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WHO warning increases opportunity for Biomagnetics urine based TB assay

Biomagnetics Diagnostics Corp., a developer of revolutionary diagnostic systems and technology for HIV, hepatitis, tuberculosis and malaria detection, and other innovative technologies, today announced that the World Health Organization ("WHO") on Sunday July 17, 2011 warned that the widely used blood tests to detect tuberculosis ("TB") are unreliable and "dangerous" to patients because they produce too many false negatives and positives.

21 Jul 2011

Clinical study of anti-HIV antibody made from genetically modified tobacco plants

Pharmaceuticals can be produced by plants. Antibodies that have been produced in tobacco plants will now for the first time be tested in a clinical study.

21 Jul 2011

Global polio eradication efforts unlikely to meet 2012 goal, health experts say

An independent group of health experts, formed last year at the request of the WHO, on Wednesday warned that the world is not on track to eradicate polio by the end of 2012, the Associated Press reports.

21 Jul 2011

IAS, UIPHP to launch VKC for injecting drug users living with HIV

As a part of its new initiative, Expanding Access to Opioid Substitution Therapy (OST) for People Who Inject Drugs in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA), the International AIDS Society (IAS) will launch a Virtual Knowledge Centre (VKC) in partnership with the Ukrainian Institute on Public Health Policy.

21 Jul 2011

WHO denounces TB blood tests in first-ever 'negative' policy recommendation

The WHO "called on Wednesday for an immediate halt to the use of blood tests to detect active tuberculosis, saying they were faulty and leave millions of people at risk," Reuters reports.

21 Jul 2011

New rapid test accurately distinguishes bacterial and viral infections

Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) have developed a new test that quickly and accurately distinguishes between bacterial and viral infections in as little as five hours.

21 Jul 2011

Experts at IAS conference suggest ways to increase funding for HIV/AIDS

"Scientists have now provided revolutionary tools to roll back HIV but only a major funding boost, supported especially by emerging giant economies, will determine the outcome," according to experts speaking in Rome at the 6th International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention, Agence France-Presse reports.

21 Jul 2011

Exposure to household tobacco smoke increases risk of bronchiolitis in infants

A study by the University of Liverpool has found that babies admitted to hospital with bronchiolitis from a household where a parent smokes are twice as likely to need oxygen therapy and five times as likely to need mechanical ventilation as babies whose parents do not smoke.

21 Jul 2011

Maltodextrin-based imaging probes could improve diagnosis and treatment of bacterial infections

A new family of contrast agents that sneak into bacteria disguised as glucose food can detect bacterial infections in animals with high sensitivity and specificity. These agents -- called maltodextrin-based imaging probes -- can also distinguish a bacterial infection from other inflammatory conditions.

21 Jul 2011

Roche, Merck sign new non-exclusive agreement for HCV triple combination therapy

Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, announced today that it has signed a new non-exclusive agreement with Roche, through the companies' respective subsidiaries, for the global promotion, upon appropriate marketing approvals, of VICTRELIS (boceprevir) as part of a triple combination therapy regimen with peginterferon alfa and ribavirin.

21 Jul 2011

Maintaining and increasing AIDS funding critical

A new report showing "research funding for four key HIV prevention options - preventive vaccines, microbicides, PrEP and operations research related to medical male circumcision" - increased in 2010 compared with 2009 "is certainly good news, but we cannot rest on our laurels," Margaret McGlynn, president and CEO of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, Zeda Rosenberg, CEO of the International Partnership for Microbicides, and Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC: Global Advocacy for HIV Prevention, write in a post on the Global Health Magazine's blog.

21 Jul 2011

Australia sees early rise in flu cases

Australia is gripped with a fourfold increase in the number of people suffering flu. This rise is even before the usual peak season in August and September. Already nearly 8,000 cases have been reported compared with about 2,000 at the same time last year. The increase has disproportionately affected Queensland, NSW and South Australia. In January and February more than 1,700 people were recorded with flu, compared with fewer than 300 the year before.

20 Jul 2011

MDL announces HPV-16 Status reflex test

Medical Diagnostic Laboratories, L.L.C. (MDL) is a CLIA certified infectious disease laboratory which specializes in high-complexity, state-of-the-art, automated DNA-based molecular analyses.

20 Jul 2011

Software uses Twitter to track dengue outbreaks in Brazil

The New Scientist reports on a software program that is being used "to identify a high correlation between the time and place where people tweet they have dengue and the official statistics for where the disease appears each season."

20 Jul 2011

Final SVR results from Pharmasset's PSI-7977 phase 2b study in HCV

Pharmasset, Inc. announced today the final sustained virologic response (SVR) results from its phase 2b PROTON study with PSI-7977 dosed once daily in combination with peginterferon alfa 2a and ribavirin in subjects with hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 2 or 3 who have not been treated previously.

20 Jul 2011

MDI, Eldan partner to distribute Detect-Ready MRSA Panel in Israel

Molecular Detection Inc. (MDI), a company developing Detect-Ready tests designed to increase the speed and accuracy of infectious disease diagnosis, and life sciences and diagnostics distributor Eldan, a part on the Neopharm Group, today announced that they have entered into an exclusive agreement for distribution of MDI's Detect-Ready MRSA Panel in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

20 Jul 2011

Kool Smiles inaugurates new Elkhart office to offer dental services

Kool Smiles, a leading dental health provider for children and adults, has opened a new office in Elkhart. Kool Smiles of Elkhart, which began seeing patients on July 11, puts quality dental care within reach of even more previously underserved area residents.

20 Jul 2011

Shah discusses importance of partnerships in global health

The Malaria Policy Center's "Malaria Watch" blog describes comments made by USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah during a recent global health community call. During the call, Shah "stressed that to solve global health issues there needs to be shared 'responsibility across all partners.' Partnerships help 'save money, and saving money can save lives,'" the blog notes.

20 Jul 2011

Three-drug regimen more effective for treating H. pylori infection

Helicobacter pylori, the bacterium known to cause peptic ulcers, is also the primary cause of gastric cancer, which is a leading cancer killer globally.

20 Jul 2011

New trends in HIV cure research presented at IAS 2011

Researchers speaking on the final day of the 6th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention (IAS 2011) have focused on the growing interest in the scientific path to an HIV Cure.

20 Jul 2011