Latest trypanosomiasis Stories
A safer and more effective treatment for 10 million people in developing countries who suffer from infections caused by trypanosome parasites could become a reality thanks to new research from Queen Mary, University of London published today (15 April).Scientists have uncovered the mechanisms behind a drug used to treat African sleeping sickness and Chagas disease, infections caused by trypanosome parasites which result in 60,000 deaths each year.The study, appearing in the Journal of...
Recent developments have rekindled hopes of eliminating human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), more familiarly known as sleeping sickness, as a public health problem in those areas of sub-Saharan Africa where the disease is endemic. In the February 2011 issue of the open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Simarro and colleagues at the WHO report in "The Human African Trypanosomiasis Control and Surveillance Programme of the World Health Organization 2000-2009: The Way...
Investigation of new drugs to treat parasitic diseaseUrgently-needed new treatment for a parasitic disease is being investigated in research led at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland.Human African Trypanosomiasis, also known as sleeping sickness, affects between 50,000 and 70,000 people in Africa and South America. It is transmitted through the bite of the tsetse fly and attacks the nervous system and brain, leading to fever, headaches and disturbed sleep patterns.Without...
A new bacterial species, found in the gut of the fly that transmits African sleeping sickness, could be engineered to kill the parasite that causes the disease. The study, published in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, could lead to new approaches to control this fatal infection that is becoming resistant to drug therapy.Scientists from IRD, the French Research Institute for Development in Montpellier, France isolated the novel bacterium from the midgut of...
A team of researchers from McGill/MUHC validates a novel screening tool in the fight against Chagas diseaseChagas disease is one of the most deadly parasitic diseases in the world. It affects more than 10 million people, primarily in the Americas. In South America alone it kills 50 000 people each year. A reliable and rapid diagnosis is the key in the battle against infection but until now, this has been next to impossible. Dr. Momar Ndao and his team at the Research Institute of the MUHC...
The northwards spread of human Rhodesian sleeping sickness in Uganda is likely due to the movement of infected livestock, according to new findings from an interdisciplinary research group including members from the Centre for Infectious Diseases, University of Edinburgh; the Ministry of Health, Uganda; and the Universities of Oxford and Southampton.The current study, published December 15 in the open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, provides evidence that the spatial...
Children infected by Chagas disease, endemic in 21 countries in Central and South America, will soon have access to a treatment tailored to their needs. As a result of the new partnership between Lafepe and DNDi, the first pediatric formulation of benznidazole will be made available to patients by the end of 2009. The drug will be sold at cost, with no profit to the institutions involved in its development, and will be available for distribution worldwide. Although benznidazole has been...
