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Cholera vaccine stockpiles could help save lives in future outbreaks

In a post in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog, Helen Matzger, a program officer in new vaccine delivery at the foundation, writes about outbreaks of cholera in Haiti, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and other areas, and says creating stockpiles of a recently WHO-approved cholera vaccine could help save lives in the future.

21 Sep 2012

September issue of 'Global Fund News Flash' email newsletter available

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has published Issue 8 of its newsletter, the "Global Fund News Flash."

21 Sep 2012

Strand Life Sciences to validate and commercialize Trovagene's urine-based HPV test

Trovagene, Inc. and Strand Life Sciences Pvt Ltd., of Bangalore, India, completed their agreement to validate and commercialize Trovagene's proprietary urine-based Human Papillomavirus (HPV) test for clinical diagnostic and carrier screening use.

21 Sep 2012

Mosquitoes show signs of behavior change in response to bed net use, study says

About three years after two villages in Benin began using insecticide-treated bed nets to help prevent malaria, mosquitoes in the area changed their biting habits, so their "hours of 'peak aggression' [went] from 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. to around 5 a.m." and "in one village, the proportion of mosquito bites inflicted outdoors rose," according to a study published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, Reuters reports.

21 Sep 2012

First phase of Global Fund-managed AMFm shows success in bringing malaria drugs to clinics

The Affordable Medicines Facility-malaria (AMFm) -- an innovative financing mechanism that subsidizes the cost of artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) in order to expand access to the most effective treatment for malaria -- "brought more than 100 million doses of malaria drugs to clinics and pharmacies in 2011" and "also increased access to the top malaria medicines by 26 to 52 percent in six countries."

21 Sep 2012

Medivir’s simeprevir and TMC647055 to enter phase IIa combination trial for HCV genotype-1

Medivir AB, announced today that simeprevir (TMC435) and TMC647055, a non-nucleoside inhibitor (NNI) will enter a phase IIa interferon free combination trial.

21 Sep 2012

TB Alliance, Sanofi partner to discover and develop novel compounds against tuberculosis

Sanofi and the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development announced today a new research collaboration agreement to accelerate the discovery and development of novel compounds against tuberculosis (TB), a deadly infectious disease that resulted in almost 1.5 million deaths worldwide in 2010.

21 Sep 2012

Study finds nearly 50% decline in child mortality in Niger over the last decade

A study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Niger Countdown Case Study Working Group found that child mortality in Niger-one of the world's poorest countries-declined nearly 50 percent over the last decade.

21 Sep 2012

'Greater commitment' needed to fight NTDs

In a guest post on USAID's "IMPACT Blog," Rachel Cohen, regional executive director of DNDi North America, writes, "The United States government and its country partners should be commended for the tremendous achievements in the fight against neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) as part of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) NTD Program" and the National Institutes of Health.

20 Sep 2012

WHO working with partners to stop Ebola from spreading in DRC

The WHO on Tuesday "said it is continuing to work with authorities from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to stop an Ebola outbreak from spreading, with the number of detected cases having reached 46 in the past week," the U.N. News Centre reports.

20 Sep 2012

Study finds high levels of ESBL bacteria in Danish chicken meat

Nearly half of the samples from chicken meat imported into Denmark contain ESBL bacteria and for the first time the level is almost as high in Danish chicken meat. By contrast, the occurrence in Danish pigs has decreased significantly since farmers stopped using cephalosporins for pigs.

20 Sep 2012

Joint Commission offers ranking of hospitals on quality, patient safety

The hospital accreditation board recognized 620 hospitals as top performers based on 45 measures. The rankings reflect performance in 2011.

20 Sep 2012

Health experts warn of linkages between climate change, increased malnutrition

"Malnutrition is likely to be the most serious health threat linked to climate shifts in the coming decades, as farmers struggle to cope with more unpredictable weather, ... epidemiologist Kris Ebi warned during a recent World Health Organization (WHO) briefing on adapting health systems to climate shifts," AlertNet reports.

20 Sep 2012

Blog examines role of community health workers in Zambia's malaria control efforts

In this post in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog, Laura Newman, a senior communications officer of the Malaria Control and Evaluation Partnership in Africa, examines the role of community health workers in "Zambia's three-step plan to establish large malaria-free zones in the country by 2015."

20 Sep 2012

BMJ examines emergence of China as 'major new player' in global vaccine production

"The Chinese drug industry is on the verge of getting the green light to manufacture the Japanese encephalitis vaccine for the developing world, an event that will signal the emergence of a major new player in global vaccines," BMJ reports.

20 Sep 2012

WHO increasing efforts to fight cholera in Sierra Leone

An ongoing cholera outbreak continues to affect Sierra Leone, and the WHO said on Tuesday it is increasing efforts to fight the disease, "as fatalities from the water and food-borne disease continue to increase," the U.N. News Centre reports.

20 Sep 2012

Bill Gates describes how 'catalytic philanthropy' can help bring vaccines, medicines to untouched markets

In an essay adapted for Forbes magazine from a speech given at the Forbes 400 Summit on Philanthropy in June, Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, discusses how "innovations for the poor suffer from ... market limitations" and his idea of "catalytic philanthropy." Gates writes, "The market is not going to place huge bets on research when there are no buyers for a breakthrough. This explains why we have no vaccine for malaria today, even though a million people die from it every year."

20 Sep 2012

Disease/Infection News

Cholera vaccine stockpiles could help save lives in future outbreaks

September issue of 'Global Fund News Flash' email newsletter available

Strand Life Sciences to validate and commercialize Trovagene's urine-based HPV test

Mosquitoes show signs of behavior change in response to bed net use, study says

First phase of Global Fund-managed AMFm shows success in bringing malaria drugs to clinics

Medivir’s simeprevir and TMC647055 to enter phase IIa combination trial for HCV genotype-1

TB Alliance, Sanofi partner to discover and develop novel compounds against tuberculosis

Study finds nearly 50% decline in child mortality in Niger over the last decade

'Greater commitment' needed to fight NTDs

WHO working with partners to stop Ebola from spreading in DRC

Study finds high levels of ESBL bacteria in Danish chicken meat

Joint Commission offers ranking of hospitals on quality, patient safety

Health experts warn of linkages between climate change, increased malnutrition

Blog examines role of community health workers in Zambia's malaria control efforts

BMJ examines emergence of China as 'major new player' in global vaccine production

WHO increasing efforts to fight cholera in Sierra Leone

Bill Gates describes how 'catalytic philanthropy' can help bring vaccines, medicines to untouched markets

Global health funding cuts threatening fight against HIV, TB in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, NGO report says

Research highlights various methods of reporting central line infections in hospitals

Study uncovers why some HIV-positive people take long time to progress to full-blown AIDS

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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