Disease/Infection News

RSS

Pakistan, U.N. agency launch pilot initiative to improve HIV control efforts among women

Pakistan and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime on Tuesday launched a pilot project that aims to improve current HIV prevention services provided to female injection drug users, wives of male IDUs and female prisoners, The International News reports. According to Pakistan's National Drug Abuse Assessment 2006, there are an estimated 125,000 IDUs in the country, 50% of whom are married.

24 Apr 2008

Singapore's parliament approves measure that addresses spread of HIV through unsafe sex

Singapore's Parliament on Tuesday approved a bill that would make it a crime for people who have reason to believe that they might be HIV-positive to have sex without informing their partners of the risks, Singapore's Business Times reports (Chen, Business Times, 4/23).

24 Apr 2008

SADC official urges member states to fulfill their commitments to fight HIV/AIDS

South African Development Community member states should remain vigilant in their efforts to fight HIV/AIDS, SADC Deputy Executive Secretary Joao Caholo said Wednesday during a meeting of health ministers in Lusaka, Zambia, the African Press Agency reports.

24 Apr 2008

Children's center aims to promote home-based HIV testing among youth in Botswana

The Botswana-Baylor Children's Clinical Center of Excellence recently provided home-based HIV tests to orphans and vulnerable children, as well as their parents and caretakers, in Gaborone, Botswana, the Mmegi reports.

23 Apr 2008

U.S. prisons missing opportunities to provide HIV testing, education, prevention, panel says

The U.S. correctional system is missing valuable opportunities to provide HIV testing, educating and prevention to its more than two million state, federal and local inmates, panelists said at a recent briefing on HIV/AIDS in correctional settings, CQ HealthBeat reports.

23 Apr 2008

United Arab Emirates establishes committee to develop HIV/AIDS strategy

The United Arab Emirates has established a committee to develop a national HIV/AIDS control and prevention strategy, Nada Al Marzouqi, National AIDS Program manager at the Ministry of Health, said recently, the Khaleej Times reports.

23 Apr 2008

Thailand's anti-drug efforts hindering fight against HIV/AIDS, advocates say

Thailand's efforts to fight drug use are hindering HIV/AIDS control programs in the country, some HIV/AIDS and human rights advocates said recently, Thailand's Nation reports.

23 Apr 2008

FSU research may speed new malaria treatments, vaccines for children

April 25 is World Malaria Day 2008 and despite the grim statistics out of Africa there's cause for celebration. Florida State University biologists have discovered an autoimmune-like response in blood drawn from malaria-infected African children that helps to explain why existing DNA-based anti-malaria vaccines have repeatedly failed to protect them.

23 Apr 2008

Rethink needed on how communities affected with trachoma are treated

One or two rounds of high coverage mass treatment with azithromycin, rather than the annual treatment recommended by the World Health Organisation, may be enough to eliminate the eye disease trachoma in communities with moderate levels of infection.

23 Apr 2008

FDA issues regulation on animal feeds with added safeguards against BSE

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today issued a final regulation barring certain cattle materials from all animal feed, including pet food. The final rule further protects animals and consumers against bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, also known as "mad cow disease").

23 Apr 2008

Impact of environment and social gradient on Leptospira infection in urban slums

A study conducted in an urban slum setting in Salvador, Brazil has found that open sewers, accumulations of refuse, and inadequate floodwater drainage are acting as sources for transmission of the disease leptospirosis. The study is published in this week's PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

23 Apr 2008

Simplified economical method of giving rabies vaccine

A simplified economical method of giving rabies vaccine is just as effective as the expensive standard vaccine regimen at stimulating anti-rabies antibodies.

23 Apr 2008

Independent examines U.K. insurers' practices regarding MSM, risk of HIV

London's Independent on Saturday examined the practices of some insurance companies in the United Kingdom regarding men who have sex with men who are applying for policies for life insurance or major illnesses.

22 Apr 2008

Chicago Tribune profiles home for HIV-positive men

The Chicago Tribune recently profiled the Jo-Ray House, a home for HIV-positive men in Chicago. Jo-Ray was founded in 2003 by Ida Byther-Smith, who was diagnosed as HIV-positive in 1991.

22 Apr 2008

Sub-Saharan African countries not on track to meet MDGs, U.N. Secretary General Ban says

Sub-Saharan African countries likely will not meet the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals -- which include reducing the spread of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria -- by 2015, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday at the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development in Accra, Ghana, AFP/Google.com reports.

22 Apr 2008

Zimbabwe HIV/AIDS Union calls on groups to provide post-testing services

The Zimbabwe HIV and AIDS Activist Union recently called on organizations involved in the fight against the disease to stop offering HIV tests if they cannot provide post-testing services, the Herald/AllAfrica.com reports.

22 Apr 2008

Jamaica to launch new female condom as part of HIV/AIDS prevention efforts

Jamaica's National Family Planning Board in the next few weeks plans to launch a new female condom in an effort to provide women with increased control over HIV/AIDS prevention methods, the Jamaica Gleaner reports.

22 Apr 2008

Red colobus monkeys in Uganda found to harbor antibodies to an unknown orthopoxvirus

Researchers report this month that red colobus monkeys in a park in western Uganda have been exposed to an unknown orthopoxvirus, a pathogen related to the viruses that cause smallpox, monkeypox and cowpox. Most of the monkeys screened harbor antibodies to a virus that is similar - but not identical - to known orthopoxviruses.

22 Apr 2008

NIAID tackles drug-resistant tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) has long been one of the world’s great killers. Now, forms of drug-resistant TB--multidrug (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR)--are occurring at an ominous and accelerating rate. To help in the fight against drug-resistant TB, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has formulated an MDR and XDR TB research agenda.

22 Apr 2008

Number of HIV-positive state and federal inmates drops

Between 2005 and 2006 the number of state and federal prisoners who were HIV-positive decreased 3.1 percent -- from 22,676 to 21,980 inmates, according to a report by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). Another BJS report estimated that 44 percent of state inmates and 39 percent of federal inmates reported a current medical problem other than a cold or a virus.

22 Apr 2008

Disease/Infection News

Pakistan, U.N. agency launch pilot initiative to improve HIV control efforts among women

Singapore's parliament approves measure that addresses spread of HIV through unsafe sex

SADC official urges member states to fulfill their commitments to fight HIV/AIDS

Children's center aims to promote home-based HIV testing among youth in Botswana

U.S. prisons missing opportunities to provide HIV testing, education, prevention, panel says

United Arab Emirates establishes committee to develop HIV/AIDS strategy

Thailand's anti-drug efforts hindering fight against HIV/AIDS, advocates say

FSU research may speed new malaria treatments, vaccines for children

Rethink needed on how communities affected with trachoma are treated

FDA issues regulation on animal feeds with added safeguards against BSE

Impact of environment and social gradient on Leptospira infection in urban slums

Simplified economical method of giving rabies vaccine

Independent examines U.K. insurers' practices regarding MSM, risk of HIV

Chicago Tribune profiles home for HIV-positive men

Sub-Saharan African countries not on track to meet MDGs, U.N. Secretary General Ban says

Zimbabwe HIV/AIDS Union calls on groups to provide post-testing services

Jamaica to launch new female condom as part of HIV/AIDS prevention efforts

Red colobus monkeys in Uganda found to harbor antibodies to an unknown orthopoxvirus

NIAID tackles drug-resistant tuberculosis

Number of HIV-positive state and federal inmates drops

Small solutions for big problems in drug discovery and delivery

Professor Nancy Ip: Pioneering New Paths in Neurodegenerative Therapy

Utilizing process Raman in optimizing cultivated meat production

Latest News