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Gates Foundation digs down deep for TB

The fight against the global tuberculosis (TB) epidemic has received a huge boost in the form of a $280 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

20 Sep 2007

Chinese authorities say bird flu under control

According to Chinese authorities the bird flu outbreak in southern China has now been brought under control following the culling of all poultry and other birds in the affected area.

20 Sep 2007

Teaching adolescents to use condoms when abstinence fails

Teaching adolescents to use condoms when abstinence fails is a reasonable strategy for preventing HIV, according to a new research study in PLoS Medicine.

18 Sep 2007

HPV infection and head and neck cancer

The human papillomavirus (HPV) has been implicated as a cause of cervical cancer in women, but there's another devastating form of cancer also linked to HPV infection - head and neck cancer - and almost no one is talking about it.

18 Sep 2007

Playing games helps control hospital infections

Games based learning may provide an innovative approach to the control of health care associated infections in hospitals.

18 Sep 2007

Campaign to fight chronic disease in the Caribbean

A major new campaign to fight chronic disease in the Caribbean is getting underway in an effort to stem "the worst epidemic of chronic diseases like heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory disease in the Americas," with the participation of heads of government.

18 Sep 2007

Off with the sleeves as battle of the superbug begins

The National Health Service (NHS) in the UK, battling to control the spread of superbugs like MRSA, will in future ban the signature long-sleeved white coats, favoured by doctors.

17 Sep 2007

Ticks abound both sides of the Atlantic

Ticks are making their presence felt both sides of the Atlantic. The British public is being warned to take precautions against ticks following a rise in the tick population after a wet and mild summer

17 Sep 2007

E. Coli crops up again in lettuce from the U.S.

In yet another food scare in North America, Canadian consumers are being warned about contaminated lettuce.

17 Sep 2007

New understanding of the malarial parasite

About 2 million people die of malaria every year, of which more than a million are children in sub-Saharan Africa.

17 Sep 2007

North Texas leishmaniasis outbreak

A team of dermatologists and dermatopathologists at UT Southwestern Medical Center has identified nine North Texas cases of an infectious skin disease common in South America, Mexico and in the Middle East, where it is sometimes referred to as a “Baghdad boil.”

17 Sep 2007

China culls 33,000 ducks to contain bird flu outbreak

Authorities in China say a suspected outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus has been discovered among ducks in an outlying district of the southern city of Guangzhou.

17 Sep 2007

Canadian woman at risk from handling bat with rabies

Health authorities in Canada are searching for a woman who took an injured bat to a Toronto Wildlife centre.

17 Sep 2007

Foot and mouth far from over in Britain

The foot and mouth crisis in Britain is far from over with the discovery of more cases at another farm in Surrey.

17 Sep 2007

Potential solution to Candida parapsilosis infection

Infection with the fungus Candida parapsilosis is a major problem for individuals in intensive care units, as well as for premature infants and immunocompromised adults.

13 Sep 2007

Different HIV rates among gay men and straight people not fully explained by sexual behavior

Differences in sexual behaviours do not fully explain why the U.S. HIV epidemic affects gay men so much more than straight men and women, claims research published ahead of print in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections.

13 Sep 2007

Potential vaccine target for chlamydia

Scientists at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC have identified a potential target for the development of a vaccine against Chlamydia trachomatis, the most prevalent sexually transmitted bacterial infection in the world.

13 Sep 2007

Mathematical models to calculate cyclic recurrences of disease

Since the days of Hippocrates, people have known that certain illnesses come and go with the seasons. More recently, researchers have learned that these cyclic recurrences of disease, known as seasonality, are often related to the weather.

13 Sep 2007

New understanding of tropical disease schistosomiasis

Researchers have provided new details about the inner workings of a parasitic worm that causes a tropical disease called schistosomiasis, which leads to itchy skin, fever, chills, muscle aches, and liver disease that, in some cases, can be fatal.

13 Sep 2007

Forces unite to tackle latest outbreak of Ebola in the Congo

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says another outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed at least five people.

12 Sep 2007