MVP
For the people in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, a new meningitis vaccine offers hope of an escape from one of the world's deadliest, most disabling and infectious diseases.
So there is little wonder that the queues were enormous when a pilot project for the MenAfriVac vaccine got underway in the three West African countries in recent weeks.
Unlike most of the alternatives, this vaccine was created specifically for Africa.
More on this story here>>
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>>
Cancer advocates plan to broker deals with drug companies to get cheaper, more plentiful supplies of pain relief drugs to
patients in developing countries using models pioneered in the field of HIV/AIDS.
The plans form part of the Global Access to Pain Relief Initiative (GAPRI), a strategy launched at the World Cancer Congress, in China on 19 August. Led by the International Union Against Cancer (UICC), which represents 350 cancer charities including Cancer Research UK, GAPRI has the backing of organisations including the World Health Organization, the American Cancer Society, and the World Economic Forum.
GAPRI will tackle the lack of
access to strong opioid based pain relief. Today, a few rich nations,
including the UK and US, consume .......For more
Pain relief is often taken for granted in the Western world, but in about 150 countries the use of morphine is severely restricted. Tatum Anderson investigates how this has come about, and what steps are being taken to stop patients living and dying in extreme pain.
Dozens of recycled plastic mineral water bottles are filled with brightly coloured solutions. The bottles are full of oral morphine, colour coded for different strengths—green for the weakest, then pink, and blue for the strongest. Every day, teams of nurses take them to paediatric and cancer wards and patients living at home near Kampala, Uganda. To view the article click here.
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.
There is a river which runs through Goundry, a village in rural Burkina Faso, West Africa.
Actually it's more of a stream with lots of exposed riverbed even as the rainy season finishes. And among the still pools of mustard-coloured water, if you look closely enough, you can see the darting of tiny mosquito larvae.
See the rest of the story here .
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
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With several efforts underway to increase the local production of drugs in developing countries, Tatum Anderson assesses the pros and cons of manufacturing medicines in Africa
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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>>.
12 March 2010
Newborn babies have a pretty rotten chance of survival in developing countries. Each year more than 4 million babies die in teh first month, 2 million in the first week, and as many as 2 million die before they are a couple of days old. When the chances of survival are so proor, many motehres prefer not to name their babies until they have managed to live for a few weeks More>>.
With only five years to go, the millennium development goals to reduce maternal and child mortality remain a long way off target. Tatum Anderson looks at the problems. More>>
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>>
December 10th 2009
New clinics allow African researchers to test the latest drugs locally. But the logistical problems remain a challenge, writes Tatum Anderson.
Read the rest of the story on the Guardian Weekly website.
BBC News Interactive, June 24, 2009 | ||
Rip the top off a small sachet, the size of a hand, and inside is a delicious, creamy peanut goo that you suck from the packet. It is messy and delicious. And it has already saved the lives of countless children on the brink of death from starvation around the world. Inspired by a hazelnut chocolate spread eaten by children throughout Europe at breakfast time, these sachets are used to treat children suffering from severe acute malnutrition. They contain a high-energy food crammed with high-protein peanut, milk, sugar, oils and fortified with extra vitamins and minerals. The sachets have revolutionised emergency feeding in humanitarian emergencies because they can be eaten directly from the packet, do not require refrigeration or mixing with clean water - often in short supply - and can be stored for years More on BBC website>> . | ||
Jun 3, 2009, TropIKA.net
The brain drain is a term that fails to convey the staggering number of trained professionals who leave developing countries every year. In Africa, estimates in recent years have put the number at 20,000 annually. Ethiopia lost 75 per cent of its skilled workforce between 1980 and 1991.
Such a massive exodus of qualified Africans is widely seen as stifling both economic and human development. But an innovative strategy embarked upon by a research institution in the West African state of Mali has managed, at least in a small way, to reverse the tide.
The Malaria Research Training Centre (MRTC) runs a scheme, with international collaborators, that has created a critical mass of African scientists able to study malaria and provide evidence to influence control strategies in a country where malaria kills more children under five than any other disease. More on TropIKA.net.
TropIKA.net, May 6, 2009
The Grand Challenges in Global Health project, a research funding initiative that is worth almost half a billion dollars – is at a crossroads as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation decides its future.
Next year, funding for 43 projects that received US$436m in grants back in 2005, will finish. The grants were awarded to projects seeking to solve 14 of the greatest scientific hurdles in global health – dubbed the Grand Challenges – that might lead to advances in combating diseases of the developing world More>>
The Lancet, Volume 37, April 25, 2009
Swiss drug firm Novartis has been accused of abusing an award system designed to encourage innovation for diseases that mainly affect developing countries. Tatum Anderson reports. More>>
TropIKA.net, April 23, 2009
World Malaria Day this year marks a moment when the international community has intensified its battle against malaria. More>>
