Yojana Sharma of SciDev.net reports on the WHO initiative to set up a global database of traditional medicines, due in 2011.
The first global database documenting the effectiveness of traditional medicines, which are widely used as the first source of healthcare around the world, has been announced by the WHO.
The International Classification of Traditional Medicine will be set up in the first half of next year to document traditional medicines and, for the first time, provide effectiveness data based on common standards.
"A number of countries have databases on traditional medicine, but because there have been no international standards until now, the data could not be compared," said Molly Meri Robinson Nichol, a technical officer at the WHO. "Western medicine has a vast database on diseases, but we do not have that information on traditional medicine, which makes it impossible to make a statement on its effectiveness."
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Recent review of African health research reveals gaps, opportunities
The McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health has published a series of open-access papers that paints a detailed picture of the state of health innovation research in Africa (link to BiomedCentral International Health and Human Rights, December 2010). Dr. Peter Singer and Dr. Ken Simiyu share their research findings in this engaging studio discussion.
Key findings of the group include issues in the stagnation of viable technologies, such as diagnostic tests, medical devices, and plant medicine due to lack of commercialization.
Other barriers in bringing these important innovation to the people include lack of infrastructure and scientific equipment, lack of capital financing and enterpreneurship, and inappropriate regulation and policies.
Suggestions to improve these issues comprise the need for a viable innovation network between scientists and entrepreneurs, addition of some modest funds to continue and validate the research, and addressing the gap in research infrastructure and scientific equipment.
These models parallel the situation of health research in Southeast Asia, where similar opportunities and challenges exist for health innovation. These investable ideas, if properly channeled, stand to make a huge difference in the people of Africa and Southeast Asia in the future. It is envisioned for these countries to develop health research so that they can create local products, grow local industries for health products, and provide solutions to local health needs of today.
Reference: McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health. (2010, December). African Innovation: New Hope for Local Health Issues. Accessed December 2010. Retrieved from http://www.mrcglobal.org/projects/african_innovation.
Key findings of the group include issues in the stagnation of viable technologies, such as diagnostic tests, medical devices, and plant medicine due to lack of commercialization.
Other barriers in bringing these important innovation to the people include lack of infrastructure and scientific equipment, lack of capital financing and enterpreneurship, and inappropriate regulation and policies.
Suggestions to improve these issues comprise the need for a viable innovation network between scientists and entrepreneurs, addition of some modest funds to continue and validate the research, and addressing the gap in research infrastructure and scientific equipment.
These models parallel the situation of health research in Southeast Asia, where similar opportunities and challenges exist for health innovation. These investable ideas, if properly channeled, stand to make a huge difference in the people of Africa and Southeast Asia in the future. It is envisioned for these countries to develop health research so that they can create local products, grow local industries for health products, and provide solutions to local health needs of today.
Reference: McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health. (2010, December). African Innovation: New Hope for Local Health Issues. Accessed December 2010. Retrieved from http://www.mrcglobal.org/projects/african_innovation.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Higher Actual Dengue Incidence Numbers in Cambodia than in National Reports, 2006–2008
Dengue vaccines are now in late-stage development, and evaluation and robust estimates of dengue disease burden are needed to facilitate further development and introduction. In Cambodia, the national dengue case-definition only allows reporting of children less than 16 years of age, and little is known about dengue burden in rural areas and among older persons. To estimate the true burden of dengue in the largest province of Cambodia, Kampong Cham, we conducted community-based active dengue fever surveillance among the 0-to-19–year age group in rural villages and urban areas during 2006–2008.
General Findings
General Findings
The large-scale active surveillance study for dengue fever in Cambodia found a higher disease incidence than reported to the national surveillance system, particularly in preschool children and that disease incidence was high in both rural and urban areas. It also confirmed the previously observed focal nature of dengue virus transmission.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Small tech with big promise for healthcare
Nanotechnology should not suffer the same fate as GM — potential health and environmental hazards should be monitored and regulated early on. David Dickson, director of SciDev.Net, discusses the promise of nanomaterials.
If a new and potentially hazardous field of technological innovation is to flourish in a social environment, two factors are essential, even if the hazards are still relatively speculative.
The first is a clear demonstration of its value to individual welfare, creating a demand for what it promises.
The second is evidence that the potential dangers can be adequately monitored, and regulations put in place to minimise the chance that harmful effects will occur.
If a new and potentially hazardous field of technological innovation is to flourish in a social environment, two factors are essential, even if the hazards are still relatively speculative.
The first is a clear demonstration of its value to individual welfare, creating a demand for what it promises.
The second is evidence that the potential dangers can be adequately monitored, and regulations put in place to minimise the chance that harmful effects will occur.
Nanotechnology for health: Facts and figures
Can developing countries use nanotechnology to improve health? Priya Shetty looks at nanomedicine's promise at a SciDev report.
Nanotechnology — the science of the extremely small — holds enormous potential for healthcare, from delivering drugs more effectively, diagnosing diseases more rapidly and sensitively, and delivering vaccines via aerosols and patches.
Nanotechnology is the science of materials at the molecular or subatomic level. It involves manipulation of particles smaller than 100 nanometres (one nanometre is one-billionth of a metre) and the technology involves developing materials or devices within that size — invisible to the human eye and often many hundred times thinner than the width of human hair. The physics and chemistry of materials are radically different when reduced to the nanoscale; they have different strengths, conductivity and reactivity, and exploiting this could revolutionise medicine.
For example, a major challenge of modern medicine is that the body doesn't absorb the entire drug dose given to a patient. Using nanotechnology, scientists can ensure drugs are delivered to specific areas in the body with greater precision, and the drugs can be formulated so that the active ingredient better permeates cell membranes, reducing the required dose.
Nanotechnology — the science of the extremely small — holds enormous potential for healthcare, from delivering drugs more effectively, diagnosing diseases more rapidly and sensitively, and delivering vaccines via aerosols and patches.
Nanotechnology is the science of materials at the molecular or subatomic level. It involves manipulation of particles smaller than 100 nanometres (one nanometre is one-billionth of a metre) and the technology involves developing materials or devices within that size — invisible to the human eye and often many hundred times thinner than the width of human hair. The physics and chemistry of materials are radically different when reduced to the nanoscale; they have different strengths, conductivity and reactivity, and exploiting this could revolutionise medicine.
For example, a major challenge of modern medicine is that the body doesn't absorb the entire drug dose given to a patient. Using nanotechnology, scientists can ensure drugs are delivered to specific areas in the body with greater precision, and the drugs can be formulated so that the active ingredient better permeates cell membranes, reducing the required dose.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Boston University researchers create novel rapid biosensor
The portable detector platform, comprising plasmonic nanohole arrays (PNAs), can be adapated for hospitals, malls, and airports
A team of researchers headed by Hatice Altug (ECE) and John Connor (Microbiology) has developed a novel biosensor that directly detects live viruses from biological samples even without sample preparation. They have reported on this breakthrough in the November 5 online edition of Nano Letters.
The biosensor comprises plasmonic nanohole arrays (PNAs), or arrays of apertures with diameters of about 250 to 350 nanometers on metallic films, that transmit light more strongly at certain wavelengths.
A live virus (e.g., Ebola, monkeypox, or smallpox virus) in blood or serum, for example, can bind to the sensor surface. A change in the effective refractive index in the close vicinity of the sensor will shift the resonance frequency of the light transmitted through the PNAs. The degree of this shift reveals the presence and the concentration of the virus in the solution.
A team of researchers headed by Hatice Altug (ECE) and John Connor (Microbiology) has developed a novel biosensor that directly detects live viruses from biological samples even without sample preparation. They have reported on this breakthrough in the November 5 online edition of Nano Letters.
The biosensor comprises plasmonic nanohole arrays (PNAs), or arrays of apertures with diameters of about 250 to 350 nanometers on metallic films, that transmit light more strongly at certain wavelengths.
A live virus (e.g., Ebola, monkeypox, or smallpox virus) in blood or serum, for example, can bind to the sensor surface. A change in the effective refractive index in the close vicinity of the sensor will shift the resonance frequency of the light transmitted through the PNAs. The degree of this shift reveals the presence and the concentration of the virus in the solution.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Symposium aims to place health systems as cornerstone in health research
The First Global Symposium on Health Systems Research, organized by the WHO this week (16–19 November) in Montreux, Switzerland, aims to foster international studies on health systems. T.V. Padma reports on SciDev.Net.
The First Global Symposium on Health Systems Research is expected to establish health systems research as a "third pole" of health research, alongside biomedical and clinical research.
Research on how to improve health delivery and health outcomes has long been neglected and must be put on researchers' agendas, a WHO expert has said ahead of the first global meeting on such research.
Tim Evans, WHO's outgoing assistant director general for information, evidence and research, told SciDev.Net that scientific research is needed to ensure that everyone benefits from healthcare delivery.
The symposium aims to dispel the idea that healthcare delivery is a 'common sense' problem unrelated to high-quality science, said Evans, who chairs the meeting's steering committee.
The meeting is expected to be "a watershed" in sharing evidence on how to use science to accelerate health coverage, he added.
Over 1,300 researchers from 100 countries will gather to provide evidence-based information to policymakers on how to expand the reach of healthcare systems in developing countries.
The First Global Symposium on Health Systems Research is expected to establish health systems research as a "third pole" of health research, alongside biomedical and clinical research.
Research on how to improve health delivery and health outcomes has long been neglected and must be put on researchers' agendas, a WHO expert has said ahead of the first global meeting on such research.
Tim Evans, WHO's outgoing assistant director general for information, evidence and research, told SciDev.Net that scientific research is needed to ensure that everyone benefits from healthcare delivery.
The symposium aims to dispel the idea that healthcare delivery is a 'common sense' problem unrelated to high-quality science, said Evans, who chairs the meeting's steering committee.
The meeting is expected to be "a watershed" in sharing evidence on how to use science to accelerate health coverage, he added.
Over 1,300 researchers from 100 countries will gather to provide evidence-based information to policymakers on how to expand the reach of healthcare systems in developing countries.
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