New research carried out in a disease-endemic region of Ghana has revealed that the cheap antibiotic doxycycline, which is already approved for clinical use, can relieve the symptoms of lymphatic filariasis (LF). Currently over 120 million people are afflicted with LF (also known as elephantiasis), and more than 40 million people are incapacitated or disfigured by the disease. Sufferers are often shunned and cannot marry or find work. Antifilarial drugs reduce the transmission of the disease by killing bloodborne parasitic filarial worms, but drugs to treat the pathology of infection by killing worms that have invaded the lymphatic system have been lacking. A study published in PloS Pathogens shows that doxycycline can be used to treat LF pathology. The treatment works by targeting Wolbachia, a bacterial symbiont of the filarial worms. The authors hope that combining doxycycline with other anti-parasitic drug-treatment regimes, such as ivermectin, will improve the quality of life for infected individuals. PloS Pathogens
The CDC has confirmed that 187 people in 26 states in America have been infected with Escherichia coli O157:H7 in an outbreak that originated from contaminated packaged spinach. More than 50% of the affected individuals were hospitalized with one death reported. DNA fingerprints of strains isolated from bagged spinach in Pennsylvania, Illinois and Ohio matched the outbreak strain, which was traced to tainted spinach from Natural Selection Foods of San Juan Bautista, California. “Factory farms are a major source of E. coli contamination, but the EPA (Environment Protection Agency) is not doing enough to protect our food or water supplies,” said Melanie Shepherdson of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Recalls have been issued for all contaminated products. The Toronto Star has reported that a woman in Ontario, Canada has also been affected by spinach-borne E. coli. Reuters/CDC
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