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Tsunami leaves patients with unusual infections

According to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine, the December tsunami which left more than 200 000 people dead or missing in Asia and Africa, appears to have caused some unusual lung and sinus infections and also a paralysing brain infection.

27 Jun 2005

3 health workers arrested after hepatitis vaccine kills a schoolchild and makes 120 others ill

After a hepatitis vaccine was administered in their schools in central China, one child died and another 120 have become ill.

27 Jun 2005

Team of experts sent to Vietnam to study bird flu risk

The World Health Organization (WHO) has sent a team of international experts to Vietnam to study whether the H5N1 bird flu virus could be evolving into a form that might trigger a human pandemic.

26 Jun 2005

While USDA confirms second mad cow case officials defend safeguards

Consumer groups in the U.S. are demanding more comprehensive testing of beef after the government yesterday confirmed the second case of mad cow disease.

26 Jun 2005

This years first reported case of West Nile in the U.S. in Kansas

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have reported this year's first human case of West Nile virus in the United States in Kansas, but has not released details on the patient.

23 Jun 2005

Polio still a threat but eradication possible

The director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said this week that despite more than 500 new polio cases being reported worldwide this year, and the disease still posing a threat, the goal of totally eradicating it globally is still within reach.

22 Jun 2005

New UK Guidance to be issued on Hepatitis C as 'silent epidemic'

Leading medical experts from throughout the UK will be gathering in Edinburgh today and tomorrow (21-22 April 2004) to arrive at a consensus on how best to treat and manage the 'silent epidemic' of hepatitis C - a virus which is estimated to be carried by over 400,000 people in the UK and which continues to spread globally, as the majority of carriers do not realise they have been infected.

21 Jun 2005

First new treatment for Elephantiasis (lymphatic filariasis)

Scientists at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine have proved that a single course of one antibiotic may hold the key to curing the parasitic worm disease Elephantiasis (lymphatic filariasis) that has been one of the most common causes of global disability since Biblical times.

21 Jun 2005

Expert says the world is not ready for the next pandemic

Michael T. Osterholm is Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, Associate Director of the Department of Homeland Security's National Center for Food Protection and Defense, and Professor at the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health.

21 Jun 2005

WHO says AIDS fight will only be won with generic drugs

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) the key to AIDS treatment in the developing world is generic drugs, but the target of 3 million people on therapy by the end of 2005 may now be unattainable.

21 Jun 2005

Hospital kept presence of Legionnaires' disease a secret

A Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center battled for over a year to treat Legionnaires' disease bacteria in its water pipes but omitted telling patients or employees to take precautions.

21 Jun 2005

Harmless bacterium can sometimes trigger outbreaks of life-threatening meningitis

Reporting in the June 20 issue of The Journal of Experimental Medicine, a group of scientists in Paris, France led by Colin Tinsley may have discovered how a normally harmless bacterium can sometimes trigger outbreaks of life-threatening meningitis.

20 Jun 2005

Inexpensive tests can be used to decide who needs HIV treatment in poor countries

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Chiang Mai University in Thailand, evaluated the ability of inexpensive biological markers, which are obtainable in resource-poor countries, to determine which HIV-infected patients are in the greatest need of antiretroviral therapy.

20 Jun 2005

Fifty polio cases and one bird flu case reported in Indonesia

Indonesia's health minister has announced that 50 polio cases have been diagnosed in the country since the disease re-emerged there last month.

20 Jun 2005

China used flu drug on birds

The World Health Organization (WHO) is attempting to clarify from China, reports that the government there encouraged farmers to use a human anti-viral drug to treat birds infected with a deadly strain of avian flu.

20 Jun 2005

Drug for schizophrenia can prevent and treat SARS

Chinese and European experts at a conference of the Sino-European Project on SARS Diagnostics and Antivirals in China say that a drug normally used to treat schizophrenia has been shown to prevent and treat Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

20 Jun 2005

U.S. agriculture officials anxiously await mad cow results

After a series of conflicting test results in the U.S., last week a sample of brain matter from a cow suspected of having been infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, was delivered to a British government-run veterinary laboratory in Weybridge, Surrey.

20 Jun 2005

Findings may help scientists improve the existing vaccine for yellow fever

In one of the first molecular studies of the human antibody response to yellow fever, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers and their colleagues have found the crucial bit of virus that people's immune systems need to spot and quash this often-fatal re-emerging disease.

16 Jun 2005

High rates of herpes simplex virus 2 and syphilis among young drug users in Baltimore

The study found that women had significantly higher rates compared to their male counterparts, but did not find significant differences between injection drug users and non-injection drug users.

16 Jun 2005

Pandemics such as Ebola, SARS, and avian influenza demands a more holistic approach to disease control

The threat of potential pandemics such as Ebola, SARS, and avian influenza demands a more holistic approach to disease control, one that prevents diseases from crossing the divide between humans, their livestock, and wildlife, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in the most recent issue of the journal Foreign Affairs.

16 Jun 2005