A pronounced problem with the diseases the world overlooks

According to Professor Paul Kaye, raising awareness of killer diseases and securing money to fund research into treatment and cures could all come down to a question of pronunciation.

Diabetes isn't a problem. Cancer, no longer referred to in whispers as the Big C, is fine too. However, African trypanosomiasis and

schistosomiasis hardly trip off the tongue.

While they're better known as sleeping sickness and snail fever,

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they're diseases, along with leishmaniasis, which affect and kill thousands of people in the developing world, but despite the

devastation they have traditionally fallen at the less glamorous end of the research spectrum.

"I honestly do believe one of the reasons why these diseases have been historically overlooked is because their names are unpronounceable," says Prof Kaye, who heads the new Centre for Immunology and Infection at the University of York.

"It sounds like a trivial point, but it can be hard to raise awareness of a disease when you know most people don't know how to spell it or even say it.

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"When you talk of sleeping sickness and snail fever, there's a flicker of recognition, but historically they are diseases which have been horribly overlooked."

However, all that may well change. The new centre, a joint project between the Hull York Medical School and the University of York's biology department, officially opens its doors today, but the team has already made some important advances. Researchers have successfully identified a new lead compound for treating sleeping sickness and the first leishmaniasis vaccine to be developed in over a decade is about to undergo clinical trials.

"In medical research you never get overnight results, but we have taken some real strides forward," says Prof Kaye. "Sleeping sickness is

spread by the bite of the tsetse fly and the second stage of the

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disease is particularly difficult to treat in poverty-stricken rural areas. Of the two drugs currently available, one – an arsenic based

drug – has fatal side effects in around one in 20 patients and the other is not only costly and requires prolonged hospital treatment,

it's also not effective against all forms of the disease.

"Our research has contributed to the development of a novel compound which kills the parasites. It has been a disease that the large pharmaceutical companies have not shown much interest in, largely because patients in the developed world can't afford their medicines, but with between 50,000 and 70,000 people currently infected it is something that needs to be addressed.

"It's a similar story with leishmaniasis. Spread by sandflies it can cause devastating disfigurement and currently kills 100,000 people a year.

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"Thankfully, it has now become an international research priority and it's one in which we are already playing an important part."

As well as looking into neglected tropical diseases, the centre will also specialise in research into more well-known diseases from diabetes to HIV and AIDS. However, such research does not come cheap. Prior to the opening of the centre, the team at York had already secured a number of vital funding streams. In the last five years they have won 16m of investment, but in an uncertain economy it may take more than hard work and undoubted expertise to survive the tough times ahead.

"In 2005, there were just five of us working here. Now there are 70 and we could reasonably expand to about 100," says Prof Kaye. "However, we have to be realistic. The next couple of years will be challenging for everyone and it's why we have keep raising awareness of what we are doing.

"We are working really hard to show not only how these diseases affect individual lives, but the impact they have on the economy of already fragile countries. If we can present a financial argument for fund this kind of research then hopefully it will persuade those who hold the

purse strings to keep investing in what we do.

"The work going on in these laboratories has the potential to transform lives and that's the greatest reward of all."

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