January 09, 2015
A roundup of news on drug resistance and other topics in global health.
Khabar Magazine interviewed CDDEP director Ramanan Laxminarayan for their cover story this week, entitled “Foot Soldiers in the War on Ebola.” Laxminarayan was consulted on the question of how India would respond to a potential Ebola case and noted confidence in the country’s preparedness for such an event. [Khabar Magazine]
2015 will see the launch of a free online course on antibiotic stewardship and infection control. The six-week Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) will include a simulated multi-drug resistant disease outbreak and be advised by an international panel of experts in the field. More information about the course can be found on the CDDEP blog. Also new from the blog this week, Senior Research Analyst Aditi Nigam chronicled recent work in India on antimicrobial stewardship with the Global Antibiotic Resistance Partnership (GARP). [Antimicrobial Stewardship MOOC, CDDEP]
Researchers have found a new antibiotic without detectable resistance from a soil sample in Maine. The drug, a cell wall inhibitor named teixobactin, was found using a novel method that isolates and grows bacterial cultures from dirt. It was proven effective against Gram-positive bacteria in mice with no observable side effects and is planned to begin human testing in the next few years. [Nature]
Ebola vaccine trials will begin soon in West Africa on thousands of people, including healthcare workers. The WHO announced that two vaccines, made by GlaxoSmithKline and Merck, have demonstrated enough safety and immune response in small trials that they are ready to be tested on the front lines of the Ebola outbreak in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. [BBC]
Whole plant artemisia therapy could help fight malaria drug resistance, according to research published this week. The study found effectiveness for up to three times as long as pure artemisinin therapy as well as diminished resistance with the whole plant treatment. [Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences]
An outbreak of measles linked to visitors at Disneyland has been reported in California, according to public health officials in the state. Over a dozen either suspected or confirmed cases have been noted, all connected to individuals who visited either Disneyland or Disney’s California Adventure between December 15 and 20. California had already seen its worst year in two decades for the highly-contagious disease in 2014, after vaccination rates decreased from 95 percent in 2002 to 92 percent. [Los Angeles Times]
CDDEP is currently looking to hire a Research Analyst in Economics for our New Delhi, India office. For more information and to apply, visit CDDEP’s jobs page. [CDDEP]
Want to share interesting news via the digest? Send an email to [email protected].
Photo courtesy Wikimedia images.
