Faster diagnosis for tuberculosis could help stop the spread of this killer disease. Sydney’s Centenary Institute is helping a rural Chinese hospital to more quickly diagnose TB and to monitor how its 1,300 TB patients respond to treatment.
This is the first in a series of stories in the lead-up to World TB Day this Sunday 24 March.
TB was the leading cause of death in Australia 130 years ago but today the developing world suffers the brunt of the disease, with a third of all new cases occurring in India and China.
This week we’ll announce a new centre opening in Sydney to contribute to a world-wide campaign to eliminate TB by 2050. We’ll also be talking about Australian efforts to fight TB in Vietnam, where 54,000 people die from TB every year.
And is Australia top for scientific research in the region? Which is Australia’s top-performing institute? This week Nature will reveal its 2012 Asia-Pacific research rankings.
And in Melbourne 2,000 students from 80 countries gather for a youth UN.
More below:
- Sydney scientists on the hunt for faster TB diagnosis for China’s millions of TB cases
- Nature releases 2012 research rankings for the Asia-Pacific
- Future leaders meet in Melbourne to change the world
- Genetics, nanotech and cancer cures: Dubbo talks science at the club
- The end of absolute poverty – Gates Foundation policy maker to visit Australia
Sydney scientists on the hunt for faster TB diagnosis for China’s millions of TB cases
China’s Ningxia Hospital sees more TB cases a year than the whole of Australia.
A new project at the hospital, in collaboration with researchers from the Centenary Institute in Sydney, aims to identify a new way of diagnosing TB and monitoring response to treatment. The research is funded in part by the Australian Respiratory Council.
The Ningxia Infectious Diseases Hospital in China’s north-west sees as many as 1,300 new cases of TB each year.
Treating so many cases is difficult with limited resources.
“Tuberculosis grows slowly and can take weeks to culture which delays diagnosis,” says one of the project’s chief investigators Dr Simone Barry of the Centenary Institute.
“Many people also put off seeing their doctor due to stigma and also fear, and this again delays diagnosis. It is during this time, before a person starts on treatment that they can pass on the bacteria to other people.”
Each undiagnosed case of TB will infect on average another 10-14 people each year. Drug resistance is also a big problem.
“Often, due to financial reasons or a lack of understanding, patients stop taking their drugs too early and it is at this time that resistant strains develop. The patient may then infect family and friends with resistant strains that are much harder to treat,” Simone says.
The full release is at www.scienceinpublic.com.au/centenary/tbchina
See www.centenary.org.au for more information.
For interviews, contact: Toni Stevens, Science in Public, 0401 763 130 toni@scienceinpublic.com.au
Nature releases 2012 research rankings for the Asia-Pacific
Embargoed until 5am AEDT Thursday March 21
This week Nature will announce which Asia-Pacific countries and universities published the most research in Nature journals in 2012.
We can share those details in advance under embargo from tomorrow.
The Nature Publishing Index measures the output of research articles from nations and institutes to provide a snapshot of research around the world.
The index is based on work published in the 18 Nature-branded primary research journals over the calendar year.
Future leaders meet in Melbourne to change the world
How do we preserve dying languages? How do we stop teenagers from smoking? How can we feed the world and prevent violence against women?
Two thousand young change-makers from 80 countries will meet for the world’s largest international student-led youth conference, the Harvard World Model United Nations (WorldMUN), from 18-22 March.
WorldMUN puts students in the place of world leaders, sitting in a mock version of the UN General Assembly. They also sit on various UN committees including the World Health Organisation, the International Criminal Court, the World Bank, UNESCO, the Human Rights Council and the Chinese Politburo.
Now in its 22nd year, with past meetings in Brussels, Geneva, London and Beijing, the world’s future leaders will be hosted here in Melbourne by students from Monash University and RMIT University at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.
The conference is supported by all levels of government in Australia, and this year, for the first time, they’ve got the backing of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), our regional arm of the United Nations Secretariat.
This year’s conference asks what will come after the UN’s Millennium Development Goals – eight targets in health, education, finance and human rights – giving delegate the tools they need to fight the good fight back home.
But many of these young people are doing remarkable work already:
- Indonesian Kyana Dipananda has established Buku Berjalan – The Walking Book – to share books with children in her community.
- Costa Rican communication student Natalia Salas is determined to keep children in school by bringing the One Laptop One Child project to her home country by 2014.
- Lena Diekhans, from Germany, is funding women’s groups in Togo to work together to grow beans and rice, using $15,000 she’s raised through parties and events back home. She’s also encouraged 50 fellow business students to take on their own development projects.
- Entrepreneur Bonnie Chiu is building a social enterprise to tackle poverty by photographing and sharing the stories of the poorest women in her home town Hong Kong, with plans to expand to Indonesia.
We are helping with media for the conference. For more information, contact Tamzin Byrne, Science in Public: +61 (432)974 400 or tamzin@scienceinpublic.com.au
A full release at www.scienceinpublic.com.au/worldmun/future-leaders-meet
Dubbo talks science at the club
Residents of Dubbo gathered at the city’s RSL Club on Thursday to talk with scientists about their latest research, from choosing the sex of chickens to red cordial’s potential to combat stomach bugs.
Dr Heather Cavanagh and Dr Nigel Urwin from Charles Sturt University held the attention of a room full of teens, retirees, students and parents. They took questions on genetics, biotech, nanotech, cancer cures and Dr Cavanagh’s specialty: using natural plant products in real research.
ABC’s Andrew Dunkley was MC for the evening and the ABC has broadcasted excerpts of the session.
The event was the third of a series of Science at the Pub events being held around the country.
Newcastle and Hobart have also had their turn, with evenings of lively science discussion still set for pubs in other regional settings.
The program is an initiative of the Australian Government’s innovation department.
The end of absolute poverty – Gates Foundation policy maker to visit Australia
Geoffrey Lamb, Gates Foundation President of Global Policy and Advocacy will give the 2013 Graeme Clark Oration on Monday 29 April in Melbourne.
He will have some time for a small number of high impact interviews while he’s here.
If you’ll be in Melbourne, you’re also invited to the Oration at the Melbourne Convention Centre at 5.30pm on 29 April. Let me know if you’re planning to come along.
In his Oration, Geoff will review the extraordinary successes of the past half century in reducing mortality and disease. He will show how investments in health have been critical for economic growth and the reduction of global poverty – and have helped bring the goal of an end to absolute global poverty within generational sight. “In retrospect the huge basic health advances of recent decades may have been the easy part,” Geoff says.
“What needs to be done to ensure the next transformation in global health, and make the end of absolute poverty attainable?”
Geoff leads the foundation’s international policy and advocacy team, and its engagement with governments and international institutions.
The Graeme Clark Oration is a free public lecture established to honour Professor Graeme Clark, inventor of the bionic ear. The Oration celebrates the new possibilities emerging from the convergence of biology, computing and engineering. It is hosted by the ICT for Life Sciences Forum, collaboration between Melbourne’s leading medical research institutes, hospitals and universities to share ideas about the convergence of biology and computer science.
For interviews, contact:
Niall Byrne, Science in Public, +61 (417) 131 977, niall@scienceinpublic.com.au
More details about the Graeme Clark Oration: www.graemeclarkoration.org.au
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