This practice paper reflects on an ongoing Participatory Action Research project that combines community-engaged methods, national data analysis and advocacy to support community-based emergency response to extreme weather events in 16 Indigenous communities in Alta Verapaz province, Guatemala. Our work points to a worrying predicament experienced in climate-affected areas, where some populations face a dangerous confluence of climate vulnerability, social exclusion and state abandonment that imperils human health. Indigenous communities in Alta Verapaz are often particularly vulnerable to health impacts from climate-driven extreme weather events, a reality compounded by the historical and contemporary ways the state marginalises them.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe incidence and prevalence of invasive fungal infections have increased significantly over the last few years, leading to a global health problem due to the lack of effective treatments. Amphotericin B (AmB) and itraconazole (ITR) are two antifungal drugs with different mechanisms of action. In this work, AmB and ITR have been formulated within granules to elicit an enhanced pharmacological effect, while enhancing the oral bioavailability of AmB.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Sustainable Development Goals prioritize maternal mortality reduction, with a global average target of < 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030. Current pace of reduction is far short of what is needed to achieve the global target. It is estimated that globally there are 300,000 maternal deaths, 2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNumerous preclinical studies provide evidence that curcumin, a polyphenolic phytochemical extracted from (turmeric) has neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties against various neurological disorders. Curcumin neuroprotective effects have been reported in different animal models of epilepsy, but its potential effect attenuating brain glucose hypometabolism, considered as an early marker of epileptogenesis that occurs during the silent period following status epilepticus (SE), still has not been addressed. To this end, we used the lithium-pilocarpine rat model to induce SE.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo date there is no cure for Parkinson's disease (PD), a devastating neurodegenerative disorder with levodopa being the cornerstone of its treatment. In early PD, levodopa provides a smooth clinical response, but after long-term therapy many patients develop motor complications. Tolcapone (TC) is an effective adjunct in the treatment of PD but has a short elimination half-life.
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