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News Digest
The News Digest provides you with compelling stories about neglected diseases, published since the release of our previous newsletter in January 2016.
Heat shock protein appears to turn on Schistosoma invasion
Science Daily, 9 September 2016
A protein known for helping cells withstand stress may also act as a switch that triggers free-swimming Schistosoma larvae to begin penetrating the skin and transforming into the parasitic flatworms that burden more than 240 million people worldwide with schistosomiasis. Read more
Guinea worm, on the brink of eradication, puts up a surprisingly stubborn fight
STAT, 26 August, 2016
The eradication of Guinea worm, thought to have been within grasp, is now at least several years away because of a major setback in the North African country of Chad, according to global health experts and others. Read more
Busting the Billion-Dollar Myth: How to Slash the Cost of Drug Development
Scientific American, 24 August 2016
A nonprofit organization that creates new drugs for neglected diseases proves development doesn't have to cost a fortune. Can its model work more broadly? Read more
One drug for three killer diseases?
BBC News, 9 August 2016
One compound might be able to treat three neglected diseases: Chagas disease, leishmaniasis and sleeping sickness. The discovery, published in Nature, was made by testing three million compounds. These compounds were provided by Novartis, to find those that could kill multiple parasites in the laboratory Read more
Assessing the need for a schistosomiasis treatment database
TDR news item, 28 June 2016
A database of individual participant-level information could benefit schistosomiasis clinical research and treatment policies, according to a study published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases. Read more
Parasitic worms may hold key to cutting spread of HIV
Thomas Reuters Foundation News, 28 April 2016
Women are three times more likely to be infected with HIV if they have female genital schistosomiasis (FGS), studies carried out in Zimbabwe, Tanzania, South Africa and Mozambique have found. Read more
A recent review co-authored by Jutta Reinhard-Rupp from Merck supports the article, and highlights the need for more concerted action against this neglected gynaecological disease.