Copyright 2012 Medical News TodayLatest Health News and Medical News posted throughout the day, every day.http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/tropical_diseases/admin@medicalnewstoday.com (MNT Admin)editors@medicalnewstoday.com (MNT Editors)en-us Mon, 13 Feb 2012 02:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241571.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241571.phpFor roughly two thousand years, Chinese herbalists have treated Malaria using a root extract, commonly known as Chang Shan, from a type of hydrangea that grows in Tibet and Nepal. More recent studies suggest that halofuginone, a compound derived from this extract's bioactive ingredient, could be used to treat many autoimmune disorders as well...Tropical Diseases Mon, 13 Feb 2012 01:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241489.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241489.phpA study of almost 3,800 pregnancies has provided the most accurate and direct evidence to date that malaria infection reduces early foetal growth. Low birth weight is the most important risk factor for neonatal mortality in developing countries. The research, carried out on the border of Thailand and Myanmar (Burma), highlights the importance of preventing malaria in pregnancy...Tropical Diseases Fri, 10 Feb 2012 01:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241404.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241404.phpA species of mosquito has been discovered breeding in the UK that has not been seen in the country since 1945. Populations of the mosquito, found across mainland Europe and known only by its Latin name Culex modestus, were recorded at a number of sites in the marshes of north Kent and south Essex in 2010 and 2011...Tropical Diseases Wed, 08 Feb 2012 01:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241289.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241289.phpAs researchers work to eliminate malaria worldwide, new strategies are needed to find and treat individuals who have malaria, but show no signs of the disease...Tropical Diseases Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241250.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241250.phpThe great paradox of global health efforts is that regions of the world most plagued by poverty, poor infrastructure and rampant disease are often the most difficult to deliver care to...HIV / AIDS Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241173.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241173.phpResearchers at the University of Dundee have identified fexinidazole as a possible, much-needed, new treatment for the parasitic disease visceral leishmaniasis. Leishmaniasis is named after William Leishman, a Glasgwegian doctor serving with the British Army in India, who first identified the parasite in the early 1900s...Tropical Diseases Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241217.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241217.phpApproximately 1.2 million humans die each year from malaria, a much higher figure than the previously estimated 600,000, researchers from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, Seattle, USA, reported in The Lancet this week. The authors added that the majority of deaths occur in children under the age of 5 years, while 42% occur in adults and older children...Tropical Diseases Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241126.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241126.phpA new analysis of malaria mortality published in The Lancet this week suggests deaths to the parasitic disease worldwide have been grossly underestimated, especially in adults. If confirmed, the study has huge implications for how large amounts of charity money are spent in controlling the disease...Tropical Diseases Fri, 03 Feb 2012 01:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241091.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241091.php While genetically modified plants have already been introduced into the wild on a large scale in some parts of the world, the release of genetically modified animals is still at a relatively early stage...Tropical Diseases Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240996.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240996.phpIn this week's PLoS Medicine, Teun Bousema of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK and colleagues argue that targeting malaria "hotspots," small groups of households at a substantially increased risk of malaria transmission, is a highly efficient way to reduce malaria transmission at all levels of transmission intensity...Tropical Diseases Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240997.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240997.phpThe current issue of PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases presents a new collection of articles on the use of genetically modified (GM) insects for controlling some of the most widespread infectious diseases...Tropical Diseases Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240980.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240980.phpThe aim is to eliminate or at least control 10 neglected tropical diseases by 2020 - it is a public and private partnership, including 13 drug companies, the UK, US and United Arab Emirate Governments, the World Bank, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and some other worldwide organizations...Tropical Diseases Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240898.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240898.phpA team of biologists at the University of York has made an important advance in our understanding of the way cholera attacks the body. The discovery could help scientists target treatments for the globally significant intestinal disease which kills more than 100,000 people every year...Tropical Diseases Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240916.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240916.phpNew research by scientists at the University of Southampton could lead to the design of more effective drugs to combat malaria. The research will enable scientists to learn more about the nature of the enzymes required for vitamin biosynthesis by the malaria causing pathogen Plasmodium. Vitamins are essential nutrients required in small amounts, the lack of which leads to deficiencies...Tropical Diseases Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240891.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240891.phpA three-dimensional study of how enzymes in the malaria parasite Plasmodium synthesize essential vitamins, could help develop new drugs to combat the disease. Using electron microscopy, a team of scientists from Germany and the UK studied how the enzymes synthesize Vitamin B6, which has already been proposed as a target for new drugs...Tropical Diseases Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240784.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240784.phpThe parasite that causes malaria is a genetic outlier, which has prevented scientists from discovering the functions of most of its genes. Researchers at National Jewish Health and Yale University School of Medicine have devised a technique to overcome the genetic oddity of Plasmodium falciparum, the major cause of human malaria...Tropical Diseases Thu, 26 Jan 2012 02:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240774.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240774.phpResearch led by scientists at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine has exploited a revolutionary genetic technique to discover how human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) drugs target the parasite which causes the disease. The new knowledge could help lead to the development of better treatments for the tens of thousands of people in sub-Saharan Africa who are affected each year...Tropical Diseases Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240720.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240720.phpAccess to sanitation facilities, such as latrines, reduces by half the risk of becoming infected by parasitic worms that are transmitted via soil (soil-transmitted helminths) according to a study published in this week's PLoS Medicine...Tropical Diseases Tue, 24 Jan 2012 02:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240659.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240659.phpA new suite of malaria maps has revealed in unprecedented detail the current global pattern of the disease, allowing researchers to see how malaria has changed over a number of years...Tropical Diseases Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240615.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240615.phpA team of researchers led by Kasturi Haldar and Souvik Bhattacharjee of the University of Notre Dame's Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases has made a fundamental discovery in understanding how malaria parasites cause deadly disease. The researchers show how parasites target proteins to the surface of the red blood cell that enables sticking to and blocking blood vessels...Tropical Diseases Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240567.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240567.phpCarnegie Mellon University researchers have discovered that an element commonly found in nature might provide a way to neutralize the potentially lethal effects of a compound known as Shiga toxin. New results published in Science by Carnegie Mellon biologists Adam Linstedt and Somshuvra Mukhopadhyay show that manganese completely protects against Shiga toxicosis in animal models...Tropical Diseases Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240509.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240509.phpThe discovery by researchers from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of a molecule that is key to malaria's 'invisibility cloak' will help to better understand how the parasite causes disease and escapes from the defenses mounted by the immune system...Tropical Diseases Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240431.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240431.php The most effective anti-malaria drug can now be produced inexpensively and in large quantities. This means that it will be possible to provide medication for the 225 million malaria patients in developing countries at an affordable price...Tropical Diseases Wed, 18 Jan 2012 02:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240414.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240414.phpIn the event that a vaccine for the prevention of malaria is licensed and ready for use (such as the research malaria vaccine RTS,S, which currently looks promising), distributing and giving the vaccine to three-month old infants via the World Health Organization's Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) will be the most efficient mechanism in high transmission areas but for l...Tropical Diseases Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240406.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240406.phpFraudulent and substandard antimalarial drugs could be wrecking the chances of winning the war against malaria in Africa, researchers from the Wellcome Trust-Mahosot Hospital-Oxford University Tropical Medicine Research Collaboration reported in the Malaria Journal...Tropical Diseases