Disease/Infection News

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Chembio develops DPP assay for rapid detection of HIV and HEP B/C

A kidney recipient in a New York City hospital recently contracted HIV from the transplanted organ, which came from a living donor, according to the New York State Department of Health. Although an initial screening had been performed on the donor, he or she apparently had unsafe sex after the test but before donating the kidney.

28 Mar 2011

Financial Times examines rise in public, private sector global partnerships for aid delivery

"New models of financing and delivering development programmes are bringing far-reaching changes to the international public sector," with " traditional government-to-government transactions … giving way to complex networks of partners - some of them from the private sector - to provide everything from antiretroviral drugs and girls' education to emergency food supplies," the Financial Times reports in a piece that explores why such changes are taking place and their implications for future funding.

28 Mar 2011

Gates discusses foundation's global health priorities in India during visit to country

During a visit to the Indian state of Bihar, Bill Gates, co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, on Thursday discussed his foundation's work in India and global health priorities, ANI/Sify News reports.

28 Mar 2011

GCRI, Max Planck Florida Institute to host discussion on TB at German House New York

The German Center for Research and Innovation, in cooperation with the Max Planck Florida Institute, will host a discussion on the treatments and challenges of tuberculosis on Thursday, March 31, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. The event will take place at the German House New York.

28 Mar 2011

U.S. TB cases reach all-time low, but eradication target missed, CDC says

"The number of tuberculosis cases in the United States reached an all-time low last year, with only 11,181 cases reported to public health authorities, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention," the Los Angeles Times' "Booster Shots" blog reports.

28 Mar 2011

Scientists receive AACR Team Science Award for HPV research

The Fifth Annual AACR Team Science Award will be given to a team of internationally renowned molecular biologists, epidemiologists, biostatisticians and clinicians from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and University of Washington who have worked together on human papillomavirus for more than 20 years.

28 Mar 2011

Mexico on swine flu alert again

After four new deaths from swine flu (H1N1), authorities in Mexico's Chihuahua state along the U.S. border announced preventive health measures Sunday to staunch a return of an H1N1 epidemic.

27 Mar 2011

CDC awards Duke University $2M to study prevention of HAIs using Tru-D disinfection system

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has awarded $2 million to Duke University Prevention Epicenter as part of its program to conduct innovative research in the science of preventing Healthcare-Associated Infections, or HAIs, with the goal of saving lives in healthcare settings.

25 Mar 2011

HIV uses base excision repair pathway to insert DNA into host-cell genome

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the cause of AIDS, makes use of the base excision repair pathway when inserting its DNA into the host-cell genome, according to a new study led by researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute. Crippling the repair pathway prevents the virus from completing this critical step in the retrovirus's life cycle.

25 Mar 2011

First evidence of H5N1 transmission between domestic farms and wild birds

Wild migratory birds may indeed play a role in the spread of bird flu, also known as highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1.

25 Mar 2011

Kenya requests emergency order of 45M condoms from PEPFAR

A condom shortage in Kenya caused by high demand and procurement bottlenecks has forced the country to request an emergency order of 45 million condoms from PEPFAR, Kenyan health officials said Wednesday, Agence France-Presse reports. According to the news service, a January order of 19 million condoms was exhausted in about six weeks (3/23).

25 Mar 2011

Study finds malaria as a serious problem for patients with landmine injuries

Malaria can complicate the course of disease in poor farmers with landmine injuries in underdeveloped countries, where both malaria and war injuries are frequent causes of illness and death. Tove Heger's doctoral research has charted the extent and effect of malaria on war-injured people and studied the potential for preventing them contracting the disease.

25 Mar 2011

Graceway receives FDA approval for Zyclara Cream to treat genital warts

Graceway Pharmaceuticals announced today that the Food and Drug Administration has approved Zyclara Cream for the treatment of external genital and perianal warts in patients 12 years of age and older.

25 Mar 2011

FXB and Merck partner to improve systems for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in Botswana

The Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center (FXB) of the University of Medicine and Dentistry (UMDNJ) School of Nursing will provide training to 150 clinicians in Botswana who will then train more than 6,000 healthcare workers thanks to a grant of nearly $375,000 from The Merck Company Foundation.

25 Mar 2011

Antibiotic treatment does not benefit patients with discoloured phlegm

Prescribing antibiotics for patients with discoloured phlegm caused by acute cough has little or no effect on alleviating symptoms and recovery, a Cardiff University study has found.

25 Mar 2011

EU supports new collaborative research projects on tuberculosis

It's March 24th again and the World Tuberculosis Day reminds us that for almost 50 years no new drugs have been developed against this terrible disease, which is currently killing nearly two million people worldwide each year. It's a global problem because the emergence of drug resistant strains of this infectious disease - normally associated with poverty - is a growing problem even in high-income economies.

25 Mar 2011

Financial Times, other media outlets highlight key issues in Global TB fight

In recognition of World Tuberculosis Day on Thursday, the Financial Times published a series of stories on TB worldwide.

25 Mar 2011

SeraCare launches new HIV panel

SeraCare Life Sciences, a global life sciences company providing vital products and services to facilitate the discovery, development and production of human diagnostics and therapeutics, announces the launch of its new Worldwide HIV Performance Panel.

25 Mar 2011

Researchers find high rates of multi-drug resistant pathogen among LA population

Researchers with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health have found high rates of the multi-drug resistant pathogen, carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae among the patient population in long-term acute care hospitals compared to general acute care hospitals across the county.

25 Mar 2011

Opinions: Using taxes to reduce poverty; fighting TB; meeting global food demands

To improve living standards and create jobs," African governments "need to provide their citizens with better health care, better education, more infrastructure. How to pay for this - in a way that is both fair and efficient - is a question that all governments face," Mark Plant, deputy director of the IMF's African Department, writes in a BusinessDay opinion piece where he describes how increased tax revenues in several African countries have led to "in-roads into poverty reduction."

25 Mar 2011