Six years and thousands of studies have produced leads worth testing, but the researchers doing the work say the missing piece is a reliable disease marker, which is exactly what a trial needs to measure anything.
Reality
- Evidence58
- Adoption45
- Hype gap+8
- Incentives62
- Confidence60
For anyone with staff, suppliers or travel in the region, the useful planning number is the growth rate and the spread of health zones rather than the confirmed case total, and both point to a disruption measured in quarters.
Reality
- Evidence71
- Adoption62
- Hype gap+14
- Incentives38
- Confidence58
Cervical cancer is falling where vaccination took hold. HPV throat and mouth cancers tripled in US data to 2004 and again in Danish data to 2017, mostly in men, with no screening test.
Reality
- Evidence68
- Adoption44
- Hype gap−8
- Incentives
- Insufficient
- Confidence62
Two tick-borne viruses with at least seven US deaths between them are moving with the lone star tick, and diagnosis depends on a hospital deciding to ship blood to a specialised lab.
Reality
- Evidence58
- Adoption
- Insufficient
- Hype gap+12
- Incentives34
- Confidence54
Bundibugyo virus has caused 5,021 cases and 2,378 deaths through August 16, reaching 1,000 cases in 40 days against 235 in 2018. The licensed Ebola vaccine was built for a different virus.
Reality
- Evidence74
- Adoption46
- Hype gap−8
- Incentives34
- Confidence63
A freeze-dried Td vaccine matched two standard comparators in a 60-person UK trial after a year out of the fridge. Regulators currently allow such excursions for 3 to 4 days.
Reality
- Evidence62
- Adoption14
- Hype gap+20
- Incentives60
- Confidence55
Whole-genome sequencing of parasites from hundreds of Ugandan patients links five variants to reduced susceptibility to artemisinin, lumefantrine and mefloquine, according to Nature Medicine.
Reality
- Evidence55
- Adoption22
- Hype gap+18
- Incentives58
- Confidence52