Disease/Infection News

RSS

Americans encouraged to get H1N1 flu vaccine during National Influenza Vaccination Week

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and its Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced a nationwide effort to encourage more Americans to get the H1N1 flu vaccine during National Influenza Vaccination Week, January 10–16, 2010.

9 Jan 2010

PEPFAR's second five-year phase will strengthen healthcare systems

BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) (NYSE: BDX), a leading global medical technology company, has praised the recent announcement that the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) will increase its emphasis over the next five years on strengthening health systems in developing countries.

From BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) 9 Jan 2010

Recent releases in Global Health

A Lancet Comment examines the "grossly insufficient" progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of reducing under-5 child mortality. "Accelerated progress can be achieved, even in the poorest environments, through: integrated, evidence-driven, and community-based programmes that focus on addressing the major causes of death, including pneumonia, diarrhoea, newborn disorders, malaria, HIV, and undernutrition; reaching the unreached with a basic package of interventions at large scale and achieving coverage with equity; and using data for action and advocacy," the comment concludes (You et al., 1/9).

9 Jan 2010

Scientific societies to hold Experimental Biology 2010 meeting

Six scientific societies announced they will hold their annual meeting, Experimental Biology (EB 2010; www.experimentalbiology.org), April 24-28, 2010 in Anaheim, CA. The societies are the American Association of Anatomists (AAA), American Physiological Society (APS), American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB), American Society for Investigative Pathology (ASIP), American Society for Nutrition (ASN) and American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET).

9 Jan 2010

Fibrocytes associated with Graves' disease

A cell type that causes significant scarring in lung disease appears to have a similar effect in Graves' disease, University of Michigan Health System researchers have found. The cells, called fibrocytes, are present at a higher than normal frequency in patients with Graves' disease, according to a new study, the first to associate fibrocytes with this autoimmune disease.

9 Jan 2010

AHF launches national cross country HIV testing tour in Oregon

AHF’s ‘Testing America’ Tour, a six month, 48 state national cross country HIV testing tour, will visit Portland, Oregon for a testing event in Pioneer Courthouse Square from 10am to 3pm Saturday January 9th during the city’s fourth annual health week.

9 Jan 2010

Biomarker may enable personalized GVHD treatment for bone marrow transplant patients

University of Michigan researchers have identified the first biomarker of graft-versus-host disease of the skin. The discovery makes possible a simple blood test that should solve a treatment dilemma facing doctors with patients who frequently develop rashes after bone marrow transplants.

9 Jan 2010

Also in global health news: Museveni on Uganda anti-gay bill; Zambia, India on collaboration; media examines water issues; Southern Sudan conflict

The Associated Press reports that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has said that the anti-gay bill to be considered late next month or early March by the country's parliament "is too harsh and [he] has encouraged his ruling National Resistance Movement Party to overturn the death sentence provision. Several lawmakers have agreed and say they will push to remove the statute."

9 Jan 2010

R. Palmer Beasley awarded Hepatitis B Foundation's Distinguished Scientist Award 2010

R. Palmer Beasley, M.D., Ashbel Smith Professor at The University of Texas School of Public Health, has been awarded the Hepatitis B Foundation's Distinguished Scientist Award 2010.

9 Jan 2010

Green Cross seeks regulatory approval for peramivir in S.Korea

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that it has been informed by its partner, Green Cross Corp., that Green Cross has filed a New Drug Application (NDA) in South Korea to seek regulatory approval for intravenous (i.v.) peramivir to treat patients with influenza.

9 Jan 2010

CDC encourages public to receive H1N1 vaccine; PBS examines arrival of vaccine in developing countries

During a media briefing Thursday, Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC, warned against complacency over the H1N1 (swine flu), and encouraged Americans who had not yet received the H1N1 vaccine to do so, CNN reports.

8 Jan 2010

Critically ill children with flu-like symptoms should be treated preemptively with antiviral medications

Lessons learned from the first 13 children at Johns Hopkins Children's Center to become critically ill from the H1N1 virus show that although all patients survived, serious complications developed quickly, unpredictably, with great variations from patient to patient and with serious need for vigilant monitoring and quick treatment adjustments.

8 Jan 2010

Business leaders should continue to monitor H1N1 risk management to alleviate major impact on costs and revenues

The swine flu pandemic may be off the media’s radar screen, but business executives can ill afford to rest easy. Experts from the National Center for Critical Incident Analysis (NCCIA), who have studied how to respond to pandemics and bioterrorism attacks, warn that executives need to continue to monitor and manage unknown risk factors that might cause the flu to have a major impact upon costs and revenues.

8 Jan 2010

Pharmaceutical companies working on nearly 100 life-changing medicines for HIV/AIDS

Medical News Today recently reported that America's pharmaceutical research and biotechnology companies are working on nearly 100 life-changing medicines for diseases affecting people with HIV/AIDS, according to a new report released by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).

8 Jan 2010

Frequent chlamydia screening does not reduce infection in teenage girls

Frequent testing and treatment of infection does not reduce the prevalence of chlamydia in urban teenage girls, according to a long term study by Indiana University School of Medicine researchers published in the January 1, 2010 issue of the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

8 Jan 2010

Development to be 'central pillar' of U.S. foreign policy, Clinton says

In a speech on Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that it is time to "elevate development as a central pillar of all that we do in our foreign policy," United Press International reports (1/6). According to Reuters,

8 Jan 2010

H1N1 can spread during commercial flights; avoid economy and fly first class, UCLA researchers say

Viruses love plane travel. They get to fly around the world inside a closed container while their infected carrier breathes and coughs, spreading pathogens to other passengers, either by direct contact or through the air. And once people deplane, the virus can spread to other geographical areas.

8 Jan 2010

LSUHSC receives $2.1 million grant for pneumonia research

Dr. Jay Kolls, Professor and Chairman of Genetics at the LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Medicine, has been awarded a $2.1 million grant over five years by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health to further his work on a discovery that plays a critical role in the body's defense against pneumonia.

8 Jan 2010

Initiation of double blind placebo controlled multi-center trial of DAS181 announced

NexBio, Inc. announced today the initiation of a double blind placebo controlled multi-center trial in the U.S. and Mexico of DAS181 (Fludase®) for the treatment of laboratory confirmed influenza infection.

8 Jan 2010

Opinions: Uganda anti-gay bill; Clinton's foreign policy speech; PEPFAR

A Washington Post editorial calles anti-gay legislation currently under consideration in Uganda "an atrocity." The authors of the editorial write that under the legislation, "anyone convicted of 'aggravated homosexuality,' which could mean someone who is HIV-positive and is intimate with another person of the same sex, could 'suffer death.'"

7 Jan 2010

Disease/Infection News

Americans encouraged to get H1N1 flu vaccine during National Influenza Vaccination Week

PEPFAR's second five-year phase will strengthen healthcare systems

Recent releases in Global Health

Scientific societies to hold Experimental Biology 2010 meeting

Fibrocytes associated with Graves' disease

AHF launches national cross country HIV testing tour in Oregon

Biomarker may enable personalized GVHD treatment for bone marrow transplant patients

Also in global health news: Museveni on Uganda anti-gay bill; Zambia, India on collaboration; media examines water issues; Southern Sudan conflict

R. Palmer Beasley awarded Hepatitis B Foundation's Distinguished Scientist Award 2010

Green Cross seeks regulatory approval for peramivir in S.Korea

CDC encourages public to receive H1N1 vaccine; PBS examines arrival of vaccine in developing countries

Critically ill children with flu-like symptoms should be treated preemptively with antiviral medications

Business leaders should continue to monitor H1N1 risk management to alleviate major impact on costs and revenues

Pharmaceutical companies working on nearly 100 life-changing medicines for HIV/AIDS

Frequent chlamydia screening does not reduce infection in teenage girls

Development to be 'central pillar' of U.S. foreign policy, Clinton says

H1N1 can spread during commercial flights; avoid economy and fly first class, UCLA researchers say

LSUHSC receives $2.1 million grant for pneumonia research

Initiation of double blind placebo controlled multi-center trial of DAS181 announced

Opinions: Uganda anti-gay bill; Clinton's foreign policy speech; PEPFAR

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

Latest News