Posted 05/01/2021. Diagnosing rickettsial infections is difficult in low-resource settings; this leads to delays in receiving appropriate treatment. Before this study the distribution of rickettsioses in Myanmar was not known. This report of a serosurvey by Philip Elders, Elizabeth Ashley and colleagues shows rickettsioses are widespread in Myanmar, with high scrub typhus prevalence in central and northern regions.

Posted 18/12/2020. Lorenz Von Seidlein and colleagues observed that poorest people in rural Tanzania were the oldest people and especially old people without children. This observation came as a surprise because generation, the baby boomers has accumulated wealth throughout life and ended up wealthier by the time they reached retirement. There is a need to provide more financial and housing security for older people in rural Africa. Currently for many older people in rural Africa the only security are their children.

Posted 15/12/2020. A recent study co-led by Paul Turner and colleagues at COMRU identified extremely high prevalence of antimicrobial resistant (AMR) bacterial carriage in households from Siem Reap, Cambodia. Extended-spectrum beta-lactamase producing Escherichia coli were detected in stool samples from >90% of participants. The results highlight the challenges to AMR control in locations where antibiotic overuse is common.