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Namibia launches HIV/AIDS information booklet in Braille

Namibia on Tuesday launched an information booklet on HIV/AIDS in Braille in an effort to reach blind and visually impaired people, Namibia's New Era reports.

5 Sep 2006

Bird flu flys into Egypt again

Four new cases of bird flu have been detected in poultry in Egypt, after a two month infection free period.

5 Sep 2006

Indian woman infected with HIV forced to abort her own baby

According to officials in India, a pregnant HIV-positive woman was forced to abort her own foetus after doctors and nurses in the government hospital in Kolkata in eastern India, shunned her and told her they would not help her undergo an abortion.

5 Sep 2006

New rapid diagnostic tests for Neisseria meningitidis

Over a million people each year, most of them in the "meningitis belt" in Africa, contract bacterial meningitis, a potentially deadly infection of tissues that line the brain and spinal cord.

4 Sep 2006

Bird flu: a new sampling campaign is planned in Africa

Asia, Europe, Africa... The bird flu epidemic has not needed a passport to cross borders, but has almost certainly required a vector.

4 Sep 2006

Record morbidity in Africa from Borreliosis, or relapsing fever

Borreliosis, or relapsing fever, is a disease provoked by bacteria of the genus Borrelia. Two of these are encountered in tropical Africa: Borrelia crocidurae in the Sahara and Sahel, Borrelia duttoni in East Africa.

4 Sep 2006

1918 Spanish flu treatment may also be effective for current avian influenza patients

USU faculty have discovered that a treatment for the Spanish Influenza pandemic may also be effective for current Avian Influenza patients.

4 Sep 2006

STIs cause infertility, social stigma in sub-Saharan Africa

Sexually transmitted infections are the main cause of infertility in sub-Saharan Africa, where the condition often brings stigma and social consequences to women who do not have children, according to Helen Pilcher, author of a article published in the Aug. 31 issue of the journal Nature, PRI's "The World" -- a production of BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH Boston -- reports.

4 Sep 2006

Ho Chi Minh City to convert detoxification center into hospital that will provide no-cost HIV/AIDS care

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, beginning Sept. 1 will convert a detoxification center administered by the Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Department into a hospital that provides HIV/AIDS treatment and care at no cost, the Vietnam News Brief Service reports.

4 Sep 2006

South Africa to distribute 3 million female condoms

South Africa's Department of Health last Thursday announced that it has allocated about $5 million this year to help achieve the goal of distributing three million female condoms in 2006, the SAPA/iafrica.com reports.

4 Sep 2006

Kaiser highlights recently published Journal of Infectious Diseases studies

Summaries of studies recently published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

4 Sep 2006

TB strain with extreme resistance to drugs creates nightmare scenario

The appearance of a deadly new strain of tuberculosis (TB) has so concerned the World Health Organisation (WHO) that an emergency meeting of health experts has been convened in Johannesburg to discuss the issue.

4 Sep 2006

Ducks in Pennsylvania found with a strain of bird flu

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has found bird flu in wild ducks in Crawford County in northwestern Pennsylvania as part of a routine sampling procedure, but the strain is apparently not the deadly H5N1 strain currently sweeping across Asia.

4 Sep 2006

More fat people than starving in the world

At an International Congress on Obesity, in Sydney, Australia, chairman Professor Paul Zimmet has said that obesity is no longer a problem limited to America and other developed countries but has reached the scale of a global epidemic.

4 Sep 2006

Vaccine for severe malaria

The most severe form of malaria hits pregnant women and children the hardest.

1 Sep 2006

The new landscape of neglected disease drug development

A recent report shows that drug development for killer diseases such as HIV/AIDS, TB, Malaria, Chagas and Sleeping Sickness has increased in recent years.

1 Sep 2006

U.S. Sen. Obama to call for more funding for microbicides, HIV/AIDS education, nutrition programs

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) during his visit to Kenya and South Africa as part of a two-week visit to Africa said he wants to increase the proportion of HIV/AIDS funding for nutrition for HIV-positive people, as well as increase support for HIV/AIDS education and outreach campaigns and the development of microbicides.

1 Sep 2006

South Africa's HIV/AIDS treatment program

The progress of South Africa's HIV/AIDS treatment program "so far is really a lesson in the power of balanced government and citizens' groups," columnist Tina Rosenberg writes in a New York Times opinion piece.

1 Sep 2006

U.N. High Commissioner calls on Thai Government to address spread of HIV in refugee camps along Thai-Myanmar border

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterrez on Wednesday during a four-day trip to Thailand called on Thailand's government to address the spread of HIV within refugee camps along the Thai-Myanmar border, according to Thailand's deputy government spokesperson Chalermchai Mahakitsiri, AFP/Today Online reports.

1 Sep 2006

New Zealand offers permanent residency to HIV-positive Zimbabwean immigrants

HIV-positive Zimbabwean immigrants to New Zealand will be offered permanent residency under a special policy provision, New Zealand Health Minister Pete Hodgson announced Wednesday, AFP/Yahoo! News reports.

1 Sep 2006