With Asthma Day coming up, Edrine Osteen Mukalazi sat down with Dr. Rebecca Nantanda to discuss "Closing the gap on #Asthma care for children on the Health Pot show."
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✽ Our guest Rebecca Nantanda ✽
⊳ Dr. Rebecca Nantanda is a member of the Institute Technical Board (ITB) of Makerere University Lung Institute.
⊳ She has been involved in research on respiratory diseases in children for the past 12 years with specific focus on pneumonia and asthma.
⊳ She has a number of publications in peer-reviewed journals and has made several presentations at International and Local Scientific conferences on the above subjects.
⊳ She is currently involved in research, clinical care and pre-service and in-service training of health care professionals.
⊳ Her qualifications contain MBChB (MUST), M.Med Paediatrics and Child Health (MUK), PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Sida- Makerere Research Program.
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The protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi causes Chagas disease, an important public health problem throughout Latin America. Current therapeutic options are characterised by limited efficacy, long treatment regimens and frequent toxic side-effects. Advances in this area have been compromised by gaps... in our knowledge of disease pathogenesis, parasite biology and drug activity. Nevertheless, several factors have come together to create a more optimistic scenario. Drug-based research has become more systematic, with increased collaborations between the academic and commercial sectors, often within the framework of not-for-profit consortia. High-throughput screening of compound libraries is being widely applied, and new technical advances are helping to streamline the drug development pipeline. In addition, drug repurposing and optimisation of current treatment regimens, informed by laboratory research, are providing a basis for new clinical trials. Here, we will provide an overview of the current status of Chagas disease drug development, highlight those areas where progress can be expected, and describe how fundamental research is helping to underpin the process.
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The NLM Malaria Screener is a mobile app developed by the U.S. National Library of Medicine to support the diagnosis of malaria through automated analysis of blood smear images. It uses smartphone microscopy and machine learning to detect malaria parasites in thin blood smears, helping health worker...s and lab technicians—especially in low-resource settings—screen for Plasmodium falciparum infections. The app is intended for research and educational purposes and aims to enhance diagnostic accuracy where access to expert microscopists is limited. It provides results quickly and can assist in training or field screening, but it is not approved for clinical use.
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Leptospirosis is a perplexing conundrum for many. In the existing literature, the pathophysiological mechanisms pertaining to leptospirosis is still not understood in full. Considered as a neglected tropical zoonotic disease, leptospirosis is culminating as a serious problem worldwide, seemingly exi...sting as co-infections with various other unrelated diseases, including dengue and malaria. Misdiagnosis is also common as non-specific symptoms are documented extensively in the literature. This can easily lead to death, as the severe form of leptospirosis (Weil’s disease) manifests as a complex of systemic complications, especially renal failure. The virulence of Leptospira sp. is usually attributed to the outer membrane proteins, including LipL32. With an armament of virulence factors at their disposal, their ability to easily adhere, invade and replicate within cells calls for a swift refinement in research progress to establish their exact pathophysiological framework. As an effort to reconstitute the current knowledge on leptospirosis, the basis of leptospiral infection, including its risk factors, classification, morphology, transmission, pathogenesis, co-infections and clinical manifestations are highlighted in this review. The various diagnostic techniques are also outlined with emphasis on their respective pros and cons.
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Malaria and HIV, two of the world’s most deadly diseases, are widespread, but their distribution overlaps greatly in sub-Saharan Africa. Consequently, malaria and HIV coinfection (MHC) is common in the region. In this paper, pertinent publications on the prevalence, impact, and treatment strategie...s of MHC obtained by searching major electronic databases (PubMed, PubMed Central, Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, and Scopus) were reviewed, and it was found that the prevalence of MHC in SSA was 0.7%–47.5% overall. Prevalence was 0.7%–47.5% in nonpregnant adults, 1.2%–27.8% in children, and 0.94%–37% in pregnant women. MHC was associated with an increased frequency of clinical parasitemia and severe malaria, increased parasite and viral load, and impaired immunity to malaria in nonpregnant adults, children, and pregnant women, increased in placental malaria and related outcomes in pregnant women, and impaired antimalarial drug efficacy in nonpregnant adults and pregnant women. Although a few cases of adverse events have been reported in coinfected patients receiving antimalarial and antiretroviral drugs concurrently, available data are very limited and have not prompted major revision in treatment guidelines for both diseases. Artemisinin-based combination therapy and cotrimoxazole are currently the recommended drugs for treatment and prevention of malaria in HIV-infected children and adults. However, concurrent administration of cotrimoxazole and sulfadoxine–pyrimethamine in HIV-infected pregnant women is not recommended, because of high risk of sulfonamide toxicity. Further research is needed to enhance our understanding of the impact of malaria on HIV, drug–drug interactions in patients receiving antimalarials and antiretroviral drugs concomitantly, and the development of newer, safer, and more cost-effective drugs and vaccines to prevent malaria in HIV-infected pregnant women.
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One of the main aims of the WHO Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer and the CureAll Americas framework is to strengthen centers of excellence and promote the training of the health workforce, especially pediatric oncology nurses, specialized in nursing care for children and adolescents with cance...r and their families. These health personnel provide compassionate, non traumatic, complex, continuous, ethical, conscious patient- and family-centered care in order to meet the physical, emotional, psychosocial, and cultural needs of the people involved. This publication is aimed at health administration teams, hospital management teams, and professional pediatric oncology nursing groups. Its objective is to identify, systematize, and consolidate available evidence on the scope of pediatric oncology nursing practice in Latin America and the Caribbean based on core competencies, in order to incorporate them into clinical practice, teaching, and research. The preparation process included a systematic review aimed at finding the best evidence on this subject. Patient- and family centered care and the conceptual model of competencies for teenagers and young adults with cancer, developed by the Teenage Cancer Trust with the support of the Royal College of Nursing, were the theoretical foundations supporting the systematization of recommendations.
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This report presents an analysis of antibacterial agents in preclinical (third annual review) and clinical (fifth annual review) development. The analysis covers traditional (direct-acting small molecules) and non-traditional antibacterial agents in development worldwide. It evaluates to what extent... the present pipeline addresses infections caused by WHO Priority Pathogens, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Clostridioides difficile. The report also provides an assessment of the traditional agents with respect to whether they meet a set of predefined criteria for innovation, namely absence of known cross-resistance, new target, mode of action and/or class. It also includes an overview of the agents that obtained authorization since 1 July 2017.
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Of the 50 antibiotics in the pipeline, 32 target WHO priority pathogens but the majority have only limited benefits when compared to existing antibiotics. Two of these are active against the multi-drug resistant Gram-negative bacteria, which are spreading rapidly and require urgent solutions.
Gr...am-negative bacteria, such as Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli, can cause severe and often deadly infections that pose a particular threat for people with weak or not yet fully developed immune systems, including newborns, ageing populations, people undergoing surgery and cancer treatment.
The report highlights a worrying gap in activity against the highly resistant NDM-1 (New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase 1), with only three antibiotics in the pipeline. NDM-1 makes bacteria resistant to a broad range of antibiotics, including those from the carbapenem family, which today are the last line of defence against antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections.
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A Guide For Multicentre Trials in High-Burden Countries
August 2020, The Africa Joint Continental Strategy for COVID-19 is underpinned by the need to limit transmission, prevent deaths and reduce associated harms. Participation by African nations in clinical trials is an essential step to ensure that sufficient data is generated on the safety and efficac...y of the most promising vaccine candidates among the region’s populations.
While current COVID-19 clinical trial activity on the continent is limited, Africa has substantial experience and capabilities to conduct clinical trials for preventative vaccines across a range of diseases, and many organizations on the continent are working tirelessly to help prepare additional trials on potential COVID-19 vaccines. As the number of candidate vaccines in the development pipeline continues to increase, it will be important for organizations responsible for managing clinical trials in the region to partner with vaccine developers to identify potential and appropriate trial locations, provide support to remove any critical obstacles impeding commencement and progress of trials, and to provide oversight ensuring that trials are conducted safely and ethically.
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A lot of research articles concerning SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 are published every day. Many of them, so-called pre-prints, are not reviewed in a professional reviewing process at the time of publication. Others are already reviewed and published in well-known journals. Collabovid helps researchers to id...entify the most relevant information by using Natural Language Processing. You can search for any topic you want below. Visit search to review all articles or browse a list of predefined categories. For additional help visit the frequently asked questions.
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Researchers are devising a clinical-trial protocol to test three medicines in Africa's latest outbreak
Nature doi: 10.1038/d41586-018-06132-7
Clinical Medicine
JCI Insight. 2017;2(7):e91963.
The pre-clinical pipeline shows more innovation and diversity, with 252 agents being developed to treat WHO priority pathogens.
However, these products are in the very early stages of development and still need to be proven effective and safe. The optimistic scenario, the report indicates, is for... the first two to five products to become available in about 10 years.
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Preprints are preliminary reports of work that have not been certified by peer review. They should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
COVID-19 SARS-CoV-2 preprints from medRxiv and bioRxiv
Updated 2022. This guide addresses the care pathway from presentation of the patient to a health facility to patient discharge. It considers different levels of disease severity, from asymptomatic individuals to critically ill patients. Accounting for variations in the benefits and harms of chest im...aging in different situations, remarks are provided to describe the circumstances under which each recommendation would benefit patients. The guide also includes implementation considerations for different settings, provides suggestions for impact monitoring and evaluation and identifies knowledge gaps meriting further research.
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This rapid advice guide examines the evidence and makes recommendations for the use of chest imaging in acute care of adult patients with suspected, probable or confirmed COVID-19. Imaging modalities considered are radiography, computed tomography and ultrasound. This guide addresses the care pathwa...y from presentation of the patient to a health facility to patient discharge. It considers different levels of disease severity, from asymptomatic individuals to critically ill patients. Accounting for variations in the benefits and harms of chest imaging in different situations, remarks are provided to describe the circumstances under which each recommendation would benefit patients. The guide also includes implementation considerations for different settings, provides suggestions for impact monitoring and evaluation and identifies knowledge gaps meriting further research.
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The COVID-19 vaccine tracker and landscape compiles detailed information of each COVID-19 vaccine candidate in development by closely monitoring their progress through the pipeline.
The COVID-19 vaccine tracker:
Provides summary tables of COVID-19 vaccine candidates in both clinical and pre-...clinical development;
Provides analysis and visualization for several COVID-19 vaccine candidate categories;
Tracks the progress of each vaccine from pre-clinical, Phase 1, Phase 2 through to Phase 3 efficacy studies and including Phase 4 registered as interventional studies;
Provides links to published reports on safety, immunogenicity and efficacy data of the vaccine candidates;
Includes information on key attributes of each vaccine candidate and
Allows users to search for COVID-19 vaccines through various criteria such as vaccine platform, schedule of vaccination, route of administration, developer, trial phase and clinical endpoints.
The database is updated regularly - twice a week (Tuesday and Friday, 17:00 CET).
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