Disease/Infection News

RSS

Government and private sector must work together on HIV vaccine

The success of antiretroviral therapy for HIV/AIDS "has fooled us into believing HIV is under control. It is not. … The fact remains that no sexually acquired infection has ever been controlled in democratic societies except by vaccines," Lawrence Corey, president and director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and principal investigator of the international HIV Vaccine Trials Network, writes in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece.

21 Jun 2011

Michelle Obama heads to Africa

"U.S. first lady Michelle Obama left for Africa on Sunday, embarking on her second official solo journey abroad with a goal of advancing U.S. policies on education, health, and democracy," Reuters reports. Obama is due to arrive in South Africa on Monday, "where she will make stops in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Later in the week she will visit Botswana," the news service notes.

21 Jun 2011

CDT biomarker poor, inaccurate method for detecting unhealthy drinking in HIV-infected adults

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have found that among HIV-infected adults with alcohol problems, measuring their carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT) biomarker was a poor and inaccurate method for detecting unhealthy drinking.

21 Jun 2011

Study sheds new light on body's immune response to hepatitis A, C viruses

A surprising finding in a study comparing hepatitis C virus (HCV) with hepatitis A virus (HAV) infections in chimpanzees by a team that includes scientists from the Texas Biomedical Research Institute sheds new light on the nature of the body's immune response to these viruses.

21 Jun 2011

U.S. FDA approves generic Levaquin for treatment of bacterial infections

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved the first generic versions of Levaquin, an antibiotic approved to treat certain infections in people ages 18 and older.

21 Jun 2011

Public-private partnerships leading to successes in HIV treatment and prevention

The recent achievements in studies looking at treatment as prevention "were only made possible by the partnership between publicly funded scientists and private drug companies," Ward Cates, president of research at FHI; Salim Abdool Karim, director of the Centre for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa; and Myron Cohen, director of the UNC Division of Infectious Disease and the UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Disease, write in an opinion piece in the Huffington Post.

21 Jun 2011

Researchers find potentially dangerous fungus in common household appliances

A potentially pathogenic fungus has found a home living in extreme conditions in some of the most common household appliances, researchers have found. A new paper published in the British Mycological Society journal, Fungal Biology, published by Elsevier, shows that these sites make perfect habitats for extremotolerant fungi.

21 Jun 2011

Viewpoints: Compromises on fixing Medicare?; 'progress' on AIDS; working families falling behind

Fixing Medicare should not compromise patient care. The president's health care bill created the controversial Independent Payment Advisory Board. This panel of unelected bureaucrats, whose sole purpose is to decide whether to offer Medicare benefits based on a budget, could lead to government rationing of care.

21 Jun 2011

Concert earns $4M milestone payment from GSK collaboration

Concert Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that it has achieved a milestone in its strategic alliance with GlaxoSmithKline for its HIV protease inhibitor development program, resulting in a $4 million milestone payment to Concert.

20 Jun 2011

MA launches national campaign to raise awareness on meningitis

This Father's Day is a special day for Angels Dads on Meningitis (ADOM). Angel dads from across the country came together in Denver, Colorado to launch a national campaign on meningitis awareness.

20 Jun 2011

Mother and baby cytomegalovirus screening important to prevent consequences

According to health experts, pregnant women and newborns should be screened for a virus that causes brain damage and deafness. The study that appeared in the latest issue of The Medical Journal of Australia yesterday says hundreds of cases of cytomegalovirus (CMV) are likely being missed each year in Australia because of a lack of screening, denying babies treatment for the condition.

19 Jun 2011

Scientists pinpoint how Michigan program reduced rates of deadly central line bloodstream infections

A team of social scientists and medical and nursing researchers in the United States and the United Kingdom has pinpointed how a programme, which ran in more than 100 hospital intensive care units in Michigan, dramatically reduced the rates of potentially deadly central line bloodstream infections to become one of the world's most successful patient safety programmes.

18 Jun 2011

Boosting immune response may cause cold-induced asthma flare-ups

People often talk about "boosting" their immunity to prevent and fight colds. Nutritional supplements, cold remedies and fortified foods claim to stave off colds by augmenting the immune system.

18 Jun 2011

Report outlines lessons from AIDS advocates

A new report from the consulting firm HCM Strategists and the nonprofit group FasterCures "analyzes the factors that helped patient advocates drive research into and drug development for HIV/AIDS, and tries to figure out whether there are lessons to be learned for other disease advocates," the Wall Street Journal's "Health Blog" writes.

18 Jun 2011

Integrating AIDS fight with other global health efforts is next step

An "invisible turning point" in the fight against HIV/AIDS recently occurred: "the realisation that simply strengthening the vertical programme that is AIDS has to end. The new opportunity is integration," a Lancet editorial states.

18 Jun 2011

WHO special issue addresses economic burden of dengue in the Americas, Africa and Asia

The ten studies in this special issue document the substantial and growing burden of dengue in the Americas, Africa and Asia, and the burden of a chikungunya outbreak in India.

18 Jun 2011

Women, young people more worried about EHEC bacteria outbreak in Europe

The news coverage of the deadly EHEC bacteria outbreak in Europe came as a bombshell. Ghent University (Belgium) examined 6132 reactions of Belgian newspaper readers after reading the first news reports.

17 Jun 2011

Civil unrest creates serious health implications in South Sudan

BMJ reports on the health affects of civil unrest in South Sudan, which will become the world's newest country on July 9.

17 Jun 2011

University of Leicester, Wellcome Trust curate AIDS poster exhibition at New Walk Museum

Images from around the world of the most serious epidemic in history are to go on public display in Leicester. Spreading the Word: AIDS Posters from Around the World is the exhibition curated by University of Leicester academic Dr Sarah Graham, in collaboration with the Wellcome Trust. It takes place at the New Walk Museum from 15 July -28 August.

17 Jun 2011

ASEAN members sign new action plan to fight dengue

Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Wednesday as part of an event marking ASEAN Dengue Day signed a new action plan aimed at fighting dengue in the region, the Jakarta Post reports.

17 Jun 2011