Disease/Infection News

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Blood-free monitoring as good as blood tests in predicting the course of AIDS

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have shown that monitoring treatment adherence to AIDS therapy is a simple blood-free way to monitor risk of disease progression. The international study was published in the May issue of the journal PLoS Medicine.

20 May 2008

New York Times profiles support group for HIV-positive women over age 50

The New York Times on Sunday profiled the Divas, a support group for black and Hispanic HIV-positive women over age 50 in Harlem, N.Y. The Divas is organized through Iris House, an HIV/AIDS service center that opened 15 years ago in Harlem.

19 May 2008

Handicap International launches program in Rwanda to address HIV/AIDS among blind people

Efforts to address HIV/AIDS in Rwanda have not included blind people, Jacques Sindayigaya, Handicap International's coordinator of a new program to address the virus in the population, said Monday during a workshop in Rwanda's capital of Kigali, the New Times/AllAfrica.com reports.

19 May 2008

Online game aims to raise HIV/AIDS awareness

The New York Times on Monday examined an Internet game, called Pos or Not, that aims to increase HIV/AIDS education and awareness.

19 May 2008

NIH launches undiagnosed diseases program

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) today announced a new clinical research program that will aim to provide answers to patients with mysterious conditions that have long eluded diagnosis. Called the Undiagnosed Diseases Program, the trans-NIH initiative will focus on the most puzzling medical cases referred to the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md., by physicians across the nation.

19 May 2008

Health Ministers to discuss issues surrounding drug patents, access at World Health Assembly

Health ministers from countries worldwide next week at the World Health Assembly will discuss issues surrounding patents and access to drugs for diseases such as HIV/AIDS in developing countries, Reuters UK reports.

19 May 2008

Researchers discover 'reservoir' that allows HIV to remain infectious despite treatment

Researchers at Brigham Young University and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have discovered a human cell "reservoir," called follicular dendritic cells, that allows HIV to stay in an infectious state and not respond to antiretroviral drugs, the Deseret Morning News reports.

19 May 2008

Effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy causing 'complacency' among high-risk groups

HIV/AIDS clinicians and scientists have been "witness to a transformation in disease management that is virtually unprecedented in the history of medicine," Mark Wainberg, director of McGill University's AIDS Centre at Jewish General Hospital, and Julio Montaner, director of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, write in a National Post opinion piece.

19 May 2008

Second Peace Corps volunteer reports being discharged after testing HIV-positive, Washington Post reports

Washington Post columnist Stephen Barr on Friday examined the case of a second Peace Corps volunteer who said she was discharged from service after testing HIV-positive. Rebecca Coulborn, a former volunteer in Burkina Faso, said she was required to leave her post immediately in 2001 after she tested positive for the virus.

19 May 2008

Scientists discover why plague is so lethal

Bacteria that cause the bubonic plague may be more virulent than their close relatives because of a single genetic mutation, according to research published in the May issue of the journal Microbiology.

19 May 2008

Bacterial slime helps cause Leptospirosis

Leptospirosis is a serious but neglected emerging disease that infects humans through contaminated water. Now research published in the May issue of the journal Microbiology shows for the first time how bacteria that cause the disease survive in the environment.

19 May 2008

Disease outbreak prevention crucial in China earthquake aftermath

Preventing communicable disease outbreaks is the key public health issue now facing the People's Republic of China in the aftermath of the earthquake that struck the country's south-western region on 12 May.

18 May 2008

Bird flu pandemic would require multi-drug approach

Scientists have uncovered a change in the H5N1 bird flu virus which makes it resistant to the anti-viral drug Tamiflu. The mutation in the N1 component was found in human cases of the disease and suggests that a single drug approach is likely to be ineffective in case of a bird flu pandemic in humans. The findings by a team at the Medical Research Council's National Institute for Medical Research are published in Nature.

15 May 2008

China struggles to cope with killer virus amid earthquake devastation

The death toll in China from hand-foot-mouth disease has now risen to 42 with another 24,934 children sickened by the deadly virus; all the fatalities have been children.

15 May 2008

Cuba increasing HIV prevention efforts targeted at MSM, health official says

Health officials in Cuba this year will focus HIV prevention messages at men who have sex with men, Rosaida Ochoa, director of the National Center for the Prevention of Sexually Transmitted Diseases and HIV, said recently, EFE News Service reports.

13 May 2008

Yemen, UNDP sign agreement to strengthen HIV/AIDS control efforts

Officials from Yemen and the United Nations Development Programme on Monday signed a $10.6 million, three-year agreement to strengthen efforts to fight HIV/AIDS in the country, SABA News reports.

13 May 2008

HIV/AIDS hindering Mozambique's efforts to reduce poverty, E.U. delegate says

HIV/AIDS is hindering Mozambique's efforts to alleviate poverty, Glauco Calzuola, head of the European Union delegation in Mozambique, said Sunday, Reuters reports. Calzuola added that corruption and bureaucracy also are obstacles in the country's efforts to eradicate poverty.

13 May 2008