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Statements on peanut butter Salmonella

Statement from FDA - Product testing by several states has now confirmed that Peter Pan peanut butter and certain Great Value brand peanut butter are the sources of the foodborne illness outbreak of Salmonella Tennessee that began in August 2006. To date 329 individuals have become ill from consuming the contaminated peanut butter, and 51 of those persons were hospitalized.

25 Feb 2007

Injection drug use fueling spread of HIV in Mauritius

Injection drug users have become one of the groups most at risk of HIV transmission in Mauritius, prompting the governments to establish a needle-exchange program in an attempt to curb the spread of the virus, Inter Press Service reports.

25 Feb 2007

Call for South Carolina Legislature to provide $8 million for HIV/AIDS care services

About 80 HIV/AIDS advocates on Tuesday called on the South Carolina Legislature to allocate $8 million for HIV/AIDS care services for low-income, HIV-positive people in the state, the Columbia State reports.

25 Feb 2007

Gambian President claims to cure HIV/AIDS

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh since January has claimed that he can cure HIV/AIDS with an herbal remedy, prompting concern among some public health workers in Africa who already are "struggling against faith healers dispensing herbal remedies," the AP/Monterey County Herald reports.

25 Feb 2007

WHO and UNAIDS welcome findings of trials assessing impact of male circumcision on HIV risk

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the UNAIDS Secretariat have welcomed the publication in The Lancet of the detailed findings of two trials undertaken in Kenya and Uganda to determine whether male circumcision has a protective effect against acquiring HIV infection.

25 Feb 2007

FDA confirms peanut butter the source of salmonella outbreak affecting over 300

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States has confirmed that an outbreak of salmonella food poisoning was caused by contaminated peanut butter.

25 Feb 2007

Call for herpes simplex virus control measures for prevention of HIV transmission

Experts call for HSV control measures, including vaccine, to rank high on international HIV prevention and research agenda as exciting trial findings are published.

22 Feb 2007

Exchange of E. coli between humans and chimps in Uganda

Scientists from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana have found that people employed in chimpanzee-focused research and tourism in a park in western Uganda are exchanging gastrointestinal bacteria - specifically Escherichia coli - with local chimpanzee populations. And some of the E. coli strains migrating to chimps are resistant to antibiotics used by humans in Uganda.

22 Feb 2007

Blueprint for influenza pandemic

The American Public Health Association (APHA) today released its blueprint for strengthening the nation's pandemic preparedness, amid persistent concerns about a potential influenza pandemic.

22 Feb 2007

Roman Catholic leaders criticize New York City for distributing condoms

Roman Catholic leaders in New York City on Thursday released a joint statement criticizing the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's efforts to deliver about 26 million condoms to organizations and venues in the city to help curb the spread of HIV, the New York Post reports.

22 Feb 2007

South Africa to revise AIDS control program to address extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis

South Africa is taking steps to revise its HIV/AIDS control program in an effort to combat the spread of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, TB that is resistant to first- and second-line drugs, Nomonde Xundu, the Department of Health's chief director for HIV and TB, said on Thursday, Reuters reports.

22 Feb 2007

Gates Foundation, Canadian Government announce initiative to develop HIV/AIDS vaccine

Bill Gates, co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Tuesday announced a joint $139 million initiative to establish a research institute for the development of an HIV/AIDS vaccine, Toronto's Globe and Mail reports.

21 Feb 2007

U.S. should establish initiative to mobilize health workers to countries affected by HIV/AIDS

HIV/AIDS is "essentially the black death of the 21st century, killing on a massive scale and threatening to cripple economies and topple governments," Fitzhugh Mullan of George Washington University's Department of Health Policy writes in a commentary in the Feb. 21 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

21 Feb 2007

Indonesia facing increasing number of HIV/AIDS cases

Indonesia is facing an increasing number of HIV/AIDS cases, particularly among commercial sex workers and injection drug users, and the country's Papua region is facing a generalized epidemic, according to a report released recently by the World Health Organization, UNAIDS, and other international agencies and local nongovernmental organizations, Reuters reports.

21 Feb 2007