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Blogs examine root causes, implications of myths about polio vaccination

Citing a review by Telegraph correspondent Rob Crilly criticizing the film Zero Dark Thirty "for getting its facts wrong about the CIA vaccination campaign that sought to confirm the DNA of Osama bin Laden's children," development blogger Tom Murphy writes in the Humanosphere blog, "Crilly's larger point is to say that the film gives further ammo to polio vaccine conspiracy theorists."

14 Feb 2013

President Obama delivers SOTU address, mentioning trade agreements, AIDS-free generation

"President Barack Obama outlined an ambitious agenda in his State of the Union address Tuesday that included raising the minimum wage, increasing spending on infrastructure, attacking climate change and passing gun-control legislation," the Wall Street Journal reports.

14 Feb 2013

Updated Cochrane review on vitamin C and common cold

According to an updated Cochrane review on vitamin C and the common cold, vitamin C seems to be particularly beneficial for people under heavy physical stress. In five randomized trials of participants with heavy short-term physical stress, vitamin C halved the incidence of the common cold.

14 Feb 2013

Tousled-like kinases play a key role in suppression and activation of herpesviruses

Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) hide within the worldwide human population. While dormant in the vast majority of those infected, these active herpesviruses can develop into several forms of cancer.

14 Feb 2013

AIDS.gov blog examines Global Fund's future

"During January's World Economic Forum, international leaders welcomed former U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Mark Dybul as the new head of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria," Deborah Derrick, president of Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, writes in the AIDS.gov blog.

13 Feb 2013

Learning from India's success in eradicating polio

In a post in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog, Shelley Thakral, senior communications officer for the foundation's India Country Office, interviews Orin Levine, director of vaccine delivery at the foundation, about his recent trip to India "to observe the experience of Bihar, a state in Northern India, where the polio effort is now being leveraged to strengthen routine immunization in ways that are really exciting."

13 Feb 2013

U.S. News examines growing threat of drug-resistant TB

U.S. News & World Report examines the growing epidemic of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB), highlighting a "new paper published earlier this week in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Emerging Infectious Diseases journal warn[ing] that the first cases of 'totally drug-resistant' tuberculosis have been found in South Africa and that the disease is 'virtually untreatable."

13 Feb 2013

CA-MRSA on the rise in nursing homes

While most infection control measures are focused on hospitals, a new study points to the need for more targeted interventions to prevent the spread of drug-resistant bugs in nursing homes as community-associated strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) are on the rise in these facilities. The study is published in the March issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.

13 Feb 2013

U.N. Secretary General condemns violence against health workers in Nigeria

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday "strongly condemned the killing in north-eastern Nigeria of three doctors from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, calling the attack and other recent incidents of violence against health workers 'unacceptable,'" the U.N. News Centre reports.

13 Feb 2013

Bedside baths and bloodstream infections in children: an interview with Aaron Milstone

Bedside baths in the hospital are nothing new. They are typically done for patient comfort and to maintain basic personal hygiene.

13 Feb 2013

Introduced in SOTU by President George W. Bush, PEPFAR has saved millions of lives

"The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) exists entirely because of a willing leader, a creative policy team, a smattering of activists and a vast, bleeding need," columnist Michael Gerson writes in a Washington Post opinion piece

13 Feb 2013

New centre to boost development of drugs against TB, malaria and African sleeping sickness

A major new centre to boost the development of drugs to tackle the foremost diseases of the developing world is to be created at the University of Dundee.

13 Feb 2013

Bill Gates answers questions on global health, other issues in Reddit 'ask me anything' discussion

"Former chief executive and current chairman of Microsoft and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates did a Reddit AMA (ask me anything) Monday and discussed several important global health issues," the Global Dispatch reports.

13 Feb 2013

Big Pharma looks to Africa for next growth market as economies strengthen, disease burden shifts

"Not only is Africa's economic growth grabbing attention in boardrooms but the shifting nature of its disease burden is luring Big Pharma, as new opportunities open up for treating chronic diseases afflicting the middle classes, rather than just fire-fighting infection," Reuters reports.

13 Feb 2013

To overcome challenges in Africa's malaria response, focus on testing, treatment at community level

"Significant investment in malaria research has yielded effective interventions such as insecticide treated nets, indoor residual spraying and artemisinin-based combination therapies to control the disease, but its burden continues to be felt among the poorest," George Okello, a research fellow at the Kenya Medical Research Institute, and Nina Cromeyer Dieke, communications manager for the Global Atlas of Helminth Infections based at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, write in an opinion piece in the Guardian's "Global Development Professionals Network."

13 Feb 2013

Tips for safe displays of affection during Valentine's Day

Say "I love you" with flowers, chocolates or a greeting card, but be careful when you kiss this Valentine's Day.

13 Feb 2013

Researchers describe novel antiviral property of cholesterol-25-hydroxylase

A team of UCLA-led researchers has identified a protein with broad virus-fighting properties that potentially could be used as a weapon against deadly human pathogenic viruses such as HIV, Ebola, Rift Valley Fever, Nipah and others designated "priority pathogens" for national biosecurity purposes by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.

13 Feb 2013

Disease eradication efforts set sights on polio, Guinea worm

"It's not a race, exactly, but there's an intriguing uncertainty about whether a former U.S. president or a software magnate will cause the next deliberate extinction of a species in the wild. Will Jimmy Carter eradicate Guinea worm before Bill Gates eradicates polio?" Wall Street Journal commentator Matt Ridley asks in his "Mind & Matter" column.

13 Feb 2013

Chagas disease costs $7B annually worldwide, according to study

Chagas disease, transmitted by a bloodsucking insect that bites the face and lips, "costs the world about $7 billion annually, says an analysis just published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases," NPR's "Shots" blog reports.

12 Feb 2013

Boston College biologist receives $2.7M NIH grant to continue HIV and AIDS research

Boston College biologist Ken Williams, whose research focuses on the role of immunological cells in a range of illnesses that strike people living with HIV and AIDS, has been awarded a five-year, $2.7 million grant from the NIH's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

12 Feb 2013

Disease/Infection News

Blogs examine root causes, implications of myths about polio vaccination

President Obama delivers SOTU address, mentioning trade agreements, AIDS-free generation

Updated Cochrane review on vitamin C and common cold

Tousled-like kinases play a key role in suppression and activation of herpesviruses

AIDS.gov blog examines Global Fund's future

Learning from India's success in eradicating polio

U.S. News examines growing threat of drug-resistant TB

CA-MRSA on the rise in nursing homes

U.N. Secretary General condemns violence against health workers in Nigeria

Bedside baths and bloodstream infections in children: an interview with Aaron Milstone

Introduced in SOTU by President George W. Bush, PEPFAR has saved millions of lives

New centre to boost development of drugs against TB, malaria and African sleeping sickness

Bill Gates answers questions on global health, other issues in Reddit 'ask me anything' discussion

Big Pharma looks to Africa for next growth market as economies strengthen, disease burden shifts

To overcome challenges in Africa's malaria response, focus on testing, treatment at community level

Tips for safe displays of affection during Valentine's Day

Researchers describe novel antiviral property of cholesterol-25-hydroxylase

Disease eradication efforts set sights on polio, Guinea worm

Chagas disease costs $7B annually worldwide, according to study

Boston College biologist receives $2.7M NIH grant to continue HIV and AIDS research

How can microdialysis benefit drug development

Global and Local Efforts to Take Action Against Hepatitis

Addressing Important Cardiac Biology Questions with Shotgun Top-Down Proteomics

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