Tag: tropical medicine

Ross Boyce, MD, MSc, assistant professor of infectious diseases and epidemiologist with the UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases, led a study published in Lancet Regional Health that examined the rapid emergence of Lyme Disease in N.C., between 2010 and 2020. Dr. Boyce says the results confirm what he has...

As the World Health Organization pushes to eradicate the Hepatitis B virus (HBV) by 2030, preventing vertical transmission is key, says Peyton Thompson, MD, MSCR, Assistant Professor of Pediatric Infectious Diseases. But despite widespread availability of effective childhood vaccines, HBV remains endemic throughout sub-Saharan Africa, including the Democratic Republic of the...

Healthcare providers in North Carolina have limited experience diagnosing and managing Lyme disease because few cases occur annually statewide. Researchers have published a case study that demonstrates the need for greater awareness and professional education. The article outlines the prolonged diagnostic course for a patient with locally acquired Lyme disease...

Researchers with the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases published a tick-borne disease study in the Journal of Infectious Diseases using samples from soldiers stationed at Fort Liberty, North Carolina. In collaboration with the Gillings School of Global Public Health, Womack Army Medical Center and the CDC’s Division of Vector-Borne...

Researchers at the UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases and the Thurston Arthritis Research Center’s Core Center for Clinical Research, investigated the relationship between knee pain and a red meat allergy, caused by a tick bite known as alpha-gal syndrome. “Tick-borne disease infections and chronic musculoskeletal pain,” published in...

A report published by Lester Gutiérrez, a PhD candidate and IGHID Fellow, provides a new assessment of Giardia lamblia and the pathogenesis of stunting and cognitive growth in children from low- and middle-income countries, published with mentor Luther Bartelt, MD. Giardia is most common during childhood, mainly in low-and-middle income countries. Symptoms...

Post-doctoral fellow Ashenafi Assefa, PhD, and Jonathan Parr, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine in infectious diseases, researchers with the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases (IGHID) working in the IDEEL (the Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Ecology) Lab assess the pros and cons of a new strategy to simplify malaria...

The NIH has awarded a multi-disciplinary team led by Ross Boyce, MD, MSc, a $4.4 million, five-year (R01) grant to evaluate the effectiveness of a chemoprevention effort designed to prevent malaria outbreaks after flooding, using a combination of interventions. Boyce is a member of the Institute for Global Health and...

The partnership between Uganda’s Mbarara University of Science and Technology, P-Healed, and the UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases (IGHID), led by Ross Boyce, MD, MSc and Raquel Reyes, MD, MPA, focuses on improving the health and well-being of the people of Western Uganda. Rooted in understanding and...

The mosquito-borne disease was eliminated here long ago. Now “revenge travel,” global migration, poor public funding—and maybe climate change—could help it come back. At least four people in Florida and one in Texas have been diagnosed with malaria that they must have caught near where they live—because, according to health officials,...

Led by Jonathan Parr, MD, MPH, with Jon Juliano, MD, MSPH, and researchers in the Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Ecology Lab (IDEEL), the UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases has been awarded a $3.6 million NIH R01 grant to study the rise of drug-resistant malaria in Ethiopia, with partners...

Ross Boyce MD, MSc, partners with Western Carolina University and Mission Hospital to lay the foundation for effective patient care, prevention and public health awareness–funded by the State of North Carolina through the N.C. Collaboratory. In September of 2022, a 10-year-old in Brevard, North Carolina, complained of intense headaches, chills, fever,...

UNC School of Medicine’s Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases has been awarded a $2.9 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to establish malaria genomic surveillance capacity in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).  Dr. Jonathan Parr is the lead PI, with Dr. Jon Juliano and...