Projektnummer

0053858

Zusammenfassung

Filarial infections, such as onchocerciasis (river blindness) and lymphatic filariasis, are major diseases in sub-Saharan Africa associated with poverty, with some 80 million infected people. They are caused by thread-like worms transmitted as tiny larvae by flying insects and living for many years in the human body. New options for treatment have focused on Wolbachia endobacteria, living inside the worms providing them with metabolites essential for survival. There- fore, antibiotics like doxycycline that kill the bacteria also kill the worms. The consortium of scientists from three A...