EurekAlert! InContext Modules

Public Release: 11-Feb-2013

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Unchecked antibiotic use in animals may affect global human health
The increasing production and use of antibiotics, about half of which is used in animal production, is mirrored by the growing number of antibiotic resistance genes, or ARGs, effectively reducing antibiotics' ability to fend off diseases -- in animals and humans.

Public Release: 8-Feb-2013

Genetics
Combining plasma screening methods better identifies diagnostic and therapeutic targets
For the first time, scientists have combined genomic and proteomic analysis of blood plasma to enhance identification of genetically regulated protein traits. This could be applied to any large association study of civilization diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease or cancer, where blood plasma has been collected. This method could vastly improve a clinician's ability to identify disease susceptibility in individuals and populations.

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

Public Release: 7-Feb-2013

Interface
Surveillance system can identify and track emerging infectious diseases
A team of researchers developed a method to identify the cause of infectious disease outbreaks based on online reports about the symptoms, the season, and the ratio of cases to fatalities. Using data from the Internet outbreak reporting system ProMED-mail, the researchers applied this method to more than 100 outbreaks of encephalitis in South Asia, recently identified as an emerging infectious disease "hotspot," to determine which of 10 infectious diseases was causing symptoms of encephalitis

United States Agency for International Development

Public Release: 7-Feb-2013
First anti-tuberculosis medicine under USAID-supported PQM program achieves WHO prequalification
Helping to increase the availability of affordable, high-quality medicines to treat patients worldwide suffering from multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, technical assistance provided at no cost to manufacturers under the Promoting the Quality of Medicines program -- a U.S. Agency for International Development-funded program that is implemented by the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention -- has yielded its first anti-tuberculosis medicine to achieve prequalification status from the World Health Organization.

Public Release: 7-Feb-2013

Lancet Infectious Diseases
New study highlights Chagas disease as a growing health and socio-economic challenge
Today, The Lancet Infectious Diseases published a new report that examines the global economic burden of Chagas disease. In the first study of its kind, researchers measured the health and economic impact of Chagas disease and found that the total economic burden of Chagas disease matches or exceeds that of many more well-known diseases such as rotavirus, Lyme disease and cervical cancer.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study

Public Release: 6-Feb-2013
Has the 'Golden Age' of global health funding come to an end?
Despite dire predictions in the wake of the economic crisis, donations to health projects in developing countries appear to be holding steady, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. After reaching a historic high of $28.2 billion in 2010, development assistance for health dropped in 2011.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Public Release: 6-Feb-2013

New England Journal of Medicine
Antibiotic cream has high cure rate, few side effects in treating cutaneous leishmaniasis
An international collaboration of researchers from the US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, Tunisia and France has demonstrated a high cure rate and remarkably few side effects in treating patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) with an investigational antibiotic cream. CL is a parasitic disease that causes disfiguring lesions, with 350 million people at risk worldwide and 1.5 million new cases annually. The results were published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command

Public Release: 5-Feb-2013
Human bacteria sequencing project involving CU raises $340,000 online
In hopes of better understanding nutrition and health, the University of Colorado Boulder is playing the leading science role in a "crowdfunding" effort that has raised more than $340,000 for a project designed to sequence the gut bacteria of thousands of people around the world.

American Gut Project

Public Release: 5-Feb-2013

Cell Metabolism
Scientists discover protein that allows safe recycling of iron from old red blood cells
Scientists have long hypothesized that our bodies must have a special protein 'container' for transporting heme -- the form of iron found in living things -- during the breakdown and recycling of old red cells and other types of heme metabolism. Now a research team led by scientists from the University of Maryland have identified this long-sought heme-iron transporter and shown that it is the same HRG1 protein found in a common microscopic worm.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 4-Feb-2013

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Injection-free vaccination technique could address global vaccine challenge for HIV, malaria
Scientists at King's College London have demonstrated the ability to deliver a dried live vaccine to the skin without a traditional needle, and shown for the first time that this technique is powerful enough to enable specialized immune cells in the skin to kick-start the immunizing properties of the vaccine.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Public Release: 1-Feb-2013

The FASEB Journal
Genetically modified tobacco plants produce antibodies to treat rabies
Smoking tobacco is bad for your health, but a genetically altered version of the plant might provide an inexpensive cure for the deadly rabies virus. In a new report in The FASEB Journal, scientists produced a monoclonal antibody in transgenic tobacco plants shown to neutralize the rabies virus. This antibody works by preventing the virus from attaching to nerve endings around the bite site and keeping the virus from traveling to the brain.

Public Release: 31-Jan-2013

PLOS ONE
UCSB anthropologists study effects of modernization on physical activity and heart disease
Heart disease continues to be the leading cause of death in the United States, and a sedentary lifestyle is often cited as a major contributing factor. Among the Tsimane, an indigenous population in the lowlands of Bolivia's Amazon basin, however, indicators of heart disease are practically non-existent –– cholesterol is low, obesity is rare, and smoking is uncommon.

Public Release: 31-Jan-2013

PLOS Pathogens
Placental blood flow can influence malaria during pregnancy
Malaria in pregnancy causes a range of adverse effects, including abortions and stillbirths. In the latest issue of the journal PLOS Pathogen, researchers from the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Portugal, observed, for the first time, the mouse placental circulation and showed how it can influence the malaria parasite behavior and infection. Their results indicate a higher accumulation of parasites in placental regions with low blood flow, being these areas more prone to an inflammatory response.

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia

Public Release: 31-Jan-2013

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases
African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control 1995-2015: Model-estimated health impact and cost
A relatively inexpensive program set up to combat river blindness has resulted in major health improvements in Africa, shows a study conducted by Erasmus University Medical Center researchers. The study, due to be published Jan. 31 in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, shows that US $250 million helped cure or prevent the major symptoms of onchocerciasis in millions of people. In collaboration with the Management of the African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC), the researchers calculated the health impact of APOC.