-
Watch Out, Guinea Worm, Here Comes Jimmy Carter
This past fall, President Jimmy Carter, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, celebrated his 90th birthday. Looking ahead, he's also hoping to celebrate the global eradication of Guinea worm disease (also known as dracunculiasis).
- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
-
How Nanobiophysics Can Stop Ebola and Other Global Pandemics
In an age of cell phones, human genome sequencing, and Google self-driving cars, even the world’s best hospitals (and airports) are still relying upon a thermometer (a 400-year-old technology) to decide who to quarantine for Ebola. The result of these antiquated approaches for diagnosing Ebola has resulted in over 1,400 Ebola suspects in the U.S. today who still have not received a definitive diagnosis.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
-
Tailor-Made Vaccine Set to Banish Africa’s Meningitis Epidemics
The website of a global partnership formed to wipe out deadly meningitis epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa is closing down with a simple message: "Thank you and goodbye!".
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
-
Insecticide-Treated Nets May Create Super Mosquitoes
Two species of mosquitos have interbred, giving rise to hybrids that can resist the most potent weapons used against them.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
-
Japanese Drugmakers Addressing Neglected Tropical Diseases, and Not Just Out of Altruism
Japanese drugmakers are developing medicines to treat infectious diseases that have been overlooked because there is little financial incentive.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Asia Pacific
-
Neglected Tropical Diseases: Challenges for the Post-2015 Development Era
Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) are a group of 18 infectious diseases – caused by parasites, viruses, or bacteria – that disproportionately affect the poor and cause significant health and financial burdens. NTDs are endemic – meaning that they regularly infect humans – in 149 countries, with over 1 billion people infected and 2 billion people at risk. These diseases are largely treatable and preventable through control of the insects that carry these diseases, improved water quality and sanitation, and the efficient delivery of drug treatments already donated by major pharmaceutical companies.
- Categories
- Health Care
-
Ebola Vaccine Trial in Africa May Support More Potent Version
An experimental Ebola vaccine showed it was safe and generated an immune response in healthy Ugandan adults in a clinical trial that bodes well for a more potent version undergoing testing.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
-
A Copper Bedrail Could Cut Back on Infections for Hospital Patients
Checking into a hospital can boost your chances of infection. That's a disturbing paradox of modern medical care. And it doesn't matter where in the world you're hospitalized. From the finest to the most rudimentary medical facilities, patients are vulnerable to new infections that have nothing to do with their original medical problem. These are referred to as healthcare-acquired infections, healthcare-associated infections or hospital-acquired infections. Many of them, like pneumonia or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), can be deadly.
- Categories
- Health Care