AIDS News and Research

RSS

Harvard School of Public Health conference recognizes PEPFAR achievements

PEPFAR "has played a major role in changing the course of the global AIDS epidemic," Harvard Magazine reports.

18 Jan 2013

Researchers disagree over ethics of HIV treatment clinical trial in Africa, Nature reports

Nature reports how "a potential breakthrough in the quest to prevent HIV and AIDS has collided with sensitivities about testing expensive drugs in poor parts of the world."

18 Jan 2013

New compounds can target RNase H enzyme in HIV

Scientists who study HIV are facing a troubling consequence of their own success. They created drugs that can now give infected patients almost normal life expectancy. However, those same drugs will eventually cause the constantly mutating virus to evolve into a form that eludes current treatments.

18 Jan 2013

SyNAPSe® Trial by BHR Pharma deemed to have no safety issues according to DSMB

BHR Pharma, LLC announced today that the SyNAPSe® Trial's independent Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) evaluated safety data from 803 randomized patients and determined that no issues exist; therefore, the trial may continue towards its intended completion.

17 Jan 2013

Japan's 2012 payment to Global Fund its highest in 10 years

"The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria today welcomed the payment by Japan of the second and final tranche of its total 2012 contribution of US$343 million, the highest annual amount that Japan has ever made in 10 years of vigorous support for the Global Fund," a Global Fund press release reports.

17 Jan 2013

Continued investment needed to maintain gains against malaria

In this post in Management Sciences for Health's (MSH) "Global Health Impact" blog, Frederick Hartman, the global technical lead for communicable diseases and epidemic preparedness, and regional portfolio director, East Africa at the Center for Health Services at MSH, examines advances made in malaria control over the past decade, writing, "Malaria is still one of the five leading causes of child under-five mortality worldwide, and deserves continuing attention."

17 Jan 2013

Republican Rep. Ed Royce to chair House Foreign Affairs Committee

The Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog profiles Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.), who will chair the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

17 Jan 2013

Venture social investment 'could be a new thinking' in development aid

In an opinion piece in The Hill's "Congress Blog," Taufiqur Rahman, an international health consultant and founder of the Center for Implementation Efficiency, explores the concept of "venture social investment or VSI," in which the idea of venture capitalism is used "to reward good ideas or sustainable initiatives by investing limited foreign aid money to gain a much bigger and sustainable impact in developing countries" and creating "a partnership between developed world and low-income countries."

17 Jan 2013

Malaria control: an interview with Dr Jo Lines

Malaria is a tropical, mosquito-borne disease. It is found all over the tropics, in every continent but diminished now a great deal in most of Latin America, most of Asia. Still 90% of the world’s deaths due to malaria – are in Africa and most of them are in young children in Africa.

16 Jan 2013

White House, Congress should increase funding for PEPFAR, Global Fund to achieve 'AIDS-free generation'

"The Blueprint for an AIDS-Free Generation released by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in November 2012 makes a bold declaration: We are at a tipping point in this most devastating pandemic of our time," Chris Collins, vice president and director of public policy at amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, writes in the Huffington Post's "Impact" blog.

16 Jan 2013

Supreme Court agrees to hear case challenging federal anti-prostitution pledge

"The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to consider whether the government can require groups that receive federal funding for overseas HIV/AIDS programs to have explicit policies that oppose prostitution and sex trafficking," Reuters reports.

16 Jan 2013

Functionally deaf patients can gain normal hearing with new implant that replaces the middle ear

Functionally deaf patients can gain normal hearing with a new implant that replaces the middle ear. The unique invention from the Chalmers University of Technology has been approved for a clinical study. The first operation was performed on a patient in December 2012.

15 Jan 2013

PlusNews examines potential cuts in U.S. HIV funding to Ethiopia

PlusNews discusses potential cuts in U.S. funding for HIV-related activities in Ethiopia and the role of greater in-country funding for health. In 2013, "Ethiopia will experience a 79 percent reduction in U.S. HIV financing from PEPFAR," according to a blog post written last year by Amanda Glassman, director of global health policy and senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, the news service notes.

11 Jan 2013

Additional insights into workings of ALVAC vaccine against HIV

Four years ago, a potential HIV vaccine showed promise against the virus that causes AIDS, but it fell short of providing the broad protection necessary to stem the spread of disease.

11 Jan 2013

U.N. SG meets with special envoys for AIDS, UNAIDS Executive Director to discuss future efforts

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday in New York met with his team of U.N. Special Envoys for AIDS to discuss progress in fighting the disease, U.N. Radio/Ghana Broadcasting Corporation reports.

11 Jan 2013

Kaiser Family Foundation publishes report on donor funding for health in low- & middle-income countries

The Kaiser Family Foundation on Wednesday published a new report, titled "Donor Funding for Health in Low- & Middle-Income Countries, 2002-2010," that "tracks the most recently available data on funding from donor governments, including the United States, and from multilateral institutions for health in low- and middle-income countries," according to the report summary.

11 Jan 2013

Timely data about Americans' views on issues related to biomedical and health research

America Speaks, Volume 13, a compilation of public opinion polls commissioned by Research!America, features timely data about Americans' views on issues related to biomedical and health research.

11 Jan 2013

Americans die sooner and experience higher rates of disease and injury than others

On average, Americans die sooner and experience higher rates of disease and injury than people in other high-income countries, says a new report from the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. The report finds that this health disadvantage exists at all ages from birth to age 75 and that even advantaged Americans -- those who have health insurance, college educations, higher incomes, and healthy behaviors -- appear to be sicker than their peers in other rich nations.

11 Jan 2013

Global health spending levels remain unresolved under 'fiscal cliff' deal

The "fiscal cliff" deal agreed to by Congress "leaves suspended in mid-air the fates of programs essential to meeting the goals of continued global health responses -- including the implementation of PEPFAR's blueprint for an AIDS-free generation, and whatever promise the new Office of Global Health Diplomacy will offer," the Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog reports.

11 Jan 2013

Simple and inexpensive method to cut DNA could transform genetic medicine

A simple, precise and inexpensive method for cutting DNA to insert genes into human cells could transform genetic medicine, making routine what now are expensive, complicated and rare procedures for replacing defective genes in order to fix genetic disease or even cure AIDS.

10 Jan 2013