New drug being tested in Africa for river blindness

The World Health Organization reports that a clinical trial is being launched in three African countries of a drug that could eliminate onchocerciasis, or river blindness, one of the leading infectious causes of blindness across Africa. The drug, moxidectin, is being investigated for its potential to kill or sterilize the adult worms of Onchocerca volvulus, [...]

World Malaria Day – recognizing health progress and ongoing challenges

 World Malaria Day  (April 25) is a day of unified commemoration of the global effort to provide effective control of malaria around the world.  This year’s World Malaria Day marks a critical moment in time.  The international malaria community has merely two years to meet the 2010 targets of delivering effective and affordable protection and treatment [...]

WHO Releases new Tuberculosis Report

The World Health Organization released its’ thirteenth report on Tuberculosis control this week, which provides information and statistics related to the numbers of cases and numbers of deaths due to TB in 196 countries.   The report stresses the link between HIV and TB, suggesting that roughly 25% of people who died from TB in 2007 were [...]

Canadian researchers begin first phase of human trials in new TB vaccine; 11 other TB vaccines in various stages of research at facilities around the world

Tuberculosis, the world’s second deadliest infectious disease could finally meet its match in a new vaccine developed by researchers at McMaster University.  The new vaccine is at least five years away from broad use, if it can be shown to be safe, effective and practical to make and distribute — and if another team doesn’t [...]

Gates Foundation boosts fight against neglected tropical diseases

The Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases recently announced that it has received $34 million through a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the Sabin Vaccine Institute to step up the global effort to prevent and treat neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). These debilitating and sometimes deadly diseases affect 1.4 billion people worldwide [...]

Incentives for Research into Neglected Tropical Diseases

One of the many topics that have been discussed in the wake of the WHO’s intergovernmental working group on public health, innovation and intellectual property, is the issue of incentives for research into neglected tropical diseases.  Over the past decade, many public-private partnerships, government programs and other initiatives have fostered medical research into diseases primarily affecting developping countries [...]

Fighting neglected tropical diseases should be a priority for the G-8

As leaders of the G-8 met last week in Japan, the worldwide pharmaceutical industry joined the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) in calling on the G-8 to recognize the importance of neglected diseases as a global health threat and a major strain on the economic viability and educational [...]