The structure of a key enzyme for infectious diseases solved at ESRF
A European team of scientists from the University of Dundee (UK), the Technical University of Munich (Germany) and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, ESRF, (France) have determined the structure of a key target enzyme for novel drug development to treat infectious diseases including malaria, tuberculosis and sexually transmitted... view more... (2003-08-12)
Poultry production in the Netherlands has to change
Poultry production in the Netherlands has to change for a prosperous future. This is a mutual task of poultry producers, consumers, governmental and non-governmental organisations, and knowledge institutions. The outbreak of avian influenza in the beginning of 2003 in the centre of the Netherlands made the urgency of change quite clear. This is... view more... (2003-07-22)
Tangerine Ruff 'n' Sniff: new clue to bird social behaviour
Scientists believe they have opened the door to an overlooked area of bird behaviour - the use of social scents. The basic assumption is that vision and hearing are the main senses that birds use to signal each other, e.g. the colour of plumage; the sound of birdsong. This is questioned by new experimental evidence observed in the Crested Auklet,... view more... (2003-05-12)
OXFORD BIOMEDICA - AGREEMENT WITH VIRAGEN INC RE. LICENCE TO LENTIVECTOR TECHNOLOGY
Oxford BioMedica announced that it has signed an option agreement with the US biotechnology company Viragen Inc that may lead to a licence for the use of Oxford BioMedica's LentiVector® gene transfer technology for the production of therapeutic proteins from the eggs of transgenic chickens. The attached announcement by Viragen provides more... view more... (2003-03-18)
New treatment option for children with cholera (p 1722)
Results of a study in this week's issue of THE LANCET suggest that the antibiotic azithromycin could be an effective treatment option for children with cholera. Cholera is a major public-health problem which is greatly under-reported; children are most affected by this bacterial disease which causes severe diarrhoea resulting in dehydration.... view more... (2002-11-22)
Childhood Mortality In Rural Senegal: A Significant Decline But Danger Of Resurgence Persists
The childhood death rate in sub-Saharan Africa is one of the highest in the world, in spite of a decline observed over the past few decades. This trend had been analysed for short selected periods, but the factors determining it over the long term are poorly known, owing to insufficient data. Demographic surveillance has been conducted in African... view more... (2002-09-27)
Climate and Cholera: an increasingly important link
A study by the coordinator of the Research Group on Climate at the Barcelona Science Park, University of Barcelona, Dr Xavier Rod'³, and other researchers at the University of Michigan and the International Center for Diarrhoeal Disease Research in Bangladesh, provides evidence not only that climatic variation associated with the El Ni'±o-Southern... view more... (2002-09-13)
What Happened on Easter Island? @ the London `Catastrophes` conference
Easter Island is exceptionally isolated in the South Pacific. When Europeans first visited the island in 1722 AD, they found a population of about 4000 Polynesians scratching a living among what appeared to be the ruins of a collapsed civilization. Stone figures weighing up to 80 tonnes littered the landscape and there were also numerous... view more... (2002-08-17)
From frog skin to human colon: rapid responses to steroid hormones
New research on steroid hormone action in the human colon and kidney could pave the way for novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of hypertension and diarrhoea. Prof Brian Harvey at University College Cork has been studying how the hormones oestrogen and aldosterone produce rapid changes in the transport of salt and water through human... view more... (2002-04-04)
Fresh Hopes For Treatment Of Malaria In Africa (p 1218)
Despite the large number of deaths caused worldwide by AIDS, tuberculosis, and diarrhoeal diseases such as cholera, the biggest infectious-disease killer is still malaria, especially in Africa. Efforts to eradicate the carrier of malaria, a mosquito, have been only partly successful. The standard treatment for malaria has, for many years, been... view more... (2001-10-10)
Targets identified for new cholera, diphtheria and typhoid drugs
Scientists from the University of Birmingham have identified dozens of new target proteins thought to be involved in the disease causing process in a range of bacterial infections. These proteins could make excellent targets for new treatments or vaccines against infections including cholera, diphtheria and typhoid, reports Professor Mark Pallen... view more... (2001-08-30)
Water testing device could save lives in developing countries
Young engineer Richard Brown has won a national award for an invention which could save lives in developing countries. Richard, 22, who graduated from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne earlier this year in Civil and Environmental Engineering, has created a simple device for testing whether water supplies contain dangerous levels of bacteria.... view more... (2000-10-06)
EL NIÃ'O: CAUSAL FACTOR OF CHOLERA IN BANGLADESH
A study by a climatologist of the Climate Research Group at the Barcelona Science Park and member of the Department of Ecology at Barcelona University, Xavier Rod'³, together with researchers at various universities in the United States and Great Britain provides evidence that the cholera epidemics in Bangladesh are favoured by meteorological... view more... (2000-09-06)
Starfish-shaped treatments for food poisoning
Embargoed until 19:00 GMT 9 February 2000 view more (2000-02-08)
More medicine is not necessarily good medicine
"It is intrinsic to training and experience in all branches of engineering that cost matters as well as effectiveness," says Feachem. "Not so in medicine. Doctors are trained to believe that the best interest of the patient is paramount and that cost is either not a consideration or a very subsidiary one." He believes this view... view more... (1999-12-10)
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