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U.N., partners call for greater efforts to fight number one killer of children on World Pneumonia Day

On World Pneumonia Day (WPD), recognized on November 12, "the United Nations and its partners ... called for greater efforts to eradicate pneumonia, the number one killer of children under the age of five," the U.N. News Centre reports.

14 Nov 2012

Ligand Pharmaceuticals announces data from LG-7501 preclinical studies on HCV

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated announced that data from preclinical studies evaluating LG-7501 were featured in a poster presentation today at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases in Boston.

14 Nov 2012

Malaria Box helps identify three chemical series that target treatment of NTDs

The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) and Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) announce today the identification of three chemical series targeting the treatment of deadly neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), through DNDi's screening of MMV's open access Malaria Box.

14 Nov 2012

UCI study reveals novel immune system response to bacterial infections

UC Irvine biologists have discovered that fats within cells store a class of proteins with potent antibacterial activity, revealing a previously unknown type of immune system response that targets and kills bacterial infections.

14 Nov 2012

Abbott releases details on phase 3 hepatitis C registrational program

Abbott today released details on its phase 3 hepatitis C registrational program following promising results from its phase 2b clinical trial, known as Aviator, presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease (AASLD) in Boston.

13 Nov 2012

Malaria vaccine reduced severe and uncomplicated malaria by a third in young infants when given with other routine vaccines

Experts from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine today comment on the results of a malaria vaccine trial.

9 Nov 2012

New vaccines and drug treatments urgently needed for bacterial meningitis

New vaccines and drug treatments are urgently needed for bacterial meningitis, a devastating disease which kills or maims around a fifth of people who contract it, according to medical experts writing in a new Series on bacterial meningitis, published in The Lancet.

9 Nov 2012

RTS,S vaccine candidate can help protect African infants against malaria

International African Vaccinology Conference, Cape Town, South Africa-Results from a pivotal, large-scale Phase III trial, published online today in the New England Journal of Medicine, show that the RTS,S malaria vaccine candidate can help protect African infants against malaria.

9 Nov 2012

Boulder Diagnostics launches novel SpiroFind test to detect Lyme disease

Boulder Diagnostics Inc. announced today the European market launch of the CE marked SpiroFind in vitro diagnostic test for the detection of active Lyme Borreliosis. The SpiroFind test is offered as a diagnostic service by the company's clinical diagnostic service laboratory in Mellrichstadt, Germany.

9 Nov 2012

Yellow fever outbreak in Sudan's Darfur kills 67, WHO reports

"A yellow fever outbreak in Sudan's Darfur region has killed 67 people so far," and "the number of cases has more than doubled since the start of the epidemic last month," the WHO said in a statement on Wednesday, the U.N. News Centre reports.

9 Nov 2012

Semprus BioSciences to develop surface-modified endotracheal tube

Teleflex Incorporated, a leading global provider of medical devices for critical care and surgery, has announced that Semprus BioSciences, a wholly owned subsidiary of Teleflex Incorporated, has been awarded the initial phase of a $2.3 million research grant from the U.S. Army's Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC), located at Fort Detrick, MD.

9 Nov 2012

Mass. fires head of board overseeing compounding pharmacies

Officials say James Coffey did not investigate a complaint from Colorado about the center now tied to the meningitis outbreak.

9 Nov 2012

New intervention strategies needed to reach HIV-infected youth at birth

As youth infected at birth with HIV reach adolescence and young adulthood, a new study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases underscores the need to promote healthy behaviors as some of these young people become sexually active.

9 Nov 2012

Scarce resources threatening progress against AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa

"With donor money to fight HIV and AIDS falling, spending in sub-Saharan Africa must be targeted to get the best results," Bjorn Lomborg, director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, writes in the Guardian's "Poverty Matters" blog, noting, "Sub-Saharan Africa has 10 percent of the world's population but is home to 70 percent of those living with HIV and AIDS."

9 Nov 2012

International community must step up fight against TB in Southern African region

"With $2.5 trillion in mineral reserves, South Africa has the largest mining sector in the world," but "[t]he work can be devastatingly toxic for the body," with "inhumane and untenable" working conditions, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, archbishop emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa, writes in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece.

9 Nov 2012

Elevated ST2 biomarker levels strongly indicate heart failure and mortality in HIV patients

Critical Diagnostics, makers of the Presage ST2 Assay, announced today that during a presentation at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions in Los Angeles, the results of a study demonstrated that elevated levels of the biomarker ST2 in HIV patients was strongly indicative of the development of heart failure and mortality.

9 Nov 2012

Key areas of disease neglected by UK funding for infectious diseases

UK funding for infectious diseases research is neglecting some of the diseases that result in the highest rates of death and disability, according to an Article published Online First in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

8 Nov 2012

BioCryst completes planned interim analysis of peramivir Phase 3 trial for serious influenza

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced completion of the planned interim analysis of the peramivir Phase 3 trial in patients admitted to the hospital with serious influenza. The difference between peramivir and control groups for the primary endpoint was small and the recalculated sample size was greater than the predefined futility boundary of 320 subjects. Based on this information, the independent data monitoring committee (DMC) recommended that the study be terminated for futility.

8 Nov 2012

International community must continue to support cholera treatment, prevention in Haiti

Since its arrival in Haiti two years ago, "cholera has sickened more than 600,000 people and killed more than 7,500," and "[t]his year the epidemic is on track to be among the world's worst again, with nearly 77,000 cases and 550 deaths, according to the Haitian Ministry of Health," Ralph Ternier and Cate Oswald of Zanmi Lasante/Partners in Health in Haiti write in the Huffington Post's "Impact" blog.

8 Nov 2012

Blog examines PEPFAR-funded program to improve access to HIV/AIDS treatment in Ethiopia

Writing in USAID's "IMPACTblog," Dereje Bisrat, monitoring and evaluation adviser for the Supply Chain Management System (SCMS), discusses the PEPFAR-funded program, which is administered by USAID and "works with Ethiopia's Pharmaceutical Fund and Supply Agency (PFSA), nine regional health bureaus, and more than 1,717 health facilities to improve access to HIV/AIDS treatment" in the country.

8 Nov 2012