suspected cases and 31 deaths.  Many people from the three Nigerian states travel to Cameroon for business. At least a hundred thousand are in Cameroon as refugees fleeing the Boko Haram insurgency, with over 90,000 at the Minawao refugee camp.
> 
> 
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> A Cameroonian police officer stands next to people waiting for water at the Minawao refugee camp for Nigerians who fled Boko Haram attacks in Minawao, Cameroon, March 15, 2016.​
> Issac Bayoro, a Cameroonian epidemiologist working in the Mokolo administrative area where the Minawao refugee camp is located says they are educating refugees to respect hygiene norms and are also screening Nigerians coming to the camp in a bid to protect not only the refugees but their host communities.   He says many people continue to defecate in the open air or in streams and river beds where both humans and animals go to find water to drink thereby facilitating the spread of cholera. He says hygiene is not respected as many people do not wash their hands with soap as advised. He says people should stop trusting the belief that an African is naturally vaccinated and can not die of dirt.
> 
> Cameroon's ministry of health indicated that the disease quickly spread to Yaounde and Douala, major cities in the central African state. The case reported in Yaounde was of a teenager who travelled to Yaounde from northern Cameroon with his mother. He latter died in a hospital according to the government.  Thomas Tawe, a university student and resident of Yaounde says he fears cholera may spread rapidly in the city because just 30 percent of the population has access to good drinking water.   "In the city of Yaounde only those who can pay can have water. When you go into the quarters (neighbourhoods) you see that people are carrying water from inhygienic sources," said Tawe. "If the water is contaminated, automatically we will be contaminated."
> 
> Cholera Threatens Cameroon


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