Tatum Anderson

Chowdhury champions constant learning, evaluation and innovation in research

Dr Mushtaque Chowdhury.

 

A three-finger pinch of salt, a fistful of gur – a sort of unrefined sugar or molasses – in half a litre of water; this simple concoction revolutionized the treatment of diarrhoea in Bangladeshi children in the 1980s.

Oral rehydration therapy (ORT), in its various guises, has since become a major tool in the armoury against the second leading cause of death among children under five globally. It has been described as potentially the most important medical advance of the 20th century [1].

That Bangladesh successfully introduced home-based ORT on such a large scale is in no small part down to research carried out by a modest, softly-spoken researcher called Dr Mushtaque Chowdhury. Nudged to acknowledge his achievements he says: “I am very proud that Bangladesh has the highest ORT use in the world. The research contribution in that is enormous”.

More at WHO's TropIKA.net here>>

EU research funding: a mixed blessing for global health scientists

TropIKA.net

Last month, the European Union (EU) published its largest ever call for proposals to fund research, amounting to over €6 billion (US$7.9bn).

The funding for 2011 health research projects draws on the €53 billion budget of the Seventh Framework Programme for research and technological development (FP7), the EU’s chief instrument for funding research over the period 2007 to 2013. FP7 is administered by the European Commission, the arm of the EU responsible for developing strategy and implementing policy.

For researchers whose focus is the infectious diseases of poverty and health systems, there is plenty of opportunity for funding, according to Dr Ruxandra Draghia-Akli, director of the health directorate within the Directorate General for Research, the Commission’s research department. For more>>

BIOTEC leads Thailand’s leapfrog towards self-sufficiency

If all goes well, the first malaria drug developed by Thai researchers could reach human clinical trials at the beginning of next year.

The drug, dubbed P218, is the product of research carried out by a group at BIOTEC, a research centre created by the Thai government to generate biotechnology innovations.

Although several international partners, including Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), Yale University, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Monash University in Australia, have been involved along the way, it was BIOTEC that conducted the initial research that has eventually allowed new drug candidates, such as P218, to be developed.

See the rest of the story here. 

Health workers need a taste of the community

 

Peter Ndumbe was working in London when the new HIV virus began to emerge in the early eighties. One of the multitude of scientists trying to understand the pathogen, he focused on hepatitis and its possible links to the new virus

 See the rest of the story here.

Dengue vaccine candidates show promise

here

Open source: the way forward in the search for new treatments for the infectious diseases of poverty?

17 March 2010

A collaboration, called the Open Source Drug Discovery Foundation (OSDD), plans to use voluntary and open efforts to accelerate the development of affordable drugs for diseases including malaria, leishmaniasis and – first – tuberculosis.

Few if any new drugs have been created for many of these diseases, because they disproportionately affect the poor and pharmaceutical companies say they would have little hope of recouping any investments in such drugs. TB kills around 1.6 million people a year but only a handful of drugs have been developed in decades more>>.

Health-related adaptation” to climate change seen as a low priority

TropIKA.net, 11 Dec 2009

Projects aimed at helping the world’s 48 poorest countries adapt to the health effects of climate change are few and far between, says the Global Environment Fund (GEF), the organisation set up to manage them under the United Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).More>>

Where is health on the climate change agenda?

TropIKA.net Dec 9, 2009

As the climate change conference kicks off in Copenhagen this week, is global health just a side issue? More....

Global Health Profiles 2009, TropIKA.net

04 December 2009

Africa needs a new generation of scientists

We talk with one of Africa's most highly regarded epidemiologists, Fred Binka, Dean of the University of Ghana's School of Public Health.
Read...

03 November 2009

Malaria in pregnancy: research must be stepped up

Professor Rose Gana Fomban Leke has spent most of her career looking at how malaria affects women. Read...

21 October 2009

Malaria research: "a way to contribute"

Dr Louis Miller is best known for establishing why many West Africans do not suffer from vivax malaria. He talks to TropIKA.net about promising new avenues for malaria research. Read...

30 September 2009

Meningitis in Africa: an affordable vaccine is on its way

Epidemics in Africa's meningitis belt claim many thousands of lives but, till now, vaccines have been designed for strains of the disease found in other parts of the world. Read...

08 September 2009

Boosting research capabilities in the South

Jimmy Whitworth, head of international activities at the Wellcome Trust, tells TropIKA.net of plans to boost research capabilities in the South.
Read...

30 July 2009

Malaria:"An unprecedented response"

Dr Awa-Marie Coll-Seck, executive director of the Rollback Malaria Partnership talks to TropIKA.net.
Read...

29 June 2009

Brian Greenwood: "Living in exciting times"

TropIKA.net talks to one of the best known specialists in the infectious diseases of poverty, focusing on his major contributions to malaria research and his work against meningitis and pneumonia.
Read...

10 June 2009

Tracking the spread of resistance to malaria drugs

Christopher Plowe of the University of Maryland, USA, talks to TropIKA.net about his work on molecular markers and on vaccine resistance.
Read...

03 June 2009

Beating the brain drain: West African research centre shows it can be done

TropIKA.net interviews Professor Ogobara Doumbo of the Malaria Research Training Centre, Mali.
Read...

06 May 2009

Grand Challenges project ready to enter its next phase

We speak to Michael Gottlieb, head of the Grand Challenges project at the Foundation for the US National Institutes of Health.
Read...

23 Apr 2009

Malaria research: putting African scientists on the front line

Professor Wen L Kilama talks to TropIKA.net about the work of the African Malaria Network Trust (AMANET).
Read...

29 Jan 2009

The company is committed to the development of new drugs for tuberculosis.

TropIKA.net interviews Larry Geiter and Charles Wells of Otsuka Pharmaceuticals
Read...

13 Jan 2009

Academia adopts pharma methods to create cheap drugs for neglected diseases

TropIKA.net interviews Professor Alan Fairlamb CBE.
Read...

TropIKA.net is a service provided by TDR  

Good Works

 

DFID, October 2009, Issue 47  

When development aid works, there’s no better investment. Tatum Anderson reports on five of the smartest kinds of aid. First up......

 

“1. EDUCATED GIRLS CHANGE WORLDS” For more>>

Evaluating diagnostics; Introducing evidence-based measures to an unregulated world

 

TDRnews Issue 83 June 2009

Rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) are an invaluable way to quickly and cheaply diagnose diseases in developing countries, where facilities to carry out traditional laboratory diagnosis may be few and far between. The tremendous growth in RDT products and the lack of regulatory oversight in developing countries have led to a proliferation of low-quality products, as well as uniformed or inappropriate use......This TDRnews special report examines the rapid diagnostics landscape – what has been achieved and what challenges lie ahead For more>>

Health Benefits

DFID, Issue 45, April 1, 2009

It’s not rocket science, it’s medical science: get medicines to people who are sick in the developing world and they will get better – and development will be accelerated. ‘Access to medicines’ is the mantra and the signs are encouraging, reports Tatum Anderson. For more>>

Public health initiative involves rural entrepreneurs: TDR evaluates free antimalarial distribution through CFW franchises

TDRnews May 2008

In central Kenya, where water-sodden rice fields thick with mosquitoes make malaria a daily fact of life, a new and innovative model of small franchise health clinics and drug distribution shops is offering poor people new possibilities to access good quality drugs and treatments at affordable prices. For more>>

COVER STORY The hunt for the next artemisinin: African researchers screen herbal remedies for drug discovery leads

 
TDRnews December 2007

Drugs derived from the ancient Chinese herb Artemisia annua may today be the most powerful weapon in the global war against malaria, but scientists are searching urgently for new drugs, given the possibility that, sooner or later, resistance to artemisinin may develop. For more>>