157: keeping pace with parasites

I had the usual Sunday 'good news blight' experience today, but eventually found a promising story on Reuters. Another health research discovery! Not in relation to cancer this time, though. Instead, schistosomiasis - a parasitic disease, which affects more than 200 million people across at least 70 countries and causes severe illness or death. It's also a very neglected disease, in terms of the limited resources dedicated to researching it. But evidently some good research is happening, as scientists from Illinois State University and the US National Institutes of Health have just discovered a new compound that appears to harm the parasite without harming its host, and which could therefore form the basis of new therapies. This would be very welcome, since there is currently only one drug that is effective in treating schistosomiasis, and concerns about drug resistance are emerging. So it's a race against time, in other words... Fortunately, thanks to this recent discovery, we may just win that race.