SAATCHI BILL
Access to Medical Treatments (Innovation) Bill passes third reading in the House of Lords Dear , The Access to Medical Treatments (Innovation) Bill has passed its third reading in the House of Lords, meaning it’ll soon have Royal Assent and pass into law. The Bill is the result of a lot of hard work by Lord Saatchi and Chris Heaton-Harris MP. Lord Saatchi first championed this issue in the House of Lords with the Medical Innovation Bill in 2014, which made important progress and truly threw open the debate on the outdated systems that surround drug development and patient prescription. Unfortunately the Medical Innovation Bill was defeated in the House of Commons. Subsequently, Chris Heaton-Harris MP took on the task and with the support of the Life Sciences Minister George Freeman he got the new Access to Medical Treatments (Innovation) Bill through the House of Commons in 2015. This new bill was guided through the House of Lords by Lord Saatchi, and provides a real opportunity to renew the focus on patients’ rights to try innovative medicines, within a reasonable risk framework. Importantly, given Empower’s new drive for data sharing, the Bill’s proposed database of medical innovation provides a real opportunity to share innovative treatment information more widely and much faster. Empower has long advocated appropriate access, for some patients, to certain medicines earlier in the clinical trials process. The new Access to Medical Treatments (Innovation) Bill provides a real opportunity to make that ambition a reality. Peers were supportive of the bill and it passed its third stage without debate or dissenting voices. You can watch the passing of the Access...Risk Factors for Bartonella species Infection in Blood Donors from Southeast Brazil
Pedro Paulo Vissotto de Paiva Diniz , Paulo Eduardo Neves Ferreira Velho , Luiza Helena Urso Pitassi , Marina Rovani Drummond , Bruno Grosselli Lania , Maria Lourdes Barjas-Castro , Stanley Sowy , Edward B. Breitschwerdt , Diana Gerardi Scorpio Published: March 21, 2016 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0004509 http://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pntd.0004509 Abstract Bacteria from the genus Bartonella are emerging blood-borne bacteria, capable of causing long-lasting infection in marine and terrestrial mammals, including humans. Bartonella are generally well adapted to their main host, causing persistent infection without clinical manifestation. However, these organisms may cause severe disease in natural or accidental hosts. In humans, Bartonella species have been detected from sick patients presented with diverse disease manifestations, including cat scratch disease, trench fever, bacillary angiomatosis, endocarditis, polyarthritis, or granulomatous inflammatory disease. However, with the advances in diagnostic methods, subclinical bloodstream infection in humans has been reported, with the potential for transmission through blood transfusion been recently investigated by our group. The objective of this study was to determine the risk factors associated with Bartonella species infection in asymptomatic blood donors presented at a major blood bank in Southeastern Brazil. Five hundred blood donors were randomly enrolled and tested for Bartonella species infection by specialized blood cultured coupled with high-sensitive PCR assays. Epidemiological questionnaires were designed to cover major potential risk factors, such as age, gender, ethnicity, contact with companion animals, livestock, or wild animals, bites from insects or animal, economical status, among other factors. Based on multivariate logistic regression, bloodstream infection with B. henselae or B. clarridgeiae was associated with cat contact (adjusted OR: 3.4, 95% CI: 1.1–9.6) or history of tick bite (adjusted...CO-INFECTION OF TICKS: THE RULE RATHER THAN THE EXCEPTION
Claire Valiente Moro ,Elise Vaumourin ,Lorraine Michelet ,Florence Hélène Tran ,Elodie Devillers , Jean-François Cosson ,Patrick Gasqui ,Van Tran Van ,Patrick Mavingui ,Gwenaël Vourc’h ,Muriel Vayssier-Taussat Published: March 17, 2016 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0004539 http://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pntd.0004539 Abstract Introduction Ticks are the most common arthropod vectors of both human and animal diseases in Europe, and the Ixodes ricinus tick species is able to transmit a large number of bacteria, viruses and parasites. Ticks may also be co-infected with several pathogens, with a subsequent high likelihood of co-transmission to humans or animals. However few data exist regarding co-infection prevalences, and these studies only focus on certain well-known pathogens. In addition to pathogens, ticks also carry symbionts that may play important roles in tick biology, and could interfere with pathogen maintenance and transmission. In this study we evaluated the prevalence of 38 pathogens and four symbionts and their co-infection levels as well as possible interactions between pathogens, or between pathogens and symbionts. Methodology/principal findings A total of 267 Ixodes ricinus female specimens were collected in the French Ardennes and analyzed by high-throughput real-time PCR for the presence of 37 pathogens (bacteria and parasites), by rRT-PCR to detect the presence of Tick-Borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) and by nested PCR to detect four symbionts. Possible multipartite interactions between pathogens, or between pathogens and symbionts were statistically evaluated. Among the infected ticks, 45% were co-infected, and carried up to five different pathogens. When adding symbiont prevalences, all ticks were infected by at least one microorganism, and up to eight microorganisms were identified in the same tick. When considering possible interactions between pathogens, the results suggested a strong association...CANINE BABESIOSIS IN THE UK
Dog owners warned of fatal tick-borne disease canine babesiosis which is likely to spread around UK By Lucy Clarke-Billings Professor Richard Wall, from the University of Bristol, said: “The recent Babesia cases in Essex are of huge significance. “The fact that we now appear to have established populations of the tick Dermacentor reticulatus acting as vectors of the introduced pathogen Babesia canis is a new and important development and a major concern for animal health.” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/12194796/Dog-owners-warned-of-fatal-tick-borne-disease-canine-babesiosis-which-is-likely-to-spread-around-UK.html Dog owners warned about new tick disease By Claire Marshall BBC Environment Correspondent Prof Richard Wall is professor of zoology at the University of Bristol. He is helping to conduct the largest ever veterinary study of ticks and tick-borne diseases, called the Big Tick Project. “People who work on ticks and tick-borne diseases are concerned about this outbreak. It could be the tip of the iceberg. If it spreads quickly throughout the UK then it is going to be a very significant problem, but we don’t have enough info at this stage to make a prediction about how quickly this will happen. “It’s highly unlikely that the problem will now disappear, we have the vectors, we have the pathogens established in the UK.”...
