New test will combat major cause of preventable blindness in Africa
A new test will accelerate global progress toward eliminating onchocerciasis, a leading cause of preventable blindness in Africa. PATH, an international nonprofit health organization, today announced...
View ArticleRapid Ebola test is focus of NIH grant to Rutgers scientist
Rutgers researcher David Alland, working with the California biotechnology company Cepheid, has received a grant of nearly $640,000 from the National Institutes of Health to develop a rapid test to...
View ArticleForgotten bacterium is the cause of many severe sore throats in young adults
New research from the University of Alabama at Birmingham suggests that Fusobacterium necrophorum more often causes severe sore throats in young adults than streptococcus—the cause of the much better...
View ArticleWHO gives green light to 15-minute Ebola test
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced Friday it had approved a 15-minute test for Ebola that should prove a fast and rugged tool in countries hit by the disease.
View ArticleUTMB collaboration results in rapid Ebola test
University of Texas Medical Branch researchers who helped assess the effectiveness of a new rapid test kit to diagnose Ebola learned this week it has received emergency use authorization from the Food...
View ArticlePhysician discusses new score for predicting Ebola risk
Dr. Adam Levine spent last fall fighting Ebola in Bong County, Liberia. Using data from there, he and several co-authors have calculated a simple, sensitive, and specific score for triaging a patient's...
View ArticleTurn in Ebola outbreak on horizon, but faster tests needed: WHO
The World Health Organization voiced hope Tuesday the number of Ebola cases would start falling sharply early next year, stressing the need to develop rapid diagnostic tests for the end-phase.
View ArticleEU partners with pharmaceutical industry to fight Ebola
The EU will partner with the European pharmaceutical industry to finance 215 million euros in research projects to fight Ebola, mainly to develop vaccines and diagnostic tests, it announced Friday.
View ArticleUN sees uphill malaria fight despite 'phenomenal' success
Malaria still claims nearly 600,000 lives a year, the UN said Thursday, urging further action to boost recent strides in combatting the disease.
View ArticleMalaria testing yet to reach its potential
In a study published this month in Malaria Journal, researchers from Uppsala University and other institutions present a new model for systematically evaluating new malaria treatment programs in...
View ArticleLAMP Diagnostics—the key to malaria elimination?
Malaria elimination is possible within a generation. But controlling malaria and eliminating malaria are different, and each pose certain challenges. Overcoming the unique challenges of malaria...
View ArticleNew study verifies accuracy of rapid Ebola test
A new finger prick rapid Ebola test co-developed by Tulane University researchers is as accurate as traditional lab testing for the disease, according to an independent study published in the British...
View ArticleTesting for malaria reduces overprescription by more than 70 percent
Using malaria rapid diagnostic tests in registered drug shops in a highly endemic region in Uganda substantially reduced overdiagnosis of malaria, improving the use of valuable malaria drugs, according...
View ArticleRapid Ebola test could play key role in efforts to end lingering outbreak
Research presented at the 2015 AACC Annual Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo will expand on the studies that led to a fingerprick Ebola test becoming the first and only rapid diagnostic for this disease...
View ArticleHealth workers wasting expensive malaria drugs in Nigeria
Health providers trained to perform malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDT) are still prescribing valuable malaria medicines to patients who do not have malaria, according to new research published in...
View ArticleRapid testing for TB aims to reduce drug resistance, lower mortality rate
Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have documented the accuracy of three new tests for more rapidly diagnosing drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis (TB), which are...
View ArticleStudy compares tests to detect acute HIV infection
In a study appearing in the February 16 issue of JAMA, Philip J. Peters, M.D., of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, and colleagues evaluated the performance of an HIV...
View ArticleAcceptability of alternative drugs and strategies to prevent malaria in...
Researchers at LSTM, working with colleagues at the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) USA, the Kenya Medical Research Institute, and from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical...
View ArticleNew assay offers improved detection of deadly prion diseases
Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), or prion diseases, are a family of rare progressive, neurodegenerative illnesses that affect both humans and animals. TSE surveillance is important for...
View ArticleRapid TB test accuracy in West Africa compromised by mycobacterium diversity
World-wide, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is responsible for the vast majority of tuberculosis (TB) cases. However, there are several other closely related mycobacterial species that cause TB, all...
View ArticlePotential new test to detect serious bacterial infections including...
Scientists have identified two genes that are switched on only when a child is suffering from a bacterial infection. This could allow doctors to quickly distinguish between a viral or bacterial...
View ArticleAdverse outcomes not improved in novel screen-and-treat program for malaria...
A novel strategy to screen pregnant women for malaria with rapid diagnostic tests and treat the test-positive women with effective antimalarials does not lower the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes...
View ArticleStudy of malaria rapid diagnostic tests in Uganda assesses scalability,...
The World Health Organization estimates that nearly half of the world's population is at risk for malaria, a life-threatening, but ultimately curable and preventable disease spread by mosquitos.
View ArticleMalaria parasite evades rapid test detection in children
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has one of the highest rates of people living with malaria. Rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) account for more than 70 percent of diagnostic testing for malaria...
View ArticleRapid test detects mobile resistance gene mcr-1
Scientists from the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) and the Justus Liebig University Giessen (JLU) have evaluated a rapid test that detects the dreaded colistin resistance gene within...
View ArticleThe Charlie Sheen effect on HIV testing
On November 17, 2015, actor Charlie Sheen publicly disclosed he was HIV-positive on NBC's Today Show. How might such celebrity announcements affect public health in the population at large? That's a...
View ArticleWomen with HIV in Cameroon still stigmatised
Blandine, a 28-year-old mother of a baby girl, sits restlessly on a chair in a women's health centre in Cameroon's capital, not knowing how or what to feel as she waits for an HIV test.
View ArticleRapid diagnostic test helps distinguish between severe and uncomplicated...
Malaria is a leading cause of death for children living in Sub-Saharan Africa. Many children in rural areas seek care at local community health clinics, but these clinics lack reliable tests to...
View ArticleA rapid alternative to standard safety tests for lentiviral vectors
A new, publicly available test to assess the safety of cell therapy products altered by lentivirus generates results within a few hours, potentially hastening the pace at which viral immunotherapies...
View ArticleCould opticians refer patients with suspected brain tumours?
For many of us, an optician is someone we rely on to test our eyes and to help us buy a new pair of glasses or contact lenses.
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