Eric Goosby, head of PEPFAR, on Wednesday reemphasized the U.S. commitment to fighting HIV/AIDS globally, the Associated Press reports. Despite concerns by international aid groups that the current economic climate might force HIV/AIDS funding to be scaled back, "Goosby said President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton have assured him his program remains among 'the highest priorities,'" the news service writes. [More]

A "blot" on U.S. HIV/AIDS leadership "ended last month when President [Barack] Obama lifted the prohibition" that kept HIV-positive foreigners from visiting the U.S. or seeking residency, according to a Washington Post editorial. "The process for eliminating the travel ban started under President George W. Bush in July 2008, when he signed legislation that repealed the original statute." [More]

HIV/AIDS program grants made by U.S.-based foundations totaled $618 billion in 2008, an 11 percent increase from the previous year, according to a new report by Funders Concerned About AIDS, the Chronicle of Philanthropy reports. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation accounted for the majority of the grants, and when it was "excluded, foundation giving [for HIV/AIDS] actually declined 3 percent compared to 2007." [More]

Although much work remains to be done, a United Nations global reporting system on HIV/AIDS has already yielded an "unequaled wealth of data" on progress toward meeting UN targets for responding to the global HIV epidemic. An update on the development of the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS (UNGASS) global reporting system appears in a special supplement to JAIDS: Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. [More]

Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. announced today that data from the University of Pennsylvania investigator sponsored Phase 1 safety study of Sangamo's zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) based product, SB-728-T, for HIV/AIDS were inadvertently and prematurely disclosed on the internet. [More]

Though tuberculosis "is one of the world's leading killers … few citizens, scientists and policymakers are demanding more attention to TB research, treatment and prevention. … It's time to bring TB research into the 21st century," Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, writes in an MSNBC opinion piece. [More]

The physicians of the world renowned Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999, will receive free access to MD Consult (www.mdconsult.com), Elsevier's premier electronic clinical decision support (CDS) tool, as the result of a special new Elsevier campaign. [More]

A rapid and accurate diagnosis is the first step towards treatment in the fight against infectious disease. However, a team headed by Dr. Madhukar Pai at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) and McGill University in collaboration with researchers at the TDR* and the WHO*, has highlighted the poor quality of published studies that evaluate the accuracy of diagnostic tests for 3 major killer infectious diseases (TB, HIV/AIDS and malaria). [More]

New products to treat neglected diseases have received marketing approval from regulatory agencies at a steadily increasing rate in recent years as R&D funding for those diseases has increased, according to a recently completed study by the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development. [More]

By offering family planning services to people seeking HIV/AIDS information and treatment, Africa's population growth rate could be curbed by 2.5 percent, health experts said Monday during an international family health conference in Kampala, Uganda, Agence France-Presse reports (11/16). [More]

The Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD) on Monday outlined plans "to invest tens of millions of dollars in heart and lung disease studies in a battle against a global epidemic of chronic disease," over five years, Reuters reports. [More]

WLBT: "The White House Office of National AIDS Policy chose Jackson [Mississipppi] to host an HIV/AIDS town hall meeting Monday night. The community discussion allowed Mississippians to give feedback that will be included in a national strategy to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic. ... Many asked for sex and STD education in the schools, more doctors and transportation funding in rural areas and health insurance" (Anderson, 11/17). [More]

The following professors from the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business are available for expert commentary on how public-private partnerships (PPPs) can help win the fight against HIV/AIDS in cities throughout the United States. [More]

An alliance of institutions collectively managing an estimated 80 percent of all public health research funding worldwide today announced their first targets for concerted action in the fight against "chronic non-communicable diseases" (CNCDs). [More]

African Services Committee is praising New York City's Department of Health, for showing national leadership in putting the second-generation female condom into the hands of women living with or at risk of HIV/AIDS infection. [More]