Colorectal Cancer Patients in Sub-Saharan Africa Receiving Inadequate Care; Survival After Diagnosis Poor, New Study Shows

In new findings led by researchers at the American Cancer Society, Martin-Luther University in Germany, and many other institutes worldwide, fewer than one in 20 patients diagnosed with potentially curable colorectal cancer received standard of care in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Paenibacillus infection cause of hydrocephalus in Ugandan infants

In a landmark paper, an international team led by Yale School of Medicine’s Dr. Steven Schiff details three linked studies conclusively linking the bacteria Paenibacillus thiaminolyticus to an estimated 4,000 new cases of postinfectious hydrocephalus in Ugandan infants each year. Paenibacillus…

Vanderbilt, Zambia Researchers Find Delirium in Hospitalized Patients Linked to Mortality, Disability in Sub-Saharan Africa

Delirium, a form of acute brain dysfunction, is widespread in critically ill patients in lower resourced hospitals, and the duration of delirium predicted both mortality and disability at six months after discharge, according to a study published in PLOS ONE.

New Study Shows How Climate Impacts Food Webs, Poses Socioeconomic Threat in Eastern Africa

For the first time, a research team has obtained high resolution sedimentary core samples from Lake Tanganyika. The samples show that high frequency variability in climate can lead to major disruptions in how the lake’s food web functions. The changes could put millions of people at risk who rely on the lake for food security. The team says the findings are a critical building block toward research-informed policymaking in the Lake Tanganyika region.

Can community-based interventions help to close the epilepsy treatment gap?

More than 50 million people have epilepsy; about 80% live in lower- or middle-income countries, where diagnosis and treatment can be difficult or impossible. The percentage of people with epilepsy that is not receiving treatment is known as the treatment gap; in some countries, this gap exceeds 90%.