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Australia to fight HIV/AIDS and improve maternal health in the Philippines

Australia will contribute $2.8 million to a United Nations program to improve maternal health and tackle HIV/AIDS in the Philippines, the Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Bruce Billson, announced today at the Regional Ministerial Meeting on Millennium Development Goals in Jakarta.

4 Aug 2005

Final tests negative for mad cow disease in the U.S.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) in Ames, Iowa, has determined that the non-definitive test result reported on July 27 is negative for BSE. Tests conducted by the Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Weybridge, England, are also negative for BSE.

4 Aug 2005

New surgical cleaning process reduces risk of vCJD

Scientists say a new cleaning process will reduce the risk of hospital transmission of the human form of mad cow disease.

4 Aug 2005

Scientists have a plan to prevent bird flu pandemic

According to scientists the H5N1 strain of bird flu circulating in Asia which could mutate into a lethal strain and cause a pandemic, could be contained.

4 Aug 2005

Containment of a Southeast Asian outbreak of avian influenza in humans may be possible

Though quick to caution about the many things that could go wrong, researchers say that it may be possible to contain a Southeast Asian outbreak of avian influenza in humans, buying precious time for the production of a vaccine.

3 Aug 2005

Successful visceral leishmaniasis vaccine trial in dog

Visceral leishmaniasis, which is the most severe form of that group of diseases, affects 500 000 people in the world each year. It is caused by a protozoan, Leishmania infantum, transmitted by sand fly bites.

2 Aug 2005

Pig fever added to notifiable disease list

Secretary for Hong Kong's Health, Welfare & Food Dr York Chow said today the move will enable the Government to strengthen surveillance, and aid early detection and implementation of health control measures.

2 Aug 2005

Finding foodborne illness outbreaks sooner, faster

If 25 people eating at a single banquet hall became sick and needed hospitalization, determining the cause could be as easy as checking the dinner menu. But if those same people were scattered across 20 states and became ill after eating food processed at a single site, identifying the link could sometimes be impossible.

2 Aug 2005

Significant step forward in the search for a vaccine against Group B meningococcal disease

For a long time, doctors and scientists have suspected that Neisseria lactamica, a harmless germ carried mostly by children under the age of five years, is the key to the development of natural immunity to meningococcal meningitis and septicaemia (blood poisoning).

2 Aug 2005

Swine flu figures rise as China gets tough

As the numbers rise from the swine flu outbreak, China authorities swear they will punish officials who falsify or delay reports on the deadly disease that has now infected 198 people and killed 36.

2 Aug 2005

What caused leprosy?

What caused leprosy - a widely dreaded disease in medieval Europe - to fade from the scene? By the 16th century, the scourge had practically disappeared there.

2 Aug 2005

Six dead and ten hospitalised in Taiwan with soil infection, melioidosis

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), Taiwanese health authorities are examining a possible link between soil bacteria and the deaths of at least six people and the hospitalization of ten others in southern Taiwan.

1 Aug 2005

Swine flu numbers still rising, but China insists disease is under control

Although the number of people now infected by the deadly swine flu in China has risen to 18, health authorities are playing down the impact, and are still insisting that they have the outbreak under control.

1 Aug 2005

Twenty seven dead and 131 now sick with swine flu in China

According to Chinese state media, the number of people infected by what authorities believe is a pig-borne bacterial disease in the southwest has jumped to 131.

28 Jul 2005

Infectious diseases pose a serious threat to the nation's public health

Infectious diseases pose a serious threat to the nation's public health. Today, experts addressed key developments to the current and future outlook of infectious diseases, highlighting adolescent immunizations, outbreaks and epidemics of infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance and new developments in HIV medicine, at a press conference sponsored by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID).

27 Jul 2005

Pig disease in China now claims 24 lives and renders 117 sick

The death toll from an outbreak, of what is now thought to be a pig-borne disease, in the southwest Chinese province of Sichuan, has risen to 24, with another 117 thought be sick.

27 Jul 2005

Circumcision could reduce the risk of AIDS

In the first study ever, that has tried to use the procedure of circumcision specifically to prevent infection, researchers say it may help protect men from the AIDS virus.

27 Jul 2005

Export of all pork products from Ziyang and Neijiang in Sichuan have been suspended amid reports of mysterious pig-related deaths

Export of all pork products from Ziyang and Neijiang in Sichuan have been suspended amid reports of mysterious pig-related deaths in the area, the Health, Welfare & Food Bureau says.

26 Jul 2005

Bird flu could spread to Europe on wings of Asian wild geese

Migratory wild birds from China, which were found to have contracted bird flu from poultry, could potentially spread the disease to Europe, as well as Australia, Chinese scientists report.

26 Jul 2005

Investigational vaccine against Clostridium difficile

Acambis has announced that earlier this month it started a Phase I clinical trial of its investigational vaccine against Clostridium difficile (C. difficile).

26 Jul 2005