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Medicines for Malaria venture launches five-year plan for new drugs

Medicines for Malaria Venture has outlined a $600 million, five-year plan to develop new malaria drugs, SciDev.net reports. The plan was launched in conjunction with the release last week of the Global Malaria Action Plan, which aims to eradicate malaria worldwide.

5 Oct 2008

MedPAC hearing panelists call for residency programs to move away from hospital-centered care, toward treatment of chronic illnesses

Residency programs should place greater emphasis on the treatment of chronic diseases and on incorporating health information technology because current graduate medical education focuses too heavily on hospital-centered care, panelists told the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission on Thursday, CQ HealthBeat reports.

5 Oct 2008

HIV cases increasing among women, MSM in rural China

The number of HIV/AIDS cases among men who have sex with men has increased eightfold during the past few years in areas of China, according to a study published recently in the journal Nature, Reuters reports.

5 Oct 2008

Studies examine ability of antiretroviral Maraviroc to control HIV viral loads

According to two studies sponsored by drugmaker Pfizer and published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, the antiretroviral drug maraviroc, which is sold as Selzentry by Pfizer, might help control viral loads among HIV-positive people who have shown resistance to other treatments, Reuters reports.

5 Oct 2008

Health plans' quality of care improved in some areas in 2007, NCQA report says

Health plans' quality of care improved in 2007 -- the ninth consecutive year of continued improvements -- according to a study released Thursday by the National Committee for Quality Assurance, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.

5 Oct 2008

HIV-positive women in Nepal call for greater assistance from government

Nepal's HIV/AIDS policies and programs have failed to address the problems of women living with HIV/AIDS in the country, HIV-positive women with Shakti Milan Samaj -- a social organization working on behalf of women living with HIV/AIDS -- said during a press conference on Wednesday, the Rising Nepal reports.

5 Oct 2008

New York Times examines California HIV testing bill

The New York Times on Thursday examined a California bill (AB 1894) that requires health care plans operating in the state to pay for routine HIV testing. The bill was signed into law on Tuesday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) (Cathcart, New York Times, 10/2).

5 Oct 2008

Vice Presidential debate includes references to health care

Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Joseph Biden (Del.) and Republican vice presidential nominee Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on Thursday during a debate at Washington University in St. Louis discussed health care and other proposals offered by Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the Washington Post reports.

5 Oct 2008

Health workers cannot refuse to provide treatment to HIV-positive people, India's Supreme Court rules

A panel of India's Supreme Court on Wednesday approved instructions from the country's Centre Party that health care workers in all government and private hospitals cannot refuse medical treatment to people living with HIV/AIDS, The Hindu reports.

5 Oct 2008

Advocates, lawmakers push for House to pass bailout bill that includes mental parity

Advocates for mental health parity legislation on Thursday launched efforts to lobby 51 co-sponsors of a House mental health parity bill (HR 1424) who voted against a House version of a financial bailout package to reconsider their votes and vote to approve a Senate-approved package that includes mental health parity language, CQ Today reports (Armstrong/Wayne, CQ Today, 10/2).

5 Oct 2008

CDC says 1.1 million people living with HIV

CDC on Friday in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report released updated estimates of HIV prevalence in the U.S., saying that 1.1 million people were living with the virus at the end of 2006, Bloomberg reports.

5 Oct 2008

Many receptor models used in drug design may not be useful after all

It may very well be that models used for the design of new drugs have to be regarded as impractical. This is the sobering though important conclusion of the work of two Leiden University scientists published in Science this week.

5 Oct 2008

Discovery of 100 new antiangiogenesis peptides

Using computer models and live cell experiments, biomedical engineers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have discovered more than 100 human protein fragments that can slow or stop the growth of cells that make up new blood vessels.

5 Oct 2008

FDA issues interim safety and risk assessment of Melamine and Melamine-related compounds in food

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued the results of its interim safety and risk assessment of melamine and melamine-related compounds in food, including infant formula.

5 Oct 2008

Medical student gender and self-confidence: Females underestimate their abilities and males tend to overestimate theirs

Despite performing equally to their male peers in the classroom and the clinic, female medical students consistently report decreased self-confidence and increased anxiety, particularly over issues related to their competency. A new study published in the September 2008 issue of Patient Education and Counseling found that female medical students also appeared less confident to patients.

5 Oct 2008

Discovery of important fat precursor cell

To understand where fat comes from, you have to start with a skinny mouse. By using such a creature, and observing the growth of fat after injections of different kinds of immature cells, Rockefeller University scientists have discovered an important fat precursor cell that may in time explain how changes in the numbers of fat cells might increase and lead to obesity.

5 Oct 2008

A decade of change in general practice

It's not only the patients in GP surgeries who are getting older, according to two new reports released today by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and the Australian General Practice Statistics and Classification Centre, an AIHW collaborating unit located at the University of Sydney.

5 Oct 2008

Researchers discover genes linked to increased gout risk

A team of researchers from the United States and the Netherlands has identified mutations in three genes that are associated with high levels of uric acid in the blood, which is a risk factor for gout.

5 Oct 2008

Cancer treatment by linear accelerator is a reality now in India

The first patient was successfully treated by the state-of-the-art technology in radiotherapy - linear accelerator, which began functioning last week at RR Cancer Institute and Research Centre, Sri Ram Murti Smarak Institute of Medical Sciences (SRMSIMS), Bareilly in India.

5 Oct 2008