Application of personalised medicine: opportunities and challenges Pharmacotherapy based on individual patient characteristics such as genetic makeup, offers many potential benefits towards more effective treatment of a patients’ disease.
Strict diet combats aging diseases Mice with a severe aging disease live three times longer if they eat thirty percent less. Moreover, they age much healthier than mice that eat as much as they want.
Improved protection against pertussis The international PERISCOPE project has been granted a 30 million Euro European subsidy in order to better map the immune response to pertussis infection and vaccination.
Nanotechnology increasingly used in medical devices The application of nanotechnology to design and produce medical devices is increasing. RIVM provides an overview of nanotechnology enabled medical devices.
Greater influx of migrants not expected to lead to an increase in cases of tuberculosis According to the RIVM report ‘Tuberculosis in the Netherlands 2014’, a total of 823 people were diagnosed with TB last year. That is 21 fewer patients than in 2013.
Replacement possible for products with carcinogenic formaldehyde There seem to be sufficient alternatives available for the majority of disinfectants and preservatives containing the carcinogenic substance formaldehyde.
WHO’s first ever global estimates of foodborne diseases: children under five account for almost one third of deaths Almost one third (30%) of all deaths from foodborne diseases are in children under the age of five years, despite the fact that they make up only 9% of the global population.
Chikungunya infections in the Caribbean region Since August 2014, there has been an increase in the number of Chikungunya patients in the Caribbean region. Travellers who visit the region can become infected there.
Dr. Els van Schie new director of Environment and Safety Dr. Els van Schie has been appointed RIVM Director of Environment and Safety as from 1 February 2015. She will succeed Dr. Marcel van Raaij and interim director Dr.
Release of QMRAspot v2 for quantitative microbial risk assessment of drinking water RIVM has developed a new version of QMRAspot (2.0), a user-friendly computational tool to calculate the risk of becoming infected by pathogenic microorganisms in drinking water.