Why Latin America is nearer elimination of rabies than Africa
Latin America is doing far better at controlling and ultimately eliminating rabies from the region than Africa. Latin America uses dog vaccination; Africa relies on post-exposure prophylaxis. Can the lessons learned in Latin America be applied or adapted to Africa? At RSTMH “Challenges in Disease Elimination”, [September 12-16th, 2016], Dr Katie Hampson described the PAHO surveillance & management framework operating in Mexico and Brazil, devised to support the elimination of rabies in 25 PAHO countries, which could be adapted. Tanzanian researchers have developed a targeted surveillance system to improve case detection for the African setting where resources are constrained.
Workshop on “Food Security: Infectious Diseases in Farm Animals”- Invited Lectures, Day 2
St. Catherine’s College, Manor Road, Oxford, UK, 4-7th April 2016 Attended by M Djuric, CAB International, Wallingford, UK, on 5th April 2016 (Day 2) This workshop meeting was jointly organised by the Pirbright Institute, Woking, UK and Cairo University, Egypt and was sponsored by the British Council Research Links Programme. The aims of the workshop…
Can We Strike Back Against Dengue?
Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral infection causing a severe flu-like illness and, sometimes causing a potentially lethal complication called severe dengue. The incidence of dengue has increased 30-fold over the last 50 years. The latest estimates suggest that up to 400 million infections occur annually in over 100 endemic countries, putting half of the world’s…
Hepatitis: a case of see no evil hear no evil speak no evil.
What do Pamela Anderson the actor, and Billy Graham the wrestler have in common? A quick search on Wikipedia will show you they both are reported to have had hepatitis C. Pamela got it apparently by sharing a needle for a tattoo, Billy by exposure of blood during competitions. Evel Knievel the dare devil stuntman…
April 25th World Malaria Day: affordable medicines & artemisinin-based control
April 25th is World Malaria Day & there’s mixed news concerning the GlaxoSmithKline RTS,S vaccine: 65% of children vaccinated were protected in the 1st year, but protection declined to zero over the next 3 years so booster shots will be essential. Vaccine efficacy also declined faster in children who were more exposed to malaria than in those who had below-average exposure. Effectiveness is at the heart of the problem of malaria control. Oxfam’s report “Salt, Sugar And Malaria Pills” highlighted their concerns on the effectiveness of Global Fund's Affordable Medicines Facility for Malaria (focussed on increasing access to artemisinin-combination drugs).
Universal influenza vaccine is now a possibility..
Across my desk today at CABI, came the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and tucked away at the back in a section called “Clinical Implications of Basic Research” was “Stalking influenza diversity with a universal antibody” by Charles R. Russell (St Jude Children’s Hospital, Memphis). Here I learnt that an antibody has been isolated…