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Today's Opinions: End-of-life counseling; Rising costs of boomers; Controlling infections in hospitals

Death panels. Government-sponsored euthanasia. Pulling the plug on grandma. Those were just some of the blatantly false terms conservatives threw around last year to scare Congress into stripping a provision out of the health-reform bill that would have allowed Medicare to reimburse doctors for providing voluntary, end-of-life counseling to their patients. The scare tactics worked (1/2).

3 Jan 2011

Immunitor reports positive safety imm01 clinical trial against tuberculosis

Immune Network Ltd., advises that Immunitor has published data from the first half of the 120-patient imm01 clinical trial of its V5 immunomodulator product against tuberculosis, including difficult-to-treat forms of the disease.

30 Dec 2010

New Year's Eve can be bad for your health

Research has shown that New Year's is the deadliest day of the year for pedestrians. Drinking and walking can be as dangerous as drinking and driving. Trauma surgeon Dr. Thomas Esposito has seen the tragic effects of drunk walking, among his patients and in his own family.

29 Dec 2010

Chinese government should show more leadership on HIV/AIDS, says AHF

In response to news that the most recent round of grants issued by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is nearly $1 billion less than just two years ago, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) today called on nations to give more to help fight HIV/AIDS around the globe.

23 Dec 2010

Discovery highlights potential to combat HIV/AIDS

Researchers at the University of Minnesota have discovered how HIV binds to and destroys a specific human antiviral protein called APOBEC3F. The results suggest that a simple chemical change can convert APOBEC3F to a more effective antiviral agent and that shielding of a common feature shared by related proteins may yield a similar outcome.

23 Dec 2010

Vatican issues communique to clarify Pope's statement on condoms

"The Vatican on Tuesday issued its most authoritative clarification on Pope Benedict XVI's recent remarks that condoms could sometimes be used for disease prevention, saying that the pope in no way justified their use to prevent pregnancy," the New York Times reports (Donadio, 12/21).

23 Dec 2010

Combination of antigen and wax nanoparticles improves immunogenicity

Particle Sciences, a leading pharmaceutical CRO has formulated a series of wax nanoparticles that, when coupled with an antigen, enhanced its immunogenicity, increasing both systemic and the mucosal immune response.

23 Dec 2010

Earlier ART initiation should be highest priority for global expansion of HIV patient care

Earlier initiation of antiretroviral therapy should be the highest priority for global expansion of HIV patient care. This finding, from a paper published in this week's PLoS Medicine, should help resource-limited nations to phase in the implementation of the new 2010 WHO recommendations for HIV treatment. "Immediate scale-up of the entire WHO guideline package may be prohibitively expensive in some settings," said lead author Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH of the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA.

22 Dec 2010

The Citizen examines potential impact of EU-India free trade agreement on HIV/AIDS patients in developing countries

The Citizen examines the potential impact a free-trade agreement between the EU and India currently under negotiation could have on patients living with HIV/AIDS in developing countries.

22 Dec 2010

Daily Report Global Health Conversations: The QDDR and global health

After the State Department released recommendations for how to improve its own effectiveness and that of USAID in last week's Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR), the Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report's Jaclyn Schiff spoke with Jennifer Kates, vice president and director of Global Health Policy & HIV at the Kaiser Family Foundation, about the QDDR in relation to U.S. global health efforts.

22 Dec 2010

AIDS patients with serum biomarkers are predisposed to immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome

A study in this week's PLoS Medicine suggests that AIDS patients with cryptococcal meningitis who start HIV therapy are predisposed to immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome - an exaggerated inflammatory immune response that kills up to one-third of affected people - if they have biomarkers in their blood showing evidence of a damaged immune system that is not capable of clearing the fungal infection.

22 Dec 2010

AIDS Healthcare Foundation sues AIDS drug maker for overcharging

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) will host a press teleconference on Wednesday, December 22nd at 9:30 AM Pacific/12:30 PM Eastern to announce that it has filed a lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson’s Tibotec Therapeutics for overcharging AHF for AIDS drugs purchased under the 340B program.

21 Dec 2010

Expansion of HIV screening worthwhile

According to researchers, screening for the AIDS virus to include every American at least once and the highest-risk people once a year could prevent more than 80,000 infections over the next 20 years. The team from Yale University in Connecticut and Stanford University in California reported that if treatment for infected people were integrated into such a program, it would prevent an estimated 212,000 new infections.

21 Dec 2010

Country must make wise choices in preventing infections, says study on future of AIDS in Cambodia

Despite Cambodia's remarkable history in driving down HIV infections, a report released today on the future of AIDS in the country argues that future success is not guaranteed and the government needs to focus increasingly on wise prevention tactics and assume more of the financing of its AIDS program.

21 Dec 2010

Researchers develop new malaria vaccine strategy based on ingestion of genetically modified starch

Researchers from two laboratories in northern France have successfully vaccinated and protected mice by feeding them starch derived from green algae and genetically modified to carry vaccine proteins.

21 Dec 2010

Hutchinson Center's tips for weight loss in the new year

Losing weight is at the top of many a New Year's resolution list. In addition to maintaining a healthy diet and getting enough exercise, what else can one do to make sure those good intentions have a lasting impact throughout the year?

21 Dec 2010

Bristol-Myers Squibb, Oncolys complete license agreement for festinavir

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and Oncolys BioPharma Inc., a privately held biotechnology company based in Japan, announced today that the companies have signed a definitive agreement under which Bristol-Myers Squibb will acquire exclusive worldwide rights to manufacture, develop and commercialize festinavir, a once-a-day, orally available nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) in Phase II development for HIV.

20 Dec 2010

AHF calls on Sen. Nelson to address Florida's AIDS drug crisis

On Monday, December 20 at 6:00 PM, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) will host a town hall and public forum at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center calling on U.S. Senator Bill Nelson to immediately address Florida's AIDS drug crisis which has left nearly 2,400 patients without access to lifesaving AIDS medications. Town hall attendees will include AIDS advocates, patients, healthcare professionals, community leaders and concerned citizens.

20 Dec 2010

Medical breakthrough: Scientists grow functioning human intestinal tissue from stem cells

Emerging Healthcare Solutions was encouraged by the latest breakthrough in stem cell research this week when scientists at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center announced that they've grown functioning human intestinal tissue from stem cells for the first time.

20 Dec 2010

Possible stem cell cure for AIDS

An explosion of stem cell breakthroughs, including a possible cure for AIDS, is reshaping the possibilities for curing deadly and debilitating diseases around the globe, says Emerging Healthcare Solutions President and CEO Cindy Morrissey.

17 Dec 2010