By Nsikan Akpan
A third of the world’s population is at risk of catching the Zika virus, according to a new study led by scientists at Oxford University in England.
By Kirk Johnson
SEATTLE — Inside the factory buildings at Cascade Designs, just south of downtown Seattle, camping and hiking gear for the rugged outdoor life of the Pacific Northwest has been manufactured since the early 1970s. But turn a corner and something new is coming off the shop floor: a compact, no-frills water purifier designed to bring clean water to struggling populations in rural Africa.
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By Prachi Patel
...Paul Yager, a biochemist at the University of Washington, meanwhile, has developed a handheld plastic device the size of two stacked card decks that contains strips of patterned paper and wells containing reagents and dyes, and into which a user would insert a fluid sample. The patterns of dots that appear after 20 minutes could be read by a clinician or sent via smartphone camera to a physician elsewhere. Yager says that the box could cost as little as $1 to manufacture in bulk.
By Karin Huster, MPH ('14)
This month marks two years since the first Ebola cases were confirmed in Guinea. The time has come for recollection and reflection, frank opinions and lessons learned. What did we do well? What should we have done differently? What has Ebola taught us? I spent 6 weeks in Liberia, 4 1/2 months in Sierra Leone, and 6 months in Guinea during the epidemic, working with Ebola patients and focusing on strategies to fight the disease. These thoughts come from the experiences that I had working in the field.
The University of Washington received a $250,000 grant this week to continue a project that allows pregnant women in remote Africa to access health care through text message.
A flexible and inexpensive ring that is inserted into the vagina, where it slowly releases an antiviral drug, helped protect African women against contracting H.I.V. from their sexual partners, researchers said Monday in reports on two major studies that included more than 4,500 women.
By Lisa Rossi
Two large clinical trials have found that a microbicide prevention method can safely help reduce new HIV infections in women.
Results of the ASPIRE trial, which enrolled more than 2,600 women in Africa, were announced today at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston. The results also will be published online in the New England Journal of Medicine.
By Brian Mastroianni
The numbers are sobering -- more than 5.5 million people die prematurely each year as the result of household and outdoor air pollution, according to new research presented Friday at the 2016 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
What areas are most at risk? The study found more than half of these deaths occur in China and India, two of the world's fastest-growing economies.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — In its brief lifespan, the mosquito that carries the Zika virus is caught in a race: Will it pass the disease to humans before it dies?
Weather might make the difference. Scientists say the hotter it gets, the more likely the insect can spread disease.
By Molly Shen
SEATTLE -- On the heels of the World Health Organization declaring a public health emergency related to the Zika virus, local scientists said they are already working on a cure. And if they're able to treat Zika, it could also mean a cure for viruses ranging from West Nile to Ebola, to the common cold.
Scientists at biotech company Kineta and the University of Washington are developing the compound. Just like antibiotics treat bacterial infections, their antiviral drug would fend off a range of viruses.