Posts Tagged ‘Hotez’

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Reading List 12/27/2010

December 27th, 2010

It is a cold and for some of you, a very snow Monday! I hope that today’s reading list will keep you company as you sip tea and try to keep warm. To start us off the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative has received 1.5 million dollars from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to work on control of the pork tapeworm in poor African communities. In an interesting article, low-income countries trying to keep tuberculosis (TB) under control may be able to seek help in rats trained to sniff out TB. Finally, TOMS Shoes gave out their 1 millionth pair of shoes last week, helping to protect kids from acquiring diseases such as hookworm.

The Schistosomiasis Control Initiative’s Next Target: Cysticercosis, Robert Herriman, the Examiner
Giant Rats Detect Tuberculosis, Nathan Seppa, Science News
Toms donates shoes to kids in Argentina, Michael Warren, Associate Press

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Diseases we can stop, but don’t

December 13th, 2010

Sabin President Dr. Peter Hotez wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times this past weekend. The editorial focuses on the effects of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) on women. Female genital schistosomiasis, for example, affects as many as 50 million African women causing painful ulcers, social stigma, and puts infected individuals at higher risk for contracting HIV/AIDS during sex. This disease is completely preventable through one-time annual drug administration of praziquantel. For individuals who are already infected, treatment for schistosomiasis is easily feasible and cost-effective, costing less than 1% of what we now pay for daily antiviral therapy through the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

The editorial also talks about hookworm and how it can cause low birth weight, stunting in children, and blood loss amongst pregnant women. The burden caused by these NTDs and others will hopefully be alleviated by the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health, a framework to reduce health-related mortality among women and children over the next four years.

Click here to read the op-ed in its entirety.

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Posted in hookworm, Maternal Health, NTDs

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Sabin Vaccine Institute Receives €5.9 Million from Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Advance Development of Human Hookworm Vaccine

December 8th, 2010

Sabin Vaccine Institute (Sabin) announced receipt of a four-year, €5.9 million grant from the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs to support the development of a vaccine to combat human hookworm infection.

Hookworm infection, an intestinal parasitic disease most commonly found in sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America, affects an estimated 600 million people.

» Read more: Sabin Vaccine Institute Receives €5.9 Million from Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Advance Development of Human Hookworm Vaccine

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Posted in Africa, Global Development, Global Health, hookworm, Latin America and the Caribbean, NTDs, poverty, Public Health

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Hookworms and Whipworms: Our Immune System’s Attachment to Parasites

December 6th, 2010

Rachel Nuwer, journalism student from New York University, recently wrote an article with commentary from Dr. Peter Hotez, President of the Sabin Vaccine Institute. The article is published on one of the university’s student-run webzines, Scienceline.org. The article discusses the pros and cons of helminthic therapy, which is a form of treatment based on the hygiene hypothesis – modern society’s obsession with cleanliness is depriving the body of its natural development of immune defenses. This therapy entails deliberately infesting the gut with parasites like hookworms and whipworms to treat disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease and allergies. Dr. Hotez states that use of such therapy is ineffective, and that “whipworm infection is actually the leading global cause of inflammatory bowel disease.”

Visit the Scienceline website to read the full article.

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Posted in hookworm, NTDs

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