Tap wealth of local products emerging to fight 'neglected' diseases of poor: study Nov 3, 2009
Vision Biotech (Cape Town, South Africa) is developing rapid diagnostic test platforms for African trypanosomiasis, schistosomiasis, and dengue fever. Bhat Biotech (Bangalore, India), sells an immunoassay-based rapid test for leishmaniasis and is developing a diagnostic kit for leprosy. (EurekAlert!)
Africa: New Treatment for Sleeping Sickness Oct 1, 2009
Nairobi Patients at an advanced stage of Human African Trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness, can now access more convenient, safer and cheaper treatment after the introduction of Nifurtimox-Eflornithine Combination Therapy (NECT). Developed by the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) and partners, NECT comprises the administration of oral nifurtimox, and eflornithine injections for 10 days. (allAfrica.com)
Eisai and DNDi Enter Collaboration and License Agreement to Develop New Drug for Chagas Disease Sep 30, 2009
The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) is a not-for-profit product development partnership working to research and develop new and improved treatments for neglected diseases such as malaria, leishmaniasis, human African trypanosomiasis, and Chagas disease. With the objective to address unmet patient needs for these diseases, DNDi was established in 2003 by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation from Brazil, the Indian Council for Medical Research, the Kenya Medical Research Institute, the... (JCN Network, Japan)
East Africa: Sh705 Million to Fight Tsetse Fly Menace Sep 23, 2009
Consequently, the government will launch a campaign to wipe out the fly that transmits trypanosomiasis disease in an effort to boost livestock production and increase milk and beef output ... Speaking to the Daily Nation, Mr Lusaka said the government is collaborating with Kenya Veterinary Association and Pan African Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Eradication Campaign in the initiative. (allAfrica.com)
Nigeria: The NLNG Prize for Science [editorial] Sep 11, 2009
The material that has brought honour to the Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Science is his seminal work that has discovered the gene responsible for the production of Sialidase (SD), an enzyme that causes Trypanosomiasis, otherwise called sleeping sickness. That effort will hopefully form the long-awaited platform for developing DNA-based vaccines against the dreaded disease. (allAfrica.com)
Search reveals no case of human trypanosomiasis in Ghana Sep 5, 2009
WA, Sept. 4, GNA - A search for cases of the Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) commonly known as sleeping sickness carried out in the country under the auspices of the Pan African Tsetse and trypanosomiasis Eradication Campaign (PATTEC) has not discovered any active case of the disease in humans ... Out of this figure, 24 were positive to Card Agglutination Test for Trypanosomiasis (CATT) which was sent to the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva for further tests for which one of... (Ghana Web, Ghana)
20% of cattle in Upper West suffer from sleeping sickness Aug 27, 2009
Wa, Aug. 26, GNA - A survey conducted by the Tsetse flies Eradication Project under the auspices of the Pan African Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Eradication Campaign (PATTEC), has revealed that about 22 per cent of cattle in some parts of the Upper West Region suffered from trypanosomiasis, otherwise known as sleeping sickness. However, the disease could not be detected in any of the 21,500 people that were screened during the survey which was undertaken in the Western and Upper West regions of... (Ghana Web, Ghana)
Legon in research collaboration with institutions in Japan Aug 27, 2009
Professor Alexander K. Nyarko, Director, NMIMR, said scientists from the three institutions would engage in research into HIV, tuberculosis, establish a database for parasitic diseases and investigate drug targets for African trypanosomiasis. He thanked the Japanese government for providing direct funding to the collaboration, saying the knowledge to be gained by scientists from each other, would adequately prepare them against the threat of infectious and other emerging diseases. (Ghana Web, Ghana)
To Ethiopia and back Aug 18, 2009
The researchers for the International Livestock Research Institute are greatly concerned about cattle that have contracted Trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness in humans). The animals with the disease, left untreated, become unproductive and very sick. (Storm Lake Pilot Tribune, IA)
New Consortium to Develop Drugs for Neglected Tropical Diseases Aug 17, 2009
Recent WHO estimates indicate that approximately 60 million people are at risk of contracting the African sleeping sickness (also called human African trypanosomiasis) with an estimated 50,000 to 70,000 new cases occurring each year. The disease appears in 36 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and is endemic in south-east Uganda and western Kenya, killing more than 40,000 Africans each year. (PR Newswire)
UCSF researchers help crack parasite genome, identify drug leads Jul 16, 2009
Directed by James H. McKerrow, MD, PhD, a professor in the UCSF Department of Pathology, the Sandler Center has shown that proteases make excellent drug targets in many parasites and that small-molecule protease inhibitors can limit or cure experimental infections of Chagas' disease, Human African Trypanosomiasis and schistosomiasis. The detailed characterization of the S. mansoni degradome, therefore, may similarly lead to the identification and development of new protease-targeted... (EurekAlert!)
BD and FIND Achieve Milestone in Global Battle Against MDR-TB Jun 23, 2009
FIND's disease portfolio currently includes tuberculosis, malaria and human African trypanosomiasis and current donors are the Bill da Gates Foundation, the European Union, the Government of the Netherlands, UNITAID, Irish Aid and other institutions and private donors ... human African trypanosomiasis. (Yahoo News -- Press Releases)
Tsetse Fly Costs Agriculture Billions Annually May 13, 2009
Dakar Each year in Africa the tsetse fly causes more than US$4 billion in agriculture income losses, kills three million livestock and infects up to 75,000 people with trypanosomiasis, according to the UN. ... The head of the human African trypanosomiasis ("sleeping sickness") programme at the Geneva-based Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND), Joseph Ndung'u, told IRIN he left his position as director of the Kenyan Trypanosomiasis Research Institute in order to expand his work beyond... (allAfrica.com)
Tanzania combines beauty, culture with staggering problems Apr 29, 2009
After schistosomiasis and trypanosomiasis, I remember giggling nervously when she said plague. That at least I was familiar with. (Lompoc Record, CA)
Obama's Grandma Fighting Tsetse Fly Scourge Mar 10, 2009
Some 37 African countries are affected by tsetse and sleeping sickness or trypanosomiasis. An AU program against the disease has succeeded in wiping out the flies in Botswana and Namibia, the statement said. (Newsmax)
