Active case finding for TB must be paired with effective follow-up care, Cochrane review finds
Door-to-door tuberculosis (TB) screening and contact tracing can improve diagnosis rates, but must be paired with effective follow-up care to be successful, a newCochrane review has found.Active case finding (ACF) seeks to improve diagnosis rates in people living in communities who may not otherwise present to health facilities, helping them access treatment and reduce onward transmission.Despite being a key strategy of most TB strategies globally, there is often little consideration of how these programmes are experienced by communities. This is essential in designing appropriate and effective services.Published ahead of ...
Source: Cochrane News and Events - March 21, 2024 Category: Information Technology Authors: Muriah Umoquit Source Type: news
A deadly viral illness is exploding in West Africa. Researchers are scrambling to figure out why
Reporting for this story was supported by the Pulitzer Center.
Irrua, Nigeria, and Kenema, Sierra Leone—
Sitting on a bench outside the Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital (ISTH) in Edo state in southwestern Nigeria in September 2023, Muhammed Luqman Dagana recounted his ordeal earlier in the year with Lassa fever, a deadly hemorrhagic disease of West Africa. At first the 33-year-old wasn’t alarmed—his fever, headache, body aches, and cough were innocuous enough. A doctor at his local clinic gave him antibiotics for typhoid fever and antimalarial drugs. But his symptoms persisted, so he tried anoth...
Source: ScienceNOW - February 22, 2024 Category: Science Source Type: news
Menopause may be widespread among mammals, challenging famed hypothesis
By age 69, Marlene was gaunt, with rundown teeth, grizzled fur, and a receding hairline. The elderly chimpanzee living in Kibale National Park posed a puzzle for scientists. Multiple studies have shown female chimps can reproduce until the end of their lives, but Marlene had last given birth 23 years before. The great ape, it appeared, had undergone menopause—a reproductive shutdown that researchers have only documented in humans and a handful of whale species.
A pair of studies published today suggests Marlene isn’t as rare as scientists thought. Chimps can undergo menopause, researchers have found, and females ...
Source: ScienceNOW - October 26, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
First malaria vaccine slashes early childhood deaths
In a major analysis in Africa, the first vaccine approved to fight malaria cut deaths among young children by 13% over nearly 4 years, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported last week. The huge evaluation of a pilot rollout of the vaccine, called RTS,S or Mosquirix and made by GlaxoSmithKline, also showed a 22% reduction in severe malaria in kids young enough to receive a three-shot series. Hundreds of thousands of children are born annually in the parts of Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi included in the analysis, for which WHO revealed the final data on 20 October at the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical M...
Source: ScienceNOW - October 24, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
New & #039;promising medicines & #039; fund may incentivise commercialisation of high price drugs with weak evidence on clinical benefits
A new fund to fast-track patient access to potentially valuable new medicines may incentivise the pharmaceutical industry to develop high priced drugs for rare diseases with weak evidence on clinical benefits.
Health economics and policy academics from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, warn that if the NHS England Innovative Medicines Fund (IMF) is not implemented appropriately, it risks disincentivising the generation of essential evidence and could shift the financial burden from the pharmaceutical industry to the public finances. (Source: World Pharma News)
Source: World Pharma News - August 25, 2023 Category: Pharmaceuticals Tags: Featured Research Research and Development Source Type: news
Doctors Are Not Exempt From Knowing How to Communicate
(MedPage Today) -- Recently, Peter Hotez, MD, PhD, a physician-researcher whose decades-long career has focused on vaccines and tropical medicine, turned down an invitation to debate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a Democratic presidential candidate well... (Source: MedPage Today Public Health)
Source: MedPage Today Public Health - July 12, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: news
Vaccination Is the Best Bet Against Drug-Resistant Superbugs — Experts
Experts encourage parents to vaccinate their children against typhoid to ensure that the child has access to clean drinking water. Credit: Zofeen Ebrahim/IPS By Zofeen EbrahimKARACHI, Jul 6 2023 (IPS) The first thing you notice about eight-month-old Manahil Zeeshan is how tiny she looks on the adult-size hospital bed at the government-run Sindh Institute of Child Health and Neonatology (SICHN) in Korangi, a neighbourhood in Karachi.
Her right foot is taped with a cannula, and she whimpers incessantly. “I have been in and out of the hospital for the last seven days,” said Uzma Mohammad, Zeeshan’s mom, with worry lines...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - July 6, 2023 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Zofeen Ebrahim Tags: Africa Civil Society Development & Aid Editors' Choice Featured Headlines Health Humanitarian Emergencies Inequality Poverty & SDGs TerraViva United Nations IPS UN Bureau IPS UN Bureau Report Pakistan Source Type: news
Why Peter Hotez says he won't debate RFK Jr. after weekend of Rogan, Musk taunts
That’s Dr. Peter Hotez, the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, on MSNBC, explaining why he’s turned down a debate on Joe Rogan’s podcast with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who’s seeking the Democratic nomination for president and according to the…#peterhotez #msnbc #joerogans #robertfkennedyjr #spotify #rfkjr #elonmusk #twitter #johnfkennedy #rfkjrs (Source: Reuters: Health)
Source: Reuters: Health - June 19, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Making the Impossible Possible, Chronicles of an Ambassador ’s Lifelong Frontline Battle to End Leprosy
WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination, Yohei Sasakawa, would like to create a society where there is social inclusion. It is this philosophy that motivates his life-long campaign to end discrimination against people affected by leprosy. Credit: Sasakawa Leprosy InitiativeBy Joyce ChimbiNAIROBI, Jun 19 2023 (IPS) In 1974, Yohei Sasakawa accompanied his father to a leprosy hospital he had funded. He saw leprosy patients inside the hospital still and expressionless. The smell of leprosy filled the air, the smell of pus from open sores.
His father sat with the patients, touched their hands and faces, and encouraged ...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - June 19, 2023 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Joyce Chimbi Tags: Development & Aid Editors' Choice Featured Global Headlines Health Human Rights Humanitarian Emergencies TerraViva United Nations IPS UN Bureau IPS UN Bureau Report Sasakawa Leprosy (Hansen’s Disease) Initiative Sasakawa Leprosy Source Type: news
Mark Cuban puts Joe Rogan on blast amid anti-vaccine backlash
Billionaire Mark Cuban came to the defense of a vaccine scientist at the center of a fiery social media debate over vaccination misinformation involving comedian Joe Rogan and Twitter CEO Elon Musk. Dr. Peter Hotez, dean at the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine…#markcuban #joerogan #elonmusk #peterhotez #robertfkennedyjr #johnfkennedy #robertfkennedysr #spotify #kennedyjr #twitter (Source: Reuters: Health)
Source: Reuters: Health - June 19, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Joe Rogan challenges furious vaccine researcher to debate anti-vaxxer RFK Jr
Dr. Peter Hotez, a pediatrician and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, on Saturday tweeted his concerns about the RFK interview. (Source: the Mail online | Health)
Source: the Mail online | Health - June 18, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Revised report on impact of Covid lockdowns leaves unanswered questions
Book based on May 2022 review ‘did lockdowns work?’ examines whether legally enforced interventions prevented deathsThe overwhelming majority of academic studies have one chance to make a splash. Once that moment has passed – which tends to be when the paper is published – the spotlight moves on in the relentless search for new material.But not all studies adhere to that trend. Some return time after time. And it must come as no surprise that this happens most with reports that tackle questions of global importance, or that reach controversial conclusions, or manage to achieve both at once. As the Covid inquiry ope...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - June 5, 2023 Category: Science Authors: Ian Sample Science editor and Linda Geddes Tags: Health Coronavirus Infectious diseases Science World news Society Medical research London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine UK news Source Type: news
Revised report on impact of Covid lockdowns ‘adds little insight’
Book based on May 2022 review ‘did lockdowns work?’ examines whether legally enforced interventions prevented deathsThe overwhelming majority of academic studies have one chance to make a splash. Once that moment has passed – which tends to be when the paper is published – the spotlight moves on in the relentless search for new material.But not all studies adhere to that trend. Some return time after time. And it must come as no surprise that this happens most with reports that tackle questions of global importance, or that reach controversial conclusions, or manage to achieve both at once. As the Covid inquiry ope...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - June 5, 2023 Category: Science Authors: Ian Sample Science editor and Linda Geddes Tags: Health Coronavirus Infectious diseases Science World news Society Medical research London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine UK news Source Type: news
News at a glance: U.S. rules on carbon emissions, better vehicle batteries, and a Mars moon ’s close-up
PLANETARY SCIENCE
Mars’s moon may be its kin
Researchers have long believed that Mars’s two moons, Deimos and Phobos, are captured asteroids. But the first close-up images of Deimos, taken by the United Arab Emirates’s $200 million Hope spacecraft, suggest the 12-kilometer-wide body instead formed from the same material as Mars, researchers revealed this week at the annual meeting of the European Geosciences Union. The imagery, taken during a 10 March flyby, indicates that Deimos’s surface is covered by volcanic basalts like those on Mars, with no signs of the carbon-rich rock more often foun...
Source: ScienceNOW - April 27, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
Janssen Announces Novel Dengue Antiviral Demonstrates Efficacy in Pre-Clinical Data Published in Nature
BEERSE, BELGIUM, March 15, 2023 – The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) announced today the publication of new data in the journal Nature showing that an early-stage clinical candidate (JNJ-1802) provides strong protection against dengue in non-human primates and mice. The first-in-class antiviral, which was shown to be safe and well tolerated in a Phase 1 first-in-human clinical study, is now progressing into Phase 2 clinical studies for the prevention and treatment of dengue.The new data indicate JNJ-1802 is effective against all four of the dengue serotypes in mouse models and provide...
Source: Johnson and Johnson - March 15, 2023 Category: Pharmaceuticals Tags: Latest News Source Type: news
