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Onchocerciasis Vaccine Research Funded by NIH, J&J to Share Molecular Library & Other NTD News

News roundup

This news roundup is a collection of headlines and other items on neglected tropical diseases, and does not reflect the work or the views of the Neglected Tropical Diseases Support Center.

The Carter Center and partners reached a milestone in 2016 as local health workers performed more trichiasis surgeries than in any previous year.

THE CARTER CENTER/YOUTUBE

 

Lymphatic filariasis
Onchocerciasis
Schistosomiasis
Soil-Transmitted Helminthiasis
Trachoma
Cross-cutting
Other
Zika

Lymphatic filariasis

The race to zero

Amy Kazmin
Financial Times
Household by household, person by person, an army of health workers is fighting to rid India of an ancient and disfiguring disease....Subhash Chandra Chaubey was 14 years old in 1981 when his right leg began to swell. At first the change was almost imperceptible but, in the years that followed, it grew bigger and more deformed. Today, his leg resembles an elephant’s, with thick skin and a bloated foot....“I am a burden,” says Chaubey, who is now 52. “No one wants to have me around.”

Kolaviron shows anti-proliferative effect and downregulation of vascular endothelial growth factor-C and toll like receptor-2...

Aliyu Muhammad et al.
Journal of Infection and Public Health
Blood were collected from consenting volunteers in Talata Mafara, Nigeria, between the hours of 10 pm to 12 am, and microscopically identified for microfilariae. W. bancrofti positive samples were cultured for 72 h treated with Doxycycline (2 μg/ml) and kolaviron (5 μg/ml) in vitro. Mitotic index, expression of vascular endothelial growth factor-C (VEGF-c), toll like receptor-2 (TLR-2) were determined using standard procedures. Mitotic index was significantly (P < 0.05) reduced in the kolaviron treated group compared to negative control. Kolaviron also significantly (P < 0.05) down regulated the expression of VEGF-c and TLR-2 when compared with the untreated group. In both cases, the effects of kolaviron was not significantly different (P < 0.05) to that of doxycycline.

Surveillance efforts after mass drug administration to validate elimination of lymphatic filariasis...

Fasihah Taleo et al.
Tropical Medicine and Health
Vanuatu has achieved validation of elimination of LF as a public health problem. Post-validation surveillance is still recommended especially in formerly highly endemic areas.

Government fights elephantiasis

Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation
A mass drug administration programme has been rolled out in Manicaland Province, with Chipinge being the first district in the province to administer the drug to prevent and control Lymphatic Filariasis, also known as elephantiasis...Chipinge Hospital Health Services Administrator, Bright Mukandi said the mass drug administration is a response to high elephantiasis cases, with the drug being given to all age groups in the district, while drugs for intestinal worms and bilharzia will target only the younger generation.

Sierra Leone Is On The Stage Of Eliminating Onchocerciasis And Lymphatic Filariasis

Kadrie Koroma
Sierra Express Media
The Programme Manager stated that as a result of the mass drugs administration, the incidence of neglected tropical diseases has reduced and the Committee set up would advise the Ministry on future diseases. Dr. [Yakuba] Bah said despite the successes, they are faced with many challenges including sustainability of surveillance, inadequate trained personnel for surveillance, vector control implementation, morbidity management and cross border, and internal migrations among others.

New modelling approach to identifying Loa loa prevalence

This Wormy World
To better quantify the burden of Loa loa infections in Western Africa, LASER's and CHICAS’s Emanuele Giorgi, together with colleagues from Lancaster University, have developed a new methodology to analyse the prevalence and intensity of infections in communities (measured by microfilia load per ml blood) alongside their spatial distribution.

Onchocerciasis

Major funding to advance world’s first river blindness vaccine

The Financial
Led by the New York Blood Center (NYBC) and funded by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a consortium of partners will continue their work on developing a prophylactic vaccine for the disease....Dr. Sara Lustigman, who is leading the project from NYBC, said: “New tools are desperately needed, particularly a prophylactic vaccine that will support the elimination of this disease rather than only controlling it by mass drug administration (MDA) with ivermectin, which reduces transmission but does not cure the disease.”

Schistosomiasis

Accuracy of parasitological and immunological tests for the screening of human schistosomiasis in immigrants and refugees...

Anna Beltrame et al.
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases
A retrospective study was conducted on 373 patients screened at the Centre for Tropical Diseases (CTD) in Negrar, Verona, Italy...The most interesting finding of our study is that a rapid diagnostic test for antibody detection in blood, easy to use as a point-of-care tool, resulted the most sensitive of the five tests evaluated, and thus is very promising as a screening tool even when used without any additional test.

Treatment of preschool children for schistosomiasis

Antonio Montresor and Amadou Garba
The Lancet Global Health
To reach the 2020 WHO target for schistosomiasis and to eliminate the disease, the treatment of all age groups is required. It will be essential to obtain a donation of praziquantel for adults in need and if preschool children will be included in the preventive chemotherapy targeted group, the new formulation for their treatment must be available free of charge.

Soil-Transmitted Helminthiasis

The importance of patient compliance in repeated rounds of MDA for the elimination of intestinal helminth transmission

Sam H. Farrell, James E. Truscott and Roy M. Anderson
Parasites & Vectors
We discuss the implications of our findings for the prioritisation of resources in [mass drug administration, or] MDA programmes and for monitoring and evaluation programme design. The key message generated by the analyses is that great care must be taken to record individual longitudinal patterns of compliance at each round of MDA as opposed to just recording overall coverage.

Trachoma

Serology reflects a decline in the prevalence of trachoma in two regions of The Gambia

Stephanie J. Migchelsen et al.
bioRxiv
In 2014, a population-based cross-sectional study was performed in two previously trachoma-endemic areas of The Gambia...Reversible catalytic models using information on age-specific seroprevalence demonstrated a decrease in the transmission of Ct infection in both regions, possibly reflecting the impact of improved access to water, health and sanitation as well as mass drug administration campaigns. Serological testing for antibodies to Ct antigens is potentially useful for trachoma programmes, but consideration should be given to the co-endemicity of sexually transmitted Ct infections.

This Eye Infection Blinds Someone Every 15 Minutes, And Women Are Hit Hardest

Hannah McNeish
The Huffington Post
Though the disease causes irreversible blindness, it is fully preventable and treatable with antibiotics or, in more severe cases, surgery performed under local anesthetic. In areas like the one where Chepserum lives, however, surgery isn’t always available. Though awareness of the disease is growing, there may not be doctors in remote villages who can tell sufferers how to care for their trachoma.

Lions Club sets ambitions on total elimination of trachoma

PML Daily
The Lions Clubs of Uganda raised own bar on the fight against trachoma higher, now targeting total elimination of the eye disease in the country. In partnership with the Government, the Lions Clubs of Uganda says its objective has since changed from reducing the backlog of blinding trachoma case from Busoga and Karamoja by 65% to eliminating the disease from Uganda by 2020.

Cross-cutting

Johnson & Johnson Innovation Announces New Collaborations Advancing Ground-Breaking Biomedical Innovation Around the Globe

Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC
PR Newswire
As part of the Johnson & Johnson global public health commitment, Janssen Pharmaceutica NV (Jannsen) has established collaboration agreements with the goal of accelerating the discovery of new treatments for tuberculosis, malaria, neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and other diseases prevalent in the developing world. Through WIPO Re:Search, the international research consortium led by the non-profit BIO Ventures for Global Health (BVGH) and the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Janssen has opened segments of its molecule library – containing a set of 80,000 diverse, high-quality chemical compounds – to the global research community to enable collaborators to identify and advance promising drug candidates.

Ensuring the Vital Role of Sanitation in Disease Prevention

Saskia v. Popescu
Contagion Live
The number of deaths that occur every year because of some of these ailments is astounding—1.4 million deaths are due to diarrhea alone. Trachoma is the leading infectious cause of blindness in the world, leaving 1.2 million irreversibly blind, and roughly 142 million children have stunted growth around the world. Over 1 billion individuals are at risk for STH infections, which are the result of parasite nematodes that spread through fecal contamination. Despite sanitation being a primary barrier for most of these illnesses, 2.4 billion individuals lack the most basic access to adequate sanitation, such as pit latrines.

Blood feeding on “Investigator’s arms” reveals the role of light in suppressing mosquito blood feeding

Samuel S.C. Rund
BugBitten
Researchers from the University of Notre Dame University, USA, acted as food for mosquitoes during experiments which shed light on the effect of manipulating light exposure on blood feeding behaviour.

World Refugee Day: Reaching refugees crucial in the fight to eliminate neglected tropical diseases

Scott McPherson
International Coalition for Trachoma Control
Neglected tropical diseases, or NTDs, are not the first things that usually come to mind when thinking about the challenges faced by refugees seeking safety and security. In fact, until recently, little has been known about NTD prevalence among refugee populations, which should be surprising given that many NTDs are known to disproportionately affect poor and marginalized populations.

Health Communication with Immigrants, Refugees, and Migrant Workers: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine
The Roundtable on Health Literacy of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop focused on facilitating health communication with people from immigrant, refugee, and migrant worker populations...Presentations and panel discussions explored issues of access and services for these populations as well as outreach and action.

Sightsavers advocacy advisor asks governments to live up to commitments on disability inclusion

Sightsavers
Sightsavers Global Advocacy Advisor Gertrude Oforiwa Fefoame has called on governments to honor the commitments they have made on the rights of people with disabilities. She made the call in her speech at the closing of the 10th annual Conference of States Parties to the UN Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) on 15 June at UN headquarters in New York.

Philanthropy can eliminate neglected diseases

Bill Campbell
Alliance
Giving away money is hard work. Or at least it should be. Having spent 30 years leading businesses at JP Morgan Chase and Visa, I’ve picked up some habits that are hard to break in terms of looking for the best returns on capital invested.

What Could U.S. Budget Cuts Mean for Global Health?

Jen Kates, Adam Wexler, Josh Michaud and John Stover
The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation
President Trump’s FY 18 budget request to Congress includes unprecedented cuts to global health. If enacted, they would total approximately $2.5 billion and bring funding below FY 08 levels...Based on our models, the potential health impacts of these one-year cuts is significant across all three budget scenarios.

Climate Change Pushing Tropical Diseases Toward Arctic

Craig Welch
National Geographic
Changes in precipitation, wind, or heat are shifting the threat posed by other human illnesses, from cholera to a rare freshwater brain-eating amoeba to rodent-driven infections like hantavirus. And the importance of all these changes are only growing more significant. "Probably almost everybody is going to feel this at some point in their life," says Stanley Maloy, a microbiologist and dean of the College of Sciences at San Diego State University. "It may be transmission of a mosquito-borne disease in a place it didn't used to be. It may be a simple case of salmonella. But it's going to affect us all."

Welcome to OpenWHO

World Health Organization
OpenWHO is WHO’s new interactive, web-based, knowledge-transfer platform offering online courses to improve the response to health emergencies. OpenWHO enables the Organization and its key partners to transfer life-saving knowledge to large numbers of frontline responders.

Other

WHO names venomous snakebite a top health priority

Allison Vuchnich and Veronica Tang
Global News
It's estimated that at least five million people around the world are bitten by venomous snakes every year. After pressure from international organizations the World Health Organization has listed venomous snake bites as a priority neglected tropical disease.

Podoconiosis Is the Diagnosis

M.J. Friedrich
JAMA
An uptick in foot and leg deformities thought to be caused by elephantiasis in western Uganda was actually the result of podoconiosis, a noninfectious form of elephantiasis that is caused by walking barefoot in volcanic soils, report a team of Ugandan researchers.

Inadequate funding affecting buruli ulcer fight – NGO

Mashoud Kombat
Citi 97.3FM
Participants at an Inception Workshop on Buruli Ulcer (BU) and Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) in Ghana have identified inadequate funding from government and stakeholders in the health sector as the bane for effective and efficient combat of the diseases in some parts of the country. The glaring lack of support according to them is affecting efficient healthcare delivery in the communities with its resultant consequence on quality human resource needed for socio-economic development of the nation.

UW-led scientists ‘closing the gap’ on malaria in India

James Urton
UW Today
The National Institutes of Health has renewed a major grant that funds a University of Washington-led research center to understand malaria in India. The initiative — Malaria Evolution in South Asia, which was first funded in 2010 — is one of 10 NIH-supported International Centers of Excellence for Malaria Research, or ICEMRs. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases announced that it would provide $9.3 million in funds to the South Asia ICEMR over the next seven years, beginning July 1, 2017.

Refugees and Malaria

Bill Brieger
Tropical Health Matters
Many of today’s refugees are located in malaria endemic areas of the world, and movement from familiar areas to uncertainly increases refugees’ exposure to malaria. As the Roll Back Malaria Partnership noted, “exposure to malaria is significantly increased when moving from low- to high- transmission areas, because they have no acquired immunity and frequently little knowledge of malaria prevention or treatment.”

Nigeria to Witness More Malaria Cases As Mosquitoes Develop Resistance

Gabriel Olawale and Adeshina Oluwaseyi
Vanguard
The Nigeria Institute of Medical Research, NIMR, has raised alarm over the increasing incidence of mosquito resistance to Long Lasting Insecticide Nets, LLINs, in 18 states of the federation, even as over 50 million Nigerians still test positive to malaria annually. In a new report released, yesterday, by the institute, it was revealed that Lagos, Ogun and Niger states have the highest incidence of resistance cases.

GAVI: Nigeria Has Highest Number of Under-immunised Children Globally

This Day
Nigeria has the highest number of under-immunised children in the world, displacing India with over one billion population which hitherto occupied the rather uninspiring spot, according to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisations (GAVI)... “India, over the last three years, improved its coverage dramatically and now Nigeria has that unenviable position,” he said, and pledged GAVI’s assistance to work with Nigeria to turn things around.

Ebola virus disease contact tracing activities, lessons learned and best practices during the Duport Road outbreak...

Caitlin M. Wolfe et al.
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases
The Duport Road [Ebola Virus Disease, or] EVD cluster was promptly controlled. Missing contacts were effectively identified, and identified contacts were effectively monitored and rapidly tested. There is a persistent risk of EVD reemergence in Liberia; the experience controlling each cluster can help inform future Ebola control efforts in Liberia and elsewhere.

The Upside of Bad Genes

Moises Velasquez-Manoff
The New York Times
We in the developed world don't inhabit an environment rife with malaria and TB anymore. We have drugs to protect us when infection strikes...The problem, Dr. [Jennifer] Doudna points out, is that new pathogens for which we don't have cures continue to emerge – like H.I.V. and SARS and drug-resistant variants of TB. In fact, as the world has become more crowded and interconnected, the emergence of new pathogens has accelerated. Those "bad" gene variants might still come in handy, she says.

Zika

Updated CDC map shows 21% increase in US counties reporting mosquito that transmits Zika

Healio
Last year, with the Western Hemisphere in the grip of a surprising Zika virus epidemic, CDC researchers used a survey to compile a list of U.S. counties where the mosquito at the heart of the epidemic, Aedes aegypti, had been documented over the past 21 years. They also documented counties that reported finding another mosquito, A. albopictus, known to transmit chikungunya and dengue viruses. The researchers said their data could be used to guide surveillance and mosquito control efforts across the country. This week, the same researchers from the CDC’s Division of Vector-Borne Diseases released updated findings from the project that showed an increase in the number of counties reporting the mosquitoes, including a 21% increase in counties with A. aegypti.

Zika virus evolution and spread in the Americas

H.C. Metsky et al.
Nature
We find that ZIKV circulated undetected in multiple regions for many months before the first locally transmitted cases were confirmed, highlighting the importance of viral surveillance. We identify mutations with possible functional implications for ZIKV biology and pathogenesis, as well as those that might be relevant to the effectiveness of diagnostic tests.

Miami Wasted Thousands on Untested Pesticide That Didn't Kill Zika Mosquitos

Jerry Iannelli
Miami New Times
When the Zika virus struck last year, Miami-Dade County Mosquito Control immediately began fogging with three pesticides: BTI, a group of bacteria that kills mosquito larvae; naled, a controversial chemical compound banned in Europe over links to developmental disorders in children; and permethrin, the active ingredient in home bug-killers such as Raid. Permethrin was sprayed at least seven times in Wynwood and five times in Miami Beach, but by the end of August, the county realized the poison had little effect and stopped using it.

Six pregnant women in Harris County test positive for Zika

Todd Ackerman
Houston Chronicle
Six pregnant women in Harris County have tested positive for Zika, the first cases of the mosquito-borne disease to be reported locally in 2017. All of the women have since delivered their babies, but it is not yet known if any of the children were born with the birth defects that can be caused by the virus, said a spokesman for Legacy Community Health, a southeast Texas network of clinics where the women were initially tested.

Upcoming Events

Global Health Focus: Repurposing for Rare Diseases and Orphan Drug Development
June 27-28, 2017
The 6th Annual Drug Repositioning, Repurposing and Rescue Conference
Featured Presentation: Lead Repurposing as an Effective Approach for Neglected Tropical Disease Drug Discovery

European Congress of Epidemiology
July 4-6, Lyon, France
International Epidemiological Association
The European Congress of Epidemiology 2018, titled Crises, Epidemiological transitions and the role of epidemiologists, will take place on July 4-6 2018 in Lyon, France.

Annual General Scientific Meeting
July 17-21, Asaba, Nigeria
West African College of Physicians
THEME:Universal Access to Health; A Basic Necessity for Attainment of the SDGs; SUB-THEME: Building Sustainable Health Care Leadership for SDG Goal 3; CONFERENCE WORKSHOP TOPIC: Quality of Health Care

Advanced Residential Course on Poverty-Related and Neglected Tropical Diseases
July 17-August 4, Pemba Island, Zanzibar
Ivo de Carneri
The Course is addressed to professionals active or interested in public health, with diverse cultural and scientific background and competence. The Course is a practical opportunity to acquire a solid knowledge and a critical understanding on PR&NTD, thanks to the expertise of a high quality teaching team made of African and European lecturers with firsthand experience in the domain.

IEA 2017 World Congress of Epidemiology
August 19-22, Saitama, Japan
International Epidemiological Association
Following the 20th WCE in Anchorage in 2014, we believe to provide opportunities to exchange information about the development of epidemiology in all the fields and to strengthen the relationship among epidemiologists in the world. The main theme is “Global/Regional/Local Health and Epidemiology in a Changing World”, which is appropriate one for discussing the 3-year development of epidemiology from 2014 through 2017.

Neglected Diseases in South East Asia: Building Capacity in Epidemiological Modelling
August 28-September 1, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
University of Malaya
Southeast Asia countries face common threats from infections, including neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and neglected zoonotic diseases (NZDs) that particularly affect marginalized communities―the most vulnerable to exposure and least able to seek treatment. Understanding the transmission and control of infectious diseases can be aided by mathematical modelling, helping to predict disease outbreaks, quantify intervention impact, estimate economic and health-care burdens, and inform cost-effective public health strategies. This workshop will introduce participants to topics from bacterial & viral to helminth NTDs and NZDs through series of lectures and practicals followed by group discussions and Q&A sessions, addressing: a) basic models for vector-borne diseases; b) infection intensity frameworks for helminth infections, and c) models for zoonotic infections.

World Vaccine Congress India
September 19-20, Mumbai, India
Join us at the World Vaccine Congress India this September 19-20 in Mumbai, the latest addition to our global vaccines series, encompassing the World Vaccine Congress Washington and the World Vaccine Congress Europe. With an 18-year heritage, World Vaccine Congress events are annual gatherings of vaccine biopharma companies, from very senior executives to researchers, scientists and engineers, to discuss strategies to overcome vaccine development challenges. 

International Workshop on Disease Mapping in Low-resource Settings
September 14-15, Lancashire, England
Lancaster University
Hosted by Lancaster University on 14 - 15 September 2017, the multidisciplinary workshop will bring together international statistics and epidemiology experts to discuss the mapping of a wide range of diseases including neglected tropical diseases and malaria. 

The multidisciplinarity of parasitology: host-parasite evolution and control in an ever changing world
September 28, London, UK
British Society of Parasitology
The meeting’s aim will be to explore and broadly discuss recent progress towards understanding host-parasite relationships, with a particular emphasis on vectors and intermediate hosts of human diseases.  The meeting will also be a convenient opportunity to develop a festschrift in Parasitology in honour of Prof David Rollinson (a former President of the BSP), marking over forty years of parasitological research.

NNN Conference 2017
September 28-30, Dakar, Senegal
Neglected Tropical Disease NGO Network
NNN hosts its 2017 annual conference in Dakar, Senegal. More information to follow.

Women Leaders in Global Health
October 12, Stanford, CA
Women in Global Health
Women in Global Health is pleased to partner with Stanford University's Center for Innovation in Global Health to present the Women Leaders in Global Health Conference this October 12th, 2017. Registration is now open for this inaugural event. The conference builds on the global movement to press for gender equity in global health leadership by celebrating great works of emerging and established women in the field and cultivating the next generation of women leaders.

ASTMH 66th Annual Meeting
November 5-9, Baltimore, Maryland
American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
The ASTMH Annual Meeting draws tropical medicine and global health professionals representing academia, government, non-profits, philanthropy, NGOs, industry, military and private practice. The meeting is designed for researchers, professors, government and public health officials, military personnel, travel clinic physicians, practicing physicians in tropical medicine, students and all health care providers working in the fields of tropical medicine, hygiene and global health. 

Swedish-Ethiopian Course in Tropical Infections
November 13, 2017 - February 11, 2018, Stockholm, Sweden
Karolinska University Hospital
This is a course in clinical tropical medicine and HIV for clinicians. The overall aim is to provide general knowledge about infectious diseases which require or thrive in a warm climate and / or are important causes of morbidity and mortality in low-income countries. The focus is on diagnosis and treatment both in situations with scarce resources and in more affluent countries. The field visit to Ethiopia gives the participants a unique experience of the health system and infectious disease panorama in a developing country.

World Vaccine & Immunotherapy Congress West Coast
November 30 - December 1, San Diego, CA
Following on from the highly successful World Vaccine Congress series in Washington DC and Europe for the past 18 years, the San Diego event will offer learning and business development opportunities taking advantage of the rich biotech and funding environment that the west coast offers.

Eradicate Malaria World Congress 2018
February 18, 2018, Melbourne, Australia
The inaugural World Congress on Malaria - Eradicate Malaria 2018 - will bring together the broad global community including implementers, scientists, funders, governments, policy makers and those directly affected by the disease. The aim is to bring the broad spectrum of the malaria world together for the first time, to further galvanise the effort for the eradication of malaria.

World Vaccine Washington
April 3-5, 2018, Washington, DC
Make sure you are at the forefront of the vaccines industry. No matter where your interest lies, we have content, networking and potential partners for you. By bringing eight events together under one roof, you get to choose the sessions which are the most applicable to help your business plan for the future of vaccine research, development and manufacture.

Multilateral Initiative on Malaria 
April 15-18, 2018, Dakar, Senegal
The Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) was established in 1997 with a mission to strengthen and sustain through collaborative research and training, the capacity of malaria-endemic countries in Africa to carry out research that is required to develop and improve tools for malaria control and to strengthen the research-control interphase.