Essential Medicines News

“Deadly Disease Eliminated in Children Under Five Years of Age in Uganda,” GAVI Alliance Press Release, 10 March 2008.
Just five years after the introduction of the Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine, Hib meningitis has been practically eliminated in Ugandan children. Nearly 16.5 million doses of a pentavalent vaccine for Hib, as well as dipththeria, […]

Tomorrow, March 13, the Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs will hold a hearing on Child Survival and improving health in developing countries. The American Public Health Association’s Legislative Action Center has draft correspondence for congress.
You can write your senators and representatives here.
Also, in honor […]

“LSTM to Lead $30 Million Research Programme Into Malaria in Pregnancy,” Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine Press Release, 7 March 2008.
Every year 50 million women are exposed to malaria during pregnancy. To address this problem, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has donated $30 million over the next five years to the Liverpool […]

“Newly Developed Anti-Malarial Medicine Treats Toxoplasmosis,” University of Chicago Press Release, 5 March 2008.
A recent article in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases shows that an anti-malarial entering clinical trials appears to be 10 times more effective than the standard treatment for toxoplasmosis, a disease that affects nearly two billion people worldwide.
The drug, JPC-2056, […]

“Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, PATH To Open Vaccine Center To Expedite Malaria Vaccine Testing,” Kaisernetwork.org, 6 March 2008.
The PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) and the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute (SBRI) have plans to establish the Human Challenge Center to test the safety and efficacy of malaria vaccine candidates for human use. Ken Stuart, […]

Caroline Alphonso, “Protein May Lead to HIV Vaccine,” Globe and Mail, 4 March 2008.
A recent article, published in Nature Medicine, takes a look at the role of the protein, FOX03a, in the survival of memory cells in “elite controllers”, HIV-positive individuals who naturally maintain viral loads at or below the limits of infection. […]

“NIH Receives Gates Foundation Grant to Investigate Role of Iron Supplements in Malaria,” NIH News, 5 March 2008.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has allocated $9.3 million over the next five years to study iron deficiency and its interaction with malaria alongside the National Institutes of Health. Historically, iron supplements have been distributed to areas […]

“Brown Study: Schistosomiasis More Debilitating Than Estimated,” Brown University Public Release, 4 March 2008.
A recent paper published by PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases finds that the global disease impact of Schistosomiasis japonica, as calculated by Global Burden of Disease (GBD) disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), is grossly underestimated by current standards. Approximately 207 million people […]

Mun-Kaat Looi, “New Scheme Unites UK Scientists With Developing World,” SciDev.net, 4 March 2008.
Science for Humanity is a new non-profit organization based in the United Kingdom that hopes to link scientists, international development agencies, social enterprise and communities to create solutions for health problems of the developing world. Susan Greenfield, director of […]

“First Global Malaria Map in Decades Shows Reduced Risk,” University of Florida News, 26 February 2008.
Researchers at Oxford University, the Kenyan Medical Research Institute, and the University of Florida’s Emerging Pathogens Institute have released the first spatial map of global malaria risk in the past four decades in PLoS Medicine this week. The Malaria […]