August 29, 2014
A roundup of news on drug resistance and other topics in global health.
CDDEP Director Ramanan Laxminarayan told Inter Press Service that antibiotic overuse in India is due to a combination of increasing income and affordability, easy access without a prescription, willingness of physicians to prescribe antibiotics freely, and a high background of infections that should ideally be contained by better sanitation and vaccination. [Inter Press Service]
The WHO on Thursday said that the spread of the Ebola virus is accelerating and could affect more than 20,000 people before it is brought under control. [The New York Times]
By sequencing 99 genomes of Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, researchers have been able to make important determinations on the behavior and spread of the current outbreak. [Live Science]
The use of e-cigarettes should be banned indoors and greater precautions should be taken to avoid marketing e-cigarettes to children, the WHO said in a report this week. [BBC]
Ionic liquids have been used to disrupt bacterial biofilms and deliver antibiotics through the skin a technique that could help in tackling antibiotic-resistant infections caused by biofilm bacteria. [Chemistry World]
Algorithms used in facial recognition could also help in performing faster malaria diagnoses, according to a new study published in the journal PLOS ONE. [Biometric Update]
The clinical symptoms of malaria fade with repeat infections, possibly due to the loss of immune cells, according to new research from the University of California, San Francisco. [UCSF]
While deaths and hospitalizations related to cardiovascular problems have declined sharply in the US, they are on the rise in much of the developing world. [The Atlantic]
Rapid development has created a time bomb of potential health crises in China. [Business Insider]
In a new study, researchers conclude that tuberculosis may be a newer disease than previously thought, having originated less than 6,000 years ago in Africa. [The New York Times]
Image via Monica Grigsby/Flickr.
