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Wall Street Journal looks at European efforts to fight TB

The Wall Street Journal examines efforts to fight tuberculosis (TB) in Europe, writing, "All along the edges of Western Europe, new and hard-to-defeat strains of tuberculosis are gaining a foothold, often moving beyond traditional victims -- alcoholics, drug users, HIV patients -- and into the wider population."

3 Jan 2013

No significant difference in patient outcomes with RBC transfusions using lower threshold levels

The level at which red blood cells are transfused, a common treatment in clinical practice, is often deliberated among physicians. Guidelines for blood transfusion levels were only recently issued in March 2012 diminishing some of the debate. Today, in a new section called JAMA Clinical Evidence Synopsis, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), published a summary of the systematic review of the 19 clinical trials that compare higher versus lower hemoglobin thresholds in red blood cell transfusion.

3 Jan 2013

FDA grants accelerated approval to drug to treat MDR-TB

"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved Johnson & Johnson's drug to treat a form of resistant tuberculosis that is uncommon in the U.S. but growing globally," the Wall Street Journal reports.

3 Jan 2013

More work ahead in TB drug development, treatment delivery

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval of the tuberculosis (TB) drug Sirturo, also known as bedaquiline, "appears to be just the first step in an exciting renaissance for TB drug development," Mark Harrington, executive director of Treatment Action Group (TAG), writes in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog.

3 Jan 2013

3 years after devastating earthquake, Haiti remains in fragile state

"On the eve of the third anniversary of the earthquake that devastated Haiti in January 2010, the country remains in a fragile state," a New York Times editorial states.

3 Jan 2013

Johns Hopkins scientists uncover itch-specific nerve cells in skin

Johns Hopkins researchers have uncovered strong evidence that mice have a specific set of nerve cells that signal itch but not pain, a finding that may settle a decades-long debate about these sensations, and, if confirmed in humans, help in developing treatments for chronic itch, including itch caused by life-saving medications.

3 Jan 2013

Opinion pieces, editorial address murders of polio workers in Pakistan

Several newspapers published opinion pieces regarding the recent murders of polio vaccination workers in Pakistan.

3 Jan 2013

Paul Farmer appointed as U.N. Special Adviser for Haiti cholera efforts

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "has appointed renowned United States physician Paul Farmer to help galvanize support to eliminate cholera in Haiti, where the disease has already claimed over 7,750 lives," the U.N. News Centre reports.

3 Jan 2013

GlobalPost blog interviews U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Ambassador Eric Goosby

GlobalPost's "Global Pulse" blog interviews U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Ambassador Eric Goosby "on the challenges and goals of the new PEPFAR blueprint and the promise of an AIDS-free generation."

3 Jan 2013

Banning thimerosal from vaccines could hinder achievements in global childhood immunization

"Thanks to a herculean effort by health advocates, 78 percent of children in low-income countries receive the basic set of childhood vaccines, covering diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B and haemophilus influenza," a Bloomberg View editorial states.

3 Jan 2013

Salix receives FDA approval for crofelemer to treat HIV-associated diarrhea

On New Year's Eve of 2012, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced its approval of crofelemer (Fulyzaq, Salix Pharmaceuticals, Ltd., Raleigh, North Carolina) — marking the second time a botanical, and the first time an orally administered botanical, has received drug approval from the Administration.

3 Jan 2013

HIV-positive status disclosure rates low in Ethiopia: Study

In Ethiopia, where more than 1.2 million people are infected with HIV, disclosure of infection by patients is important in the fight against the disease. A new study led by a Brown sociology researcher investigates HIV-positive status disclosure rates among men and women in Africa's second most populous country.

2 Jan 2013

7 more health workers killed in Pakistan in attacks suspected to be linked to murders of polio vaccinators

"Gunmen ambushed and shot dead six Pakistani women aid workers and a male doctor on Tuesday, police said, and the charity they worked for said it suspected the attacks were linked to recent murders of polio vaccination workers," Reuters reports.

2 Jan 2013

Crofelemer receives FDA approval for treatment of HIV associated diarrhea

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Limited announced today that the US Food and Drug Administration has provided Marketing approval to its partner in US, Salix Pharmaceuticals Limited, for Crofelemer 125 mg delayed-release tablets for the symptomatic relief of non-infectious diarrhea in patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/ acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) on anti-retroviral therapy (ART).

2 Jan 2013

Study identifies mechanism by which bacterium S. aureus colonizes nasal passages

A collaboration between researchers at the School of Biochemistry and Immunology and the Department of Microbiology at Trinity College Dublin has identified a mechanism by which the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) colonizes our nasal passages. The study, published today in the Open Access journal PLOS Pathogens, shows for the first time that a protein located on the bacterial surface called clumping factor B (ClfB) has high affinity for the skin protein loricrin.

29 Dec 2012

Common cholesterol-lowering drug may help protect against cerebral malaria

Researchers have discovered that adding lovastatin, a widely used cholesterol-lowering drug, to traditional antimalarial treatment decreases neuroinflammation and protects against cognitive impairment in a mouse model of cerebral malaria.

29 Dec 2012

Hepatitis C virus takes over invaded cell by hijacking protein making machinery

Researchers at the University of Colorado School of Medicine have figured out intimate details of how the hepatitis C virus takes over an invaded cell, a breakthrough that could point to way for new treatments for the virus.

29 Dec 2012

FDA clears Cepheid Xpert CT/NG molecular diagnostic test

Cepheid today announced that it has received clearance from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration to market Xpert CT/NG. Running on Cepheid's GeneXpert Systems, Xpert CT/NG is a qualitative in vitro molecular diagnostic test for the detection and differentiation of Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae. For the first time, same-day patient consultation and treatment is possible for the two most common sexually transmitted bacterial infections in the United States.

28 Dec 2012

Protein in human blood platelets points to a new weapon against malaria

One of the world's most devastating diseases is malaria, responsible for at least a million deaths annually, despite global efforts to combat it. Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, working with collaborators from Drexel University, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and Johns Hopkins University, have identified a protein in human blood platelets that points to a powerful new weapon against the disease. Their work was published in this months' issue of Cell Host and Microbe.

28 Dec 2012

Gates Foundation grant to promote effective use of new cholera vaccine

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health was awarded a four-year, $5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to promote the effective use of oral cholera vaccine around the world. The Delivering Oral Vaccine Effectively (DOVE) program will provide relief agencies and governments with technical assistance on how to use oral cholera vaccine, evaluate current vaccine-use practices and develop new field surveillance methods for monitoring and controlling outbreaks of the disease.

28 Dec 2012