Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Upcoming Conference: 2016 Annual CUGH Global Health Conference

Bridging to a Sustainable Future in Global Health

April 9 - April 11, 2016
Hilton San Francisco Union Square
333 O'Farrell Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
Telephone: (415) 771-1400
http://www3.hilton.com/en/hotels/california/hilton-san-francisco-union-square-SFOFHHH/index.html
PROGRAM
Join us in spring 2016 for 3 days of global health panels, workshops and activities!
* Satellite sessions being offered on April 8, 2016

THE CORE PROGRAM WILL HIGHLIGHT 7 MAJOR TRACKS:
GOVERNANCE
• Autocracy, Democracy and Health 
• Improving Health in Failed States 
• Health Security and Governance - Implications for the architecture of global health

MDGs and SDGs
• SDGs: Implications for academic global health 
• MDGS: Learning from their successes and failures

HUMAN RESOURCES and WORKFORCE
• Advancing Global Health Education: Innovations in technology and pedagogy 
• Key skills gaps in the global health workforce 
• Training and Capacity Building

PLANETARY HEALTH / GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH / ONE HEALTH
• Water, Air and Health 
• Animal Health and Human Health 
• Food and Nutrition 
• Environmental Sustainability 
• Oceans and Coastal Health

TECHNOLOGY and INNOVATION
• Lessons from successful (and failed) technology development in global health 
• Innovating for low resource settings

NEW and EMERGING PRIORITIES FOR GLOBAL HEALTH
• Emerging Non Communicable Diseases Issues 
• Emerging Maternal Child Health Issues 
• Emerging Injury and Violence Issues

FINANCIAL and OPERATIONAL SUSTAINABILITY
• Improving relationships between funders and academic health 
• Enabling Systems and Administrative Support 
• Global Health Funding


WITH ADDITIONAL FOCUS ON:
GLOBAL MENTAL HEALTH
Global mental health is an important source of the burden of disease, and has received much less attention than infectious diseases and other NCDs. 

GLOBAL HEALTH SECURITY
The ebola crisis, MERS, and WHO reform efforts have brought significant attention and funding to the topic of health security. However, the definition of health security and the progress made against this emerging problem remain unclear. We will explore the current state of affairs in health security and the implications for academic global health.

URBAN HEALTH
As the megatrend toward urbanization continues, the world will increasingly live in cities which have their own distinctive health challenges. The battle for sustainability in health will be fought in cities. We will discuss what makes urgan health unique, how it changes the cost and access equation for health, and what it means for universities.

VACCINES
Vaccination remains one of the most effective and sustainable interventions in public health. Yet efforts to expand vaccination rates and incorporate new vaccines face funding and other challenges. We will discuss the possible limits of vaccination and steps that can be taken to further expand and extend the impact of this intervention

ERADICATION
Eradication of disease is the single most effective way to achieve sustainability - once a disease is eradicated, it no longer demands resources from health systems. We are on the cusp of eliminating or eradicating several infectious diseases. We will discuss what it takes to eradicate a disease, what can be learned from the experiences of different vertical programs, and what the future holds.

HIV

Progress against the HIV epidemics is one of the best examples of successes in global health, and the Bay Area has played a key role in that fight. And yet, sustaining the progress made is proving to be challenging and expensive. We will explore the lessons we can learn from fighting the HIV epidemic and discuss the challenges we face going forward to achieve a sustainable  future and to get to zero.

Conference flyer available at: 
https://cugh.org/system/files/resources/CUGH%20SD8.pdf
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“Research is creating new knowledge.”
- Neil Armstrong

Sunday, March 6, 2016

NTD’s in the news for the week of 28 Feb - 5 Mar 2016

New York Times
Prescribed for patients with African sleeping sickness, it was also made available to treat patients with pneumocystis pneumonia in the early years of the AIDS epidemic, when few alternatives were available. 

EurekAlert (press release)
The articles, published across PLOS Biology, PLOS Medicine and PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases and written by experts directing global disease control campaigns or international research efforts, explore the diverse array of innovations that will be ...

The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation 
Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy: Ethical considerations for the creation a national NTD Policy This report — written by Ana Iltis, professor of philosophy and director of the Center for Bioethics, Health and Society at Wake Forest University and scholar at the Baker Institute, and Kirstin R.W. Matthews, fellow in science and technology

BioNews Texas
... there is a general consensus on what constitutes the seven most prevalent NTDs: the two blinding diseases of onchocerciasis and trachoma; the three soil-transmitted helminthes (worms), hookworm, roundworm and whipworm; schistosomiasis (snail fever ...

Impératif sanitaire et économique (Health and Economic Imperative)
République Togolaise
Parmi les MTN, on trouve la lèpre, l'ulcère de buruli, les leishmanioses, la filariose lymphatique, l'onchocercose, les schistosomiases, les helminthiases, le trachome et les tréponématoses endémiques. 

Newswise (press release)
He has oversight of RTI's ENVISION project, a global project to control and eliminate sevenneglected tropical diseases by 2020 and previously, while ...

PLoS Blogs (blog)
The articles, written by experts who are directing global disease-control ... Substantial gains in reducing the burden of neglected tropical diseases, ..

The Philadelphia Tribune
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning pregnant ... Like their neglected tropical disease counterparts in developing countries, the ...

Pasadena Journal
Even in the United States, there is a largely hidden burden of infectious diseases caused by a group of infections known as the neglected infections of poverty.

Dengue
Outbreak News Today
In addition, health officials report two additional dengue related deaths bringing the total to three during the first two months of 2016. 

Inquirer.net
Improper water storage amid the dry spell is seen as one reason behind the higher number of dengue cases in the province for January and February this year compared to the same period in 2015. 

Daily Times
There is no treatment for dengue, which causes symptoms including fever, severe joint pain, headaches and bleeding. About half the world's population is at risk from the mosquito-borne disease, which sickens about 100 million people every year in Asia, ...

KHON2
The Blood Bank of Hawaii is asking people to donate blood during a special drive to help keep its supply well-stocked. Due to the dengue fever high-risk areas on Hawaii Island, the blood bank recently cancelled three drives in West Hawaii. 

Big Island Now
No new cases of dengue fever were confirmed on Friday. It has over a week since the last case was confirmed on Feb. 24, leaving the total number of confirmed cases at 260. 

Daily News | The National Newspaper (press release) (blog)
Research Scientist at the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), Tanga Centre, Vito Baraka, said the recent announceddengue vaccine-Dengvaxia demonstrated impressive safety and efficacy in clinical trials (phaseIIII) against all four serotypes.

The Express Tribune
Sharing the results of a recent survey, DPCP's head, Dr Masood Solangi, said that most dengue cases surface in congested areas of the city where residents live in apartments. He said that in such areas people do not take extra measures to store water.

Medical Xpress
Hailed as one of the six ground breaking innovations by the UK's daily newspaper Guardian – Smarter renewable power: six innovations, research led by Dr Chong Wen Tong at the University of Malaya, Malaysia, is indeed a 'shining new light' in the fight ...

Times of India
"Zika transmitted to people by the infected Aedes species of mosquitoes that spreads dengue and chikungunya as well, does exist in India. 

The Bubble
The most severe strain of the infection, known as dengue hemorrhagic fever, can be fatal. 

Jamaica Gleaner
The Health Ministry says laboratory tests have returned negative for two suspected cases of the dengue hemorrhagic fever or severe dengue.

GenomeWeb
The search uncovered metabolite shifts associated with progression to dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever/dengue shock syndrome, as well ...

PBS NewsHour
As mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue fever and Zika virus continue to ravage Brazil, scientists are racing to fight back. Their latest tactic: genetically engineered mosquitoes that will pass along fatal mutations to their offspring, destroying ...

Hawaii 24/7 (press release)
The response to the ongoing Dengue Fever outbreak continues. Although the number and frequency of new confirmed cases appears to be on the decline, the outbreak is not anticipated to be considered over anytime in the near future. 

Jakarta Post
Wonogiri administration has declared an extraordinary situation status for dengue following the death of three people and rise in dengue cases. 

The Star Online
KUALA LUMPUR: Selangor has the highest number of dengue cases this year, with 13,306 between January and March 2. Of the 55 dengue-linked deaths recorded nationwide within the same period, 18 were from Selangor, which has the highest fatality ...

Live Science
Some people who are infected with the mosquito-borne virus chikungunya may be misdiagnosed as having dengue, a different mosquito-borne virus, because the two diseases cause similar symptoms, according to a new study. 

Hawaii Tribune Herald
Eight new Vector Control workers should be helping fight the island's dengue fever outbreak by next month, and the Hawaii National Guard might be called for a West Hawaii community cleanup day in the near future. 

Malaysiakini (subscription)
The dengue situation in the country is predicted to be worse this year compared with last year, following the 26,533 cases reported from January until yesterday. 

EurekAlert (press release)
Chikungunya, a viral disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes, could have been misdiagnosed as dengue because both have similar symptoms, according to a study published in the open access journal BMC Infectious Diseases. 

Big Island Now
It has been one week since a new dengue fever case has been confirmed by the Hawai'i Department of Health. Currently, the confirmed dengue case count sits at 260 with no “potentially infectious” cases since Feb. 24. 

Hawaii 24/7 (press release)
The response to the ongoing Dengue Fever outbreak continues. Although the number and frequency of new confirmed cases appears to be on the decline, the outbreak is not anticipated to be considered over anytime in the near future. 

Wall Street Journal
SÃO PAULO—Disease spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito continues to spread in Brazil, as the country reported higher numbers of cases of dengue and a further rise in suspected cases of a birth defect believed to be linked to the mosquito-borne Zika ...

Zitamar News (subscription)
An exotic Asian mosquito known to carry diseases such asdengue fever and the zika virus has been discovered in Mozambique for the first time, according to a paper by two local researchers who say their findings are of “high public health significance”.

St, Thomas Source
The Department of Health confirmed two more cases of Zika and four more cases of dengue in the last week. A total of 72 cases of Zika have been reported throughout the territory so far with 62 of them pending lab results. 

Big Island Now
For nearly a week, there has been no newly confirmed cases of dengue fever on the Big Island, holding the count at 260. No “potentially infectious” cases have been listed by the Hawai'i Department of Health since last Tuesday.

Outbreak News Today
The US Virgin Islands Department of Health confirmed two additional cases of Zika on St. Croix, bringing the total to 6 cases. This is not unexpected, and the Department of Health expects that there will continue to be more positive cases in the future.

Pakistan Today
Health Department of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) is continuing with its surveillance campaign to prevent outbreak of dengue fever this summer season. 

Coconuts Bangkok
More than 8,000 cases of dengue fever have been reported in Thailand in the last two months, according to the Ministry of Public Health. A total of 8,651 people have been infected this year with dengue fever, resulting in one death. 

The Straits Times
I commend the Government on the latest move to extend fines to breeders of mosquitoes anywhere in Singapore, regardless of whether the home is in a dengue cluster ("$200 fine for anyone caught breeding mozzies"; Feb 29). 

Stabroek News
The Daily Nation has learnt that so far, 44 cases of dengue have been confirmed and health and environment officials are extremely concerned since the same mosquito which caused those cases was also responsible for spreading the Zika virus.

Big Island Video News
HAWAII ISLAND – There have been no new cases of dengue fever identified on Hawaii Island since the last update, which was posted by state officials prior to the weekend. The health department says none of the 260 confirmed cases to date are potentially ..

Channel News Asia
SINGAPORE: The number of new dengue cases in Singapore fell to 513 in the week from Feb 21 to 27, after rising sharply to 593 the previous week, according to latest figures published on the National Environment Agency (NEA) website. 

CBS News
On a farm in the heart of Hawaii's ongoing dengue outbreak, coffee grows wild among the ferns, and vanilla vines climb guava trees. It's hard to know where nature ends and the farm begins, and that's the way organic farmers there like it. 

The Express Tribune
SARGODHA: More than 500 dengue-mosquito surveillance teams comprising lady health workers, sanitary inspectors, CDC supervisors and health officials have been tasked with checking various points of Sargodhha district, Health Executive District Officer ...

Jamaica Gleaner
The health ministry says tests have returned negative results for two suspected cases of the dengue hemorrhagic fever or severe dengue. Acting chief medical officer in the health ministry, Dr Winston De La Haye says the results were received over the ...

Outbreak News Today
After reporting more than 200,000 dengue fever cases and 600 deaths during 2015, the Philippines has recorded nearly 13,000 cases during the first five weeks of this year, according to the latest data from the Western Pacific Regional Office (WRPO).

Newsday
HONOLULU, Hawaii - On a farm in the heart of Hawaii's ongoing dengue outbreak, coffee grows wild among the ferns, and vanilla vines climb guava trees. 

Asian Correspondent
RESEARCHERS at Malaysia's University of Malaya (UM) have developed an outdoor lighting system consisting of an LED street lamp that produces low levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) to trap potential dengue-carrying mosquitoes. 

Bangkok Post
The number of people who contracted dengue fever so far in 2016 more than doubled from the last year, Health Ministry permanent secretary Sophon Mekthon said Monday. Dr Sophon described the dengue situation in Thailand as "dangerous and very ...

Nation News
The DAILY NATION has learnt that so far, 44 cases of dengue have been confirmed and health and environment officials are extremely concerned since the same mosquito which caused those cases was also responsible for spreading the Zika virus.

The Star Online
THE state government will beef up its Communication for Behavioural Impact (Combi) units to be more coordinated in the battle against the dengue scourge which has claimed nine lives this year. Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the units formed last year ...

Fox News Latino
Uruguayan health authorities found larvae of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the transmitter of dengue fever, in different places inside the homes of people who contracted the disease, although no new cases of the disease originating in the South American ...

Vaccine News Daily
Dengue fever, transmitted through bites from mosquitoes infected with the virus, may cause life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic/dengue shock syndrome. Currently, there are not any algorithms or biomarkers that can be used to determine the progression of ...

TODAYonline
KUALA LUMPUR — Alarmed by the record outbreak of dengue cases in Malaysia over the last two years, University Malaya (UM) researchers, led by mechanical engineering department associate professor Dr Chong Wen Tong, have invented a street light ...

Outbreak News Today
Through the seventh week of 2016, Mexico has reported 10,702 total dengue fever cases, up from 6,892 cases during the same period last year. 1,496 cases have been laboratory confirmed. 

Outbreak News Today
Hawaii health officials report the dengue fever outbreak on the Big Island now stands at 260 with the additional of several new cases reported this week. Of the confirmed cases, 235 are Hawaii Island residents and 25 are visitors. 

Dracunculiasis / Guinea worm
AllAfrica.com
After a 30-year fight to destroy Guinea worm disease, former US president Jimmy Carter said on Wednesday that only 22 cases of the debilitating disease remain worldwide, all in sub-Saharan Africa.

Leishmaniasis
Healio
“Leishmaniasis is a major challenge to public health since the increases in deforestation, urbanization, population movement and climate change in many regions of the world. In the absence of vaccine against Leishmania, prevention remains the ...

Leprosy / Hansen's disease (Mycobacterium leprae, M. leprae)
USA TODAY
For seven decades, his home has been the Hendala LeprosyHospital near Sri Lanka's capital of Colombo. When he and the nearly 40 other patients here eventually die, the leprosy hospital will close for good.

Global Development Professionals Network | guardian.co.uk 
A colony of people who fled their homes because of discrimination nestles alongside a hospital trying to eradicate the disease. But the stigma against deformity runs deep

Auckland stuff.co.nz
The 20-year-old has returned from spending two weeks in Nepal as a Leprosy Mission youth advocate. Ratnayake is in her third year training to be a doctor at the University of Auckland and went over to volunteer at Anandaban  Leprosy Hospital in the ...

Independent Catholic News
The rise in reflected more so in the northern province of Mannar, which has a population of around just 25,000, where 17 new cases of leprosy were diagnosed in 2014 - a steep rise from the solitary case in 2011. 

BBC History Magazine (blog)
Leprosy was considered to be highly contagious so the main treatment was containment, which involved isolating the sufferer from healthy people. Lepers would wear bandages to cover their sores and carried a bell to warn people that they were coming.

Times of India
NAVI MUMBAI: For the last 64 years, a discreet little NGO has been treating and curing leprosy patients totally free of cost. Shantivan Ashram or Kushtarog Nivaran Samiti as it is also known, has been running a programmen for leprosy patients and have ...

Onchocerciasis / River blindness
CSRwire.com (press release)
Efforts to eliminate river blindness are aligned with WHO's Roadmap on Neglected Tropical Diseases(NTDs), which calls for elimination of river ...

Rabies
WTOP
WASHINGTON — Some rabies scares in Northern Virginia are leading to a new warning from Fairfax County's Animal Control Department. Earlier this week, Fairfax County Animal Control officers responded to three reports of animals that have come into ...

Veterinary Record - BMJ
A GLOBAL campaign to eliminate human deaths from canine-transmitted rabies by 2030 was launched at the House of Lords in London on February ...

First to Know
You've probably heard about or come into contact with an animal that has been infected with rabies, but have you ever wondered what happens to humans when they become infected? When a person contracts the virus, it can spread to the brain very quickly.

WRVO Public Media
Eight skunks in Jefferson County have tested positive for rabies this winter. County Health officials say this is number is unusually high.

New Era
The Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry – in partnership with the German government – has launched a rabies control pilot project to reduce help rabies in the Northern Communal Areas (NCAs), where it is most prevalent.

Lynchburg News and Advance
Rabies, which almost always is fatal unless treated before onset of symptoms, remains an ever-present concern across Region 2000, the Central ...

AllAfrica News: Health and Medicine
[New Era] Ondangwa -The Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry - in partnership with the German government - has launched a rabies control pilot project to reduce help rabies in the Northern Communal Areas (NCAs), where it is most prevalent.

Belarus News (BelTA)
MINSK, February (BelTA) – Belarus and Poland are working on a joint rabies prevention program, Polish Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Ewa Lech told journalists before a meeting of the Belarusian-Polish working group on agricultural ...

Schistosomiasis (Schisto, Bilharzia, Snail Fever)
Jakarta Post
The Central Sulawesi provincial administration has set up an integrated team, directly led by Governor Longki Djanggola, to implement programs to deal with schistosomiasis, also known assnail fever. One of the programs is to improve sanitation systems..

Live Science
A man in Qatar who had blood in his urine and pain for more than a month when he peed found out that his symptoms were caused by his body's attempt to fight off a parasitic worm infection, a new case report reveals. 

PharmiWeb.com (press release)
This report provides comprehensive information on the therapeutic development for Schistosomiasis, complete with comparative analysis at various stages, therapeutics assessment by drug target, mechanism of action (MoA), route of administration (RoA ...

Soil transmitted helminthiases (Ascaris lumbricoides, whipworm, Trichuris trichiura, hookworm, Necator americanus, Ancylostoma duodenale)
Medical Xpress
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases reports a cross-sectional survey done by researchers from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and colleagues from Uganda who examined the prevalence and risk factors for intestinal parasitic infection in the ...

Hivisasa.com
The executive explained that they issued de-wormers for soil-transmitted worms like hook worms, thread worms and whip worms. “Most of the worms are spread through dirty toilets or infested fruits and vegetables,” she said. 


Other Neglected Conditions:     
Venomous Snakebite
Gilmer Mirror
A snakebite on a human can be painful — and also expensive. It is not uncommon for a person bit by avenomous snake to have hospital bills up to ... tissues and antivenom treatments that can run into the thousands of dollars, ...

Inquirer.net
Bernalte said Digao was bitten by an 8-foot-long King Cobra, which is ... anti-venomvaccines so they could immediately respond to snake bites. 

Phys.Org
Coral snake venom carries significant neurotoxicity and human injuries can be severe or even lethal. Despite this, antivenom treatments are scarce due to challenges collecting adequate amounts of venom needed to produce anti-elapidic serum.

Yahoo News
According to official estimates there are about 3,000 snakebite cases in Australia every year, with 300-500 needing anti-venom treatment. Only an average of two a year prove fatal. Australia is home to 20 of the world's 25 most venomous snakes. 

KSAT San Antonio
Sanchez said in countries like Africa or Asia with little or no access to medical care, 100,000 people die from snakebites annually. Statewide figures show lethal snakebites in Texas are rare, but Sanchez said about 20 people a year suffer painful ...

The Cairns Post
A TEENAGE boy bitten by a snake in Redlynch last night has been discharged from hospital. He was one of two Far North Queensland children bitten last night. 


BLOGS:
End the Neglect by Global Network for NTDs 
Barbara Bush, co-founder and CEO of Global Health Corps, addressed END7 student leaders on March 1, 2016 at the closing reception of the second annual END7 Student Advocacy Day. I am so thrilled to be here with y’all at the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases’ Second Annual END7 Student Advocacy Day. 

Business Recorder (press release) (registration) (blog)
"Sand flies are the biological vector of humans and other animal's disease. Among them leishmaniasis is important because 88 countries including …

Gob.mx
¿Qué es la Leishmaniasis? La leishmaniasis es una enfermedad causada por un parásito Leishmania transmitida por la picadura de una hembra del ….

SAMAA TV (press release) (registration) (blog)
LAHORE: Advisor on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique has said effective dengue surveillance and concrete anti-dengue steps taken in March & April would benefit to control dengue in its peak seasons. All the departments should continue their vigorous ...

Medgadget.com (blog)
The 88-page research report, titled “Dengue Fever Global Clinical Trials Review, H1, 2016,” provides a detailed analysis and review of the global clinical trials scenario for dengue fever. 

HealthCanal.com (press release) (blog)
HOUSTON – Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) comprise a group of parasitic, viral and bacterial infections — such as the emerging Zika virus outbreak in Brazil — that mainly afflict people living in areas of extreme poverty, including some southern ...

The Australian (subscription) (blog)
“Foot and mouth disease, rabies, threaten our borders, while drug resistant TB and the Zika virus have already hit our shores,” he said. 


JOURNAL ARTICLES:
Most Recent Articles: BMC Infectious Diseases
Luis Furuya-Kanamori, Shaohong Liang, Gabriel Milinovich, Ricardo J. Soares Magalhaes, Archie C. A. Clements, Wenbiao Hu, Patricia Brasil, Francesca D. Frentiu, Rebecca Dunning and Laith Yakob

Most Recent Articles: BMC Infectious Diseases 
Yong Ping Lin, Yasha Luo, Yuan Chen, Mart Matthias Lamers, Qiang Zhou, Xiao Han Yang, Sumana Sanyal, Chris Ka Pun Mok and Zhong Min Liu
BMC series – open, inclusive and trusted 201616:102
DOI: 10.1186/s12879-016-1379-4©  Lin et al. 2016
Received: 29 June 2015Accepted: 25 January 2016Published: 1 March 2016

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: New Articles
by Christian Rassi, Dan Kajungu, Sandrine Martin, Jorge Arroz, Jamie Tallant, Celine Zegers de Beyl, Helen Counihan, James N. Newell, Anna Phillips, Jane Whitton, Artur Manuel Muloliwa, Kirstie Graham

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: New Articles
by Ayako Morimoto, Satoko Omachi, Yasutaka Osada, James K. Chambers, Kazuyuki Uchida, Chizu Sanjoba, Yoshitsugu Matsumoto, Yasuyuki Goto

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: New Articles
by Shuo Wang, Robert C. Spear

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: New Articles
by Zachary T. Swinney, Brad A. Haubrich, Shuangluo Xia, Chakk Ramesha, Stephen R. Gomez, Paul Guyett, Kojo Mensa-Wilmot, David C. Swinney

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: New Articles 
Samuel Fuhrimann, Mirko S. Winkler, Narcis B. Kabatereine, Edridah M. Tukahebwa, Abdulla A. Halage, Elizeus Rutebemberwa, Kate Medlicott, Christian Schindler, Jürg Utzinger, Guéladio Cissé

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: New Articles 
Henrique Roman Ramos, Inácio de Loiola M. Junqueira-de-Azevedo, Juliana Branco Novo, Karen Castro, Clara Guerra Duarte, Ricardo A. Machado-de-Ávila, Carlos Chavez-Olortegui, Paulo Lee Ho Background 

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: New Articles 
Mohammad Akhoundi, Katrin Kuhls, Arnaud Cannet, Jan Votýpka, Pierre Marty, Pascal Delaunay, Denis Sereno

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: New Articles 
 José M. Ramos, David Romero, Isabel Belinchón 

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: New Articles 
Haroldo José de Matos, David J. Blok, Sake J. de Vlas, Jan Hendrik Richardus 

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: New Articles 
Abul Hasan Sardar, Armando Jardim, Ayan Kumar Ghosh, Abhishek Mandal, Sushmita Das, Savita Saini, Kumar Abhishek, Ruby Singh, Sudha Verma, Ajay Kumar, Pradeep Das

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: New Articles 
Caroline Petitdemange, Nadia Wauquier, Hervé Devilliers, Hans Yssel, Illich Mombo, Mélanie Caron, Dieudonné Nkoghé, Patrice Debré, Eric Leroy, Vincent Vieillard 

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: New Articles 
Johan van Griensven, Endalamaw Gadisa, Abraham Aseffa, Asrat Hailu, Abate Mulugeta Beshah, Ermias Diro 

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: New Articles 
Peter J. Hotez, Bernard Pecoul, Suman Rijal, Catharina Boehme, Serap Aksoy, Mwelecele Malecela, Roberto Tapia-Conyer, John C. Reeder

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: New Articles 
Lanna Jamile Corrêa da Costa , Marcus Emanuel Barroncas Fernandes

Hasitha Tissera, Ananda Amarasinghe, Sunethra Gunasena, Aruna Dharshan DeSilva, Leong Wei Yee, October Sessions, Chanaka Muthukuda, Paba Palihawadana, Wolfgang Lohr, Peter Byass, Duane J. Gubler, Annelies Wilder-Smith 

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: New Articles 
Ricardo Andrade Zampieri, Maria Fernanda Laranjeira-Silva, Sandra Marcia Muxel, Ana Carolina Stocco de Lima, Jeffrey Jon Shaw, Lucile Maria Floeter-Winter

Moné H, Holtfreter MC, Mouahid G, Richter J. 
Emerg Infect Dis. 2016 Apr [date cited]. http://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid2204.160110
DOI: 10.3201/eid2204.160110


OTHER
Weekly / March 4, 2016 /65(8)


Online informal sources for disease outbreak monitoring and real-time surveillance of emerging public health threats.
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“We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community...
Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own.”
 - Cesar Chavez 


In Memoriam

CBS Local
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Dr. Thomas Rea, whose research into leprosy helped lead to treatments that made the disease less contagious and allowed patients to lead normal lives, has died. He was 86.
His son, Steven Rea, says Rea died of a form of blood cancer on Feb. 7 at his home in a foothill community north of Los Angeles.
Rea helped identify the role of the immune system in the development of leprosy symptoms such as disfiguring skin lesions that had made sufferers of Hansen’s disease outcasts since Biblical times.


New York Times
Dr. Myron G. Schultz, whose detection of a cluster of pneumonia cases in the early 1980s helped public health officials identify the AIDS epidemic, died on Feb. 19 in Atlanta. He was 81.
The cause was pulmonary hypertension, his wife, Selma, said.
Dr. Schultz, an infectious disease epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, created the Parasitic Diseases Drug Service to provide physicians with medicines to treat rare illnesses. One was pentamidine. Prescribed for patients with African sleeping sickness, it was also made available to treat patients with pneumocystis pneumonia in the early years of the AIDS epidemic, when few alternatives were available.

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“It is not length of life, but depth of life.”
 - Emerson Ralph Waldo

Friday, March 4, 2016

NTD’s in the news for the week of 21 Feb - 27 Feb 2016

Yale Environment 360
For some unknown reason, the species of snails that can better adapt to warm open areas that occur after a forest is cut down are better hosts for parasites called flatworms, some of which cause schistosomiasis, a disease which damages human organs.

AllAfrica News: Health and Medicine
[Daily Trust] Zaria -The Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria is today completing a three-week training of 16 doctors from Hungary on tropical diseases.

Times of India
The session on infectious diseases this session was mainly focused on the contribution of Drug for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), Switzerland in the field of neglected tropical diseases.

Dove Medical Press
Tropical countries, characterized by poor socioeconomic conditions, are more exposed to these diseases, but Europe is experiencing an increasing number of human cases of mosquito-borne diseases, both imported and indigenous. 

The Atlantic
“…[A]s the Zika epidemic continues to spread through Brazil, Central America, and now the United States, scientists will continue to wrestle with how environmental factors like climate change are affecting the creatures that spread infectious diseases…” 

euronews
... which in the exceptional 2009/2010 outbreak of swine flu are reported to have claimed 285,000 human lives. Worms kill more than 190,000 per year via diseases such as Taeniasis,Cysticercosis, Echinococcosis and soil-transmitted helminth infections.

Chagas disease / American trypanosomiasis (Trypanosoma cruzi, T. cruzi) 
Ars Technica
A Triatomine bug, or kissing bug, that transmits the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, which causes Chagas Disease. Glenn Seplak. After firing the infamous Martin Shkreli as its CEO, filing for bankruptcy, and getting delisted from the NASDAQ stock ...

Nature.com
The infective trypomastigote forms of Trypanosoma cruzi, subvert the inflammatory capacity of macrophages by activating Smad 2 nuclear translocation and inducible NO synthase enzyme degradation in host cells.

Science Codex
The international, multicenter, double-blind and placebo-controlled "Benznidazole Evaluation for InterruptingTrypanosomiasis" (BENEFIT) trial initiated more than 10 years ago in order to determine whether the estimated 1.2 million people now living ...

BioNews Texas
Trypanosoma cruzi - chagas Disease Chagas disease, also known as American trypanosomiasis, is a potentially life-threatening illness caused by the protozoan parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi (T.cruzi), mostly transmitted to humans by the feces of triatomine ...

Business Insider
Under a magnification of 1000X, a micrograph reveals Trypanosoma cruzi parasites in a blood smear using Giemsa staining technique. This protozoan parasite, T. cruzi, is the causative agent for Chagas disease.

Nasdaq
Benznidazole, the drug at issue, is an established treatment for Chagas disease, which is an parasitic infection designated as neglected and in need of attention as a public health matter by U.S. regulators. 

Phys.Org... architectural dissimilarities between opisthokonts (yeast and vertebrates), and a group of creatures known as trypanosomes. The trypanosomes are known for many things, not least of which is being the parasites responsible for Chagas disease and ...

BioNews Texas
Trypanosoma cruzi - chagas Disease Chagas disease, also known as American trypanosomiasis, is a potentially life-threatening illness caused by the protozoan parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi), mostly transmitted to humans by the feces of triatomine ...

Dengue
Vaccine News Daily
Dengue fever, transmitted through bites from mosquitoes infected with the virus, may cause life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic/dengue shock ...
News.LK
President Maithripala Sirisena participated as the Chief Guest at the inaugural session of the International Conference on Dengue and Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever 2016, held at the BMICH, yesterday (24). The International Conference on Dengue and Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever 2016 will be held from 24-26 February 2016 at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall in Colombo under the "Dengue: To Stem the Tide". The technical session of the three-day conference will be held today and tomorrow.
Coconuts Bali
Chief Medical Officer of Denpasar, Luh Putu Sri Armini claims to not have yet received any letter or memo on the city's dengue hemorrhagic fever ...

Knoxville News Sentinel
That first night in the hotel room, a misanthropic mosquito had dined on Zahn infecting him with dengue fever, a debilitating tropical disease related to the viruses that cause West Nile infection and yellow fever. "

Outbreak News Today
On Feb. 9, she sought medical attention and, on the same day, her samples were collected for laboratory testing. The samples tested positive for dengue by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. 

Health Aim
These mosquitoes live in places affected by rainfall, temperature and rapid urbanization. Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever (severe dengue) was first recognized in the 1950s. It then became publicly known as a widespread disease which claimed countless lives ...

Big Island Video News
HAWAII ISLAND – There were no new cases of dengue fever reported by the Hawaii Department of Health today, and Hawaii County Civil Defense says plans are underway to reopen Ho'okena Beach Park by March 1, 2016. 

Pakistan Today
Chief Minister's Adviser on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique said on Friday that the cooperation of Sri Lankan experts in the treatment of dengue patients and eradication of dengue virus in Punjab was commendable. 

The University of Hawaii Kaleo
Dengue fever continues to spread throughout communities and has recently spread to Maui after a resident had traveled to a country where the fever is a problem. “It's something to worry about. 

Fox News
BANGKOK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Health experts called on Thursday for urgent action to tackle the "global dengue pandemic", and said the number of cases was expected to spike in some countries this year, partly because of the El Niño weather ...

MIT Technology Review
Some Latin American cities could soon begin releasing millions of mosquitoes developed with funding from Bill Gates. by Antonio Regalado; February 26, 2016. 

The News International
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah on Thursday approved a three-year Rs274 million dengue prevention and control programme, for the first time in Sindh. Gathering data from all public and private hospitals, establishing isolation wards in all ...

The Express Tribune
PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa health department has prepared a dengue action plan to prevent the spread of virus in the province, stated a press release on Thursday. 

West Hawaii Today
KAILUA-KONA — The Big Island's dengue fever case count held steady Thursday with no new cases confirmed by state health officials. Since Sept. 11, 260 cases of the mosquito-borne virus have been confirmed on the island.

Express.co.uk
Health experts have called for urgent action to tackle the spread of the ”global dengue pandemic" in Asia, which had the highest spike of the disease in the world. Dr In-Kyu Yoon, director of theDengue Vaccine Initiative (DVI), said: “The dengue ...

World Health Organization
On 13 February 2016, the National IHR Focal Point (IHR NFP) of Uruguay notified PAHO/WHO a case of dengue. The case is a 31-year-old female from Montevideo who developed fever and joint pain on 5 February. On 9 February, she sought medical ...

Medical Xpress
Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne tropical disease that can develop into the life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever/dengue shock syndrome. There are currently no standard biomarkers or algorithms for the prognosis of the progression to hemorrhagic ...

Hawaii Tribune Herald
Chairman Dru Kanuha called a special meeting of the County Council for 9 a.m. March 2 to receive an update from local and state officials about efforts to control the dengue fever outbreak on the Big Island. 

FierceVaccines
The trial funding comes as Brazil grapples with outbreaks from dengue and Zika, both spread by the same mosquito species. Brazil has already approved Sanofi's dengue vaccine, Dengvaxia, but hasn't announced a vaccination strategy utilizing that jab.

AllAfrica News: Health and Medicine 
[Radio Dabanga] Khartoum -Between the start of the outbreak in late August 2015 and 7 February this year, 612 suspected dengue fever cases, including 106 deaths, were reported in Sudan.

Disease Outbreak News 
On 13 February 2016, the National IHR Focal Point (IHR NFP) of Uruguay notified PAHO/WHO a case of dengue.
The case is a 31-year-old female from Montevideo who developed fever and joint pain on 5 February. On 9 February, she sought medical attention and, on the same day, her samples were collected for laboratory testing.

Washington Post
Zika exposes class differences in Brazil, where most victims are poor “…Since last year, Zika has infected an estimated 1.5 million Brazilians, mostly in the hot, poor northeast. 

Jakarta Post
“We have to remain cautious until April this year,” the agency's disease prevention and control (P2P) division head Herry Martanta told The Jakarta Post, Wednesday, adding that dengue was endemic from the beginning of the rainy season until the ...

Sky News Australia
Queenslanders undergoing dengue fever testing will also automatically be tested for Zika virus, the state's health minister says. Cameron Dick's announcement in parliament on Thursday comes as spraying for mosquitoes that could carry Zika continues in ...

Big Island Video News
HAWAII ISLAND – On Wednesday, the Hawaii Department of Health identified 1 new case of dengue fever, bringing the total number of confirmed cases on Hawaii Island since the outbreak began in September 2015 to 260. 

West Hawaii Today
HILO — Chairman Dru Kanuha has called a special meeting of the County Council for 9 a.m. March 2 to receive an update from local and state officials on efforts to control the dengue fever outbreak on the Big Island.

Hawaii 24/7 (press release)
As of 1 p.m. Tuesday (Feb 23) the Department of Health reported no new confirmed cases of Dengue Fever. The total number of confirmed cases since the beginning of the outbreak remains at 259. These cases include 234 residents and 25 visitors. 

Times of India
Asian countries spend an estimated 6.5 billion USD annually in both direct and indirect medical costs due to Dengue. The situation gets murkier because of the absence of any kind of preventive medicines for the same. 

St, Thomas Source
On Tuesday afternoon the Virgin Islands Department of Health announced that the territory is simultaneously facing two mosquito-borne tropical diseases. It confirmed additional cases of Zika virus and the first new cases of dengue in more than a year.

Big Island Video News
HOLUALOA, Hawaii – The dengue fever outbreak has taken a toll on local business, according to William Pink, an operator of overnight accommodations business in Holualoa. 

The Straits Times
The number of dengue cases spiked by more than 40 per cent last week, raising fears that the virus could reach record levels this year. After three consecutive weeks of decline, there were 594 reported cases between Feb 14 and 20, 175 more than in the ...

NDTV
Bill Gates said every year more than 60,000 kids die of malaria which are mosquito-caused death, that is the animal that generates the most mortality. 

CBC.ca
Dengue fever is particularly worrisome for the 32-year-old Pierse, because contracting dengue a second time is more likely to lead to dengue hemorrhagic fever or dengue shock syndrome, which is associated with a high mortality rate.

MIT News
A professor and associate department head in civil and environmental engineering, Eltahir has long set his sites on a particularly "nasty guy" — the Aedes aegypti mosquito — responsible for one of the most devastating of viruses, Dengue, and now the ..

Yahoo Canada Sports
Dengue fever is particularly worrisome for the 32-year-old Pierse, because contracting dengue a second time is more likely to lead to dengue hemorrhagic fever or dengue shock syndrome, which is associated with a high mortality rate. 

Wall Street Journal
MANILA—Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of France's Sanofi SA, on Tuesday made the Philippines the first country where its vaccine for dengue fever will be widely available. 

UPI.com23 (UPI)
 -- Plan International, a children's development organization, warns that Fiji is under the threat of Zika virus and dengue fever following the devastating Cyclone Winston. "The threat of dengue and zika in the coming days in Fiji is real ...

Newsweek
Worker-fills-buckets-fresh-water-cyclone-Fiji. A worker from Suva's City Council fills residents' buckets with fresh water after power outages caused by Cyclone Winston stopped the pumps from working throughout Fiji's capital Suva, February 23. 

Reuters
Brazil invests $75 million to develop dengue vaccine. Monday, February 22, 2016 - 00:49. Brazilian President Rousseff initiates the third phase of clinical trials to develop a dengue fever vaccine. Katie Sargent reports. 

Channel News Asia
SINGAPORE: The number of new dengue cases in Singapore spiked to 594 in the week ending Feb 20, after a three-week decline which saw the number of reported cases falling to 419, according to latest figures published on the National Environment ...

ETHealthWorld.com
Lyon, France - February 22, 2016 - Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of Sanofi, announced today that vaccinations with Dengvaxia have commenced in the Philippines following official receipt of the first shipment of the vaccine earlier this month.

Townsville Bulletin
The resident, believed to be a man, will also be tested for Zika virus, which has so far not been transmitted in Australia by dengue mosquitoes. The latest outbreak of locally acquired dengue comes after the diagnosis of a Hermit Park woman in July ..

The Straits Times
SINGAPORE - The biggest dengue cluster in Singapore has closed, thanks to collective efforts to stem mosquito breeding in the area. The cluster, located in Tampines Polyview, had racked up 278 cases since the first case was reported in November last year.

West Hawaii Today
No new cases of dengue fever were confirmed over the weekend on the Big Island, state health officials reported Monday afternoon. Since the start of the outbreak on Sept. 11, 259 cases of the mosquito-borne virus have been confirmed on the Big Island.Asia Minute: Dengue Challenges in Southeast AsiaHawaii Public Rad..

The Star Online
STUDENTS from the Taylor's University School of Medicine (SOM) have been on a mission to empower the community of Taman Putra Damai to combat future dengue occurrences. The campaign is timely with Malaysia recording a total of 96,222 dengue ...

PR Newswire (press release
GlobalData's clinical trial report, "Dengue Fever Global Clinical Trials Review, H1, 2016" provides an overview of Dengue Fever clinical trials scenario.

Channel News Asia
SINGAPORE: A dengue cluster in Tampines, which was the biggest cluster islandwide until last week, is now closed, but remains under surveillance. According to the National Environment Agency's (NEA) website, no new cases have been reported in the last ...

Times of India
MUMBAI: French vaccine-maker Sanofi Pasteur on Monday announced that vaccinations with Dengvaxia-the first vaccine approved for the prevention of dengue-- have commenced in the Philippines. India which witnessed the largest incidence of dengue ...

Honolulu Civil Beat
But Hawaii's real enemy isn't dengue fever or the Zika virus, it's the mosquitos that spread them. And despite all the advances in medicine and technology in the last century, mosquito control seems to be something we've gotten worse at ,,,

The Tico Times
The Health Ministry reported last week that the number of people in Costa Rica who have tested positive for dengue or chikungunya during the first five weeks of 2016 jumped more than 600 percent for both viruses compared to the same period last year.

Courier Mail
Townsville Public Health Unit has confirmed the first case of locally acquired dengue, making it the first outbreak this wet season. The Pallarenda resident was confirmed as having dengue today. 

Honolulu Civil Beat
Sections. Chad Blair: Aloha everybody and welcome to another installment of the Pod Squad. Chad Blair with Honolulu Civil Beat. And today, an interesting discussion about dengue outbreak on the Big Island. 

Inquirer.net
FOR NOW, the cost of the dengue vaccine will have to be shouldered by those who want protection against the mosquito-borne disease, except..

Jamaica Gleaner
Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Winston De La Haye yesterday confirmed that a higher than usual number of cases of dengue have being detected locally in recent days. De La Haye said: "As at the week ending February 20, 2016, there were 23 cases of ...

Sun.Star
EVEN with the launch of the world's first dengue vaccine, the Department of Health (DOH) is reminding the public that it still better to maintain cleanliness in the community to prevent dengue outbreak. 

Business Insider
Instead, some researchers are theorizing that Zika is contributing to an unexpectedly high rate of side effects because it is spreading in a population in which a large number of people have been previously infected with a closely related virus, dengue.

Human African trypanosomiasis / Sleeping sickness
EurekAlert (press release)
African trypanosomiasis is called 'sleeping sickness' because when the infection is untreated, trypanosome parasites will invade the brain and cause disruption of sleeping patterns and irreversible neurological damage. 

Leishmaniasis
Times of India
He talked about diversity in leishmania treatments in different regions. "Nearly 2-4 lakh cases of Kala-azar are added every year especially in Brazil, East Africa and India," Dr Rijal said. Almost 45 districts of Bangladesh, 640 districts in India and ...

Nature.com
Hiding of promastigotes in 'apoptotic' neutrophils not only delivers viable Leishmania into macrophages but also delays the immune response against the parasite until the first line neutrophilic response is resolved. 

Pakistan Today
Earlier in 2005, the World Health Organization (WHO) had expressed concern over prevalence of leishmaniasis in different parts of KP and called for ...

Leprosy / Hansen's disease (Mycobacterium leprae, M. leprae)
indiatvnews.com
India is the abode of 60 % of world's leprosy affected people.Leprosy is an infectious disease that causes severe, disfiguring skin sores and nerve damage in the arms and legs. 

Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation
Today is World Leprosy Day and the National Leprosy Control Program of the Ministry of Health and Medical Services is organising a one-day forum to commemorate the day in Honiara. Being the 63rd World Leprosy Day, the forum aims to enhance ...

Voice of America
The U.S.-based World Outreach Ministry Foundation has distributed thousands of relief items to South Sudanese living in aleprosy isolation camp in Bor County's Malek Village, located in Jonglei state. 

Auckland stuff.co.nz
The 21-year-old Gulf Harbour man was chosen as one of seven young New Zealanders to visit the country for two weeks as youth advocates for Leprosy Mission NZ. The group was based at Anandaban Hospital, a hospital training centre outside Kathmandu.

Nippon.com
While he was thinking, walking around, and taking notes, he arrived at Tama Zenshōen, one of 13 national sanatoriums established in Japan for people with leprosy (also known as Hansen's disease). The care facility in Higashimurayama, western Tokyo, ...

Swindon Advertiser
Mike Thomas, 65, is the Swindon area's representative for TheLeprosy Mission, a charity devoted to combating the disease in many countries, including Nepal, which was hit last year by a major earthquake

The Hindu
A leprosy care centre has been opened by Chennai Corporation in Madambakkam, a town panchayat near Tambaram. The facility, declared open by Chief Minister Jayalalithaa last month, is set on a 33-acre site at Radhasamy Koil Street, Maruthi Nagar that ...

Daily Sun
Leprosy colonies across the country are in appallingly condition due to lack of basic health care, shelter, food, clothing and general social security, call for concern. Colonies such as the Uzuakoli leper colony, Minna leprosy village, Nnewi leper ...

Asahi Shimbun
KUMAMOTO--Their names may not be Caravaggio, Rembrandt or Monet, but a group of artists who suffered from Hansen's diseasewill have their works immortalized in a similar manner to the great masters. Work will begin in March to digitize approximately ...

Aljazeera.com
Each year, about 250,000 people are infected with leprosy worldwide. Although Nepal's government announced that leprosy had been eliminated in the country in 2009 - based on the World Health Organization's measurement of less than one case per ...

Lymphatic filariasis / Elephantiasis
GhanaWeb
Mr. Mansur Mohammed Zacharia, the Sunyani Municipal Disease Control Officer, has called for stepped-up media education and good sanitation practices, as part of aggressive measures to control the spread of elephantiasis in the Brong-Ahafo Region, ...

Devex
Student receives deworming medical tablets at Upper Primary School in Janaksinghpura, Rajasthan, India, during National Deworming Day. Photo by: Kuni Takahashi / Evidence Action. India recently held the largest single-day public health campaign ever ...

AsiaOne
The DDC reported that in 2014 there were 400,500 cumulative HIV cases, 7,270 malaria cases, 3,252 tuberculosis cases, 232elephantiasis cases and 47 leprosy cases detected among foreign workers. It was noted that the statistics might have discrepancies ...

Rabies
Mid-Day
In 90 per cent cases, rabies patients don't survive. On Friday ... “Rabies death is rare since the victims get vaccination shots after the bite. 

Jefferson Public Radio
The clinic recommends a series of shots, first a fast-acting one of rabies immune globulin near the animal's bite, followed by four rabies-vaccine shots ...

Chandigarh Tribune
Rabies injections are not available in the hospital for the past one week but the problem has not been addressed. “I am visiting the hospital for the last ...

Coconuts Bali
A total of 15 people were officially recorded as having died from rabies in Bali province in 2015, with the highest amount of deaths (six) in Buleleng, ...

My Twin Tiers.com
A feral cat in Bradford County has tested positive for rabies in Wilmot Township, Pa. The cat was then taken to the Pa. Veterinary Lab in Harrisburg for tests after it bit a person who was petting it.

dvm360
Have a veterinary patient bitten by a rabid animal that isn't quite up to date on its rabies vaccination? You may be able to hold off on the quarantine, or, worse, euthanasia. 

Times of India
The drug, rabies human monoclonal antibody (RMAb), has been developed by Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) and US-based Mass Biologics of the University of Massachusetts Medical School. 

AllAfrica.com
Namibia is edging closer to a possible world first for developing an anti-rabies vaccine for kudu after a research team concluded that the results achieved so far in the Rabies in Kudu Project fully justify the implementation of the second phase in a …

Santa Clarita Valley Signal
A College of the Canyons student bitten by a bat on the Valencia campus underwent a precautionary treatment for rabies, a spokesman for the college said Monday. 

YubaNet
Sutter Creek, Calif. February 22, 2016 - Amador County Public Health and Animal Control Departments remind residents that rabies in wildlife continues to pose a risk to pets and people. Multiple wildlife have tested positive for rabies in 2016. 

Rabid dog bites 16 in NowsheraThe News International
Talking to reporters, Medical Officer Dr Yousaf Ali Khan said all the patients were administered anti-rabies injections. They were advised to complete ...

Schistosomiasis (Schisto, Bilharzia, Snail Fever)
Imperial College London
Imperial researcher Dr Mike French will run the 2016 London Marathon to help the College treat thousands of children with parasite-borne illnesses.

International Business Times UK
Schistosomiasis (aka Bilharzia) is a infection caused by a parasitic worm, Schistosoma, living in fresh water in tropical regions. 

Sierra Sun Times
Schistosomiasis is spread by contact with fresh water contaminated with the parasites. These parasites are released from infected freshwater snails.

Headlines & Global News
A new study by researchers at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute has revealed that the bilharzia-causing parasite, Schistosoma mansoni, made its way to the New World by travelling trough slave traders, who were first infected as they fished in the ...

Trachoma 
The Economist
TRICHIASIS, the last stage of an infection called trachoma, rarely hits the headlines. That is because it does not kill. It does, however, blind. More than 2m people suffer, half of whom have lost their vision.

Global Trachoma Mapping Project Atlas Will Help Achieve Disease Elimination The Economist: Now is the time to say “goodbye” “…The [Global Trachoma Mapping Project] atlas’s publication brings encouraging news. Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda had much lower levels of trachoma than expected. 

EurekAlert (press release)
For the first time, genome sequencing has been carried out on Chlamydiatrachomatis (C. trachomatis), a bacteria responsible for the diseaseTrachoma - the world's leading infectious cause of blindness, according to a study in Nature Communications.

Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
Trachoma is a neglected tropical disease and one where the clear benefits of a combined skill set, using both classical and cutting edge techniques, ... 
Daily Mail
It has long been known that a strain of chlamydia bacteria - called C. trachomatis - causes trachoma, a neglected tropical disease that can render a ...


Other Neglected Conditions:
Venomous Snakebite
The New Indian Express
Though government hospitals claim to have enough anti-venom stock, ... “Two ICUs are operating exclusively for snake bites, but they do not have ...
Australian Geographic
And although most they lay eggs, some snakes such as the red-bellied black ... Anti-venom is available for all venomous snake species in Australia.

Eyewitness News
CAPE TOWN – A Beaufort West couple has been left distraught after their two-year-old daughter died from a snake bite. Karlien Esterhuizen was sleeping in her parents' bed at the weekend when a Cape cobra slithered under the sheets and bit her on her …


BLOGS:
HealthCanal.com (press release) (blog)
Like many engineers at MIT, Elfatih A. B. Eltahir builds models. But his models, numerically heavy and integrating satellite, atmospheric, and field intelligence, do not pop out of a 3-D printer.

The Standard Digital News (satire) (press release) (registration) (blog)
The teacher said the previous day, the pupils had received a dose of Albendazole 400 milligrammes for deworming and Praziquantel 600 miligrammes for bilharzia (Schistosomiasis). 

Medgadget.com (blog)
The Drugs for Schistosomiasis market analysis is provided for the United States markets including development trends, competitive landscape analysis, and key regions development status. 

End the Neglect 
by Liz Powell
An unknown among unknown diseases, podoconiosis (podo for short) is a devastating type of elephantiasis spread by long-term exposure to minerals found in volcanic soil. Unlike lymphatic filariasis, podo is not infectious. 

Voice of America (blog)
Dr. Neeraj Mistry is the managing director of the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases at the Sabin Vaccine Institute in Washington. He said, “More than a billion people affected by Neglected Tropical Diseases don't have anyone lobbying for them.


JOURNAL ARTICLES:
EMERGING INFECTIOUS DISEASES JOURNAL
D. Monteiro et al.

EMERGING INFECTIOUS DISEASES JOURNAL
W. S. Al-Salem et al.

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: New Articles
by Yagahira E. Castro-Sesquen, Robert H. Gilman, Carolina Mejia, Daniel E. Clark, Jeong Choi, Melissa J. Reimer-McAtee, Rosario Castro, Edward Valencia-Ayala, Jorge Flores, Natalie Bowman, Ricardo Castillo-Neyra, Faustino Torrico, Lance Liotta, Caryn Bern, Alessandra Luchini, The Chagas/HIV Working Group in Bolivia and Peru 

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: New Articles
by Naseem Salahuddin, M. Aftab Gohar, Naila Baig-Ansari 

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: New Articles
by Nisha Jain Garg, Kizhake V. Soman, Maria P. Zago, Sue-Jie Koo, Heidi Spratt, Susan Stafford, Zinzi N. Blell, Shivali Gupta, Julio Nuñez Burgos, Natalia Barrientos, Allan R. Brasier, John E. Wiktorowicz 

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: New Articles
by Bernard Pecoul, Carolina Batista, Eric Stobbaerts, Isabella Ribeiro, Rafael Vilasanjuan, Joaquim Gascon, Maria Jesus Pinazo, Silvia Moriana, Silvia Gold, Ana Pereiro, Miriam Navarro, Faustino Torrico, Maria Elena Bottazzi, Peter J. Hotez

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: New Articles
by Natalia V. Voge, Rushika Perera, Sebabrata Mahapatra, Lionel Gresh, Angel Balmaseda, María A. Loroño-Pino, Amber S. Hopf-Jannasch, John T. Belisle, Eva Harris, Carol D. Blair, Barry J. Beaty 

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: New Articles
by Pascal Miesen, Alasdair Ivens, Amy H. Buck, Ronald P. van Rij

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: New Articles
by Tammi L. Johnson, Erin L. Landguth, Emily F. Stone 

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: New Articles
by Neil Thalagala, Hasitha Tissera, Paba Palihawadana, Ananda Amarasinghe, Anuradha Ambagahawita, Annelies Wilder-Smith, Donald S. Shepard, Yeşim Tozan 

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: New Articles
by Bulent Alten, Carla Maia, Maria Odete Afonso, Lenea Campino, Maribel Jiménez, Estela González, Ricardo Molina, Anne Laure Bañuls, Jorian Prudhomme, Baptiste Vergnes, Celine Toty, Cécile Cassan, Nil Rahola, Magali Thierry, Denis Sereno, Gioia Bongiorno, Riccardo Bianchi, Cristina Khoury, Nikolaos Tsirigotakis, Emmanouil Dokianakis, Maria Antoniou, Vasiliki Christodoulou, Apostolos Mazeris, Mehme

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: New Articles
by Marija Stojkovic, Thomas Junghanss, Mira Veeser, Tim F. Weber, Peter Sauer 

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: New Articles

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: New Articles
by Rea Tschopp et al... 

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: New Articles
by Soumaïla Pagabele... 

THE LANCET INFECTIOUS DISEASES
by The Lancet Infectious Diseases

THE LANCET INFECTIOUS DISEASES
by Jing Xu, Qing Yu, Louis-Albert Tchuem Tchuenté, Robert Bergquist, Moussa Sacko, Jürg Utzinger, Dan-Dan Lin, Kun Yang, Li-Juan Zhang, Qiang Wang, Shi-Zhu Li, Jia-Gang Guo, Xiao-Nong Zhou 


OTHER
Weekly / February 25, 2016 /65(7)


Online informal sources for disease outbreak monitoring and real-time surveillance of emerging public health threats.
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