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A core objective of BRIGHT Academy is to share our results, progress, and to increase the knowledge about Bilharzia.

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Although the situations portrayed on this website are typical of the research none of the persons in this website are research patients (study participants). None of the persons portrayed in the treatment and investigative situations are minors. They have kindly given their permissions to publish the images.
Kinldy credit photographer Håvard Holme.

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How many people have worms in South Africa?

Oct 22, 2015

South Africa is the only country that has not yet found out how much soil transmitted helminths and schistosomiasis there is. However this is about to change. The Centre for Disease Control, Mrs Takalani Nemungadi, will lead the work to map South Africa and the WHO is committed to contribute to the exercise which will take place before March 2016. Urine and faeces will be collected in Grade 5 pupils in South Africa’s 52 districts to look for water-transmitted worms: Bilharzia (Schistosoma haematobium, Schistosoma mansoni), and soil-transmitted worms: Hookworm, Ascaris lumbricoides, and Trichuris trichiura. Each district will be divided into 2-4 ecological zones and in each of these zones 3-5 schools will be randomly selected for testing. Mrs Takalani Nemungadi, Department of Health deep in concentration with Professor Trevor Mulaudzi, University of Limpopo, at a preparatory meeting in Pretoria today. The Department of Education has already committed to treating the soil transmitted worms in the entire country, you can read more here. Do prepare your school for mapping and for... read more

Ambassador brainstorm

Oct 21, 2015

The Norwegian Ambassador to South Africa, Ms Trine Skymoen met with BRIGHT’s Dr Eyrun Kjetland and the consequences of Female Genital Schistosomiasis (FGS, Bilharzia) for millions of African women was discussed together with the Minister Counsellor Ola Brevik and Second Secretary Øyvind F. Vangberg. The women at risk are those who have once in their lifetime or more, been in contact with waterbodies such as rivers, streams, lakes or dams. The research done by BRIGHT is unique, not only in South Africa but in the world and will uncover aspects of the FGS that will be useful the whole of rural Africa. The Norwegian Embassy in South Africa is not mandated to work with health issues but the participants at the meeting brainstormed possibilities for advocacy, sharing knowledge and resources. Being based in middle income South Africa the project falls outside the scope of many donors even though the disease in question is a typical third world disease. Norwegians, Dutch, Danish and Belgian students have learned to become international, competent researchers through the project. Moreover, the project has trained many South Africans and is currently workplace to 20-30 highly skilled South... read more

PhD in the pipeline

Sep 7, 2015

Medical doctor Elisabeth Kleppa has completed her field work, published 3 articles as a first author and co-authored some more. She will defend her thesis on December 14th 2015 at the University of Oslo. The title of her thesis is: HIV SUSCEPTIBILITY RELATED TO HIV TARGET CELLS AND CERVICAL ECTOPY, A STUDY OF YOUNG SOUTH AFRICAN WOMEN LIVING IN A RURAL AREA ENDEMIC OF UROGENITAL... read more