“A wave of epigenetic therapies is offering hope as ways to cure chronic hepatitis B — a lingering liver infection that is caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV) and affects more than 250 million people around the world. Currently available drugs often fail to eradicate the virus from the body.

Gene-editing therapies — which make cuts to the DNA strands — have been explored but for hepatitis B, they can increase cancer risks. Researchers are turning instead to epigenetic editing, which modifies markers attached to the DNA to alter how genes are turned on and off.

Scientists working at the biotechnology firm nChroma Bio in Boston, Massachusetts, and at institutes in Milan, Italy, have now placed chemical tags onto the HBV genome to shut down its gene activity and prevent it from producing viral particles. They achieved promising results in experiments on human liver cells and in mice, and the therapy generated only minimal and temporary side effects when tested in monkeys.”

From Nature.

“Data on leprosy for 2025 was received from 203 countries and territories in all six WHO Regions. The number of countries that provide information on leprosy has increased significantly over the years…

During 2025, a total of 167 356 new cases were reported globally, corresponding to a new case detection rate of 20.3 per million population. The number was 3.1% lower than in 2024…

The global new case detection has decreased by 23.3% compared with 2016.”

From World Health Organization.

“The World Health Organization said on Wednesday there were encouraging signs measures to contain an Ebola epidemic in Democratic Republic ​of Congo were gaining ground, though it warned the outbreak ‌was ‘far from over.’

Transmission was declining in the most affected parts of Ituri province, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said…

More than 3,000 healthcare and frontline workers had already been vaccinated with Merck’s Ervebo, said Meg Doherty, WHO’s director of science, research, evidence and quality for health.

Ervebo is licensed against Zaire ebolavirus, but its ​effectiveness against the Bundibugyo ​virus driving ⁠the current outbreak is not known.

Doherty said an observational study involving frontline workers was expected to begin shortly to ​assess the vaccine’s effectiveness, while a separate mid-to-late-stage trial, led ​by Congo’s ⁠National Institute of Biomedical Research with other partners, was expected to get under way in the coming weeks.

Ervebo will be among the first vaccines evaluated for ⁠efficacy ​in the trial, followed by other vaccine ​candidates specifically targeting Bundibugyo Ebola, she said.”

From Reuters.

“Chile has become the first country in South America to receive the World Health Organization (WHO) validation for eliminating dog-transmitted rabies as a public health problem. The recognition highlights more than 50 years of progress without a human case of rabies and confirms the country's capacity to prevent transmission from re-emerging…

Chile's last reported case of human rabies transmitted by dogs occurred in 1972. The achievement followed sustained national efforts to combat the disease through the timely provision of the vaccine to individuals potentially exposed to the rabies virus, typically through bites, scratches, or contact with saliva from infected or suspected rabid dogs.”

From World Health Organization.