Disease/Infection News

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Current tuberculosis treatment regimens need to updated

The standard regimens to treat tuberculosis (TB) are inadequate in countries with high rates of multi-drug resistant (MDR) TB. In countries with high rates of MDR-TB, patients are nearly twice as likely to fail their initial treatment than those in countries with low rates, according to a new analysis of World Health Organization (WHO) data. This finding suggests strongly that current TB treatment regimens need to updated and revised to address the shifting landscape of public health in the face of MDR-TB.

3 Aug 2008

Vietnam should prioritize HIV/AIDS prevention programs, Deputy Prime Minister says

Vietnamese local governments should prioritize HIV/AIDS prevention measures, particularly education and communication programs that target injection drug use among young people, Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong said on Tuesday at a symposium on HIV prevention and drug detoxification in Hanoi, Vietnam, the Vietnam News Agency reports.

3 Aug 2008

NPR's 'Tell Me More' examines U.S. Hispanics, HIV/AIDS

NPR's "Tell Me More" on Monday featured a discussion about Hispanics and HIV/AIDS (Corley [1], "Tell Me More," NPR, 7/28). Hispanics account for about 14% of the U.S. population but represented 22% of new HIV/AIDS diagnoses in 2006, according to data reported last week by the Washington Post (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 7/23).

3 Aug 2008

New campaign aims to raise HIV awareness among migrant workers in China

Chinese groups and the International Labour Organization on Monday launched a three-year campaign that aims to increase HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention among the country's migrant worker population in the provinces of Anhui, Guangdong and Yunnan, as well as the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, China Daily reports (Guan, China Daily, 7/29).

3 Aug 2008

New HIV infections, deaths from AIDS-related causes down; epidemic not over

The number of deaths worldwide from AIDS-related causes decreased by 10% in 2007 to two million, compared with 2.2 million in 2006, according to UNAIDS' 2008 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic, which was released Tuesday ahead of the XVII International AIDS Conference, the Los Angeles Times reports (Maugh, Los Angeles Times, 7/30).

3 Aug 2008

HIV in Kenya - 7.8% increase in 2007

HIV prevalence in Kenya increased to 7.8% in 2007, a slight increase from the 6.7% prevalence recorded in 2003, according to a survey released by the government on Tuesday, the Associated Press reports. According to the Associated Press, the increase in the percentage of the population living with HIV likely is because of wider access to antiretroviral drugs.

3 Aug 2008

HIV/AIDS advocates protest stigma, discrimination ahead of AIDS conference

HIV/AIDS advocates in Mexico City have begun protesting the problems of stigma, discrimination and a lack of access to antiretroviral drugs in Latin America ahead of next week's XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, Agence France-Presse reports (Rosenthal, Agence France-Presse, 7/29).

3 Aug 2008

Eliminating funds for HIV/AIDS vaccine research, shifting funds to treatment 'dangerous sentiment,' opinion piece says

The call to eliminate all funding for HIV/AIDS vaccine research and prevention programs and "shifting" those funds to the expansion of HIV/AIDS treatment is a "dangerous sentiment" that is "sweeping over the AIDS establishment," Laurie Garrett, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, writes in an International Herald Tribune opinion piece.

3 Aug 2008

Reuters examines how laws, conservative attitudes are hampering efforts to fight HIV/AIDS in Malaysia

Reuters on Thursday examined how some laws and widespread conservative attitudes are hindering efforts to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS in Malaysia, a predominantly Muslim country where high-risk groups are driven "deeper underground" because of the situation.

3 Aug 2008

Federal health plan, Medicare do not cover routine HIV screening as recommended by CDC

Medicare and federal health care plans that provide coverage under the Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan do not offer payment for routine HIV screening of people ages 13 to 64 -- a practice that was recommended by CDC in 2006 -- Bloomberg reports.

3 Aug 2008

Editorials respond to PEPFAR reauthorization

President Bush on Wednesday signed into law legislation (HR 5501) that reauthorizes the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief at $48 billion through 2013. Two newspapers have published editorials in response to the bill.

3 Aug 2008

New figures show need for national HIV/AIDS srategy

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) long anticipated revised estimate of annual new cases of HIV infections was revealed in a paper published in the Aug. 6, 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The revised estimated number of new infections suggests that the HIV epidemic here in the United States is more severe than current statistics portray.

3 Aug 2008

Update of treatment guidelines for HIV infection recommended by experts

An evaluation of the latest information on the treatment of the adult human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has led an international panel of experts to update the guidelines and recommendations for antiretroviral treatment of HIV.

3 Aug 2008

Travel industry should inform travelers about malaria, say doctors

Tour operators and airlines are wasting an ideal opportunity to warn travellers about the risk of contracting malaria in specific countries, say infectious disease experts on BMJ.com.

31 Jul 2008

Monkey virus found in people living and working with monkeys

A research team led by University of Washington scientists has found that several people in South and Southeast Asian countries working and living around monkeys have been infected with simian foamy virus (SFV), a primate virus that, to date, has not been shown to cause human disease.

31 Jul 2008

Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean should improve, expand sexuality education

Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean should improve and expand sexuality education programmes in order to prevent HIV and AIDS and reduce the impact of the epidemic in the region, a group of United Nations agencies said today.

31 Jul 2008

EPA funds new Lyme disease research

In the United States, Lyme disease is the most frequently reported disease that can be passed from animals to humans. These animal-borne diseases can make people very sick, and proper anticipation of disease outbreaks and effective intervention are crucial to protecting the public.

31 Jul 2008

EPA funds Rutgers West Nile virus research

Rutgers University's Cook Campus is buzzing with the news of a recent $750,000 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant that will fund important and innovative research about biodiversity and West Nile Virus. Biodiversity, or the amount and variety of plants and animals in a geographic region, has become a major topic of interest in recent years.

31 Jul 2008

Fight against HIV in mothers and children ramps up

As the world's leaders and AIDS community gather in Mexico for the biennial global conference on HIV and AIDS, UNITAID, UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) today announced an infusion of $50 million aimed at halting mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

31 Jul 2008