BugBitten 2018 September

Precision Mapping-Tackling a major obstacle on the road towards the elimination of schistosomiasis

28/09/2018 Perpetua Png

Schistosomiasis affects over 200 million people, yet it is a highly focal disease, with the likelihood of re-infection necessitating regular treatment of at-risk populations. Mapping methods that do not take into account the focal nature of it’s distribution can lead to at-risk communities not being treated or over-treating communities that do not need it. This causes several issues, from wasted medicines and resources to treatment fatigue and non-compliance (where communities refuse to take donated medicines). The answer could be a refined, higher resolution, dynamic mapping system, i.e. Precision mapping!

One Health and the community – the AfyaData tool

25/09/2018 Srimathy Sriskantharajah

In the second part of our interview with Professor Esron Karimuribo, we focus on the importance of community-based surveillance, and in particular the AfyaData tool. If you missed the first part of our interview with Esron, you can read it here.

Biology Developing World Health Medicine Technology

One Health and the community – interview with Professor Esron Karimuribo

21/09/2018 Srimathy Sriskantharajah

Community is central to the One Health concept. In a two part interview, we talk to Professor Esron Karimuribo from the Southern African Centre for Infectious Diseases (SACIDS) about working with communities in disease surveillance. In this first part, Esron introduces us to SACIDS and his role within the organisation liaising with communities on One Health projects. On Tuesday, he will discuss AfyaData, a community-based surveillance project.

Biology Developing World Health Medicine Uncategorised

Switching on the production of malaria sexual stages

14/09/2018 Hilary Hurd

A new study sheds further light on the transcription factor that acts as a master switch that turns on the production of sexual stages in the malaria life cycle.

Biology Developing World Health Medicine

Mind altering microbes: can Toxoplasma gondii infection increase entrepreneurship?

11/09/2018 Srimathy Sriskantharajah

Toxoplasma gondii infection is thought to alter the personalities of infected individuals (whether rats or humans) by increasing risk-taking behaviors. Studies have shown that this can lead to more accidents, but on the flip side Stefanie Johnson and colleagues recently showed that this risk taking tendency can lead to increased entrepreneurial behaviors. However, before we start infecting ourselves with the parasite, be warned that increased entrepreneurial-type behavior does not necessarily result in successful businesses or wealth.

Biology Health

Wolbachia is ready for prime time!

07/09/2018 Krisztian Magori

Here, Krisztian Magori summarizes the most recent updates from the World Mosquito Program on the success of scaled deployment of Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes to reduce dengue transmission risk in a large city in Australia.

Biology Health Open Access

Monthly Archives: September 2018