Latest Leprosy Stories

NORCROSS, Ga., April 3, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- RayBiotech, Inc. announced today that the application of its Mouse Cytokine Antibody Array has enabled the identification of key factors involved in the dissemination of leprosy infection in humans. This seminal research was conducted by Dr. Anura Rambukkana and colleagues at the Medical Research Council Center for Regenerative Medicine, University of Edinburgh and the Rockefeller University in New York. In this study, Dr. Rambukkana's...

TOKYO, Jan. 25, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The Nippon Foundation held a launch ceremony in London on January 24 for the "Global Appeal 2013" designed end stigma and discrimination against people affected by leprosy, calling for the immediate abolition of laws and systems still discriminating against patients and recovered patients despite the fact that Hansen's disease has became curable. (Photo: http://prw.kyodonews.jp/opn/release/201301259538/) The Nippon Foundation Chairman Yohei...

Marking Progress in Advance of World Leprosy Day, Observed Jan. 27 SEATTLE and RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan. 24, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- IDRI (Infectious Disease Research Institute), in conjunction with OrangeLife, a Brazilian diagnostic company, today announces the registration of a rapid diagnostic test for leprosy, offering new hope for early diagnosis and treatment. The test was registered through ANVISA, Brazil's regulatory authority. (Logo:...

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online The German company that developed a drug which resulted in thousands of congenital birth defects in the 1950s and 1960s issued their first ever apology on Friday, but those impacted by the medication's side-effects say that the statement was too long in coming and fell short of making amends for the harm caused. The drug in question, a sedative known as thalidomide that was marketed as a treatment for morning sickness in pregnant...

Genetic variants in a region of the genome linked to our immune response have been linked to increased risk of podoconiosis, a disfiguring and disabling leg swelling caused by an abnormal reaction to the minerals found in soil. An estimated 4 million people worldwide suffer from the condition. In a study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Association of Physicians of Great Britain and Ireland compared the genomes of 194...

Finding may help develop new treatments for infectious diseases, cancer UCLA researchers pinpointed a new mechanism that potently activates T-cells, the group of white blood cells that play a major role in fighting infections. Published March 25 online in Nature Medicine, the team specifically studied how dendritic cells, immune cells located at the site of infection, become more specialized to fight the leprosy pathogen known as Mycobacterium leprae. Dendritic cells, like scouts in the...

Elimination campaign against ancient, yet prevalent disease, receives critical funding from RHSC Research and Data Institute SEATTLE, March 8, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Leprosy, otherwise referred to as Hansen's Disease, is one of the most ancient diseases known to humans. Although the World Health Organization declared leprosy to be under control in many previously endemic countries, most experts agree that current approaches to treating the disease are not sufficient to...