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HIV uses base excision repair pathway to insert DNA into host-cell genome

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the cause of AIDS, makes use of the base excision repair pathway when inserting its DNA into the host-cell genome, according to a new study led by researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute. Crippling the repair pathway prevents the virus from completing this critical step in the retrovirus's life cycle.

25 Mar 2011

Study develops new approaches for sorting out complexities of cancer cells

New drugs that specifically target the mutated genes responsible for cancer growth have shown great success in extending the lives of patients, with far fewer side effects than conventional anti-cancer therapies. Unfortunately, many patients become resistant to these drugs due to secondary mutations.

25 Mar 2011

State News: Study highlights problems in Mass. Connector

Los Angeles officials Thursday unveiled what Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa termed a landmark tentative labor agreement that would greatly increase healthcare and pension contributions for thousands of municipal workers and put an end to some furloughs caused by the city's budget crisis.

25 Mar 2011

Kenya requests emergency order of 45M condoms from PEPFAR

A condom shortage in Kenya caused by high demand and procurement bottlenecks has forced the country to request an emergency order of 45 million condoms from PEPFAR, Kenyan health officials said Wednesday, Agence France-Presse reports. According to the news service, a January order of 19 million condoms was exhausted in about six weeks (3/23).

25 Mar 2011

FXB and Merck partner to improve systems for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in Botswana

The Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center (FXB) of the University of Medicine and Dentistry (UMDNJ) School of Nursing will provide training to 150 clinicians in Botswana who will then train more than 6,000 healthcare workers thanks to a grant of nearly $375,000 from The Merck Company Foundation.

25 Mar 2011

EU supports new collaborative research projects on tuberculosis

It's March 24th again and the World Tuberculosis Day reminds us that for almost 50 years no new drugs have been developed against this terrible disease, which is currently killing nearly two million people worldwide each year. It's a global problem because the emergence of drug resistant strains of this infectious disease - normally associated with poverty - is a growing problem even in high-income economies.

25 Mar 2011

New findings may make morphine a safer, more effective drug for chronic pain control

An orphan drug originally used for HIV treatment has been found to short-circuit the process that results in additional sensitivity and pain from opioid use. The study by researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine is reported in the March 25, 2011 issue of Brain, Behavior and Immunity.

25 Mar 2011

SeraCare launches new HIV panel

SeraCare Life Sciences, a global life sciences company providing vital products and services to facilitate the discovery, development and production of human diagnostics and therapeutics, announces the launch of its new Worldwide HIV Performance Panel.

25 Mar 2011

State roundup: Vt. closer to single payer plan

After a full day and evening of debate, the Vermont House gave preliminary approval to health care reform legislation that's designed to put the state on the path toward a single payer system. ... The heart of the bill is the creation of a five person Health Care Board, modeled after the Public Service Board, which will oversee virtually every aspect of health care in the state.

25 Mar 2011

Opinions: Using taxes to reduce poverty; fighting TB; meeting global food demands

To improve living standards and create jobs," African governments "need to provide their citizens with better health care, better education, more infrastructure. How to pay for this - in a way that is both fair and efficient - is a question that all governments face," Mark Plant, deputy director of the IMF's African Department, writes in a BusinessDay opinion piece where he describes how increased tax revenues in several African countries have led to "in-roads into poverty reduction."

25 Mar 2011

WHO report urges countries to step up fight against drug-resistant TB

A WHO report released Wednesday says countries with the highest drug-resistant tuberculosis burdens are making progress in addressing the disease, "but despite the recent scale up in efforts, the world needs to do much more to get care to all [multi-drug resistant] patients who need it," WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said, Times LIVE reports.

24 Mar 2011

ISEFC, TB Alliance to establish Global Health R&D Center of China

The International Scientific Exchange Foundation of China, a technical public foundation dedicated to promoting and advancing scientific development, cooperation, and exchange, today signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development, to work together to establish the Global Health R&D Center of China, a world-class organization focused on developing innovative new treatments for public health diseases, including tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV/AIDS.

24 Mar 2011

Gilead's elvitegravir Phase III trial against HIV-1 meets primary objective

Gilead Sciences, Inc. today announced that the Phase III clinical trial of its investigational antiretroviral agent elvitegravir, a novel oral integrase inhibitor being evaluated for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in treatment-experienced patients, met its primary objective.

24 Mar 2011

Kenya’s condom shortage

Health authorities in Kenya have revealed that the country was facing a condom shortage and it has made an emergency order of 45 million more. A January consignment of 19 million condoms lasted for around six weeks.

23 Mar 2011

Watson introduces Famciclovir tablets to treat cold sores, genital herpes

Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today confirmed that its subsidiary, Watson Laboratories, Inc. has launched Famciclovir tablets, 125 mg, 250 mg and 500 mg, the generic version of Novartis' Famvir following approval of its Abbreviated New Drug Application by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

22 Mar 2011

Second US trial in HIV/AIDS lymphoma patients using Benitec’s ddRNAi technology

Benitec Limited (ASX:BLT), a company involved in RNA-based gene silencing for human therapeutics, announced that the City of Hope research hospital in Duarte, California is planning to initiate a second small Phase I/II study using Benitec’s DNA-directed RNA interference (ddRNAi) technology in lymphoma patients carrying the HIV virus. The aim of the study is to optimize the treatment by modifying a range of clinical parameters.

21 Mar 2011

Abbott receives CE-Mark for new qualitative PCR-based HIV-1 test

Abbott (NYSE: ABT) announced today that it has received CE-Mark for a new qualitative PCR-based HIV-1 test that produces highly accurate results from dried blood spot and plasma specimens. The new assay is a long-awaited diagnostic tool for health officials in African nations and other resource-limited areas to detect HIV-1 infected infants at early stages and begin treatment when success is more likely.

21 Mar 2011

APHA issues statement recommending improved safety for workers in adult film industry

In a newly posted position paper on its website, the American Public Health Association, the oldest and most diverse organization of public health professionals in the world representing over 50,000 health professionals and others who work to promote health, prevent disease and ensure conditions in which all can be safe and healthy, has issued a comprehensive policy statement, "Prevention and Control of Sexually Transmitted Infections and HIV among Performers in the Adult Film Industry," that includes a series of recommendations intended to foster improved safety and workplace conditions for workers in the adult film industry.

19 Mar 2011

Reports highlight global state of TB epidemic, concerns over drug-resistant TB

Increasing rates of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis "are hampering world health programs aimed at tackling TB and threaten to wipe out progress made against the disease, scientists said on Friday," Reuters reports (Kelland, 3/18).

19 Mar 2011

African delegates call on countries to do more to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV

Delegates from 15 African countries this week concluded a three-day workshop held in Nairobi, Kenya, examining how countries can improve their efforts to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, VOA News reports.

19 Mar 2011