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PLAN C Agency launches Hepatitis B awareness campaign in the West Coast

PLAN C Agency, in collaboration with biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences, launched a Hepatitis B awareness campaign titled "B HERE" at three college campuses in the West Coast. The goal was to raise the much needed awareness regarding the rising epidemic of Hepatitis B among Asian Americans and educate the youth on the importance of getting tested.

11 Feb 2010

Drug used to treat parasites in animals may offer new treatment for river blindness, study finds

"Closantel, an older drug used to treat a parasitic liver disease in animals, may prove effective at combating river blindness in humans, a major cause of infection-related blindness, U.S. researchers said on Monday," Reuters reports (Steenhuysen, 2/8).

10 Feb 2010

Catalysis Foundation for Health to discover new TB biomarkers with $5M Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant

The Catalysis Foundation for Health (Catalysis), a 501 (c) (3) non-profit entity dedicated to developing sustainable diagnostics for the developing world, announced today that it has received a $5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant money will be used to discover new tuberculosis (TB) biomarkers that can be used to improve diagnostic tests and potentially develop more effective TB treatments.

10 Feb 2010

AHF schedules safer sex awareness events to mark International Condom Day on Feb 13th

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization which currently provides medical care and services to more than 127,000 individuals in 22 countries worldwide, will mark International Condom Day—an informal holiday observed in conjunction with Valentine’s Day, February 14th—with innovative and educational free condom distribution and safer sex awareness events as well as media campaigns held in 32 cities in 13 countries around the world that will be taking place over the days and nights around the weekend holiday.

10 Feb 2010

Majority of parents worry about safety of H1N1 vaccine

Ask any health professional who cares for children and they will tell you: When H1N1 flu hits, it can be very severe. In the last four months of 2009, nearly 240 children died in the United States from H1N1 flu—more than three times as many child deaths as in a typical non-H1N1 flu season.

10 Feb 2010

STDUniversity.org launches interactive, personalized STD test recommendation

STDUniversity.org is the first website to provide an interactive, personalized STD test recommendation developed by academic and medical experts. This expert-based tool incorporates screening guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and the U.S. Preventive Service Task Force (USPSTF).

10 Feb 2010

New method may help assess impact and cost-effectiveness of flu vaccination campaigns

A new study (doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2010.01.002), published by Elsevier this month in Vaccine (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/vaccine) describes a new method that assesses the impact and cost-effectiveness of a range of vaccination options.

10 Feb 2010

Study explores link between HBV genotype C and liver cirrhosis

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotypes have distinct geographical distributions, and have been shown to differ with regard to clinical outcome and prognosis. However, the relationship between HBV genotypes and liver cirrhosis remains controversial and no study on exploring the association between HBV genotypes and subclinical cirrhosis in community-based population has been reported.

10 Feb 2010

Eating reptile meat can cause varying degrees of illness

Reptiles are bred in captivity primarily for their skins, but some restaurants and population groups also want them for their meat. A study shows that eating these animals can have side effects that call into question the wisdom of eating this 'delicacy.'

10 Feb 2010

VSV has potential to be genetically modified to serve as anti-cancer agent

Vesicular stomatitis virus, or VSV, has long been a model system for studying and understanding the life cycle of negative-strand RNA viruses, which include viruses that cause influenza, measles and rabies.

10 Feb 2010

Antimalarial medicines in African countries are substandard, says QAMSA study

The first results from a large-scale study of key antimalarial medicines in ten Sub-Saharan African countries reveal that a high percentage of medicines circulating on national markets are of substandard quality and thus may contribute to the growth of drug-resistant strains of Plasmodium falciparum, the most virulent form of malaria.

10 Feb 2010

Measles vaccine does not increase risk of autism in children, reveals Polish study

As a pivotal paper linking childhood vaccinations to autism is discredited, a new study finds no evidence that the measles vaccine—given alone or as part of a combined measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine—increases the risk of autism in children. The study appears in The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal (www.pidj.com), published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health, a leading provider of information and business intelligence for students, professionals, and institutions in medicine, nursing, allied health, and pharmacy.

10 Feb 2010

Study shows lactobacillus is effective in improving H. pylori-infected diseases

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) are considered to be the most important etiological agents of chronic gastritis. The eradication of H. pyloridepends on the combination of antibiotics and acid suppression drugs.

10 Feb 2010

TBTC to receive more than $90 million to develop effective tuberculosis treatments

The Tuberculosis Trials Consortium (TBTC) strives to conduct research about the diagnosis, medical treatment, and prevention of tuberculosis (TB) infection and disease. The network is composed of a partnership of clinical investigators from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), public health departments from different countries, as well as medical and pharmaceutical institutions.

10 Feb 2010

Mutations that enable Pseudomonas to thrive in cystic fibrosis lung secretions may also guard them against antibiotics

People with cystic fibrosis, an inherited disease that clogs airways with thick mucous, frequently have lung infections that defy treatment. While the life expectancy for children with cystic fibrosis has increased over the past few decades, many lives are still shortened in young adulthood by the ravages of lung infections.

10 Feb 2010

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute sign license agreement with Genentech, Roche

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute have signed a license agreement with Genentech, a wholly owned member of the Roche group, and Roche, that grants the companies exclusive rights to manufacture, develop and market human monoclonal antibodies to treat and protect against group 1 influenza viruses.

10 Feb 2010

Findings of poor quality malaria drugs in Africa add to artemisinin-resistance worries

A study released on Monday found that between 26 percent and 44 percent of artemisinin-based malaria drugs sold in Madagascar, Senegal and Uganda "failed quality testing" because of impurities or insufficient amounts of active ingredient, the Associated Press reports.

10 Feb 2010

NIAID awards Tulane University over $15M to develop Lassa fever vaccine and treatment

The National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded a five-year contract totaling $15,254,919 to Tulane University for its ongoing efforts to treat and prevent Lassa fever, an often deadly viral disease that threatens hundreds of thousands of people annually in West Africa and is classified as a potential bioterrorism threat.

10 Feb 2010

IgM/IgG ratio is useful in diagnosing primary biliary cirrhosis

Previous studies have shown that assessment of immunoglobulin subclasses in plasma cells by immunohistochemistry (IHC) may be useful in the histopathologic evaluation of autoimmune liver diseases. However, further studies are necessary in order to validate the diagnostic utility of IgM and IgG immunohistochemistry in this specific scenario.

10 Feb 2010

Health officials encourage caution, despite H1N1 case decline

As the number of new H1N1 (swine flu) infections worldwide drops, U.S. health officials on Friday cautioned the virus continues to circulate and can still be deadly, Reuters reports. According to the WHO, H1N1 remains the dominant strain worldwide, but there are reports of the recent emergence of the seasonal flu in Africa and China, according to the news agency.

10 Feb 2010

Disease/Infection News

PLAN C Agency launches Hepatitis B awareness campaign in the West Coast

Drug used to treat parasites in animals may offer new treatment for river blindness, study finds

Catalysis Foundation for Health to discover new TB biomarkers with $5M Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant

AHF schedules safer sex awareness events to mark International Condom Day on Feb 13th

Majority of parents worry about safety of H1N1 vaccine

STDUniversity.org launches interactive, personalized STD test recommendation

New method may help assess impact and cost-effectiveness of flu vaccination campaigns

Study explores link between HBV genotype C and liver cirrhosis

Eating reptile meat can cause varying degrees of illness

VSV has potential to be genetically modified to serve as anti-cancer agent

Antimalarial medicines in African countries are substandard, says QAMSA study

Measles vaccine does not increase risk of autism in children, reveals Polish study

Study shows lactobacillus is effective in improving H. pylori-infected diseases

TBTC to receive more than $90 million to develop effective tuberculosis treatments

Mutations that enable Pseudomonas to thrive in cystic fibrosis lung secretions may also guard them against antibiotics

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute sign license agreement with Genentech, Roche

Findings of poor quality malaria drugs in Africa add to artemisinin-resistance worries

NIAID awards Tulane University over $15M to develop Lassa fever vaccine and treatment

IgM/IgG ratio is useful in diagnosing primary biliary cirrhosis

Health officials encourage caution, despite H1N1 case decline

Advancing brain microphysiological systems (bMPS)

PhD researcher at LifeArc

Unveiling Hidden Potential: Organoids for Disease Modeling in Neuroscience Research

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