Disease/Infection News

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Prenatal exposure to influenza virus shown to reduce intelligence in adulthood

The Hong Kong flu pandemic was responsible for more than 700,000 deaths worldwide in the late 1960s, with major disease outbreaks in Europe in the winter of 1969-1970.

15 Apr 2009

Federal funding for partnership to combat infectious diseases

Oregon Health & Science University and the University of Washington, along with a number of partner institutions across the Northwest, have received federal funding to form a regional research center aimed at combating emerging or re-emerging infectious diseases that pose a serious threat to human health.

15 Apr 2009

Major breakthrough in understanding of Hendra virus

Groundbreaking CSIRO research into how the deadly Hendra virus spreads promises to save the lives of both horses and humans in the future.

15 Apr 2009

Discovery of a new target for novel HIV treatment strategy

The AIDS-causing HIV specifically counteracts the mechanisms of human cells that protect these against viral infections - a special viral protein marks protective cellular proteins for their rapid destruction and thus diminishes the cell's supply.

15 Apr 2009

Early HIV treatment decreases the risk of death

Begin treatment as early as possible: this general common sense rule seems to apply to most diseases except HIV-AIDS, which is only treated once a certain number of immune cells called "CD4+" cells have disappeared.

14 Apr 2009

New AIDS research training grants awarded for projects in 15 countries

The Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health has awarded seven grants totaling almost $2.7 million to train HIV/AIDS researchers in 15 low- and middle-income countries.

14 Apr 2009

Mutations that help HIV hide undermine the virus's ability to replicate

When HIV infects a cell, a complex of human immune proteins called HLA (short for human leukocyte antigen) alert killer T cells by displaying bits of the virus on the surface of the cell. The T cells recognize these HIV fragments and mobilize an attack.

13 Apr 2009

Dengue in Queensland on the decline at last - or is it?

During the current Dengue epidemic in the tropical north of Queensland, health authorities found more than 50,000 potential mosquito breeding sites in Cairns alone.

13 Apr 2009

Largest disease network database ever built

A team of researchers from Northeastern University and Harvard University has created a map summarizing disease associations expressed in a population of more than 30 million people.

12 Apr 2009

Early administration of HIV antiretroviral therapy improves survival

The first antiretroviral treatments appeared in 1996. Since then, new and better drugs have been discovered that have almost turned AIDS into a chronic disease.

12 Apr 2009

Rural AIDS and HIV expert comments on media campaign

A recent study revealed that the public's concern about the HIV/AIDS problem in the United States has lessened: In 1995, 44 percent of people surveyed considered HIV/AIDS the most urgent health problem, but only 5 percent of study participants reported feeling this way today, said William L. Yarber, senior director of the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention at Indiana University.

9 Apr 2009

HIV virus may have become more virulent

Damage to patients' immune systems is happening sooner now than it did at the beginning of the HIV epidemic, suggesting the virus has become more virulent, according to a new study in the May 1, 2009 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, now available online.

8 Apr 2009

AIDS organizations endorse new HIV testing bill

Five AIDS service organizations have endorsed legislation proposed by State Senate Health Committee Chair Thomas Duane that would bring New York's HIV counseling and testing law up-to-date with the realities facing the epidemic today.

8 Apr 2009

Patient to patient transmission of hepatitis B virus:

Patient-to-patient transmission of hepatitis B virus (HBV) can occur as the result of routine clinical practices incorrectly thought to be risk-free.

8 Apr 2009

$45 million public awareness campaign on HIV/AIDS epidemic in U.S.

The U.S. government has announced a $45 million program to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

8 Apr 2009

FDA clears rapid test for the detection of influenza A/H5N1

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today cleared for marketing a new, more rapid test for the detection of influenza A/H5N1, a disease-causing subtype of the avian influenza A virus that can infect humans.

7 Apr 2009

Stanford study shows PEPFAR program saved a million lives

The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the ambitious U.S. government program begun in 2003, has cut the death toll from HIV/AIDS through 2007 by more than 10 percent in targeted countries in Africa, though it has had no appreciable effect on prevalence of the disease in those nations, according to a study from the Stanford University School of Medicine that is the first to evaluate these outcomes.

6 Apr 2009