Cholera News and Research

Latest Cholera News and Research

Grand Challenges Canada funds 15 new projects to improve mental health diagnosis and care

Grand Challenges Canada, which is funded by the Government of Canada, today announced a landmark $19.4 million in support of 15 innovative, pioneering projects designed to improve mental health diagnosis and care in developing countries, many of them nations ravaged by conflict and disaster as well as poverty.

11 Oct 2012

Government investment in eye examinations may boost the economy

Governments could add thousands of millions of dollars to the global economy simply by investing in eye examinations and the provision of glasses for some 703 million people who need them, according to a study published this month in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization.

6 Oct 2012

October issue of WHO Bulletin available online

The October issue of the WHO Bulletin features an editorial on the stockpiling oral cholera vaccine, a public health news roundup, a research article on rotavirus mortality in India, and an article examining a "new entity for the negotiation of public procurement prices for patented medicines in Mexico," among others.

2 Oct 2012

Cholera vaccine stockpiles could help save lives in future outbreaks

In a post in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog, Helen Matzger, a program officer in new vaccine delivery at the foundation, writes about outbreaks of cholera in Haiti, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and other areas, and says creating stockpiles of a recently WHO-approved cholera vaccine could help save lives in the future.

21 Sep 2012

WHO increasing efforts to fight cholera in Sierra Leone

An ongoing cholera outbreak continues to affect Sierra Leone, and the WHO said on Tuesday it is increasing efforts to fight the disease, "as fatalities from the water and food-borne disease continue to increase," the U.N. News Centre reports.

20 Sep 2012

Floods, Cholera in Niger have claimed 162 lives since July, OCHA reports

"Floods in Niger have killed 81 people since July, the U.N. Office for Humanitarian Affairs [OCHA] announced Thursday, adding cholera outbreaks have killed a further 81 people," Agence France-Presse reports.

15 Sep 2012

Drinking water fails to meet state quality standards at North Carolina migrant farmworker camps

The drinking water at one-third of migrant farmworker camps in eastern North Carolina failed to meet state quality standards, according to a new study from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

15 Sep 2012

Some Guinean residents seek cholera vaccine; Outbreak in Sierra Leone winding down

With nearly 6,000 reported cholera cases, including more than 100 deaths, Guinea is facing the worst cholera outbreak since 2007, and "some residents of the capital Conakry are clamoring to be vaccinated," IRIN reports.

15 Sep 2012

Humanitarian situation better, still tenuous, in Zimbabwe as E.U. scales down assistance, IRIN reports

Though the number of people in Zimbabwe in need of food aid has dropped from seven million in 2002-2003 to one million currently, the number could still rise by 600,000 in 2013, IRIN reports in an analysis of the humanitarian and political situation in the country.

14 Sep 2012

IRIN reports on flooding in Africa

In three separate articles, IRIN reports on the implications of flooding taking place in Africa. "Tens of thousands of people have been affected by flooding in parts of central, eastern and southern Chad following heavy rains in August," the news service writes in the first article, adding that the floods have affected 445,725 people and destroyed 255,720 hectares of cropland.

12 Sep 2012

Success and failure in fighting cholera in Haiti

"Almost two years after the deadly disease first appeared in Haiti in the aftermath of the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake, the story of cholera is one of both success and failure," columnist Catherine Porter writes in a Toronto Star opinion piece.

10 Sep 2012

Heavy rainfall worsening cholera outbreaks in Sierra Leone, Guinea

"Heavy rainfall is accelerating the spread of cholera in Sierra Leone and Guinea, where existing health risks such as poor hygiene practices, unsafe water sources and improper waste management are believed to have triggered the disease which has killed 327 people and infected more than 17,400 in both countries since February," IRIN reports.

6 Sep 2012

Cholera vaccine offers herd immunity, study from Zanzibar shows

"Cholera vaccine gives indirect protection to unvaccinated people in communities where a substantial fraction of the population gets the vaccine," according to a study from the island of Zanzibar in East Africa, published in the Lancet on Tuesday, NPR's "Shots" blog reports.

6 Sep 2012

FDA continues review of Salix’s Crofelemer new drug application

Napo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was informed today that the Food and Drug Administration is continuing its review of the new drug application seeking approval of crofelemer for the treatment of chronic diarrhea in people living with HIV/AIDS on anti-retroviral therapy.

6 Sep 2012

U.N. SG warns withdraw of aid groups from Haiti leaves country struggling with cholera epidemic

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "warned on Friday that Haiti was struggling to cope with a cholera epidemic that has killed thousands and deteriorating conditions in tent camps as aid groups withdraw from the impoverished country due to a lack of funding," Reuters reports.

5 Sep 2012

New cholera cases after tropical storm do not amount to outbreak, Haitian officials say

Haiti has "reported new cases of cholera as aftermath of the tropical storm Isaac, but Public Health Ministry General Director Guirlene Raymond said that "so far the numbers do not match outbreak ratings," Prensa Latina reports.

31 Aug 2012

Cuban government says cholera outbreak that sickened 417, killed 3, has ended

"Cuba's government declared Tuesday that health workers had eradicated a cholera outbreak that infected 417 people and killed three, according to a statement from the country's Health Ministry," CNN reports.

30 Aug 2012

South Sudan refugee health situation 'alarming,' U.N. warns

"The situation of 170,000 Sudanese refugees living in camps and settlements across South Sudan's Unity and Upper Nile states is alarming and there are worries about an outbreak of cholera, U.N. refugee agency officials said on Friday," the Associated Press/Washington Post reports.

28 Aug 2012

U.K. launches emergency response to fight cholera outbreak in Sierra Leone

"The U.K. government has activated a £2 million $3.16 million emergency plan to help tackle a cholera epidemic sweeping through Sierra Leone," the Press Association reports, adding, "The Department for International Development (DfID) says it is using a network that includes private businesses and specialist aid organizations to deliver emergency medical, water and sanitation assistance to affected people in the west African state."

28 Aug 2012

Cholera toxin binds differently to intestinal cells than previously thought

The likelihood of becoming seriously ill from cholera depends on your blood group. It is possible to find a new remedy for the feared illness by studying the molecular structure in the toxin in the cholera bacteria.

28 Aug 2012