Here is a look at some interesting infectious disease and health news reported across the globe:

Researchers at LSTM show that parasites from patients with cerebral malaria stick preferentially in their brains

Malaria life cycle/CDC
Malaria life cycle/CDC

A team at LSTM with their collaborators in Malawi and Denmark have provided, for the first time, evidence which links the ability of red blood cells infected with the malaria parasite to bind to the cells lining the blood vessels of the brain, with the clinical syndrome cerebral malaria.

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Heroin vaccine to be tested in Syracuse

Researchers at Upstate Medical University in Syracuse have joined those at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Health in advancing a novel approach to treating heroin addicts. They hope a heroin vaccine can be a factor in the fight against opioid addiction.

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XDR typhoid infections in US children linked to Pakistan outbreak

Since 2016, five children in the United States have been diagnosed with extensively drug-resistant typhoid fever after traveling to or from Pakistan, where a large ongoing typhoid outbreak has sickened more than 5,300 people, according to a report published today in MMWR.

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Over 100 babies and toddlers given expired polio vaccines in China, months after last crisis

More than 100 children in eastern China have been given expired polio vaccines by a local health centre, according to mainland media, just months after a public health scare over faulty products.

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Mobile, instant diagnosis of viruses

A new high-throughput, miniature, portable sequencing technique has been developed in recent years, for human and animal health purposes. It uses mobile laboratories to diagnose viruses such as Ebola or Zika almost instantly, in the field. Diagnosis is both quick and early, which avoids the need to transfer contaminated samples.

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