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

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    UN steps up aid for cholera outbreak in north-east Nigeria...

    Amid cholera outbreak in north-east Nigeria, UN steps up aid, warns pregnant women most vulnerable
    26 September 2017 -- Large-scale displacement and a health system in tatters as a result of persistent violence by the Boko Haram terrorist group have left many " most worryingly, pregnant women and their unborn babies " vulnerable to cholera in the wake of an outbreak in August, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has warned.
    "Studies show that cholera infections during pregnancy can lead to sudden loss of the foetus, premature delivery, stillbirth and an increased mortality and morbidity, both for the baby and the mother," said Homsuk Swomen, a UNFPA reproductive health specialist in Maiduguri, north-eastern Nigeria, one of the worst affected areas by the Boko Haram violence. Due to the ongoing conflict, many pregnant women are malnourished, aggravating their vulnerability to cholera and the consequences if they fall ill. Furthermore, the "traditional role" played by women and girls in the region is making them all the more susceptible to the disease.


    According to Sylvia Opinia, a UNFPA expert in gender issues, it is usually women and girls who care for sick family members, clean latrines, fetch and handle untreated water, and prepare food for the family. "We need to understand that cholera is not gender neutralcholera is not gender neutral," she underscored. On its part, the UN agency is working with local health staff, community and social workers in the camps to impress upon them the need to include women and girls in education messages on the disease, and especially targeting pregnant women with those messages. It is also engaging health workers to identify vulnerable women and girls, including pregnant women, for referral to appropriate care.




    But funds are needed.


    Last Sunday, the UN and partners launched a $9.9 million appeal to respond to the current outbreak in Borno state (north-east Nigeria) and to prevent further outbreaks in high-risk areas. A Cholera Response and Prevention Plan has been developed to address the immediate needs of 3.7 million people that could be affected by the outbreak. In related news, the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN health agency, concluded an oral cholera vaccination campaign around Maiduguri this weekend, inoculating some 844,000 people in affected areas.


    According to WHO, it takes those immunized about a week to develop the immune response that should protect against the disease, and most individuals vaccinated should be protected for up to six months. As of 25 September, 3,934 suspected cases of cholera including 54 deaths have been reported in and around Maiduguri. About 14 million people are affected by the crisis in north-eastern Nigeria (Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states), of whom 6.9 million need health assistance.


    http://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/2...ost-vulnerable

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    Latest Drug-resistant Malaria Strain May Skirt 'Superbug' Status...

    Latest Drug-resistant Malaria in Mekong Region May Skirt 'Superbug' Status
    October 12, 2017 — Som Aun contracted malaria after moving to the Thma Baing district of Cambodia's Koh Kong province in 2002. Four years later, two of his children contracted the disease.
    For five years, his son, An, now 19, and daughter, Sreyna, now 12, remained infected because no effective treatment was available, he told VOA Khmer. "Sometimes the disease is healed for one month, but it would come back in the next two months," he said, adding they both exhibited high fevers and chills. His children, who work in banana plantations, were in and out of clinics, and "after they took medicines, they would be fine for a period of time, then they would have to go to the hospital if they were in serious condition," Aun said. The family resorted to hospitals infrequently, because transportation cost 200,000 riel to 300,000 riel (or about $50 to $75). Researchers are increasingly alarmed by the emergence of a strain of drug-resistant malaria in Cambodia, a so-called "superbug" that stares down the most commonly used anti-malaria drugs.


    A malaria patient rests in the only hospital in Pailin, western Cambodia.

    The superbug, first identified in 2008 in Cambodia, has spread into parts of Vietnam, Thailand and Laos. Last month, scientists from the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU) published a letter in The Lancet saying the superbug's spread throughout the Mekong area was a serious threat to malaria control and eradication. "A single mutant strain of very drug resistant malaria has now spread from western Cambodia to north-eastern Thailand, southern Laos and into southern Vietnam and caused a large increase in treatment failure of patients with malaria," says letter co-author Arjen Dondorp, and Oxford professor, in a MORU release. MORU is a collaborative effort involving Thailand's Mahidol University, Oxford University and the U.K.-based Wellcome Trust. "We are losing a dangerous race," Nicholas White, one of the letter's co-authors, said in the release. "The spread of this malaria 'superbug' has caused an alarming rise in treatment failures forcing changes in drug policy and leaving few options for the future."

    Local officials not concerned

    Huy Rekol, director of Cambodia's National Center for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control (CNM), said he was not worried by the drug-resistant malaria. "In our country, we don't need to worry about matters of death or resistance because we have efficient drugs to use every day," he said. Malaria in Cambodia is caused by two types of viruses transmitted by female mosquitoes, according to the CNM. It identified several factors leading to a rise in malaria infections in 2015, including increasing mobility of people living in malaria-affected areas. Rekol said that about 10,000 infections were detected in 2017, but all those identified as contracting malaria were treated. He said that any resistance was "manageable," adding that more should be done to prevent transmission in the first place.


    A village malaria worker shows his malaria medicine kit at O'treng village on the outskirts of Pailin, Cambodia

    Nguyen Thi Khe, a former official at the government Institute of Public Hygiene, told VOA Vietnamese that malaria was "not a serious issue in Vietnam right now," a sentiment that was repeated by other officials. Dondorp said it was worrying that Cambodian malaria officials appeared to be unconcerned by the reports of drug resistance, which he said could undo the gains of recent years. "In northeastern Thailand, Srisaket province is affected, almost all of Cambodia is affected, as well as southern Laos, and South Vietnam," Dondorp said in an email to VOA. In an email, he said, "The evolution and subsequent transnational spread of this single fit multidrug-resistant malaria parasite lineage is of international concern."

    A risk to Africa?

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    It had helped eliminate elephantiasis, where the problem was at its worst...

    2 Nigerian States Eliminate Elephantiasis, Carter Center Says
    October 13, 2017 - The Carter Center, a nonprofit organization run by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, said Friday that it had helped eliminate elephantiasis, a disfiguring tropical disease, from two states in Nigeria where the problem was at its worst.
    Dr. Yisa Saka of Nigeria's Federal Ministry of Health said in the Carter Center's announcement, "This is a great day for the people of Plateau and Nasarawa states, and all of Nigeria." He called the disease, also known as lymphatic filariasis, "a terrible disease that has plagued good people for far too long." The World Health Association classified elephantiasis as a "neglected tropical disease." In areas threatened by the disease, people must take annual doses of preventive drugs to keep the parasitic infection from spreading.

    Damages lymphatic system

    Elephantiasis, transmitted by mosquitoes, causes damage to the lymphatic system, often in childhood, where it can remain hidden for years. Years later, the resulting swelling, which can be significant, can cause physical disability as well as social stigma. Asymptomatic infection can remain invisible but cause damage to the lymphatic system and kidneys, affecting the body's immune system.


    A victim of lymphatic filariasis, also known as elephantiasis, is pictured in Garawan, Egypt

    Experts say more than 120 million people in Nigeria live in at-risk areas. Only India has more people at risk of catching the disease, which often causes its victims social isolation and poverty. "Eliminating lymphatic filariasis as a public health problem in Plateau and Nasarawa states is a significant achievement that challenges everyone to broaden their appreciation of what is possible," said Dr. Frank Richards of the Carter Center. "Success in these two states not only protects the 7 million people who live there, but it also sets a pattern for similar success throughout the rest of Nigeria, as well as in other highly endemic countries."

    Dr. Gregory Noland of the Carter Center said health professionals have been working for years to eradicate the disease in Plateau and Nasarawa, through drug treatment and use of bed nets to ward off mosquitoes at night. Testing of more than 14,000 children over the past two years has not discovered any new infections. The milestone is seen as a step toward eradicating the disease altogether. It is one of seven diseases the Carter Center has named as potentially eradicable.

    https://www.voanews.com/a/nigerian-s...s/4069644.html

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    New typhoid vaccine...

    Typhoid vaccine set to have 'huge impact'
    Tue, 24 Oct 2017 - Around 22 million people get typhoid fever each year and 220,000 die.
    A new vaccine that could prevent up to nine-in-10 cases of typhoid fever has been recommended by the World Health Organization. Experts say it could have a "huge impact" on the 22 million cases, and 220,000 deaths, from typhoid each year. Crucially it works in children, who are at high-risk of the infection, unlike other typhoid vaccines. It is hoped the vaccine could eventually help countries eliminate typhoid.

    Typhoid fever is caused by Salmonella Typhi bacteria and patients have:

    * prolonged fever
    * headache
    * nausea
    * loss of appetite
    * constipation
    * in one-in-100 cases it causes fatal complications


    Typhoid is spread through dirty water and contaminated food.

    The bacteria are highly contagious and spread through contaminated food or water. The infection is most common in countries with poor sanitation and a lack of clean water, particularly in south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Two typhoid vaccines already approved to help reduce the number of cases, but none are licensed for children under the age of two. The decision to recommend the new conjugate typhoid vaccine was made by the WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (Sage).

    Prof Alejandro Cravioto, the chairman of Sage, said: "For the first time I think we do have a very effective vaccine." Sage recommended the vaccine should be given to children aged six-months old and said catch-up campaigns focusing on children up to 15 years old should also take place. Prof Cravioto said the vaccine was vital as the world was "reaching the limit" of current treatments due to the "crazy amount" of antibiotic resistance the typhoid bacterium had acquired.

    'A valuable weapon'
    See also:

    Every childhood vaccine may go into a single jab
    15 September 2017 - A technology that could eventually see every childhood vaccine delivered in a single injection has been developed by US researchers.
    Their one-shot solution stores the vaccine in microscopic capsules that release the initial dose and then boosters at specific times. The approach has been shown to work in mouse studies, described in the journal Science. The researchers say the technology could help patients around the world.

    Childhood immunisations come with tears and screams. And there are a lot of them.

    * Diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio, Hib and hepatitis B at eight, 12 and 16 weeks.
    * Pneumococcal jab at eight weeks, 16 weeks and one year
    * Men B vaccine at eight weeks, 16 weeks and one year
    * Hib/Men C vaccine at one year
    * Measles, mumps and rubella at one year and three years and four months

    Source: NHS Choices


    A team at Massachusetts Institute of Technology has designed a new type of micro-particle that could combine everything into a single jab. The particles look like miniature coffee cups that are filled with vaccine and then sealed with a lid. Crucially, the design of the cups can be altered so they break down and spill their contents at just the right time. One set of tests showed the contents could be released at exactly nine, 20 and 41 days after they were injected into mice. Other particles that last for hundreds of days have also been developed, the researchers say. The approach has not yet been tested on patients.

    'Significant impact'

    Prof Robert Langer, from MIT, said: "We are very excited about this work. "For the first time, we can create a library of tiny, encased vaccine particles, each programmed to release at a precise, predictable time, so that people could potentially receive a single injection that, in effect, would have multiple boosters already built into it. "This could have a significant impact on patients everywhere, especially in the developing world." The work differs from previous attempts, which slowly released medicines over a long period of time. The idea is the short, sharp bursts of vaccine more closely mimic routine immunisation programmes. Fellow researcher Dr Kevin McHugh said: "In the developing world, that might be the difference between not getting vaccinated and receiving all of your vaccines in one shot."

    http://www.bbc.com/news/health-41269196

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    18 killed in Tanzanian Cholera Outbreak...

    Tanzanian Cholera Outbreak Kills 18, Health Ministry Says
    November 11, 2017 — An outbreak of cholera in Tanzania has left 18 dead in two months, the Health Ministry said Saturday, warning that the situation could worsen as the rainy season continues.
    The ministry said the outbreak had left "18 dead out of 570 cases recorded" between September 1 and October 30, and it urged local authorities to take measures to keep the disease from spreading.

    Burundian refugees wait to board a U.N. ship, at Kagunga on Lake Tanganyika, Tanzania, to be taken to Kigoma, May 23, 2015. An outbreak of cholera at the time infected 10,000 people in a Tanzanian border region where refugees fleeing political unrest had massed.
    In 2015, Tanzania was struck by a major outbreak of cholera that infected 10,000 people and left 150 dead.

    Cholera is transmitted through contaminated drinking water and causes acute diarrhea.

    https://www.voanews.com/a/tanzania-c...n/4111152.html

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    Monkeypox On The Rise...

    Monkeypox On The Rise: How Worried Should We Be?
    November 16, 2017 - Earlier this month, the Washington Post ran a big, feature about a seemingly scary disease, called monkeypox. "It kills up to 1 in 10 of its victims, similar to pneumonic plague, and is particularly dangerous in children," the story observes at the beginning.
    Plus, the virus appears to be on rise. "Since 1970, 10 countries in Africa have had at least one recorded human case of monkeypox," the story says. A map shows the disease popping up across countries in West and Central Africa, including the Congo Republic, where the story takes place. The country is fighting an outbreak with 88 cases and six deaths, the World Health Organization says. The story chronicles a thrilling hunt to find the source of monkeypox: Is it a giant pouched rat? An African brush-tailed porcupine?


    A woman shows symptoms of monkeypox in 2008 in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

    And it put monkeypox at the forefront of national media. Even Fox News picked up on the idea and ran a segment entitled: "Monkeypox & Black Death Plague Resurface," read a headline for a Tucker Carlson segment. "It could reach this country before we know it's coming," Carlson said. There's no question monkeypox can be a serious disease. It causes a fever, and a rash, which can turn into painful, fluid-filled blisters on the face, hands and feet. But here at Goats and Soda, we wanted to know more. Where on Earth does this virus come from? And how dangerous is it compared to other threats, like Ebola or H7N9 bird flu?

    To get the lowdown, we talked to two monkeypox experts: Anne Rimoin at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has studied monkeypox in the Democratic Republic of Congo for 15 years; and Jay Hooper at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, who is working to develop a better monkeypox vaccine. Here are some of the questions we asked and some of their surprising answers.


    The lesions from monkeypox are similar to those from a smallpox infection.

    Where does it come from? Monkeys?

    No! "The name is actually a little bit of a misnomer," Rimoin says. Perhaps it should be called "rodentpox" instead. Yes, monkeys can get monkeypox. But they aren't major carriers. Instead, the virus likely persists in squirrels or another rodent.

    How do you catch it?

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    Insecticide Resistance Threatens Malaria Progress...

    Insecticide Resistance Spreads in Africa, Threatens Malaria Progress
    November 29, 2017 — The largest genetic study of mosquitoes has found their ability to resist insecticides is evolving rapidly and spreading across Africa, putting millions of people at higher risk of contracting malaria.
    British scientists who led the work said mosquitoes’ growing resistance to control tools such as insecticide-treated bed nets and insecticide spraying, which have helped cut malaria cases since 2000, now threatens “to derail malaria control” in Africa. “Our study highlights the severe challenges facing public efforts to control mosquitoes and to manage and limit insecticide resistance,” said Martin Donnelly of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, who worked on the study with a team from Britain’s Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. Latest World Health Organization (WHO) data show that 216 million people were infected last year with the malaria parasite, which is transmitted by blood-sucking Anopheles mosquitoes.


    The disease killed 445,000 people in 2016, the majority of them children in sub-Saharan Africa. To understand how mosquitoes are evolving, the researchers sequenced the DNA of 765 wild Anopheles mosquitoes taken from 15 locations across eight African countries. Their work, published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, created the largest data resource on natural genetic variation for any species of insect. Analyzing the data, the scientists found that the Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes were extremely genetically diverse compared with most other animal species. This high genetic diversity enables rapid evolution, they said, and helps to explain how mosquitoes develop insecticide resistance so quickly.



    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 genome data also showed the rapid evolution insecticide resistance appeared to be due to many previously unknown genetic variants within certain genes. The scientists said these genetic variants for insecticide resistance were not only emerging independently in different parts of Africa, but were also being spread across the continent by mosquito migration.


    Michael Chew, an infection and immunobiology expert at Britain’s Wellcome Trust global health charity which helped fund the research, said the findings underlined the importance of pushing scientific research ahead to tackle malaria. “This species is a major transmitter of malaria and the unexpectedly high genetic diversity found by scientists poses fresh questions for those in malaria research and control programs,” he said in a statement. “Global efforts to tackle malaria through effective vaccines, insecticides and the best drug combinations require urgent, united action by scientists, drug companies, governments and the WHO.”


    https://www.voanews.com/a/isecticide...s/4142364.html

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    New Dengue Vaccine Could Worsen Disease in Some People...

    New Dengue Vaccine Could Worsen Disease in Some People
    November 30, 2017 — Drugmaker Sanofi says that its dengue vaccine, the world's first, should only be given to people who have previously been sickened by the virus, according to new long-term data.
    In a statement, Sanofi said it had recently examined six years of patient data. Scientists concluded that while the vaccine protects people against further infection if they've already been infected with dengue, that's not the case for people who haven't previously been sickened by the disease. “For those not previously infected by dengue virus...the analysis found that in the longer term, more cases of severe disease could occur following vaccination,” Sanofi said. “These findings highlight the complex nature of dengue infection.”



    A patient, enclosed in a mosquito net, recovers from a bout of dengue fever at a hospital in Luque, Paraguay



    People who catch dengue more than once can be at risk of a hemorrhagic version of the disease. The mosquito-spread disease is found in tropical and sub-tropical climates worldwide. It causes a flu-like disease that can cause joint pain, nausea, vomiting and a rash. In severe cases, dengue can cause breathing problems, hemorrhaging and organ failure. The World Health Organization says that about half the world's population is at risk of dengue and estimates that about 96 million people are sickened by the viral infection every year.


    Sanofi is proposing that national authorities update their prescribing information. It also said doctors should assess the likelihood of prior dengue infection in people before choosing whether they should get the vaccine. “For individuals who have not been previously infected by dengue virus, vaccination should not be recommended,” Sanofi said. The vaccine is currently recommended in most dengue-endemic countries for people over age nine. The company expects to take a 100 million euro ($118 million) loss based on the news. There is no specific treatment for dengue and there are no other licensed vaccines on the market.


    https://www.voanews.com/a/dengue-vaccine/4143540.html

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    Pharmaceutical highway robbery...

    Why A Pill That's 4 Cents In Tanzania Costs Up To $400 In The U.S.
    December 11, 2017 - Two pills to wipe out hookworm could cost you 4 cents. Or $400. It just depends where you live.
    The 4 cents is in Tanzania. That'll cover the two pills it takes to knock out the intestinal parasite. But in the United States, where hookworm has re-emerged, the price for two 200 mg tablets of albendazole can cost as much as $400. The pill will put an end to the problems hookworm can cause, such as anemia and protein deficiency as well as stunting growth in children. It's not just a problem with the anti-hookworm pill. Drugs for diseases of the developing world, in particular the so-called "neglected tropical diseases" like hookworm and leishmaniasis, are enormously more expensive in the United States than in the developing world. "There really is no good reason for this price," Dr. Jonathan Alpern says of the albendazole price tag. Alpern works for the HealthPartners Institute, the research division of a health care organization in Minnesota. Impax Laboratories is the only pharmaceutical company that offers the drug in the U.S. Impax did not wish to comment on product pricing for this story but stated in an email to NPR: "Given the very different regulatory regimes in the U.S. versus outside the U.S., pricing is a very awkward comparison."

    Because the drug's patent expired decades ago, other companies can sell the generic version. But for medications that fight neglected tropical diseases, pharmaceutical companies have been slow to jump in and manufacture the medicine. As for those that do: "[Impax] fits into a category of companies that have taken drugs that have been around for many years, acquired the rights and jacked up the price [for the Western market]," says Alpern. Indeed, prices for generic drugs that treat neglected tropical diseases are skyrocketing in the U.S. When a disease affects only a small number of patients in the U.S., "there's less incentive for generic companies to enter the market," Alpern explains. That's because there's less potential for profit. Hookworm, which was recently discovered in a small community in the U.S., is just one example of this trend. Neurocysticercosis, a parasitic disease that causes seizures and epilepsy, is another example. The disease is rare in the U.S. with an estimated 1,000 to 5,000 new cases every year. Either albendazole or praziquantel are used to treat the disease. Praziquantel is also pricey: about $525 for six 600 mg tablets.


    An employee of GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals holds bottles of albendazole, an anti-hookworm medication.

    Leishmaniasis, which affects 700,000 to a million people annually throughout the world, is more expensive to treat in the U.S., too. Though rare in the U.S. — only 13 cases were uncovered between 2000 and 2007 — the disease can cause disfiguring skin sores or swelling of the spleen or liver depending on the form of the disease that's contracted. Two 50 mg tablets of miltefosine for 28 days can treat the infection; the price of each pill wholesale is $685, according to Alpern's research. "When there's limited competition in the market, the company that holds the monopoly is able to price [the drug] however they want," Alpern says. "In these cases, we often see companies taking advantage of their market position." And some of these disease aren't all that rare. Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, says certain neglected tropical diseases in the U.S. are surprisingly widespread, especially among those who may not be able to afford treatment. For example, he estimates that 1.1 million Americans are annually diagnosed with a parasitic infection called toxoplasmosis. The treatment is Daraprim; four 25 mg tablets currently cost between $3,000 and $3,400 on the U.S. market. "We have now identified nearly half-a-dozen neglected tropical diseases that are widespread in the U.S. among the poor, especially in the American South," says Hotez, who last year published Blue Marble Health, a book evaluating neglected diseases in America. "In all, I estimate that 12 million Americans now live in extreme poverty with a neglected tropical disease."

    Some of them are in Lowndes County, Ala., where a community of individuals was recently discovered to have hookworm. The average income in the county is just $18,036. If patients don't have health insurance, they must pay the full price for prescriptions or skip treatment altogether. "Some of the people in Lowndes County are living off $600 or $700 a month," says Catherine Flowers, founder of Alabama Center for Rural Enterprise, a nonprofit that addresses poverty. "People have told me they sometimes have to choose between buying medication and eating." In cases where patients have Medicaid, taxpayers bear the burden. In the years following albendazole's price hike in 2011, Medicaid spending on the drug went from under $100,000 in 2008 to more than $7.5 million in 2013. Medicaid spending on Daraprim, another tropical disease drug that just experienced a price hike, went from $2.2 million in 2014 to $15.7 million in 2015. Other times, U.S. patients bypass the system, Alpern says, by asking relatives in other countries to bring them the drug they need. In the United Kingdom, for example, 400 mg of albendazole costs just $2.

    Why are prices so different in the U.S.?

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    Tremendous progress in five years...


    1 Billion Treated in Battle Against Painful Tropical Diseases
    ecember 14, 2017 — A pledge by health and development experts to tackle neglected diseases that blind, disable and disfigure millions of the world's poorest people has spurred tremendous progress in five years, a report said on Thursday.
    More than one billion people were treated in 2016 for painful infections, such as sleeping sickness and elephantiasis, as increased funding, drug donations and political will helped health workers reach patients in remote areas, it said. "There are hundreds of millions more people getting treated now than five years ago," Ellen Agler, head of the END Fund, a philanthropic initiative to combat Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD), told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in emailed comments. "Effective partnerships and efficient systems to get medicines to those most in need have been built."


    The 2012 London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases, set a goal of controlling, eliminating or eradicating 10 diseases, including leprosy and river blindness, by 2020. NTDs affect one in five people globally, mainly in areas of extreme poverty, often trapping individuals in a cycle of social exclusion. The number of people affected by NTDs has fallen to 1.5 billion from almost 2 billion in 2011, the report by Uniting to Combat NTDs, a partnership backing the 2020 goal, said.




    A giant 25m worm representing the parasitic worm of schistosomiasis is pictured on the Lake Leman on the occasion of the Neglected Tropical Diseases Summit, in Geneva



    Since 2012, five countries have eliminated trachoma as a public health problem — meaning it no longer poses a major threat to community health — and four countries in the Americas have eliminated river blindness, it said. A push to train local health workers is an important element behind the campaign's success, the report said, as they are trusted by rural communities never reached before. "We have an obligation to ensure that [communities] are part of the solution," said Julie Jacobson, a program officer with The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, adding that South Sudan has only had one case of Guinea worm disease so far this year.


    Only 26 cases of Guinea worm disease have been reported so far in 2017, down from more than 1,060 cases in 2011, it said. British physicist Stephen Hawking said this week that eliminating neglected tropical diseases is "within our grasp."


    https://www.voanews.com/a/treatmen-p...s/4163987.html
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    Half of World's People Can't get Basic Health Services: WHO
    December 13, 2017 - At least half the world's population is unable to access essential health services and many others are forced into extreme poverty by having to pay for healthcare they cannot afford, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.
    Some 800 million people worldwide spend at least 10 percent of their household income on healthcare for themselves or a sick child, and as many as 100 million of those are left with less than $1.90 a day to live on as a result, the WHO said. In a joint report with the World Bank, the United Nations health agency said it was unacceptable that more than half the world's people still don't get the most basic healthcare. "If we are serious - not just about better health outcomes but also about ending poverty - we must urgently scale up our efforts on universal health coverage," World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said in a statement with the report.



    A Yemeni health worker marks a finger of a girl after giving her a polio vaccination.



    Anna Marriott, health policy advisor for the international aid agency Oxfam, said the report was a "damning indictment" of governments' efforts on health. "Healthcare, a basic human right, has become a luxury only the wealthy can afford," she said in a statement. "Behind each of these appalling statistics are people facing unimaginable suffering - parents reduced to watching their children die; children pulled out of school so they can help pay off their families' health care debts; and women working themselves into the ground caring for sick family members."


    The WHO and World Bank report did have some positive news: This century has seen a rise in the number of people getting services such as vaccinations, HIV/AIDS drugs, and mosquito-repelling bednets and contraception, it said. But there are wide gaps in the availability of services in sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia, the report found. In other regions, basic services such as family planning and child immunization are more available, but families are suffering financially to pay for them. Yong Kim said this was a sign that "the system is broken". "We need a fundamental shift in the way we mobilize resources for health and human capital, especially at the country level," he said.


    https://www.voanews.com/a/half-of-wo...s/4162316.html
    Last edited by waltky; 12-14-2017 at 08:09 PM.

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