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Less than 45% of children are vaccinated against flu: Study

This year's flu season is in full swing with 41 states now reporting widespread illness. Unfortunately, not enough children are getting the flu shot even though health officials recommend that all children 6 months and older get the vaccine. According to a new study by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, less than 45 percent of children were vaccinated against the flu during a five-year study period.

11 Jan 2013

Multidisciplinary team work on proactive approach to flu vaccine design

An internationally recognized expert in viruses, Robert W. Finberg, MD, the Richard M. Haidack Professor of Medicine and chair and professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, is lead investigator on a $12 million project to develop new ways of predicting how the influenza virus changes and evolves in response to anti-viral drugs and the human immune system. This approach has promise for becoming a pivotal tool in creating a more effective vaccine against the virus.

11 Jan 2013

PlusNews examines potential cuts in U.S. HIV funding to Ethiopia

PlusNews discusses potential cuts in U.S. funding for HIV-related activities in Ethiopia and the role of greater in-country funding for health. In 2013, "Ethiopia will experience a 79 percent reduction in U.S. HIV financing from PEPFAR," according to a blog post written last year by Amanda Glassman, director of global health policy and senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, the news service notes.

11 Jan 2013

True solution to cholera is improving access to safe water, sanitation

"Even when it is not covered in the news or noticed by the public, cholera occurs regularly in the developing world, and the annual number of cases reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) has increased over the past few years to more than half a million cases and 7,816 related deaths reported from all regions in 2011," Ronald Waldman of George Washington University, Eric Mintz of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Heather Papowitz of the U.N. Children's Fund write in a New England Journal of Medicine perspective piece.

11 Jan 2013

Additional insights into workings of ALVAC vaccine against HIV

Four years ago, a potential HIV vaccine showed promise against the virus that causes AIDS, but it fell short of providing the broad protection necessary to stem the spread of disease.

11 Jan 2013

Boston declares flu emergency as aggressive viruses spread across the nation

The country is in the grip of three emerging flu or flulike epidemics: an early start to the annual flu season with an unusually aggressive virus, a surge in a new type of norovirus, and the worst whooping cough outbreak in 60 years. And these are all developing amid the normal winter highs for the many viruses that cause symptoms on the "colds and flu" spectrum.

11 Jan 2013

More than 6% of Haitians have had cholera since outbreak began, new data show

"The death toll in Haiti's cholera epidemic is approaching 8,000, and more than six percent of Haitians have had the disease since it invaded the country in October 2010, according to reports released this week," CIDRAP reports.

11 Jan 2013

Blog posts call for policy action condemning intelligence community's use of health campaigns

"It remains to be seen if a new surge of efforts -- a letter of protest from leading public health experts, a petition -- asking the Obama Administration to prohibit spies from pretending to be overseas aid and health workers will force a change in policy," Tom Paulson and Tom Murphy write in the Humanosphere blog.

11 Jan 2013

U.N. SG meets with special envoys for AIDS, UNAIDS Executive Director to discuss future efforts

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday in New York met with his team of U.N. Special Envoys for AIDS to discuss progress in fighting the disease, U.N. Radio/Ghana Broadcasting Corporation reports.

11 Jan 2013

UCSF teams to study new ways to reduce childhood mortality and disease in developing nations

Two UCSF teams have received a total of $16 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to study new ways to significantly reduce childhood mortality and disease in developing nations.

11 Jan 2013

Kaiser Family Foundation publishes report on donor funding for health in low- & middle-income countries

The Kaiser Family Foundation on Wednesday published a new report, titled "Donor Funding for Health in Low- & Middle-Income Countries, 2002-2010," that "tracks the most recently available data on funding from donor governments, including the United States, and from multilateral institutions for health in low- and middle-income countries," according to the report summary.

11 Jan 2013

Taking early and repeated WBC is critical in determining infants at high risk of pertussis

A study released today from the upcoming issue of the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society (JPIDS) found that taking early and repeated white blood cell counts (WBC) is critical in determining whether infants have pertussis and which of those children are at highest risk of death from the disease.

11 Jan 2013

Cholera could be contained in Haiti by vaccinating less than half the population

Cholera could be contained in Haiti by vaccinating less than half the population, University of Florida researchers suggest in a paper to be published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports.

11 Jan 2013

Americans die sooner and experience higher rates of disease and injury than others

On average, Americans die sooner and experience higher rates of disease and injury than people in other high-income countries, says a new report from the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. The report finds that this health disadvantage exists at all ages from birth to age 75 and that even advantaged Americans -- those who have health insurance, college educations, higher incomes, and healthy behaviors -- appear to be sicker than their peers in other rich nations.

11 Jan 2013

Co-infection itself a very important risk factor among school-aged children in Tanzania

The new study analyses data from school aged children in Tanzania infected with the most common forms of worms. It was found that infection by one parasitic species actually changes the risk of catching another, over and above other risk factors.

11 Jan 2013

Pakistan re-launches polio vaccination campaign amid increased security

"Pakistan's ambassador for polio eradication, Aseefa Bhutto Zardari, re-launched the anti-polio campaign in Sindh province on Tuesday," Pakistan Today reports.

11 Jan 2013

PLoS Medicine articles look at HIV care disengagement, development aid, mental health

PLoS Medicine Publications Assistant Michael Morris summarizes several articles published this week in the journal in this PLoS "Speaking of Medicine" blog post.

11 Jan 2013

Patients at high-risk for recurrent C. difficile with unnecessary antibiotic use

The impact of antibiotic misuse has far-reaching consequences in healthcare, including reduced efficacy of the drugs, increased prevalence of drug-resistant organisms, and increased risk of deadly infections. A new study featured in the February issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, found that many patients with Clostridium difficile infection (C. difficile) are prescribed unnecessary antibiotics, increasing their risk of recurrence of the deadly infection.

10 Jan 2013

Tips for parents to safely help relieve child's flu symptoms

Doctors' offices are teeming with patients suffering from one of the worst outbreaks of cold and flu season in recent years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that flu is at an elevated level across the nation. Though virus symptoms vary by age, children are especially vulnerable since they are unable to take over-the-counter medications to help alleviate symptoms.

10 Jan 2013

UMDNJ develops rapid detection test for Exserhilum rostratum

A rapid detection test for Exserhilum rostratum, the fungus primarily responsible for 39 deaths among patients injected last year with a contaminated steroid medication, has been developed by a research team led by David S. Perlin, PhD, Executive Director of the Public Health Research Institute (PHRI) at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School.

10 Jan 2013

Disease/Infection News

Less than 45% of children are vaccinated against flu: Study

Multidisciplinary team work on proactive approach to flu vaccine design

PlusNews examines potential cuts in U.S. HIV funding to Ethiopia

True solution to cholera is improving access to safe water, sanitation

Additional insights into workings of ALVAC vaccine against HIV

Boston declares flu emergency as aggressive viruses spread across the nation

More than 6% of Haitians have had cholera since outbreak began, new data show

Blog posts call for policy action condemning intelligence community's use of health campaigns

U.N. SG meets with special envoys for AIDS, UNAIDS Executive Director to discuss future efforts

UCSF teams to study new ways to reduce childhood mortality and disease in developing nations

Kaiser Family Foundation publishes report on donor funding for health in low- & middle-income countries

Taking early and repeated WBC is critical in determining infants at high risk of pertussis

Cholera could be contained in Haiti by vaccinating less than half the population

Americans die sooner and experience higher rates of disease and injury than others

Co-infection itself a very important risk factor among school-aged children in Tanzania

Pakistan re-launches polio vaccination campaign amid increased security

PLoS Medicine articles look at HIV care disengagement, development aid, mental health

Patients at high-risk for recurrent C. difficile with unnecessary antibiotic use

Tips for parents to safely help relieve child's flu symptoms

UMDNJ develops rapid detection test for Exserhilum rostratum

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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