Latest parasitic disease Stories

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have discovered that parasites hijack host-cell proteins to ensure their survival and proliferation, suggesting new ways to control the diseases they cause. The study, appearing this week online in Science, was led by Doron Greenbaum, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pharmacology in the Penn School of Medicine."Researchers can now develop ways to kill parasites by placing roadblocks in the path they use to destroy their victims," says Greenbaum. The...

CHULA VISTA, Calif., March 17 /PRNewswire/ -- A study by the Stanley Medical Research Institute and Johns Hopkins University Medical Center links Toxoplasma, a cat-borne parasite, to neurotic behavior in infected men and women. Between 25 and 50 percent of the world's human population - and 30 percent of the U.S. population - may be infected. Toxoplasma eggs are shed in an infected cat's feces and then passed to humans when changing cat litter, gardening and petting. In 2000, studies...

Hundreds of millions of people, mainly in developing countries, are disabled by infectious diseases, according to the World Health Organization.More than 12 million people in 88 countries are infected with leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease spread by the bite of infected sand flies. Nearly 2 million new cases are reported and about 70,000 people die from the disease annually.Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have discovered that compounds derived from a natural product can...