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Public-health approach for HIV control in India needs to become more scientific

The 2007 UNAIDS/WHO AIDS epidemic update released last week has revised the global estimate of HIV/AIDS primarily due to a major reduction of the estimate for India to 2.5 million people living with HIV/AIDS, which is less than half of the previous official estimate of 5.7 million people.

4 Dec 2007

Benzethonium chloride products identified as best for killing MRSA

One type of over-the-counter product for topical wound care is more effective than others in killing methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, or MRSA, which is potentially deadly and in recent years has moved from its historic hospital setting to a much broader public concern.

4 Dec 2007

Latin American adolescents are more likely to become infected with HIV than Spanish

A study carried out in the Department of Evolutionary and Education Psychology of the University of Granada (UGR) has revealed that Latin American immigrant adolescents are more likely to become infected with HIV than the Spanish, as they use methods of birth control less frequently, start having sex earlier and have more sex partners than Spanish adolescents.

3 Dec 2007

Frightening new Ebola strain ravages remote Congo area

An outbreak of a new strain of the deadly Ebola virus in a remote area near the Democratic Republic of Congo is causing considerable concern.

3 Dec 2007

The true picture of AIDS in the U.S. yet to be revealed

Despite widespread reports in the U.S. media concerning the sharp rise in the number of annual infections from HIV/AIDS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is yet to confirm that is the case.

3 Dec 2007

Devastating economic impact predicted if foot-and-mouth disease arrive in Kansas

As much as $945 million. That's what agricultural economists at Kansas State University say could be the impact on Kansas' economy were there a large-scale foot-and-mouth outbreak in a region thick with livestock operations.

29 Nov 2007

New figures show an alarming incidence of HIV in MSM

On World AIDS Day 2007, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of men who have sex with men (MSM) will become infected with HIV in cities across the Asia Pacific, becoming the latest statistics in an almost unrecognized but ever-growing crisis that many governments in the region are only just beginning to grapple with.

29 Nov 2007

Simple measures such as hand washing better than drugs in dealing with flu viruses

Scientists say using physical barriers, such as regular hand washing and wearing masks, gloves and gowns, may be far more effective than drugs to prevent the spread of respiratory viruses such as influenza and SARS.

27 Nov 2007

JAMA reports HIV spike among gay men; AHF says routine testing, effective prevention needed

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), today expressed alarm over a Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) article that reported a startling 13% increase in HIV/AIDS cases among men who have sex with men (MSM) in the United States over the past four years.

27 Nov 2007

Deadly variations of superbug now spreading beyond the hospital

Experts in Britain say virulent bugs such as MRSA (methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus) are now spreading beyond hospitals and into the wider community and may put lives at risk.

27 Nov 2007

HIV in Thailand appears more deadly

Two studies led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that people infected with HIV in Thailand die from the disease significantly sooner than those with HIV living in other parts of the world.

27 Nov 2007

New challenges for diagnosis of bacterial STIs

This year cases of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) have risen by 2% in the UK, in spite of a small drop in the incidence of syphilis and gonorrhoea, according to scientists speaking today (Wednesday 28 November 2007) at the Federation of Infection Societies Conference 2007 at the University of Cardiff, UK, which runs from 28-30 November 2007.

27 Nov 2007

MRSA in the community: A new threat to children's health?

Although hospital superbugs like MRSA - methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus - are now a widespread and recognised problem, new MRSA strains that have emerged and are spreading amongst the wider public in the USA may pose a bigger threat, according to Exeter researchers speaking (Wednesday 28 November 2007) at the Federation of Infection Societies Conference 2007 at the University of Cardiff, UK, which runs from 28-30 November 2007.

27 Nov 2007

Link between tooth infection and hair loss

There is a close relationship between infection outbreaks on teeth and the presence of alopecia areata or localized alopecia, a type of hair loss which has an unknown origin.

27 Nov 2007

Superbug strains have spread to nursing homes and into the community

Hospital superbugs that can break down antibiotics are so widespread throughout Europe that doctors increasingly have to use the few remaining drugs that they reserve for emergencies.

27 Nov 2007

Fast way of spotting multidrug resistant bacteria could help stop outbreaks in hospitals

A type of bacterium widely found on our skin and in the environment has now become a major threat in hospitals where it can cause serious infections, such as pneumonia in severely ill patients.

27 Nov 2007

Health officials should consider mass vaccination in their efforts to control endemic cholera

A vaccine used to protect travelers from cholera, an infection characterized by diarrhea and severe dehydration, could also be used effectively among those living in cholera-prone (endemic) areas, according to a research study by Ira Longini and colleagues published in PLoS Medicine.

27 Nov 2007

Cholera can be controlled with oral vaccines

Endemic cholera, a potentially fatal diarrheal disease found in the world's most impoverished countries, could be effectively controlled by orally vaccinating half of the affected populations once every two years for only pennies per dose, according to new findings by an international team of researchers led by Ira M. Longini Jr., Ph.D., a biostatistician in the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Institute at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. Longini and colleagues will report their findings online Nov. 27 in PLoS Medicine.

27 Nov 2007

Dirty ambulances may be a culprit in spread of superbugs

The debate in the UK over the spread of so-called superbugs such as MRSA has taken a nasty turn with the national union for ambulance staff saying dirty ambulances are the culprits.

27 Nov 2007