Category: Developing World

  • Finally, a malaria vaccine is being distributed

    Finally, a malaria vaccine is being distributed

    A malaria vaccine is administered to a young child (Source: Tpsdave) Although the Indomitable Lions suffered an early knock-out from the Afcon football championships, Cameroon has since scored a major goal in public health. The RTS,S vaccine has been celebrated worldwide for becoming the first malaria vaccine to show efficacy and be approved by WHO.…

  • Malaria-free Cabo Verde: a public health success!

    Malaria-free Cabo Verde: a public health success!

    WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Prime Minister of Cabo Verde H.E. Ulisses Correia e Silva and Minister of Health of Cabo Verde Filomena Mendes Gonçalves at a ceremony on 12 January 2024 to certify the country’s elimination of malaria. From https://www.who.int/news/item/12-01-2024-who-certifies-cabo-verde-as-malaria-free–marking-a-historic-milestone-in-the-fight-against-malaria WHO / JacsSpoor An archipelago of volcanic islands off the coast of West…

  • A new potential way of tracking malaria incubation periods in mosquitos

    A new potential way of tracking malaria incubation periods in mosquitos

    © PitiyaO / Getty Images / iStock In many developing countries, malaria is a leading cause of disease and death. Via transmission through mosquitos, the responsible Plasmodium parasites have infected and impacted countless lives throughout history, prompting the writer John Whitfield to write in 2002, “Malaria may have killed half of all the people that…

  • Highlights of the BMC Series – November 2023

    Highlights of the BMC Series – November 2023

    BMC Digital Health – A novel telehealth tool using a snack activity to identify autism spectrum disorder © Lori Werhane / Fotolia Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects more than one in 100 people worldwide. ASD can be reliably diagnosed by the age of 2 years, but developmental screenings are expensive…

  • Schistosomiasis: A public health problem in need of a One Health reframing

    Schistosomiasis: A public health problem in need of a One Health reframing

    One Health joint plan of action. ​FAO; UNEP; WHO; WOAH, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO, via Wikimedia Commons An ancient, highly adaptable neglected tropical disease Electron micrograph of an adult male Schistosoma parasite worm. The bar (bottom left) represents a length of 500 μm. Credit: David Williams, Illinois State University. Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by…

  • Looping: How poverty and vector-borne diseases fuel each other

    Looping: How poverty and vector-borne diseases fuel each other

    Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, beginning its blood-meal James Gathany, CDC – from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Public Health Image Library Per capita mortality rates across the globe are 300 times greater in developing nations than in developed nations. This higher mortality rate similarly occurs when comparing the affluent and the deprived areas…

  • A Mosquito’s Tale: Unveiling Wolbachia’s Impact in Colombia’s Fight Against Dengue

    A Mosquito’s Tale: Unveiling Wolbachia’s Impact in Colombia’s Fight Against Dengue

    Pix4Free.org Dengue viruses, transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes, are the most important arboviruses globally, with over 4.5 million cases and 4,000 deaths reported globally so far in 2023. Cases have escalated dramatically in the last 20 years, with an eight-fold increase from half a million cases in 2000 to over 4.2 million in 2022. Climate change…

  • World AIDS Day 2023: Highlights from the BMC Series

    World AIDS Day 2023: Highlights from the BMC Series

    © Katia / stock.adobe.com BMC Public Health – Feasibility and acceptability of peer-delivered HIV self-testing and PrEP for young women in Kampala, Uganda © Tina / stock.adobe.com This pilot study in Uganda aimed to assess the feasibility and acceptability of peer-delivered HIV self-tests (HIVST) and oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to young women with suboptimal PrEP…

  • AlertaChirimacha: Tracking Kissing Bugs Byte by Byte

    AlertaChirimacha: Tracking Kissing Bugs Byte by Byte

    Promotional material for the AlertaChirimacha campaign (chirimacha is the local word for triatomines), showing Facebook page (a), Flyer image (b) and post indicating that triatomines have been found locally (c). From Tamayo LD, et al, 2023 Chagas Disease and Triatomines – The Basics Chagas Disease, primarily endemic to Latin America, is caused by the parasite…