Recent News

By Region: Africa

A quick test for the Black Death

(EurekAlert) Diagnosing the presence of Yersinia pestis, the cause of plague, may soon be easier than ever before. Scientists working with Peter Seeberger, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (MPIKG) in Potsdam and Professor at the Freie Universität Berlin, have come up with a simple, inexpensive and reliable method of detecting Read More »

July 25, 2013
| Filed under Africa, Europe, North America, Biotechnology, and Research
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Does the dangerous new Middle East coronavirus have an African origin?

(EurekAlert) The MERS-coronavirus is regarded as a dangerous novel pathogen: Almost 50 people have died from infection with the virus since it was first discovered in 2012. To date all cases are connected with the Arabian peninsula. Scientists from the University Bonn (Germany) and South Africa have now detected a virus in the faeces of Read More »

July 25, 2013
| Filed under Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Middle East, North America, International, and Public Health
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Research leads to affordable technology to fight mosquito-borne diseases

(EurekAlert) Technology that hampers mosquitoes’ host-seeking behavior, identified at the University of California, Riverside in 2011, has led to the development of the world’s first product that blocks mosquitoes’ ability to efficiently detect carbon dioxide, their primary method of tracking human blood meals. The initial research was performed in the laboratory of Anandasankar Ray, an Read More »

July 17, 2013
| Filed under Africa, North America, South America, South Asia, Countermeasures, and Research
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New Infectious Diseases like MERS Remains a Major Threat

(Time) About a week and a half ago, I was lucky enough to be walking through San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park on a purely perfect northern California summer day. I was thinking what I usually think whenever I visit the Bay Area: “Why don’t I live here?” (The BART transit strike that began the next Read More »

July 10, 2013
| Filed under Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Middle East, North America, South America, Biosafety, and Countermeasures
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How cholera-causing bacteria respond to pressure

(EurekAlert) Cholera remains common in non-industrialized parts of the world today. It persists in part because V. cholera, the bacteria that causes the disease, is able to survive in diverse environments ranging from the intestinal lumen, to fresh water, to estuaries, to the sea. A study in The Journal of General Physiology provides new insights Read More »