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Thread: Malaria, typhoid, West Nile & other tropical diseases

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    A single protein target that appears to be the disease’s weakness...

    Scientists Discover Malaria Achilles Heel
    September 07, 2016 - Scientists appear to have discovered malaria’s Achilles heel, a weakness common to the multiple stages of malaria infection. In doing so, they have found a compound that cured mice of the disease.
    Once it’s entered the body through the bite of an infected mosquito, the malaria parasite, P. falciparum, behaves as a unique organism as it goes through three phases during its life cycle. Experts say most treatments are aimed at only one stage or another. Over time, the parasite can become resistant to therapy, sometimes as quickly as within one year. But researchers at the Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University have identified a single protein target that appears to be the disease’s weakness, according to senior researcher Stuart Schreiber, a founding member of the biomedical institution.

    Malaria protein

    “We did discover a novel protein that’s made by the parasite, that’s needed for all three phases of its life cycle, and a series of novel compounds that potently inhibit this protein," he said. "And we could show in an infected animal that we could kill the parasite in all three phases.” Schreiber and colleagues published their findings in the journal Nature. After discovering the protein, researchers screened a unique library of 100,000 small molecules, from which they synthesized about a dozen compounds that they tested in infected mice. The molecules appear to stop the production of this protein in all of malaria's life stages, effectively killing the disease. The mice were disease-free for a month, a length of time considered to be a cure. When they tried to infect other mice with the blood of the treated rodents, the animals did not become infected with malaria.


    A woman carrying a baby holds a treated mosquito net during a malaria prevention action at Ajah in Eti Osa East district of Lagos, Nigeria

    The compound that scientists tested was a one-time oral treatment. Schreiber was quick to caution that what works in a mouse is not necessarily effective in humans. But he is hopeful. “I am the eternal optimist," he said. "On the other hand, I do know that what’s ahead is extremely challenging and full of unknowns that can only be addressed by marching forward and running the key experiments." The experiments include seeing how well each of the 12 compounds works, for how long, and whether resistance develops with any of the promising agents. In theory, Schreiber said a drug that works in all three stages of malaria could be taken at any point in the disease cycle, as a treatment and even as a way to prevent the disease. The researchers note that individuals can remain infectious even while undergoing treatment. So their infection can be spread to someone else through a mosquito bite. Information about the anti-malaria compounds is being made freely available to other researchers through an online database. The library contains compounds designed and housed at the Broad Institute that are not usually found in the arsenals of pharmaceutical companies.

    Malaria infects over 200 million people each year. Once it has infected a human host, the malaria parasite evolves through a number of unique stages, from initial blood infection to liver infiltration where the parasite matures and reenters the blood stream. The parasite then goes on to infect and destroy red blood cells, releasing thousands of daughter parasites that invade other blood cells, continuing the cycle of reproduction and infection. It is during this later blood stage when symptoms of malaria occur, including very high fever, overwhelming sweating, debilitating nausea and diarrhea. Over half a million people do not survive, mostly children in sub-Saharan Africa. The research by Schreiber and colleagues was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. A Japanese drug company, Eisai, has shown an interest in helping to further develop the experimental malaria treatment.

    http://www.voanews.com/a/scientists-...l/3497777.html
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    Deadly Scrub Typhus Bacteria Found on Island Off Chile
    September 07, 2016 — Scrub typhus, a deadly disease common in Southeast Asia and spread by microscopic biting mites known as chiggers, has now taken hold in a part of South America and may have become endemic there, scientists said Wednesday.
    The tropical disease, which kills at least 140,000 people a year in the Asia-Pacific region, has been confirmed in a cluster of cases on a large island off Chile, 12,000 kilometers from its usual haunts on the other side of the Pacific. Scrub typhus has been known of for years, and the bacteria that cause it were first identified in Japan in 1930. Chiggers transmit the bacteria, Orientia tsutsugamushi, and they spread through the lymphatic fluid. Those infected find the illness can begin quite suddenly, with shaking chills, fever, severe headache, infection of the mucus membrane in the eyes, and lymph node swelling. Until 2006, scrub typhus was thought to be limited to an area called the "tsutsugamushi triangle," from Pakistan in the west to far eastern Russia in the east to northern Australia in the south.

    Wider distribution?

    But writing in The New England Journal of Medicine, researchers from Britain's Oxford University and the Pontificia Universidad Católica and Universidad del Desarrollo in Chile said the cases found off Chile's mainland "suggest there may be a much wider global distribution than previously understood." In 2006, two cases of scrub typhus were found outside the triangle. One, in the Middle East, was caused by a previously unrecorded bacteria related to tsutsugamushi and named Orientia Chuto. The second was found on Chiloe island, just off mainland Chile.


    A fisherman walks on the shore of the fishing village Quetalmahue in Chile's Chiloe island, May 10, 2016. Scrub typhus has been confirmed in a cluster of cases on the island, far from places it usually strikes.

    In January 2015 and again in early 2016, three more cases were discovered in Ancud, on the northern coast of Chiloe. "Scrub typhus is a common disease but a neglected one," said Paul Newton, director of the Lao-Oxford-Mahosot Hospital Wellcome Trust Research Unit, which collaborated in the study. "Given that it is known to cause approximately a million clinical cases, and kills at least 140,000 people each year, this evidence of an even bigger burden of disease in another part of the world highlights the need for more research and attention to it."

    http://www.voanews.com/a/deadly-scru...e/3498400.html

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    ALIMA tryin' to stop outbreak of Rift Valley Fever...

    Rift Valley Fever Outbreak Kills 21 in Western Niger
    September 21, 2016 — Health workers in western Niger are racing to contain an outbreak of Rift Valley fever that has killed at least 21 people over the past month, an aid agency said Wednesday.
    The highly contagious disease, which is transmitted to humans by mosquitoes or close contact with contaminated animals, has infected 52 people in Niger's western region of Tahoua since late August, the country's health ministry said. The Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA) and Niger's health authorities have opened an emergency treatment center in the region's hardest-hit district of Tchintabaraden to look after the infected and stop the disease from spreading. "Unfortunately, the 52 severe cases officially registered at present only represent the tip of the iceberg," ALIMA's medical coordinator Oumarou Maidadji said in a statement.


    Mariam Dagane, who is infected with Rift Valley fever, rests on her bed at the Garissa hospital, 390 km (242 miles) from Nairobi

    With no specific treatment or effective human vaccine, Rift Valley fever can cause blindness and severe hemorrhaging, leading the victim to vomit blood or even bleed to death. Herders and farmers are deemed at higher risk of infection from the disease, which can devastate livestock. Niger's health ministry said people in the Tahoua region, especially pastoralists, should avoid handling meat from infected animals, boil raw milk before consumption, and ensure that the corpses of dead animals are buried carefully.

    ALIMA is also working with local partners and doctors to provide a mobile clinic which travels the region to inform the public about the disease and how to prevent it from spreading. "Awareness is an essential step to contain the spread of the epidemic," Maidadji said. "Vigilance is crucial."

    http://www.voanews.com/a/rift-valley...r/3519261.html

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    Granny wantin' to know when dey gonna come up with a cure for the epizootics?...

    Two Tropical Diseases on Track for Eradication in 4 Years
    October 13, 2016 | WASHINGTON — By the year 2020, two neglected tropical diseases, lymphatic filariasis, commonly known as elephantiasis, and trachoma, a blinding illness, may be eliminated in the world’s poorest countries, thanks to a partnership of governments, charitable foundations and pharmaceutical companies.
    The U.S. provides the most funding for elimination of neglected tropical diseases, through the U.S. Agency for International Development. That funding, between 2006 and today, has provided 1.6 billion treatments in about 30 countries. “In the areas that USAID has supported,” NTD program coordinator Emily Wainwright said, “there are going to be 400 million people who don’t have to worry about getting lymphatic filariasis again. We will have addressed that problem. And there will be about 184 million people who aren’t going to have to worry about getting trachoma, the leading cause of preventable blindness.”


    A doctor examines a trachoma patient in Ethiopia

    According to the World Health Organization, neglected tropical diseases affect an estimated 1.5 billion people in the poorest countries. Other diseases that are targeted for elimination include onchocerciasis, known as river blindness, schistosomiasis or snail fever, which causes intestinal and urogenital infections, and soil-transmitted helminthiasis, a systemic illness that causes diarrhea, fever, fatigue and malnutrition. Children are disproportionately affected by the parasitic and bacterial illnesses, which stunt growth and affect brain development. Recently, WHO released data showing that in 2015, 979 million people received preventive chemotherapy for neglected tropical diseases, an increase of 121 million from 2014.

    More diseases are predicted to follow the path of elimination, according to Ariel Pablos-Mendez, assistant administrator for Global Health, Child and Maternal Survival Coordinator at USAID. “Just like in polio,” he said, “which is in the last battle of the disease to remove from the face of the Earth, or leprosy, which is down 95 percent [from] the levels we used to have 50 years ago, these diseases we are in a position right now ... to end all of the diseases of extreme poverty by 2030.” USAID’s Neglected Tropical Disease Program and the WHO have put a priority on eliminating 17 NTDs in 149 countries, where one in six people suffer from at least one of the illnesses.

    http://www.voanews.com/a/two-tropica...s/3549663.html

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    Neighbors used to make a tea out of old cigarette butts to kill garden bugs...

    Tobacco Plants Found Capable of Producing Malaria Drug
    October 20, 2016 - Scientists say they have figured out a way to use tobacco plants to produce artemisinin, a highly effective anti-malaria drug.
    Malaria infects an estimated 200 million people each year, resulting in 400,000 deaths. The drug artemisinin is sometimes used to treat the mosquito-borne illness, clearing the parasite from the bloodstream within 48 hours, according to experts. However, it is very expensive. Artemisinin comes from an herbal plant grown in China called sweet wormwood. It takes 18 months to grow, extract and produce only a small amount of the effective compound, according to bioengineer Shashi Kumar at the U.N. International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in New Delhi. “That increases the cost of this drug, and the people who are suffering most and poor are not able to afford this costly drug," Kumar said. "That is why we are looking at some source which can be grown everywhere, like the African continent or the Indian continent, easily. Tobacco is that crop.”


    A farm worker harvests tobacco leaves at a farm in Harare, Zimbabwe, March 3, 2015. Scientists have found that malaria-fighting compound artemisinin can be grown in tobacco plants.

    Kumar and colleagues have figured out a way to insert wormwood genes into tobacco plants. Tobacco is a hardy plant and when the gene is inserted, a precursor compound of artemisinin shows up in its broad sturdy leaves. Scientists at the U.N. Center tested the effectiveness of tobacco-produced artemisinin on rodents infected with Plasmodium berghei, a parasite that causes malaria in rats and is often used as an experimental model for genetic engineered treatments. Kumar said the artemisinin from tobacco leaves was more effective than the currently available drug. But more tests are needed to see whether the tobacco-derived artemisinin drug is equally effective against P. falciparum, the parasite that causes the most dangerous form of the disease in humans.


    А malaria worker is seen carrying a traditional medicine kit in a village near Pailin, Cambodia, Aug. 29, 2009. Scientists have found that conventional kits could be replaced with artemisinin, a cheap but highly effective anti-malaria drug.

    Kumar and colleagues are now looking at ways to grow the anti-malaria drug in other, more edible plants. “What we can do [is] we put this drug into edible plants like lettuce or spinach, where you can just make a powder, put that powder in a capsule and the capsule can be stored like in medical stores or anywhere from where the people can easily buy at a very cheap or very affordable price.” News about tobacco-grown artemisinin was published in the Cell press journal Molecular Plant. Kumar says no big tobacco companies have come forward volunteering to produce artemisinin. However, he is hopeful, given that the technology will be made freely available, that there will be some takers.

    http://www.voanews.com/a/tobacco-mal...n/3559777.html
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    Fighting Malaria by Changing the Flavor of Humans
    October 12, 2016 | WASHINGTON — Have you ever noticed how some people seem to be bitten by mosquitoes more than anyone else?
    Apparently some people taste better to malaria mosquitoes than others, and scientists are trying to figure out why, so they can turn that information into a repellent to protect us all from malaria. Such a repellent might be able to prevent some of the 214 million cases of malaria the World Health Organization says occurred in 2015, mostly in Africa. About 440,000 people, most of them children, died of malaria, the WHO said. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have found evidence of what attracts malaria mosquitoes to humans for a blood meal, and smell isn’t the only thing.

    Christopher Potter, assistant professor of neuroscience, is working on the sensing ability of mosquitoes. Unlike humans who have one nose, Potter says, mosquitoes have three pairs of noses. These include two antennae and two maxillary palps, which are fuzzy appendages below the insect’s head and are parallel to the feeding needle, Potter said. At the end of that feeding needle or proboscis, are the labella, two small regions with neurons that recognize smells and tastes. “So this suggests that the mosquito brain might also have a region of the brain that’s dedicated to flavor, to combining smell and taste,” he said. “And that is something they are very likely doing when they are actually landing on us and looking around for a place to bite,” he added. “They are actually smelling us and tasting us, and perhaps that means they are also flavoring us and that is part of what they are looking for when they’re trying to decide who they should bite from and where they are going to bite.”

    Potter and his colleagues made this discovery about the malaria mosquito, Anopheles gambiae, by making certain neurons in the insect’s noses fluoresce, or glow green. They wanted to trace those green-glowing external sensory neurons to the brain. The green-glowing neurons lighted up in the brain when they were exposed to complex odors. These help the mosquito distinguish human blood from that of other warm-blooded animals. It’s the first time scientists were able to pinpoint the exact location of the senses of smell and taste in mosquitoes.

    By studying the smell- and taste-detecting neurons, the finding suggests that it’s possible mosquitoes like not only the smell of humans but our flavor as well. “The long-term goal is to identify better repellents, things that will be better, safer, cheaper and more effective that we can manufacture on a larger scale and distribute it across the world.” Currently the insect repellent DEET is widely used in malaria endemic regions, but it’s not 100 percent effective, and a fair amount of the chemical needs to be applied to the skin to repel mosquitoes. The research was published in the journal Nature Communications.

    http://www.voanews.com/a/fighting-ma...s/3547023.html
    Last edited by waltky; 10-22-2016 at 01:08 AM.

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    Controlling mosquitoes with bacteria... Bacteria Shown to Stop Transmission of Mosquito-borne Illness October 26, 2016 | WASHINGTON — Researchers in Australia have shown that introducing a naturally-occurring bacterium in the wild, called Wolbachia, can control mosquitoes that cause Dengue fever.
    Wolbachia occurs naturally in 60 percent of all insect species, but not in Aedes aegypti, say experts. That’s the mosquito that spreads dengue. The mosquito species can also transmit Zika virus, yellow fever and Chikagunya, but researchers are focusing on Dengue. Australian scientists have found a low-cost way to introduce Wolbachia into dengue-causing mosquitoes in the laboratory, stopping the virus from growing inside the mosquito and thus spreading. Once introduced into the wild, the Wolbachia mosquitoes can breed with other mosquitoes, spreading the protective bacterium. Researchers say the method is self-sustaining, having the potential to fight the life-threatening disease. Since 2011, the investigators have conducted small-scale, open field trials in dengue-infected communities. Scientists have found that the bacterium interferes with the mosquito’s ability to transmit the virus to people that causes dengue, an illness in tropical and sub-tropical countries responsible for almost 400 million infections every year.
    Health workers fumigate to prevent Dengue, Chikunguya and Zika virus, at El Angel cemetery, in Lima, Peru
    The disease severely sickens 98 million people, according to the World Health Organization, causing severe flu-like symptoms. Severe dengue can cause death, especially in children. Researchers say the trials in Australia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Brazil and Colombia are helping to refine their methods of introducing Wolbachia into wild mosquito populations. In 2014, researchers developed and began a low-cost Wolbachia strategy for urban areas, hoping to begin large-scale trials in 2016. The work is being carried out by the non-profit Eliminate Dengue Program in collaboration with the Institute of Vector-borne Disease at Monash University in Australia. The program has begun a fund-raising effort to continue its work with Wolbachia as a way to wipe out the threat of dengue. http://www.voanews.com/a/bacteria-sh...s/3568054.html
    See also: $18M Donation to Target Mosquito-borne Diseases October 26, 2016 | WASHINGTON — An international coalition of governments and philanthropic organizations has donated $18 million to fight Zika and other mosquito-borne illnesses. The money will target the illnesses in Colombia and Brazil with a unique mosquito-control program. The funds from the U.S. Agency for International Development and the British government, as well as Britain’s Wellcome Trust and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, will be used to scale up the innovative, widely praised program being developed in Australia.
    Use bacteria to fight virus Over the years, the nonprofit Eliminate Dengue Program, in collaboration with Melbourne’s Monash University, has demonstrated a way to transfer a naturally occurring bacterium in the lab, called Wolbachia, into mosquitoes that carry the dengue virus. Wolbachia is carried by 60 percent of all insect species worldwide, experts say, but not by Aedes aegypti, the type of mosquito that spreads dengue and can also transmit Zika virus, yellow fever and chikungunya.
    A technician releases Aedes aegypti mosquitoes with the dengue-blocking Wolbachia bacteria at the Tubiacanga neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro
    Once infected with Wolbachia, the altered Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are unable to transmit dengue. When released into the wild, they mate with local mosquitoes, passing the bacteria to their offspring. Within a few months, the wild mosquitoes are unable to spread dengue to humans. Wolbachia works by stopping the virus from growing inside the mosquito and thus spreading. Researchers say the method of mosquito control is self-sustaining, having the potential to fight the life-threatening disease. Trials to expand Since 2011, the program has conducted field trials in Australia, Indonesia and Vietnam. The results show that when a high proportion of mosquitoes are infected, transmission of the virus stops. Small-scale field trials began in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2014, and last year in Bello, Colombia. According to the World Health Organization, dengue infects almost 400 million people a year, mainly in tropical and subtropical countries.
    Technicians carry containers filled with Aedes aegypti mosquitoes with the dengue-blocking Wolbachia bacteria before they are released at the Tubiacanga neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, Sept. 24, 2014. Similar work has been done in Australia, Vietnam and Indonesia.
    Severe dengue can cause death, especially in children. The newly announced donations will rapidly scale up Wolbachia deployments in Latin America, beginning in 2017, to see how well the intervention works on a broader scale and in urban settings, hopefully leading to a significant reduction in Zika, dengue and chikungunya. http://www.voanews.com/a/donation-of...s/3567377.htmL
    Last edited by waltky; 10-27-2016 at 04:14 AM.

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    Clue to Track Resistance to Malaria Drug Found...

    Scientists Find Clue to Track Resistance to Malaria Drug
    November 04, 2016 — Scientists have discovered genetic markers in malaria parasites linked to resistance to the key anti-malarial medicine piperaquine, and say their work could help doctors and health officials monitor and limit the spread of such resistance.
    In research published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, the team also said a simple test using blood taken from a finger pin$#@! could show whether a malaria patient has parasites with the genetic markers, allowing doctors to prescribe an alternative treatment. Resistance to piperaquine recently emerged in Cambodia and has led to the failure of malaria treatment there. This and other spreading areas of drug-resistance are threatening global efforts to eliminate the mosquito-borne disease. Piperaquine is a powerful drug used in many parts of the world in combination with another anti-malarial drug called artemisinin.

    Resistance to artemisinin emerged around seven years ago in Southeast Asia, but until recently the combination of the two drugs had successfully killed the malaria parasites there. Now, however, the emergence of piperaquine resistance in Cambodia has led to treatment failing altogether. “These malaria parasites are now resistant to both drugs, and since they are no longer being killed, resistance to both drugs will spread,” said Roberto Amato, who co-led the research at Britain’s Sanger Institute. According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 200 million people worldwide were infected with malaria in 2015, and nearly half a million people died from the disease. The vast majority of those killed by it are children younger than 5.


    А malaria worker carries a traditional medicine kit in a village near Pailin, Cambodia, Aug. 29, 2009. Scientists have found that conventional kits could be replaced with artemisinin, but now resistance to that drug is failing to stop malaria.

    Malaria is treatable if it is caught early, but growing drug resistance is becoming a major problem in many areas. For this study, Amato’s team worked with Rick Fairhurst, a professor at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the United States National Institute of Health, and carried out what is known as a genomewide association study to look at the genetic basis behind piperaquine resistance.

    They looked at about 300 samples from Cambodia, analyzing thousands of variations in the DNA sequence of the parasites and comparing these across samples with different levels of resistance to piperaquine. “By studying the genomes of these parasites we found two genetic markers that are linked with piperaquine resistance,” Amato said. “Not only can we now use these markers to monitor the spread of the drug resistant malaria, they will also help towards understanding as much as possible about the biology and evolution of the [malaria] parasite.”

    http://www.voanews.com/a/scientists-...g/3580383.html

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    New type of drug timed-release capsule... Researchers Develop Long-term Drug-release Capsule November 16, 2016 - U.S. researchers have developed the first long-lasting capsule that, when taken orally, slowly releases medication into the body. The drug-delivery system was developed for the treatment of malaria, though it could contain medications for a number of diseases.
    Once inside the stomach, the plastic capsule springs open into a star-shaped form that contains the drug, which is released in measured doses. The polymer material is designed to initially resist the stomach's hostile acidic environment, although the device dissolves after two weeks and is expelled harmlessly through the digestive tract. At that point, a patient would swallow another drug-containing capsule. A study describing the capsule and its development was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine. Researchers see potential applications for the system in psychiatric medicine, diabetes care, and treatment for cardiovascular disease. Slow-release formulas of different pharmaceutical agents would have to be developed for use in the capsule. Researchers have tested the capsule containing ivermectin, an agent that's used to treat parasites. Scientists from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Massachusetts chose ivermectin in their experiments because of an observation made when the drug was used to treat river blindness in Africa, where malaria is endemic. "What was observed was that malaria would transiently drop,” said Giovanni Traverso, a research associate at Brigham and Women's Hospital. “And so what we proposed was, ‘What if we could increase the period of time during which individuals could have ivermectin in their system, really to help suppress the mosquito population in those regions?’”
    This star-shaped structure with six arms can be folded inward and encased in a smooth capsule, which can be swallowed. Once in the stomach, the capsule opens and medicine is released in measured doses.
    Ivermectin kills the mosquitoes that carry the malaria parasite. Ninety percent of malaria cases occur in sub-Saharan Africa. In the case of malaria, one potential scenario is that the capsule be paired with another drug, such as artemisinin, to help drive down the number of malaria cases. According to the World Health Organization, about 50 percent of people in the West and 30 percent of people in developing countries take their medicine every day, as prescribed. A computer model predicts that the capsule could improve adherence to at least 70 percent. Many times people forget to take their daily medicine, their symptoms are mild, or they want to forget that they have a chronic disease, said Andrew Bellinger, one of the researchers at MIT. "You can take advantage of the fact that patients don't have to be reminded every day that they need to take their medicine,” he said. “They can remember once a week to take their medicine, and then live normal lives the rest of the time." Experiments have been successfully conducted in pigs and dogs. Researchers are in the process of designing a human clinical trial expected to begin next year. http://www.voanews.com/a/us-research...e/3598929.html

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    Doctors in Australia have reported a resurgence in patients suffering from scurvy... Scurvy makes surprise return in Australia Tue, 29 Nov 2016 - Doctors in Australia report a resurgence in the disease historically associated with sea explorers.
    The disease, historically associated with sea explorers, has been found in about a dozen diabetes patients at Westmead Hospital in western Sydney. Scurvy is now a rare condition caused by having too little vitamin C, or ascorbic acid, in your diet. Professor Jenny Gunton discovered the latest cases after treating a patient whose leg wound would not heal. The findings have been detailed in the international journal Diabetic Medicine. "In the report that's just come out I've had seven people with vitamin C deficiencies," said Prof Gunton, who heads the Centre for Diabetes, Obesity and Endocrinology research at The Westmead Institutes. "Since that time there would have been another six or seven." She said scurvy could be more widespread than previously thought.
    Two oranges growing in a citrus orchard.
    What is scurvy? * Without vitamin C, the body cannot make collagen - which is essential for your skin, blood vessels, bones and cartilage. * Symptoms include feeling tired all the time, lack of appetite, joint pain, shortness of breath and easily bruised skin. * It affects people who do not have a healthy diet including those on fad diets, the homeless, the elderly and those with eating disorders. * Fruits including oranges, lemons and strawberries are good sources of vitamins C along with broccoli, cabbage and asparagus. "There's no particular link to diabetes ... except that if you have a poor quality diet you're more likely to get diabetes," Prof Gunton told the BBC. "But of course, a lot of people with diabetes eat perfectly reasonable diets." Health authorities in Australia do not generally test for scurvy or keep statistics on patients suffering from it. However, Prof Gunton said the disease was easy to prevent. "Eat some fruit, eat some vegetables - and don't overcook the vegetables," she said. "If you really can't manage that, take one vitamin C a day. But healthy diet is the better fix." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-38127403

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    Malaria and dengue updates... Child Anti-Malaria Drug Programs in Senegal a ‘Blueprint’ for Africa November 29, 2016 — Researchers say that giving anti-malarial drugs to older children can significantly reduce overall transmission of disease. Currently, most such programs are limited to the under-fives, but a study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, shows that expanding the intervention can lower the number of malaria cases.
    The World Health Organization estimates there were 214 million new cases of malaria in 2015 — and 438,000 deaths, with by far the majority of fatalities in sub-Saharan Africa. In Senegal, health workers from charities like Speak Up Africa have been testing a new approach: giving preventive anti-malarial drugs to children up to the age of 10 during the rainy season, when malaria prevalence is highest. It’s known as seasonal malaria chemoprevention, or SMC. Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine conducted a study of 200,000 children in the program. “The treatments then have to be repeated at strictly four-week intervals, and that’s quite challenging in terms of implementing that in rural Africa. But despite that, countries have been quick to adopt this new approach,” said Professor Paul Milligan, who led the investigation.
    Child Anti-Malaria Drug Programs in Senegal a ‘Blueprint’ for Africa
    Major reduction in cases And it’s showing results. In Senegal, the SMC program more than halved cases of malaria in children under 10. It also reduced cases in those above 10 years of age by a quarter — by helping to reduce transmission of the disease. “By expanding the age range, one is then treating a larger fraction of the parasite reservoir, which is the source of infection to mosquitoes,” Milligan said. The SMC program has been rolled out to 11 countries, reaching about 15 million children up to the age of five in 2016. Milligan says the latest results show the programs should be expanded to include older children. “What we found was that if you’re going door-to-door, it doesn’t take much extra time to treat older children, and that if you go out of school hours then you can get high coverage even during term time,” he said. Milligan says the next step is to identify other parts of Africa that could benefit from expanding the SMC program to older children. http://www.voanews.com/a/child-anti-...a/3608245.html
    See also: Study: Use of Dengue Vaccine Effective in Some Regions, Risky in Others November 29, 2016 - The World Health Organization is continuing to assess the risks and benefits of the first vaccine developed to prevent dengue fever.
    A study, published in September, concluded that the vaccine, called Dengvaxia, could have a positive impact in regions where there is a high incidence of dengue, preventing one in five hospitalizations, but could be problematic in other areas. A new report, commissioned by WHO and spearheaded by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, refined that conclusion. Researchers used mathematical models to assess data from human trials of Dengvaxia involving some 30,000 people around the world.
    A patient has his blood taken to be tested at a fever clinic especially set up to cater to those suffering from fever, one of the main symptoms of several mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue, at a hospital in New Delhi, India, Sept. 15, 2016. The World Health Organization is continuing to assess the risks and benefits of the first vaccine developed to prevent dengue.
    According to the new report, the vaccine could potentially reduce the incidence of dengue fever between 6 percent and 25 percent in countries with moderate to high transmission rates, where at least 50 percent of children get infected for the first time by their ninth birthday. Investigators concluded a policy of routinely vaccinating 80 percent of 9-year-olds is needed to realize the reduction in cases. But in places where the disease is uncommon, affecting ten percent of the population or less, Dengvaxia could cause severe illness and hospitalization in individuals who contract dengue for the first time after being vaccinated. A double-edged sword Approximately half of the world's population is at risk for contracting dengue, a mosquito-borne illness that can cause high fever, joint pain, bleeding and potentially, death by dengue shock syndrome. A person can potentially be infected by four different strains of the virus, and can be infected more than once. A second infection is generally the worst. In people who have been infected the first time, the vaccine may prevent a serious second infection. But in those who have never been infected and are vaccinated, as in low burden countries, the vaccine can act like a silent, first infection, making individuals very sick should they actually become infected.
    In an early study, published in the journal Science, researchers found a dengue vaccine could reduce severe illness and hospitalizations by 20 to 30 percent.
    So Dengvaxia, made by the pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Pasteur, has turned out to be a double-edged sword. In an early study, published in the journal Science, researchers found a dengue vaccine could reduce severe illness and hospitalizations by 20 to 30 percent. In an early study, published in the journal Science, researchers found a dengue vaccine could reduce severe illness and hospitalizations by 20 to 30 percent. Vaccine has risks

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    Strong Progress in Fighting Malaria, but still Big Funding Gaps...

    WHO Reports Strong Progress in Fighting Malaria, Warns of Big Funding Gaps
    December 12, 2016 — In its latest annual report, the World Health Organization says strong progress has been made in the fight against malaria, particularly in offering effective control programs to children and pregnant women in Africa.
    The organization, however, warns funding has plateaued, putting targets for tackling the disease at risk. The WHO’s 2016 report highlights significant achievements in the global fight against malaria. Mortality rates for the annual number of deaths from malaria have been halved in the past 16 years to just over 400,000.


    A doctor tests a child for malaria at a hospital in Arusha, Tanzania, May 11, 2016. Children under the age of five account for an estimated 70 percent of all malaria deaths.

    Programs to distribute insecticide-treated mosquito nets are the cornerstone of malaria prevention efforts in Africa, says Dr. Jo Lines of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “The progress is that now 53 percent, just over half that target population and it's a very large target population in some very difficult to reach places. Fifty-three percent of those people now report sleeping under an insecticide-treated net,” said Lines said. “That's fantastic."

    Mosquitoes becoming resistant

    As more insecticide is used to prevent malaria, however, the mosquitoes that transmit the disease are becoming resistant. "Insecticide resistance is spreading very rapidly. Now that we're achieving those high levels of coverage, it's spreading more rapidly than ever and becoming really strong in some places,” said Lines. “So there are places in Africa that now report that their mosquitoes can stand one thousand times the dose of the original population.”


    Workers look for holes in mosquito netting at the A to Z Textile Mills factory producing insecticide-treated nets in Arusha, Tanzania.

    Diagnostic testing for malaria has also increased sharply in the last five years allowing for the rapid prescription of life-saving treatment, particularly for children. "What's clear now is that we need to do a much more differentiated set of interventions,” said Lines. “We need to tailor what we do to each place.”

    Funding has waned

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