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Indian company plans to make lower-cost injectable polio vaccine

Serum Institute of India Ltd., the world's largest vaccine manufacturer, plans to "slash the price of polio immunization and introduce shots for diarrhea and pneumonia, undercutting Pfizer Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline Plc.," Bloomberg Businessweek reports.

24 Jan 2013

Brazilian city declares health emergency due to dengue fever outbreak

"Municipal authorities in Campo Grande, the capital of the southwestern Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, on Monday declared a health emergency due to a serious outbreak of dengue fever," Fox News Latino reports.

24 Jan 2013

Increased resources needed to continue progress lowering child mortality rates

"The last decade has seen extraordinary progress with child mortality rates coming down significantly all over the world. Yet 6.9 million children still die each year, most from preventable causes," Raymond Chambers, founder and co-chair of Malaria No More and the U.N. secretary-general's special envoy for malaria, writes in a Forbes opinion piece, published in conjunction with the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship.

24 Jan 2013

Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, IBM reveal new antimicrobial hydrogel

Researchers from IBM and the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology revealed today an antimicrobial hydrogel that can break through diseased biofilms and completely eradicate drug-resistant bacteria upon contact.

24 Jan 2013

Normalizing p62 protein levels in immune system cells could reduce infection in CF patients

New research suggests that lowering excessive levels of a protein in immune system cells could be a strategy to clear an infection that is deadly to patients with cystic fibrosis (CF).

23 Jan 2013

NIH's candidate vaccine safe in treating dengue

A candidate dengue vaccine developed by scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has been found to be safe and to stimulate a strong immune response in most vaccine recipients, according to results from an early-stage clinical trial sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the NIH. The trial results were published online on January 17 in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

23 Jan 2013

Sex rated as highly arousing and pleasurable whether or not condoms and lubricants are used

A new study published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine reveals that within a nationally representative study of American men and women, sex was rated as highly arousing and pleasurable whether or not condoms and/or lubricants were used. Condoms and lubricants are commonly used by both women and men when they have sex.

23 Jan 2013

Tall, thin women face increased risk of infection with nontuberculous mycobacteria

Tall, thin women face a greater risk of infection with nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), cousins of the organism that causes tuberculosis, according to researchers at National Jewish Health. Women with NTM infections also showed a weakened immune response associated with their fat cells, in a paper published in the Jan. 15, 2013, issue of The American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care.

23 Jan 2013

Enterococcal cytolysin synthetase helps form distinctly different, 3-D protein ring structures

While working out the structure of a cell-killing protein produced by some strains of the bacterium Enterococcus faecalis, researchers stumbled on a bit of unusual biochemistry. They found that a single enzyme helps form distinctly different, three-dimensional ring structures in the protein, one of which had never been observed before.

23 Jan 2013

$30 for a flu shot: An outrage or a bargain?

The Los Angeles Times looks at the economics of producing a successful flu vaccine each year. And Reuters explores what may be on the horizon to improve those immunizations.

23 Jan 2013

Strong link between mortality and reduced innate immune responsiveness in critically ill patients

Investigators from 15 children's medical centers, including Nationwide Children's Hospital, observed and evaluated critically ill children with influenza to evaluate the relationships between levels of systemic inflammation, immune function and likelihood to die from the illness. The study appears in the January issue of Critical Care Medicine.

23 Jan 2013

Sex, condoms and lubricants: an interview with Dr Debby Herbenick

Condoms and lubricants are widely used by both women and men and so they are part of many people’s sexual experiences. They are used for both pleasure-related reasons as well as, in the case of lubricants, comfort and making sex easier for people. The use of condoms of course reduces the risk of pregnancy or infection.

23 Jan 2013

UNAIDS presents online discussion on post-2015 AIDS agenda

The World We Want 2015 webpage is hosting an online discussion (eDiscussion), presented by UNAIDS as part of the Post-2015 Health Thematic Consultation and running from January 21 through February 3, according to the webpage.

23 Jan 2013

BRICS countries sign agreement to collaborate on research, public health efforts

"Health ministers of the group of developing countries known as BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) have signed an agreement to work together on research projects and to reduce the burden of disease," BMJ reports.

23 Jan 2013

International community must harness funds needed to control infectious diseases

"I think the most special thing about our current time is the incredible opportunity that scientific advances have provided in the field of global health, giving us the ability to completely control highly dangerous infectious diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria," Mark Dybul, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, writes in an opinion piece in the Huffington Post's "The Big Push" blog.

23 Jan 2013

Public health challenges remain but progress being made, WHO DG Chan says in Executive Board report

"International cooperation on health is delivering positive results at a time when the world is dealing with multiple challenges such as difficult weather conditions, conflict and economic austerity, a senior United Nations official said Monday, calling on countries to continue their efforts to improve public health," the U.N. News Centre reports.

23 Jan 2013

Twitter posts could help health officials track disease outbreaks

This flu season you've probably seen a number of friends on social media talking about symptoms. New research from Brigham Young University says such posts on Twitter could actually be helpful to health officials looking for a head start on outbreaks.

23 Jan 2013

Novel way to engineer specialized immune cells targeted by the AIDS virus

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have found a novel way to engineer key cells of the immune system so they remain resistant to infection with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

23 Jan 2013

Health workers resume polio vaccination efforts in Pakistan; Bill Gates discusses polio efforts in interview

"Health workers are back on the streets of Peshawar in Pakistan, defying death threats so they can vaccinate children against polio," Al Jazeera reports. "Nine of their colleagues were killed last month, and now they have been given extra security," the news service notes. "Despite the risks, many health workers say they must carry out this important task," Al Jazeera's Osama Bin Javaid states in an accompanying video.

23 Jan 2013

Antibodies essential for dendritic cell maturation

Dendritic cells, or DCs for short, perform a vital role for the immune system: They engulf pathogens, break them down into their component parts, and then display the pieces on their surface.

23 Jan 2013

Disease/Infection News

Indian company plans to make lower-cost injectable polio vaccine

Brazilian city declares health emergency due to dengue fever outbreak

Increased resources needed to continue progress lowering child mortality rates

Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, IBM reveal new antimicrobial hydrogel

Normalizing p62 protein levels in immune system cells could reduce infection in CF patients

NIH's candidate vaccine safe in treating dengue

Sex rated as highly arousing and pleasurable whether or not condoms and lubricants are used

Tall, thin women face increased risk of infection with nontuberculous mycobacteria

Enterococcal cytolysin synthetase helps form distinctly different, 3-D protein ring structures

$30 for a flu shot: An outrage or a bargain?

Strong link between mortality and reduced innate immune responsiveness in critically ill patients

Sex, condoms and lubricants: an interview with Dr Debby Herbenick

UNAIDS presents online discussion on post-2015 AIDS agenda

BRICS countries sign agreement to collaborate on research, public health efforts

International community must harness funds needed to control infectious diseases

Public health challenges remain but progress being made, WHO DG Chan says in Executive Board report

Twitter posts could help health officials track disease outbreaks

Novel way to engineer specialized immune cells targeted by the AIDS virus

Health workers resume polio vaccination efforts in Pakistan; Bill Gates discusses polio efforts in interview

Antibodies essential for dendritic cell maturation

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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