Major black fever breakthrough by Irish scientists

Irish scientists have made a major breakthrough in treating black fever — the second most deadly parasitic disease after malaria.

Scientists at NUI Galway and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Britain have shown how the parasite responsible for black fever can become resistant to drug treatment.

Their work, just published in the life sciences and biomedicine journal eLife, means that ineffective treatments can be skipped and better ones used instead.