Neglected Diseases

DNDi was found in 2003 by Medicines Sans Frontieres and five publc-sector organisations. Kenya Medical Research Institute, Indian Council Of Medical Research, Malaysian Ministry Of Health, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Brazil and France's Institute Pasteur. WHO/TDR is a permanent observer of the initiative.
DnDi is a non-profit drug research and development organisation that is developing new treatments for neglected diseases.

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Most Neglected Diseases are parasitical diseases and most of these are tropical diseases.
Parasites are living things that use other living things such as plants and in these cases human bodies to live and feed off.
Parasites are found in food, soil, water and almost all living things. They can be spread by fleas, ticks, mosquitoes and other insects. Parasites that live on the surface of the host are called ectoparasites, and parasites that live inside the host are called endoparasites.
Parasites effect every form of life, almost all animals, plants and bacteria.
Parasitology is the study of parasites and the effect they have on their hosts.

Parasites can be as small as a one-celled organism called protozoa or as large as a worm that is quite visible. Parasitic diseases are widespread in third-world countries and on a much smaller scale in developed countries.
Diseases caused by parasites cause great discomfort and can lead to death.
Although there is not enough research and funding for these diseases, some pharmaceutical companies have committed to donating all the drug therapies required and there have been some great successes with the mass administration of drugs in some countries.

Most of these diseases can be treated successfully with anti-biotics and other medical interventions.
Prevention methods include:- improved sanitary conditions, clean, safe drinking and bathing water is vital, safe food sources, proper cooking methods, personal hygiene and the control of vector host organisms such as fleas, mosquitoes, ticks and other insects that spread parasites.

Schistosomiasis (bilharzia)
This is a parasitic disease caused by a flatworm. Over 200 million people are suffering this disease. It causes intestinal damage and liver damage.
The infection is caused by contact with fresh water that is contaminated with snails that have schistosomiasis. The parasites enter through the skin of anyone bathing, swimming or wading through the water. Within weeks worms grow inside the blood vessels of the body and produce eggs. Some of these eggs end up in the bladder and intestines and are passed into the urine and stool.
Symptoms of Infection:-
Within days the skin becomes itchy and a rash develops.
Within 1 to 2 months, muscles aches and pains, fevers, chills and a cough.
Some people have no symptoms early on.
The eggs travel to the intestines, bladder and liver causing inflammation and scarring.
Causes anaemia in children, also malnutrition and learning difficulties.
Within years the liver is damaged, also the intestines, lungs and bladder.
Eggs sometimes end up in the brain and spinal cord. This causes seizures, paralysis, spinal cord inflammation and death.
These symptoms are caused by the body's reaction to the eggs produced by the worms, not by the worms themselves.
The disease is diagnosed by testing the urine and stool samples.
A blood test has now been developed. For the results to be accurate, testing needs to be done 6-8 weeks after the last exposure to the contaminated water.

Areas affected:- Africa, all freshwater in southern and sub-sahara Africa including the Great Lakes and rivers. Also the Nile River Valley in Egypt.
South America - Brazil, Suriname, Venezuela.
Carribean - Antigua, Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe, Martinque, Montserret, Saint Lucia.
Middle East - Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen.
Southern China
South East Asia - Philipines, Laos, Cambodia, Central Indonesia, Mekong Delta.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is funding research into this disease.

Lymphatic filariasis - Over 120 million people affected. Caused by a microscopic worm. This disease causes great suffering, disability and grotesquely swollen limbs (elephantiasis).

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Trachoma - Blinding Trachoma is an eye infection that causes the eye lid to turn inwards. The eye lashes then rub against the eye ball and cause intense pain, blindness and scarring. 150 million people are affected by this disease.

Onchocerciasis (river blindness)
This disease is caused by a parasitic worm transmitted by the black fly. This is the world's third leading infectious cause of blindness. It causes visual impairment, blindess, severe skin disease, and shortened life expectancy.

Chagas' Disease - (American trypanosomiasis) Chagas Disease sufferers are almost exclusively in the Americas especially the poor areas of Mexico, Central America and South America.
The disease is spread by a blood-sucking insect called an assassin bug. This disease is fatal if left untreated. Causes heart disease and malformation of the intestines. Can be passed from mother to baby through breast milk.
About 18 million people are affected.
No vaccine exists. Treatment for eary infection exists, but is uneconomical. There are also severe side effects with the current drugs in use. This disease kills slowly after years of debilitating chronic symptoms.

Leishmaniasis

This disease is caused by a parasite transmitted by a sandfly. One form of this disease destroys mucous membranes in the throat, mouth and nose causing terrible disfigurement. Another form causes terrible ulcers and permanent scarring. More than 12 million people are affected.

African Sleeping Sickness (African Trypanosomiasis)

This disease was almost eradicated in the 20th century, but resurged after control methods were relaxed. Caused by bites from the tsetse fly. There are 300,000 new cases every year and about 40,000 Africans die from this disease every year. 60 million people who live in the affected areas are at risk.
Symptoms start with fever, headaches and joint pains and large swelling of the lymph nodes especially at the back of the neck. The disease then caused anaemia, cardiac, endocrine and kidney problems. Then the neurological phase begins and the patent becomes confused, uncoordinated and has disturbed sleep patterns.
Mental deterioration then leads to coma and death..
Treatments exist but they are outdated due to lack of further research.
Current treatment is ineffective, highly toxic and resistant. Fatal with or without current treatments available.

Kala-azar (visceral leishmaniasis)

This is a disease of the developing world. Spread by a sand-fly. Cases found in the Americas, Middle East, Afghanistan, Asia, spreading to Southern Europe. Not found in Australia or Oceania. Some American troops stationed in Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and other parts of the Middle East have been infected.
Symptoms include skin sores, anaemia, damage to the spleen and liver.
Treatment is available but it is costly and toxic. The disease is spreading throughout India. Fatal if left untreated. Vaccines are under development.
12 milion affected.

Author: Scott Meyers

African sleeping sickness is also known as Human African trypanosomiasis. However, African sleeping sickness is easier to pronounce and aptly describes the disease. The protozoan parasite that causes the disease is spread by the tsetse fly. These flies live in Africa and are found in rivers, lakes and wooded forests along the savannah.



60 million individuals, including children, are at risk for the disease in 36 sub-Saharan Africa. Every year nearly 500,000 people develop the disease.



Infection can be spread not only by the flies but through the placenta from an infected mom-to-be into the baby. It can also be spread by contaminated needles.



Another human form of the disease occurs in the Americas and is called Chagas disease.



Symptoms for African sleeping sickness include bouts of fever, headache, joint pains and itching. When the parasites cross the blood-brain barrier than the central nervous system is involved and symptoms of confusion, sensory disruption and poor coordination can be seen. If the individual is not treated the disease is fatal.



Cure rates are high if the patient receives treatment in the first phase of the disease before the central nervous system involvement.



The major symptoms of the disease do not appear until the second phase until then the disease behaves much like others. During the second phase the symptoms are confusion, poor coordination, sensory disturbances, sleep cycle disturbances and without treatment the disease is fatal.



Diagnosis:



Serological tests are performed and also clinical checks for signs of the disease such as swollen cervical glands. Tests look for evidence of the parasite. The cerebro-spinal fluid is checked by way of a lumbar puncture to determine the state of disease progression. The earlier the diagnosis is made the less risk is involved in treatment. If the central nervous system is involved treatment is complicated and risky.



Treatment:



There is a different treatment for each stage of the disease. The earlier the diagnosis is made the better the prognosis. Drugs for the second stage of the disease need to be able to cross over the blood-brain barrier and are quite toxic and expensive leaving it impossible for most in the impoverished countries to be treated without help from organizations.



WHO (World Health Organization) private partnership provides four drugs for sleeping sickness free of charge to endemic countries.



A drug melarsoprol is used in the second phase of the disease and is derived from arsenic.



Unfortunately, the disease is becoming more drug resistant as time goes on and researchers are trying to find new drugs. For now, remote areas of populations, and the need for more medical facilities and availability of drugs limit the therapeutic success. More funding is needed for research into new drugs to counteract the drug resistance now being witnessed.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/all-about-the-tropical-disease-african-trypanosomiasis-sleeping-sickness-387578.html

About the Author:

Scott Meyers is a staff writer for Its Entirely Natural, a resource for helping you achieve a naturally healthy body, mind, and spirit. You may contact our writers through the web site. Follow this link for more information on Tropical Diseases.

The Neglected Tropical Diseases

Author: Scott Meyers

Do these diseases sound familiar to you...leprosy, lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminths, or trachoma? If you answered no, do not feel bad because many individuals rarely hear about these tropical diseases anymore. The reason is that industrialized countries do not usually have to deal with these diseases. They are the diseases that still ravage poor countries.



Poor countries have little money to make known their plight to the rest of the world. To make the voices of despair heard around the world the Neglected Tropical Disease Coalition (NTDC) was formed. The NTDC is made up of individual disease alliances, as well as international agencies, their corporate partners, interested academic institutions, some faith-based groups, and also non-governmental organizations.



The World Health Organization (WHO) and also the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identify diseases that are "targets of opportunity" with the purpose of improving global health.



The six diseases mentioned earlier are being targeted to help control or to eliminate the diseases altogether. What will make this possible is the joint effort of all the participants in NTDC to cooperate with scientific breakthroughs and corporate philanthropic efforts to fund research and treatment programs.



Success can almost be seen in the treatment of trachoma in Morocco and leprosy has declined globally. When disease is irradiated in these countries, the citizens become more productive and the global economy improves. This is why all countries industrial or poor should care about these neglected tropical diseases.



Improved economies have an impact on the global economy because of world trade. Financial impact and the health of local residents is not the only concern. International travelers, many those who are called to serve are also greatly at risk to contract these neglected tropical diseases.



These neglected tropical diseases not only have an impact on the citizens of the poor countries where they are found, but any individual traveling to those countries are at risk for exposure to these tropical diseases including missionaries, and also volunteers with the peace corps. These individuals deserve the opportunity to serve without being exposed to these neglected diseases.



The statistics are sad and should be alarming to everyone. 3 billion children, women and men are at risk from these 6 neglected tropical diseases. 350 million individuals have already been disabled or impaired severely by exposure to these neglected tropical diseases.



The cost to work productivity is $10 billion annually or more. This loss represents revenue that could have boosted the country out of poverty and enabled it to become productive in the global economy.



The ability to diagnose, treat and even prevent these 6 diseases exists; the goal to eliminate these diseases is real. There are low or no-cost medications available from four of the major pharmaceutical companies, namely - GlaxoSmithKline,Merck & Co., Inc., Novartis, and Pfizer who have already donated drugs and cash support.



Treatment intervals that are community based is possible which will offer the ability to combine treatments that will be more cost effective and have a greater impact on more of the population. The cost for community-wide treatment of these six diseases ranges from just a few cents to a few dollars per individual.



There are in existence the tools, local and national support to rid these countries of the diseases. Even though tools and opportunity exist to address the issue of neglected tropical diseases, it remains the responsibility of individuals, corporations and countries to take action.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/the-neglected-tropical-diseases-388068.html

About the Author:

Scott Meyers is a staff writer for Its Entirely Natural, a resource for helping you achieve a naturally healthy body, mind, and spirit. You may contact our writers through the web site. Follow this link for more information on Tropical Diseases.

Filariasis Detailed Information

Author: Juliet Cohen

Filariasis also known as, Lymphatic Filariasis (Philariasis). Filariasis (Philariasis) is a parasitic and infectious tropical disease. Filariasis is caused by adult worms (filariae) that live in the lymphatic vessels. It is extremely rare in Western countries. Filariasis affects more than 90 million people worldwide and is found throughout the tropics and subtropics. One-third of the people infected with the disease live in India, one third are in Africa and most of the remainder are in South Asia, the Pacific and the Americas. Loa loa is another filarial parasite of humans, transmitted by the deer fly.

Symptoms of filariasis depending on what type of parasitic worm has caused the infection. Filariasis is characterized by fever, chills, headache, and skin lesions in the beginning stages. Areas of pus (abscesses) may seem as a cause of dying worms or a lesser bacterial infection. It can progress to include gross enlargement of the limbs and genitalia in a condition called elephantiasis. The psychological and social stigma associated with these aspects of the disease is immense. In addition, even more common than the overt abnormalities is hidden, internal damage to the kidneys and lymphatic system caused by the filariae.

Short-term travelers to endemic areas are at low risk for this infection. Travelers who visit endemic areas for unbended periods of time and who are completely exposed to infected mosquitoes can become infected. Medicines to treat filariasis are most effective when used soon after infection. Ivermectin, albendazole, or diethylcarbamazine is used to treat a filariasis infection by eliminating the larvae, impairing the adult worms' ability to reproduce, and by actually killing adult worms. Treatment with diethylcarbamazine in someone with very high levels of parasite infection may lead to a fatal inflammation of the brain (encephalitis).

The best way of preventing filariasis is to prevent being repeatedly bitten by the mosquitoes that carry the disease. Avoiding mosquito bites is other type of prevention. The mosquitoes that bear the microscopic worms commonly bite between the hours of dusk and dawn. Sleep under a mosquito net. You can also use mosquito repellant on exposed skin between dusk and dawn. Take a yearly dose of medicine that removes the worms flowing in the blood. The medicine will kill all of the microscopic worms in the blood and only a fraction of the adult worms.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/diseases-and-conditions-articles/filariasis-detailed-information-555641.html

About the Author:

Juliet Cohen writes articles for beauty tips. She also writes articles for hairstyles photo and makeup tips.