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Targeting children may be an effective use of limited supplies of flu vaccine

Targeting children may be an effective use of limited supplies of flu vaccine, according to research funded by the Wellcome Trust and the EU. The study suggests that, used to support other control measures, this could help control the spread of pandemics such as the current swine flu.

17 Jun 2009

Household structure and infectious disease transmission

Targeting children may be an effective use of limited supplies of flu vaccine, according to research at the University of Warwick funded by the Wellcome Trust and the EU. The study suggests that, used to support other control measures, this could help control the spread of pandemics such as the current swine flu.

17 Jun 2009

Six 'major health agencies' form alliance to address chronic diseases in developing countries

A group of "major health agencies" from Australia, Canada, China, the U.K. and the U.S., which "together control 80 percent of the world's public health-research funding," have joined together to form the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD) to combat chronic diseases in developing countries, Time reports (Walsh, Time, 6/16).

17 Jun 2009

VOA News examines international HIV/AIDS implementers meeting

VOA News examines the 2009 HIV/AIDS Implementers Meeting in Windhoek, Namibia, which recently brought together 1,500 people from 55 countries to compare notes on HIV/AIDS programs around the world. The article features comments by Assistant U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Michele Moloney-Kitts who attended and shared some of her experiences from the meeting.

17 Jun 2009

U.N. Secretary-General, WHO Director-General appeal for continued investment in global health

Despite the current global economic crisis, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday called for a continued international commitment to investing in health, Xinhua/People's Daily reports.

17 Jun 2009

Maternal, child health lag behind other Millennium Development Goals, study finds

Despite signs of progress in the treatment of HIV/AIDS, malaria and childhood diseases, efforts to reduce maternal and newborn health as part of the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) lag behind, according to the 2009 Report of the Global Campaign for the Health Millennium Development Goals released Monday, Inter Press Service reports.

17 Jun 2009

Opinion: U.S. should double global maternal, child health spending; Ban, Chan want 'global solidarity'; resources for diabetes, HIV/AIDS

Although "child survival is improving - albeit way too slowly - in most regions of the world," sub-Saharan Africa "continues to have the world's highest child-mortality rates," former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who serves as the chairman of Save the Children's Survive to 5 campaign, writes in a Washington Times opinion piece. Frist asserts, "We cannot continue to allow one of every seven African children to die when it is so readily within our reach to prevent those deaths."

17 Jun 2009

Preventing spread of infectious diseases is everyone’s responsibility – and everyone’s job

According to a report published today, we must all share responsibility for preventing the spread of diseases such as swine flu, SARS, avian influenza, diarrhoeal and skin diseases, and even the common cold.

16 Jun 2009

Farmed fish and mad cow disease – researchers air new concerns

University of Louisville neurologist Robert P. Friedland, M.D., questions the safety of eating farmed fish in the June issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, adding a new worry to concerns about the nation's food supply.

16 Jun 2009

Distributed drug discovery for neglected diseases

Researchers from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) have developed Distributed Drug Discovery (D3), a new low-cost strategy to accelerate the discovery of drugs to treat neglected diseases such as tuberculosis, leprosy, leshmaniasis, dengue fever, and Chagas disease.

16 Jun 2009

Agencies and health departments prepare for swine flu

Governments and drug companies are struggling with efforts to prepare for a possible resurgence of swine flu in the fall as well as questioning who should receive swine flu vaccines as they ramp up production.

15 Jun 2009

South African AIDS advocate who created radio diaries dies of drug-resistant tuberculosis

South African AIDS activist Thembi Ngubane recently died of drug-resistant tuberculosis at the age of 24, the AP/Washington Post reports (Nullis, AP/Washington Post, 6/14).

15 Jun 2009

Reuters examines WHO efforts to fight H1N1 in developing countries

Reuters examines the WHO's battle against the H1N1 (swine flu) virus in "[d]eveloping countries, where medical care systems are weak and supplies of antivirals insufficient." In addition to "supplying countries with diagnostic kits, medicines and masks and gloves to protect health care workers and minimize the further spread of the new virus," the WHO is continuing to distribute doses of the antiviral Tamiflu, which has been "shown to be effective so far against H1N1," according to Reuters.

15 Jun 2009

Boston Globe examines the U.S. strategy towards global health

The Boston Globe examines the U.S. strategy towards global health aid. "President George W. Bush scored major advances in his administration's worldwide campaign against AIDS," and "[t]he Obama administration believes it can leverage Bush's successes into an assault against a much broader array of diseases that afflict poor countries," writes the Globe.

15 Jun 2009

Obama pledges $73 million to Zimbabwe

Following talks with Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai at the White House Friday, President Obama pledged $73 million in aid to the country, AFP/Google.com reports (Carmichael, AFP/Google.com, 6/13).

15 Jun 2009

International AIDS conference could return to U.S. if ban on HIV-positive visitors is reversed

The International AIDS Society (IAS) announced Thursday it is considering Washington, D.C., as the location for the 2012 biannual International AIDS Conference, Science Magazine's blog, the ScienceInsider reports. "But before it holds the conference anywhere in the U.S., the federal government must change a law that bans HIV-infected people from entering the country," according to Science Insider.

15 Jun 2009

High-tech approach to combat sepsis

When Jason Martin gives a talk about his research, he begins with the dramatic story of Mariana Bridi da Costa: The young Brazilian supermodel died from severe sepsis in January after amputation of both her hands and feet failed to stop its spread.

15 Jun 2009

Rhinosinusitis may be a factor in toxic shock syndrome in children

Rhinosinusitis (infection and inflammation in the sinus passages surrounding the nose) appears to be a primary factor in about one-fifth of toxic shock syndrome cases in children, according to a report in the June issue of Archives of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery.

15 Jun 2009

FDA releases fraudulent H1N1 flu virus product list

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is enforcing the laws that protect consumers from illegal products marketed through the Internet that claim to diagnose, prevent, mitigate, treat or cure the 2009 H1N1 flu virus.

15 Jun 2009

To flu experts, 'pandemic' confirms the obvious

"It came as no surprise on Thursday when the World Health Organization declared that the swine flu outbreak had become a pandemic," The New York Times reports.

13 Jun 2009