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Access to generic HIV/AIDS drugs increasing following Thailand's decision to issue compulsory licenses, health official Says

Access to some antiretroviral drugs is increasing in Thailand because of the country's decision to issue compulsory licenses for certain medications, Winai Sawasdiworn, deputy secretary-general of the National Health Security Office, said recently, the Bangkok Post reports (Apiradee, Bangkok Post, 5/8).

11 May 2008

Southeast Asian officials meet in Laos to discuss HIV/AIDS prevention

Officials with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations recently met in Laos to examine methods of addressing the increasing rate of HIV/AIDS in the region, Xinhuanet reports.

11 May 2008

Kenya launches campaign to increase tuberculosis screening among HIV-positive people

The Kenyan government on Tuesday launched a 60 million shilling -- or about $975,000 -- campaign to increase the number of HIV-positive people who are screened for tuberculosis at public hospitals, Kenya's Nation reports. The campaign also aims to educate health workers to test people with TB for HIV.

11 May 2008

Latino Commission on AIDS Project focuses on HIV/AIDS among Hispanic immigrants in deep south

NPR's "Tell Me More" on Wednesday included a discussion with Tim Frasca of the Latino Commission on AIDS about the organization's Deep South Project. The project aims to develop strategies to address HIV/AIDS among Hispanics in Mississippi and six other Southern states with rapidly growing populations of new immigrants, Frasca, program coordinator for the project, said.

11 May 2008

South Carolina legislature approves $2.4 million for state ADAP

South Carolina lawmakers have approved $2.4 million for the state's AIDS Drug Assistance Program, the Columbia State reports (Reid, Columbia State, 5/8). ADAPs are federal- and state-funded programs that provide HIV/AIDS-related medications to low-income, uninsured and underinsured HIV-positive individuals (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 4/9).

11 May 2008

Discovery of mechanism of action of antibiotic able to reduce neuronal cell death in brain

Virginia Commonwealth University researchers have discovered how an antibiotic works to modulate the activity of a neurotransmitter that regulates brain functions, which eventually could lead to therapies to treat Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, epilepsy, stroke, dementia and malignant gliomas.

11 May 2008

Discovery of ten new genes related to human growth

Scientists are beginning to unravel the question why people distinctly vary in size. In cooperation with scientists of the HelmholtzZentrum Munchen, an international genome-wide study has discovered ten new genes that influence body height and thus provides new insights into biological pathways that are important for human growth.

11 May 2008

Lotion which glows under ultraviolet light lights up nasty bacteria

A team of Canadian scientists using a lotion which glows under ultraviolet light have shown that up to a third of patient toilets are not properly cleaned. Their findings, published in BioMed Central's journal, BMC Infectious Diseases, also show that spores from the nasty bacteria Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) linger in the loo even when it has been thoroughly wiped down.

11 May 2008

Is divorce bad for the parents?

The elderly are cared for by their adult children regardless of their marital status. In a unique study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, researchers found British adult children help their elderly parents according to current need (i.e. health) rather than past behaviour. This contrasts with other countries such as the US, where parents with a history of divorce see less of their children and receive less help from them.

11 May 2008

Men more likely to turn to alcohol when they feel down

Women and men tend to have different types of stress-related psychological disorders. Women have greater rates of depression and some types of anxiety disorders than men, while men have greater rates of alcohol-use disorders than women. A new study of emotional and alcohol-craving responses to stress has found that when men become upset, they are more likely than women to want alcohol.

11 May 2008

microRNAs provide more clues to genetics of schizophrenia

Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center have illuminated a window into how abnormalities in microRNAs, a family of molecules that regulate expression of numerous genes, may contribute to the behavioral and neuronal deficits associated with schizophrenia and possibly other brain disorders.

11 May 2008

Childhood and adolescent obesity impacts cardiac health

Study findings presented at the May 2008 Pediatric Academic Societies and Asian Society for Pediatric Research Joint Meeting indicate that childhood and adolescent obesity negatively impacts vascular endothelial function, which relates to cardiac health.

11 May 2008

Binge drinking and driving

While many people believe that alcohol-impaired (AI) drivers are usually alcoholics, in fact, 80 percent of AI incidents are caused by binge drinkers. A recent study conducted among college students has found that binge drinkers, even when legally intoxicated, nonetheless believe they having adequate driving abilities.

11 May 2008

New clues into how preeclampsia may surface in some pregnancies

The COMT gene - known already for its role in schizophrenia - has been found to play a role in preeclampsia, according to a report in the advance on-line issue of Nature.

11 May 2008

Fruit fly avoidance mechanism could lead to new ways to control pain in humans

At first, fruit flies eat like horses. Hatching inside over-ripe fruit where they were laid, they feed wildly in the sugar-rich environment until nature sends them an offer they can't refuse. To survive, they must leave the fruit, wander off and burrow into the earth where they avoid food as if it were poison. Only then can the larvae grow and hatch into flies that will take wing to lay their own eggs.

11 May 2008

New theory suggests how hepatitis C may cause rare immune disease

Of the hepatitis alphabet, the C variant may be the nastiest. In 1990, researchers observed that most patients with hepatitis C also develop a rare autoimmune disease called mixed cryoglobulinemia, a condition that frequently leads to cancer, arthritis or both.

10 May 2008

Radioactive carbon-14 determines the number of fat cells remains constant in all body types

The radioactive carbon-14 produced by above-ground nuclear testing in the 1950s and '60s has helped researchers determine that the number of fat cells in a human's body, whether lean or obese, is established during the teenage years. Changes in fat mass in adulthood can be attributed mainly to changes in fat cell volume, not an increase in the actual number of fat cells.

9 May 2008

Researchers step closer to finding ways to treat type 1 diabetes

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis working with diabetic mice have examined in unprecedented detail the immune cells long thought to be responsible for type 1 diabetes.

9 May 2008

U.S. Patent Office allows another significant VNUS patent

VNUS Medical Technologies, Inc. today announced that the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office has decided to allow a second continuation patent application related to the patents in the VNUS patent infringement lawsuit against suppliers of endovenous laser products. This comes on the heels of the Patent Office's decision last month to allow VNUS a separate patent application, also filed as a continuation of one of the patents in the lawsuit.

9 May 2008

Barr announces approval of generic version of Yasmin (drospirenone and ethinyl estradiol)

Barr Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has announced that its subsidiary, Barr Laboratories, Inc., has received final approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) to manufacture and market a generic version of Yasmin (drospirenone and ethinyl estradiol), an oral contraceptive product manufactured and marketed by Bayer Schering Pharma, AG.

9 May 2008