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Poll results reveal Bristol residents as the most unhygienic in Britain

Bristol residents have today been revealed as the most unhygienic in Britain, according to a poll of 4,000 adults by Wet Ones to launch National Hand Hygiene Awareness Week.

26 Oct 2009

Wellcome Trust's 91M fund aims at developing new drugs related to the dengue fever virus

The Wellcome Trust spends over 600 million pounds each year to support its mission to foster and promote research with the aim to improving human and animal health. This funding supports basic research as well as technology transfer, the transfer of academic knowledge and technology to the corporate environment.

26 Oct 2009

Wildlife Conservation Society to monitor diseases for preventing global pandemic

The Wildlife Conservation Society will play a key role in a new international effort to monitor diseases that move between animals and people in order to prevent the next global pandemic.

24 Oct 2009

UC Davis' international effort to prevent new pandemics

In hopes of preventing the next global pandemic and a possible death toll into the millions, UC Davis today launches an unprecedented international effort to find and control diseases that move between wildlife and people.

24 Oct 2009

Doctoral candidate sheds new light on the biology of Leishmania parasites

Professor Albert Descoteaux's team at Centre INRS - Institut Armand-Frappier has gained a better understanding of how the Leishmania donovani parasite manages to outsmart the human immune system and proliferate with impunity, causing visceral leishmaniasis, a chronic infection that is potentially fatal if left untreated.

24 Oct 2009

Maxim Health Systems cancels all flu shot clinics at retail locations

Maxim Health Systems has cancelled all flu shot clinics at retail locations after October 22, due to lack of vaccine availability. Across the country, there has been a drastic increase in both demand and media attention regarding influenza and vaccine availability. While the nation is experiencing an increase in demand for flu vaccine, manufacturers are unable to produce more seasonal flu vaccine because all resources have been shifted to H1N1 production.

24 Oct 2009

Documentary film about global fight against pediatric HIV/AIDS premiered

Prominent photographer, television personality, and filmmaker Nigel Barker premiered his newest documentary film last evening, entitled Generation Free, about the global fight against pediatric HIV/AIDS.

24 Oct 2009

African American seniors less likely to be vaccinated against flu; fear and misinformation pose problems

A study about why African American seniors do or do not get influenza vaccinations finds that many of them do not have accurate and complete information about the flu itself, the safety and efficacy of the inoculations, and the ease and necessity of getting the shots.

24 Oct 2009

Pregnant women unsure about getting H1N1 flu shot, shows new survey

Despite majorities expressing concern about getting the novel H1N1 (or swine) flu this year, only about one in four pregnant women or new mothers plan to get the H1N1 flu shot, according to findings from a new survey conducted on behalf of HealthyWomen by Harris Interactive.

24 Oct 2009

Recent releases in Global Health

"The spread of dengue virus throughout the tropics represents a major, rapidly growing public health problem with an estimated 2.5 billion people at risk of dengue fever and the life-threatening disease, severe dengue," write the authors of a Lancet Infectious Diseases review that examines what is known about the virus and progress in the development of a dengue vaccine (Webster et. al, 11/09).

24 Oct 2009

Pennsylvania allocated 566,000 doses of H1N1 vaccine

The Department of Health today announced the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, has allocated more than 566,000 doses of H1N1 vaccine to Pennsylvania. While delays in vaccine production have occurred, the department is placing orders as soon as vaccine is allocated to ensure it reaches Pennsylvania residents as quickly as possible.

24 Oct 2009

Ontario doctors urge employers not to ask sick note from a physician for employees taking leave this flu season

In advance of what is shaping up to be an unprecedented flu season, Ontario's doctors are encouraging employers to reconsider asking their employees for a sick note from a physician because of an absence from work.

24 Oct 2009

E. coli outbreak highlights the importance of food safety

Two students from Lincoln Middle School in Lincoln, Rhode Island were hospitalized several days after a field trip to Camp Bournedale in Plymouth, Massachusetts earlier this month. Several other students were also sickened.

24 Oct 2009

FDA issues emergency use authorization for intravenous antiviral drug peramivir in H1N1 patients

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced today that, in response to a request from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it has issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the investigational antiviral drug peramivir intravenous (IV) in certain adult and pediatric patients with confirmed or suspected 2009 H1N1 influenza infection who are admitted to a hospital.

24 Oct 2009

Philippines calls for help to address disease outbreak in storms' aftermath

The WHO on Thursday said the Philippines is requesting "international help to fight a deadly outbreak of an infectious disease following two devastating tropical storms," Agence France-Presse reports. Parts of Manila, which are still flooded almost four weeks after Tropical Storm Ketsana hit, are experiencing an outbreak of the bacterial infection, leptospirosis (10/22).

24 Oct 2009

Study links urogenital birth defects with DDT

Women who lived in villages sprayed with DDT to reduce malaria gave birth to 33 per cent more baby boys with urogenital birth defects (UGBD) between 2004 and 2006 than women in unsprayed villages, according to research published online by the UK-based urology journal BJUI.

24 Oct 2009

Low adiponectin levels may increase sepsis related complications

A new Canadian study has found that lower-than-normal levels of a naturally-occurring fat hormone may increase the risk of death from sepsis-an overwhelming infection of the blood which claims thousands of lives each year.

24 Oct 2009

Media examines U.S., Mexico H1N1 vaccine campaigns, health effects of handwashing in Bolivia

The Washington Post examines H1N1 vaccine supplies across the U.S.: "With only a fraction of the tens of millions of doses of vaccine that authorities predicted would be available arriving in states, cities and towns, public health officials who spent months planning for a massive immunization program are instead scrambling to parcel out their limited supply of nasal sprays and shots," the newspaper writes.

24 Oct 2009

Dr. Anthony Falcon: We're facing a catastrophic situation on the border

Kaiser Health News staff writer Jessica Marcy talks with Dr. Antonio Falcon, a physician in the border town of Rio Grande City, Texas. He explained his concern "about several health threats facing border communities, including tuberculosis, diabetes, obesity and the H1N1 virus that causes swine flu."

24 Oct 2009

Congress reauthorizes Ryan White Care Act - funding for HIV/AIDS

The New York Times: "The House on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed legislation allocating billions of dollars in federal money for the treatment of HIV and AIDS. By a vote of 408-9, the House reauthorized the Ryan White Care Act, first enacted in 1990 and named for the Indiana teenager who died of AIDS. The Senate has already passed the bill by unanimous consent."

24 Oct 2009