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Rwanda to Produce Mosquito Bed Nets
Six companies, including some from Rwanda, have expressed interest in setting up a plant to produce medicated mosquito bed nets to be distributed in the country, a senior official in the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MINICOM) has said.
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- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Weekly Roundup: It’s a New World in Global Health … If You Act On the Old Study
That 25-year, quarter-billion-dollar, 1,000-scientist effort to catalog death and disability in nearly 200 countries – the Global Burden of Disease study – is still out there and relevant, even though not every country’s bought in. The countries that are buying in, however, have reaped rewards.
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- Health Care
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The Planet’s Health Is Essential to Prevent Infectious Disease
The Zika virus, now detected in 42 countries, is only the latest in a series of diseases establishing a new normal for pandemics. Sars ravaged South China in 2003, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) shocked the Middle East in 2012, and Ebola devastated west Africa in 2014. We have seen avian influenza emerge in new geographies alongside mosquito-borne viruses, such as Chikungunya. Over the past 50 years, more than 300 infectious pathogens have either newly developed or reemerged in places where they had never been seen before.
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- Health Care
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Mosquito-Repellent Soap Invention Seeks to Wash Away Africa Malaria Threat
Two former students from Burkina Faso have designed a mosquito-repellent soap, which they hope could be a simple and affordable solution in the fight to end malaria, but more funds are needed to test the idea, according to the startup behind it.
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- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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In Brazil, a New Zika Strategy: Billboards That Smell Like Humans and Kill Mosquitoes
There’s an impressive array of creative billboards in Brazil. One in Rio de Janeiro sprays mists of water to cool down beachgoers waiting for a bus home. But a new innovation recently unveiled in this city is plain lethal — at least for bugs.
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- Health Care
- Region
- Latin America
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A Breath Test for Malaria
Diagnosing malaria may soon be as easy taking a simple breath test, according to researchers.
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- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Opinion: Why … Rio de Janeiro’s 2016 Olympic Games Must Not Proceed
Zika infection is more dangerous, and Brazil’s outbreak more extensive, than scientists reckoned a short time ago. Which leads to a bitter truth: the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games must be postponed, moved, or both, as a precautionary concession.
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- Health Care
- Region
- Latin America
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How an Obscure Disease Became a Global Health Emergency
In early February 2015, doctors in the impoverished northeastern part of Brazil noticed a surge in the number of people complaining about a mild illness, with and without fever, characterized by rash, fatigue, joint pains, and red eyes. The illness was brief and recovery was spontaneous. A mild form of dengue, a mosquito-borne disease hyperendemic throughout the country, was initially suspected, but tests were negative in the vast majority of samples. Chikungunya, another mosquito-borne disease first detected in Africa in 1952, had hopped to Brazil in September 2014 and was likewise suspected. Again, tests results were negative.
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- Health Care
- Region
- Latin America
