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Editorial
Prof. Dr. Marcel Tanner, Director
Dear Reader
The topic of our second newsletter – following a first issue on malaria – focuses on the whole spectrum of the so-called neglected tropical diseases. These diseases justifiably gained substantial interest over the past decade. They are also an area of great interest and effort of the Swiss Tropical Institute (STI) for a long time.
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1) Focus on Neglected Tropical Diseases
Buruli ulcer
Prof. Dr. Gerd Pluschke
Buruli ulcer (BU) caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans is considered to be the third most common mycobacterial infection after tuberculosis and leprosy. Since it is one of the most devastating neglected infectious diseases, the World Health Assembly adopted in May 2004 a resolution on BU calling for increased surveillance and control and for intensified research to develop tools for diagnosis, treatment and prevention of BU.
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Food-borne trematodiasis
Prof. Dr. Jennifer Keiser
Current global estimates are that at least 750 million people are at risk of food-borne trematodiasis (>10% of the world’s population) with more than 40 million people infected. Over 100 species of food-borne trematodes are known to parasitize humans, many of which also infect domestic animals. However, food-borne trematodiasis is a truly neglected tropical disease.
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Clinical Research in Neglected Tropical Diseases
Dr. Christian Burri
After decades with almost no research and development for neglected tropical diseases, this field has gained significant momentum in the past few years. Today, a fair part of the neglected tropical diseases drug development projects are conducted under the umbrella of Public-Private Partnerships (PPP), embracing a public body, one or several private companies and / or academic institutions in a long-term joint venture.
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Drug discovery at the Swiss Tropical Institute
Prof. Dr. Reto Brun
Based on a profound expertise in the in vitro cultivation of protozoan parasites, the group under the leadership of Prof. Reto Brun started to establish a Screening Centre for protozoan parasites at the beginning of the 1990s in collaboration with the UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR).
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Neglected tropical diseases in the open-access literature
Prof. Dr. Juerg Utzinger
The growing awareness of the so-called neglected tropical diseases is witnessed by increased political and financial means to control these diseases, recent publications in the top biomedical literature (e.g. New England Journal of Medicine and PLoS Medicine) and the launch of two new open-access journals that are devoted to the neglected tropical diseases, namely PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases and Geospatial Health. Members of STI serve on the editorial and advisory boards of both journals and a number of papers authored/co-authored by STI staff have already been published or are currently in press in these journals.
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Strongyloides stercoralis: a neglected soil-transmitted helminth
Peter Steinmann, MSc.
The most common and widely researched soil-transmitted helminths are Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura and the hookworms (Ancylostoma duodenale and Necator americanus). An estimated 1-2 billion people around the world are infected with one or several of these intestinal nematodes, causing a global burden that might be as high as 39 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), similar to that owing to malaria or tuberculosis. Yet, soil-transmitted helminthiases are so-called neglected tropical diseases. Perhaps the most neglected among them is Strongyloides stercoralis, though an estimated 30-100 million people are infected in tropical and temperate regions of the world.
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Download all texts on Focus Neglected Tropical Diseases as pdf file
2) Course Bulletin
3) STI Symposium December 2007
4) Job Opportunities
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