Recent News

By Region: South Asia

Keeping a step ahead of parasites

(Hindustan Times) If infection-causing organisms were even half as dumb as the dodo, the world would have been free on infection several decades ago. It was not to be. These superbugs continue to cock a snook at scientific breakthroughs by evading destruction with an ease that makes scientists lose sleep and the world lose billions Read More »

July 16, 2012
| Filed under South Asia and Countermeasures
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Brazil To Combat Dengue Fever With Genetic Modified Mosquitoes

(Bernama) BRASILIA, Brazil said it will breed huge numbers of genetically modified mosquitoes to help stop the spread of dengue fever, an illness that has already struck nearly 500,000 people this year nationwide, killing 74. Dengue affects between 50 and 100 million people in the tropics and subtropics every year, causing fever, muscle and joint Read More »

July 12, 2012
| Filed under South America, South Asia, Countermeasures, and Public Health
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First it was smallpox, now tropical infection poised to become second human disease ever eradicated

(Daily Mail) Scientists are on the verge of killing off a parasite that had plagued the human race since ancient times. Cases of Guinea worm disease have fallen by 99 per cent from 3.5million cases in 1986 to 1,060 in 2011. The disease has affected the poorest communities in Africa and is now found in Read More »

July 11, 2012
| Filed under Africa, Europe, South Asia, and Public Health
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Jakarta and its public health issues

(Jakarta Post) Jakarta, with more than 10 million inhabitants, is one of the largest urban areas in the world. Of course, Jakarta has a lot of problems, and health care is one of them. Jakarta, despite having 341 community health centers (Puskesmas) and more than 4,000 integrated health service posts (Posyandu), is still battling preventable Read More »

July 10, 2012
| Filed under South Asia and Public Health
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Revised Estimate Increases Global H1N1 Mortality Figures by Factor of 15

(Center for Biosecurity of UPMC) The previously reported number of deaths due to laboratory-confirmed H1N1 (18,500) during the 16 months of the 2009-2010 pandemic (April 2009-August 2010)1 is widely acknowledged to be a gross underestimate because most flu patients were not tested. Evidence of this lack of data is that less than 12% of laboratory-confirmed Read More »