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Money spent on presidential campaigns could go far in fighting NTDs

Noting that an estimated $2 billion was spent on the U.S. presidential campaigns, Peter Hotez, president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and founding dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, writes in the Huffington Post "Healthy Living" blog, "Many of us in the global health community can only look upon that $2 billion figure in awe because of the potential for those dollars to be repurposed to immediately and dramatically improve the lives of the poorest people who suffer from disease."

15 Nov 2012

Flu virus suppresses body's ability to defend against bacteria

When infected with influenza, the body becomes an easy target for bacteria. The flu virus alters the host's immune system and compromises its capacity to effectively fight off bacterial infections. Now, a team of immunologists at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) and cooperation partners has discovered that an immune system molecule called TLR7 is partly to blame. The molecule recognizes the viral genome - and then signals scavenger cells of the immune system to ingest fewer bacteria.

15 Nov 2012

Yellow fever kills more than 100 people in Darfur; WHO, health ministry to provide immunizations

"More than two million people in Sudan's Darfur region will be vaccinated against a rare yellow fever outbreak suspected of killing 107 people since late September, health officials said on Tuesday," Agence France-Presse/France 24 reports (11/13). In a joint statement, the WHO and the Sudanese Ministry of Health said the mosquito-borne disease has spread throughout the western territory, which "has been plagued by conflict since rebels took up arms in 2003," Reuters notes.

15 Nov 2012

Greece faces return of malaria, other public health issues since 2009 economic crash

The Wall Street Journal examines how "Greece has seen decades of advances in public health rolled back, as a flood of illegal immigrants, a dysfunctional government and budget cuts ravage a once proud health-care system."

15 Nov 2012

MRC funds largest ever study of genetics relating to lung disease

Researchers from the Universities of Nottingham and Leicester are leading the largest ever study of the genetics relating to lung disease.

15 Nov 2012

Pharmaceutical compounding problems spread under lax regulation

News outlets report that congressional oversight was lacking and the Boston Globe uncovers documents about the company that started the meningitis outbreak.

15 Nov 2012

Paxvax PXVX0200 cholera vaccine demonstrates safety and immunogenicity in Phase 1 clinical trial

PaxVax Inc, which develops and commercializes innovative vaccines against infectious diseases in a socially responsible manner today announced results from a Phase 1 clinical trial of PaxVax's single-dose oral cholera vaccine candidate at the 2012 American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) Annual Meeting in Atlanta.

15 Nov 2012

Demand growing for female condoms despite myths

Mary Beth Hastings, vice president of the Center for Health and Gender Equality (CHANGE), writes in the Huffington Post's "Impact" blog that despite "the pervasive myth that no one wants female condoms," "[d]emand is increasing because female condoms provide men and women with something they want: more options when it comes to protecting themselves."

15 Nov 2012

Tuberculosis pathogen has an ingenious defence mechanism against oxygen

Flemish biologists lead by Joris Messens (VIB / Vrije Universiteit Brussel) have discovered that Mycobacterium tuberculosis - the bacterium that causes tuberculosis - has an ingenious defence mechanism against oxygen. This knowledge is important in the search for a treatment for tuberculosis. 9.4 million people are infected with tuberculosis annually and 1.7 million people die as a result.

15 Nov 2012

Global health community should save AMFm because it saves lives

The Affordable Medicines Facility-malaria began as a pilot program in 2010 to "provide a 'co-payment' to the manufacturers of [artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs)], thereby allowing commercial wholesalers and private or government health services to purchase the drugs at a fraction of the already low negotiated price," Kenneth Arrow, a Nobel laureate in economic sciences in 1972 and an emeritus professor of economics at Stanford University, writes in a New York Times opinion piece.

15 Nov 2012

Ebola, Marburg and Lassa viruses must be designated as emerging diagnoses

The Ebola, Marburg and Lassa viruses are commonly referred to as emerging diseases, but leading scientists say these life-threatening viruses have been around for centuries.

15 Nov 2012

MRSA outbreak tracked and contained using DNA sequencing

Scientists have used DNA sequencing for the first time to effectively track the spread of, and ultimately contain, an outbreak of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), according to new research published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

14 Nov 2012

Study finds lower uptake of HPV vaccination among racial/ethnic minorities

A new Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) study has found that improving Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination rates in black women may require culturally sensitive approaches that address ethnic-specific barriers.

14 Nov 2012

DNA sequencing helps detect MRSA outbreaks in hospitals

This study used DNA sequencing to examine an outbreak of MRSA in a hospital, to uncover new cases and, as the study developed, to intervene in the outbreak to end it more quickly. Sequencing illuminated each person infected and described the transmission of MRSA between people coming to the hospital and within the hospital.

14 Nov 2012

U.N. has 'moral responsibility' to address cholera outbreak in Haiti

Sometimes "[w]hen the international aid community descends on a vulnerable place ... good intentions make a bad situation even worse," a Boston Globe editorial states, adding that is "what happened two years ago, when United Nations peacekeepers arrived in Haiti in the wake of a devastating earthquake, bringing the deadly disease cholera with them."

14 Nov 2012

Certain UTI-causing bacteria become more difficult to treat with current antibiotics

Certain types of bacteria responsible for causing urinary tract infections (UTIs), the second-most-common infection in the United States, are becoming more difficult to treat with current antibiotics, according to new research from Extending the Cure (ETC), a project of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy.

14 Nov 2012

Blog examines RTS,S malaria vaccine trial results

In a post in the Center for Global Development's (CGD) "Global Health Policy" blog, Owen Barder, a senior fellow and director for Europe at the CGD, reports on the results of a large Phase III clinical trial conducted in Africa on the malaria vaccine candidate RTS,S, published online in the New England Journal of Medicine on Friday.

14 Nov 2012

New report shows slight increase in U.S., E.U. philanthropic funding for AIDS

"Private philanthropists in the European Union and the U.S. spent some $644 million on global HIV/AIDS programs in 2011, a five percent increase from 2010, largely driven by funding from a small number of large donors, a new report has revealed," IRIN reports.

14 Nov 2012

BMJ examines history, future of Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

The BMJ examines the history of fraud allegations against the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the organization's ongoing reform efforts.

14 Nov 2012

NPR, GlobalPost examine polio in Nigeria

NPR's "Shots" blog reports on an update about the polio situation in Nigeria, published Thursday in the CDC's latest issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), writing, "Despite beefed-up efforts to vaccinate kids and a flood of new resources, ... there have been twice as many polio cases as last year, and a few communities, where kids chronically miss vaccines, are serving as 'sanctuaries' for the poliovirus, giving it a place to replicate and survive."

14 Nov 2012