Global Health: Fight Against Tropical Diseases Is Framed as Efficient
A consortium argued that every $1 invested in fighting neglected tropical diseases would generate $50 to almost $200 in productivity gains by 2030. (Source: NYT)
Source: NYT - July 27, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. Tags: Trachoma Onchocerciasis (Disease) Neglected tropical diseases Parasites Leishmaniasis Medicine and Health Lymphatic Filariasis Worms Source Type: news
Angola: Minsa Trains Trainers for Mapping Diseases That Cause Blindness
[ANGOP] Luanda -The Ministry of Health (MINSA) will hold from 7-9 July in Luanda, a seminar of technical training for the coordinated mapping of Onchocerciasis and Loase, diseases affecting mainly people living along the rivers, for better management of diseases causing blindness. (Source: AllAfrica News: Health and Medicine)
Source: AllAfrica News: Health and Medicine - July 5, 2015 Category: African Health Source Type: news
Carter Center Gets $10 Million Gift to Fight River Blindness
Nigerian businessman and philanthropist Sir Emeka Offor has donated $10 million to the Carter Center—the humanitarian nonprofit founded by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter—to help eradicate river blindness in his country by 2020. (Source: WSJ.com: Health)
Source: WSJ.com: Health - June 15, 2015 Category: Pharmaceuticals Tags: FREE Source Type: news
Nigeria: Philanthropist Emeka Offor Donates $10 Million to Accelerate Jimmy Carter's Efforts to Eliminate River Blindness
[Carter Center] Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and businessman Sir Emeka Offor signed an agreement today for a partnership to eliminate river blindness (onchocerciasis) from seven states in Nigeria where The Carter Center works with the Federal Ministry of Health, including Sir Emeka's native state, Anambra. The project is made possible by grant support of USD$10 million from the Sir Emeka Offor Foundation (SEOF). It will help reach the goal of eliminating river blindness from the world's most endemic country by 2020. (Source: AllAfrica News: Health and Medicine)
Source: AllAfrica News: Health and Medicine - June 12, 2015 Category: African Health Source Type: news
Nigeria: Philanthropist Sir Emeka Offor Donates $10 Million to Accelerate Jimmy Carter's Efforts to Help Eliminate River Blindness in Nigeria
[Carter Center] Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and businessman Sir Emeka Offor signed an agreement today for a partnership to eliminate river blindness (onchocerciasis) from seven states in Nigeria where The Carter Center works with the Federal Ministry of Health, including Sir Emeka's native state, Anambra. The project is made possible by grant support of USD$10 million from the Sir Emeka Offor Foundation (SEOF). It will help reach the goal of eliminating river blindness from the world's most endemic country by 2020. (Source: AllAfrica News: Health and Medicine)
Source: AllAfrica News: Health and Medicine - June 12, 2015 Category: African Health Source Type: news
This App Transforms Smartphones Into Cheap, Mobile Laboratories To Detect Parasites In The Blood
WASHINGTON (AP) — Prick a finger and have the blood checked for parasites — by smartphone? Scientists are turning those ubiquitous phones into microscopes and other medical tools that could help fight diseases in remote parts of the world.
In the newest work, University of California, Berkeley, researchers used a smartphone-run video microscope to target a challenge in parts of Central Africa — some devastating infections caused by tiny parasitic worms. A small pilot study in Cameroon showed the device could measure within minutes certain worms wriggling in a finger-prick of blood, rapidly identifying who is a candi...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - May 7, 2015 Category: Science Source Type: news
Smartphone app used to scan blood for parasites
Conclusion
This study suggests a new smartphone-based approach could provide a quick way of measuring levels of infection with the Loa loa worm in blood samples, and with a high level of accuracy.
This technique could allow assessment of people's infection in communities without easy access to the laboratory testing that is usually used to detect the worms.
This is important, as people with high levels of this infection can suffer potentially fatal side effects with the drug ivermectin, which is used to treat two other parasitic infections.
It's worth bearing in mind that this was a pilot study in only 33 people using a ...
Source: NHS News Feed - May 7, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Medical practice Source Type: news
The Smartphone In Your Pocket Could Help Treat River Blindness For Millions
You may not have realized it, but you quite possibly have a video microscope in your pocket with the potential to indicate treatment for hundreds of thousands of blind individuals throughout the world and millions more at risk for blindness. All you need is an app and a handheld device you could probably assemble in your basement with $100 in parts. And a ticket to sub-Saharan Africa, where most of the need is. (Source: Forbes.com Healthcare News)
Source: Forbes.com Healthcare News - May 7, 2015 Category: Pharmaceuticals Authors: Tara Haelle Source Type: news
Mobile phone microscope rapidly detects parasite levels in blood
(NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) Scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, and the University of California, Berkeley, and colleagues have developed a mobile phone microscope to measure blood levels of the parasitic filarial worm Loa loa. The point-of-care device may enable safe resumption of mass drug administration campaigns to eradicate the parasitic diseases onchocerciasis (river blindness) and lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis). (Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases)
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - May 6, 2015 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
What the Gates Foundation Has Achieved, 15 Years On
There are a whole lot of things you may or may not get to do in the next 15 years, but a few of them you can take for granted: eating, for one. Having access to a bank, for another. And then there’s the simple business of not dying of a preventable or treatable disease. Good for you—and good for most of us in the developed world. But the developed world isn’t the whole story.
The bad—and familiar—news is that developing nations lag far behind in income, public health, food production, education and more. The much, much better news is that all of that is changing—and fast. The just-releas...
Source: TIME.com: Top Science and Health Stories - January 22, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Jeffrey Kluger Tags: Uncategorized Africa child mortality cholera climate crops Disease Economics Education Food Gates Foundation global health Malaria measles mobile banking polio seeds Source Type: news
DNDi receives US$10 million from USAID to develop new drugs for neglected filaria patients
(Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative) The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative has been awarded US$ 10 million by the United States Agency for International Development to develop new treatments for onchocerciasis, better known as river blindness, and lymphatic filariasis, better known as elephantitis -- the first-ever USAID grant for neglected tropical disease research and development. (Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases)
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - December 16, 2014 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
COUNTDOWN Research Consortium calls 'time' on NTDs
(Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine) The COUNTDOWN research consortium has been launched today following a £7 million grant allocation from the UK Department for International Development earlier in the year.As part of the push towards universal access to health services, there is international consensus that NTDs such as onchocerciasis, lymphatic filariasis, soil-transmitted helminthiasis, schistosomiasis and trachoma, must be tackled more effectively and NTD control programs need more assistance. (Source: EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health)
Source: EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health - December 15, 2014 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: news
Bayer to support DNDi on oral drug development for river blindness
Bayer HealthCare has agreed to provide the ingredient emodepside to support Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) in its effort to develop a new oral drug to treat river blindness, also known as onchocerciasis. (Source: Pharmaceutical Technology)
Source: Pharmaceutical Technology - December 11, 2014 Category: Pharmaceuticals Source Type: news
Bayer and DNDi sign agreement to develop an oral treatment for river blindness
(Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative) Bayer HealthCare and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative have signed an agreement under which Bayer will provide the active ingredient emodepside to support DNDi in its effort to develop a new oral drug to treat river blindness (or onchocerciasis). The world's second leading infectious cause of blindness, river blindness is a neglected tropical disease caused by a filarial worm. (Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases)
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - December 9, 2014 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
New test will combat major cause of preventable blindness in Africa
(PATH) PATH, an international nonprofit organization, announces the availability of a point-of care diagnostic tool for Onchocerciasis, commonly known as river blindness. It is the first in a suite of diagnostic innovations by PATH intended to support the elimination of neglected tropical diseases, a group of illnesses that affect more than a billion people worldwide. (Source: EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health)
Source: EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health - November 2, 2014 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: news
