Congratulations to Pearl Gan, OUCRU Photographer in Residence, for her winning image selected for the Lancet Highlights 2020: Framing Health Stories. Despite the difficulties of this pandemic year, The Lancet received fascinating and varied entries for our Highlights 2020 photography competition. 15 striking photographs were selected. Each picture captures a unique moment, highlighting a health story.
The YAAR! project, bringing together young people from four countries in the Global South to help combat the challenge of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), or drug resistant infections.
Oxford is world-famous for research excellence and home to some of the most talented people from across the globe. To showcase our global research, the University launched a Global Research Map, highlighting areas of research we are conducting overseas.
Covid-19 continues to cause huge disruption worldwide. As well as the ongoing immediate health impacts of the pandemic, its economic toll is being felt across the world, particularly in LMICs like Nepal. In addition to the wide-ranging disruption of health services, Covid-19 has shifted research priorities and stalled other essential ongoing research. Despite many problems, Covid-19 has afforded a unique opportunity for a better understanding of health research and methodologies in infectious diseases.
Resistance to antibiotics is one of the key challenges to healthcare this century. Tackling it will require sweeping changes to antibiotic use in animals\u2060\u2014and researchers from Oxford University Clinical Research Unit are rising to the challenge in Vietnam, with a rigorous test of programmes among farmers.
The World Mosquito Program posted the results of a 3-year randomised controlled trial in Yogyakarta, Indonedia, providing compelling gold standard evidence for the efficacy of the Wolbachia method in controlling dengue. The deployment of Wolbachia-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquitoes lead to a reduction of 77% in dengue incidence in Wolbachia-treated versus untreated areas.
This year has seen a high level of recognition of distinction in the Africa and Asia Programmes and Global Health research. Many congratulations to our researchers.
Dr Le Van Tan in OUCRU, in collaboration with the Hospital for Tropical Diseases and the Department of Health, has shown that it is common for people who are infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) to have no symptoms whatsoever. By testing quarantined people in Vietnam, his team was able to detect asymptomatic individuals. The virus disappeared faster from the bodies of the asymptomatic carriers than from that of symptomatic individuals, but it appeared that some of them still managed to pass the infection on to others.
Despite a long border with China and a population of 97 million people, Vietnam has recorded only just over 300 cases of Covid-19 and not a single death. The country very quickly enacted measures such as travel restrictions, monitoring and eventually closing border with China, closing schools and increasing health checks at borders and other vulnerable places. A vast and labour intensive contact tracing operation got under way. Quarantine on such a vast scale is key as evidence mounts that as many as half of all infected people are asymptomatic.
This community drama programme was designed by the OUCRU Public and Community Engagement group to raise awareness about the importance of vaccinations in remote areas of Binh Phuoc province. The majority of the population are ethnic minority groups with limited access to health promotion. Without even radio as a method of dissemination, home visits by local healthcare workers is the main way to encourage the community to get vaccinated. Scripted very closely to the context of everyday lives, this play helps understand more about vaccinations and explains how to access the National Expanded Programme on Immunization.
In recognition of her past contributions to the field of international infectious diseases and in anticipation of her future impact on the discipline, Sophie Yacoub, Dengue Research Group Head at OUCRU, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, is recognised as ISID Emerging Leader in International Infectious Diseases.
A large field study of typhoid conjugate vaccine (TCV) in Nepal has shown a single dose to be safe and effective in reducing typhoid in children aged 9 months to <16 years in an endemic setting. OUCRU-Nepal Professor Buddha Basnyat took part in this study.
Earlier this year, OUCRU Photographer in Residence Pearl Gan conducted a project focusing on dengue. In that project, she took photos of dengue patients and health care workers at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. She also took photos of dengue patients in their homes and at research sites in the city. This project was funded by the Wellcome Trust, and this week selected photos from that project have been published in The Lancet as a photo story.
Mary Chambers (OUCRU Public Engagement Vietnam) and Gill Black (Sustainable Livelihood Foundation, South Africa) have partnered with The Global Health Network training centre to published this online course and handbook
A mother and her baby leave a Puskesmas - a government-mandated primary care clinic - in West Java, Indonesia, following a check-up. The woman smiles, as the infant stares out from the safety of a bright sarong wrap. This quiet moment of active participation in their own health and well-being is the realisation of a fundamental human right. WHO\u2019s vision for primary health care in the 21st century is to ensure the highest possible level of health and well-being, with equitable distribution.
Today April 25 is World Malaria Day. We would like to highlight a malaria photography project by photographer Pearl Gan, in collaboration with OUCRU in Vietnam and EOCRU in Indonesia. Pearl's malaria project aims to bring visibility to the people and their malaria burden through her photographs of them and their environment. She hopes to humanise the faces of malaria and the malaria problem in the Asia-Pacific to audiences unfamiliar with it.
OUCRU Photographer in Residence Pearl Gan has been awarded the International Society for Neglected Tropical Diseases (ISNTD) Festival Award for her submission to the ISNTD Festival Showcase. Pearl submission included seven photographs, and was recognised for its impact on tropical diseases and its broader development goals.
Director of Wellcome since 2013, Jeremy Farrar was previously Director of our OUCRU Vietnam programme for 18 years. He has published almost 600 peer-reviewed scientific papers, and mentored many dozens of students and fellows. These honours recognise the outstanding commitment and contribution Jeremy has made to science and medicine, and to improving health for individuals and communities globally.
Abhilasha Karkey, medical microbiologist at our OUCRU Unit in Kathmandu, Nepal, received the 2018 Magill Fellowship at the ASTMH conference in New Orleans. \"Persistent gender inequality in science has severely limited women from achieving their potential to effectively contribute to scientific knowledge. I would like to grow as a leader and thereby encourage and inspire other scientists \u2013 especially women in South Asia.\"
A photo from Pearl Gan, Photographer In Residence for OUCRU, was selected for The Lancet Highlights 2018. The picture shows Senior Nurse Shikh Rema changing the dressing for Jabeda Begom, a 65-year-old woman with leprosy, at the Jalchatra Hospital in Bangladesh. Treatment of leprosy is a lengthy process, but thanks to dedicated staff, patients are given the care and attention they need.
This article, written by Professor Nick Day at MORU and published in the November 2018 issue of the Oxford Alumni Newsletter, describes in a nutshell all the good work our Centre is doing to promote Global Oxford.
People who live with malaria in the Asia-Pacific are often invisible \u2013 a photograph exhibition by Pearl Gan introduces us to these invisible people, giving them flesh, blood, feelings, and lives. 5-30 November 2018 in Jakarta
Congratulations Bridget Wills, Professor of Tropical Medicine at our OUCRU unit in vietnam, awarded RSTMH Sir Rickard Christophers Medal. The Sir Rickard Christophers Medal is awarded triennially for work in tropical medicine and hygiene in its broadest sense and in particular for practical and field applications.
The Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Ho Chi Minh City is participating in a project to reduce antibiotic resistance on farms in Asia by educating farmers. Juan Carrique-Mas of the Clinical Research Unit said: \u201cWe're improving the knowledge base of farmers and vets rather than a ban on antibiotics, which would be unlikely to be complied with.\u201d
A team of malaria experts from a large international research collaboration has today published results supporting the need for a radical cure strategy to tackle one of the most debilitating forms of malaria caused by the Plasmodium vivax parasite.
Aspirin helps increase survival from TB meningitis by reducing brain inflammation and preventing the disease from blocking blood vessels in the brain that cause parts of the brain to die, commonly called \u2018stroke\u2019.
In a first of its kind study into the population and spread of tuberculosis-causing (TB) bacteria in Ho Chi Minh City, Thuong Thuong Nguyn and collegues at OUCRU Vietnam, Australia, UK and Singapore have found that more than half of cases can be attributed to one particular strain of the bacteria.
Seven Oxford scientists are amongst 48 of the UK's world-leading researchers elected to join the prestigious Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences this year. Fellows are elected for their outstanding contributions to biomedical and health science, leading research discoveries, and translating developments into benefits for patients and the wider society.
While many LMICs still lack appropriate access to antibiotics, a global increase is driven largely by some developing countries which face more drug-resistant infections. To tackle antimicrobial resistance, we need to look at all the factors behind how and when antibiotics are used. A common obstacle is lack of access to clean water, which makes preventing and controlling infections nearly impossible.
Professor Kevin Baird, Head of EOCRU in Jakarta, Indonesia, talks about how more needs to be done to mitigate the threat of malaria in Asia Pacific. This article includes photos from Pearl Gan who travelled through the Asia Pacific region to capture the stories of people and communities impacted by malaria.
Science Blog. Professor Guy Thwaites, Director of the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit, Vietnam, explains the discovery of yet another use for one of the most ubiquitous and ancient of drugs \u2013 aspirin.
Over two-thirds of meat samples from Ho Chi Minh City were found to contain Salmonella bacteria, according to a study by the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit (OUCRU). Researchers purchased 117 samples of chicken meat, beef and pork from retail sites in 2016-2017; 68.4% of those samples were found to contain Salmonella bacteria.
Every year thousands of pilgrims visit religious sites in the mountains of Nepal, many of them unaware of the dangers of climbing to high altitudes. The Himalayan Rescue Association, OUCRU Public Engagement and Media for Development worked together with the pilgrim community to create a public health film to inform others of the challenges of these journeys.
Medical research relies on studies on large numbers of people in order to quantify the effects of diseases, and their treatments. However each patient is an individual. How can personal stories add to this \u2018hard\u2019 scientific approach? Join our \"science and stories\" cafe talks on 23rd Nov, 7th Dec and 11th Jan at The Old Compass Cafe and Bar, in Ho Chi Minh City.
OUCRU researchers are proud to be involved in HECTOR \u2013 an interdisciplinary, multi-national research consortium which is investigating the genetic factors that contribute to antibiotic resistance.
The Universitas Indonesia Faculty of Medicine (FMUI) and the University of Oxford's Eijkman Oxford Clinical Research Unit (EOCRU, embedded with the Eijkman Institute of Molecular Biology, EIMB, and part of the Vietnam/Asia Wellcome research programme) have completed a facility dedicated to the support of the many collaborative clinical research activities between the two universities.
The Medical Sciences Divisional Panel has conferred the title of Professor to two members of CTMGH's academic staff. Jeremy Day, Professor of Infectious Diseases heads the CNS and HIV Infections Research Group at OUCRU; Eduard Sanders, Professor of global health practice leads the HIV care and research programme at KWTRP.
The University of Oxford has conferred the title of Associate Professor to Yoel Lubell, Head of Economics and Translational Research at MORU, to Olivo Miotto from the Centre for Genomics and Global Health at MORU, and to Ronald Geskus from OUCRU. Louise Thwaites, Clinical Research Fellow at OUCRU, was appointed University Research Lecturer.
The amount of influenza-specific antibodies present in an individual\u2019s blood can indicate not only if they experienced the flu, but potentially when - a finding that could improve disease monitoring in the tropics, where flu season is unending.\r\n\r\nIn the largest study of its kind, an international team, led by researchers from the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and Penn State University, identified antibody concentrations that correspond to recent and past exposure to the flu strain H1N1 - the strain involved in the 2009 flu pandemic.
Researchers from Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Vietnam have shown that amphotericin B is more effective than itraconazole for the initial treatment of talaromycosis in HIV patients.
OUCRU researchers and Public Engagement department coordinated the BBC World Service radio recording of \u2018Preventing Pandemics\u2019 for The Evidence series on \u2018Humans and Animals\u2019.
Photos from a project conducted in collaboration with photographer Pearl Gan at EOCRU in Jakarta, Indonesia were published last week in the Lancet. The See Malaria in Asia Project aims to raise public awareness of malaria as a serious health problem for the region by telling the human story of Asia\u2019s invisible malaria burden.
In a guest blog, Professor Stephen Baker explains the importance of monitoring the emergence of infectious diseases in Asia. Zoonotic diseases that pass from animal to human are an international public health problem regardless of location, but in lower-income countries the opportunities for such pathogens to enter the food chain are amplified.
Professor Stephen Baker has been awarded the Fleming Prize for his work on the evolution and spread of antibiotic resistance, and he combines genomics and epidemiology to provide a better understanding of disease outbreaks.
Oxford University Clinical Research Unit at HCMC led the first ever Science Caf\u00e9 at Hue Medical University on 29th October 2016. The speaker was Dr Pham Ngoc Thanh, and she presented the topic: Communication \u2013 Art or Skill?
A study by the international Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) collaboration (which includes researchers from OUCRU), published in The Lancet, analyzed each country\u2019s progress toward achieving the United Nation\u2019s health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) targets by creating an overall SDG Index score. Countries were then ranked by their scores to show which nations are closest to achieving the targets, and Vietnam stands out as having achieved significant progress.
Researchers from the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Vietnam have shown that using a rapid (5-minute) test can reduce antibiotic misuse for respiratory infections. Cutting the number of unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions is a key way to prevent the spread of antibiotic-resistant infections.
The efforts of two Oxford University tropical diseases experts have been recognised by the Vietnamese government. Professors Peter Horby and Heiman Wertheim were awarded the Vietnam Ministry of Health's Medal for the People's Health at a ceremony in Hanoi celebrating 10 years of collaboration between the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases and the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit.
Oxford University scientists carry out clinical trials for a range of medical conditions every year. The hope with each one is that it could lead to a viable treatment to cure or alleviate that condition. It is easy, therefore, to think that a successful trial is one that produces such a treatment, while any other result is a failure. Not so, as a recent study from Oxford's researchers in South East Asia shows.
Researchers from the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Vietnam have completed what is probably the largest ever controlled trial of tuberculous meningitis. The study is published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
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