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Autism Speaks Autism Treatment Network adds 17 sites in Canada and the U.S

Autism Speaks and Autism Speaks Canada who together form North America's largest autism science and advocacy organization, is pleased to announce the expansion of its Autism Treatment Network to include 17 leading children's hospitals and academic medical centers in the Canada and the U.S.

20 Jan 2011

Study: HIV-positive head and neck cancer patients respond well to radiation therapy treatments

HIV-positive head and neck cancer patients respond well to radiation therapy treatments and experience similar toxicity rates as non-HIV-positive patients, despite prior reports to the contrary, according to a study in the January issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology•Biology•Physics, an official journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology.

19 Jan 2011

Race and region play major role in health outcomes of people infected with HIV

Women, nonwhites, and people in the southern United States who were newly infected with HIV and followed for an average of four years experienced greater HIV/AIDS-related morbidity compared to men and people of other races living in other regions of the country. The findings, published in the February 15 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, underscore the urgent need to improve the health of these populations in order to reduce HIV-related morbidity and mortality in the U.S.

19 Jan 2011

Researchers create biyouyanagin compound library

Using chemical compounds found in a Japanese plant as a lead and the clever application of ultraviolet light, a Scripps Research Institute team has created a unique library of dozens of synthetic compounds to test for biomedical potential. Already, one of the compounds has shown great promise in inhibiting replication of HIV particles and fighting inflammation.

19 Jan 2011

New project on developing countermeasures for natural and intentional exposure to disease pathogens

Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have received a $5.6 million grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Army Research Office (ARO) to develop transient immunity against known, unknown, naturally occurring, or engineered disease-causing pathogens. The ultimate goal is to develop a viable countermeasure to an unknown pathogen within seven days of receiving it in a laboratory.

19 Jan 2011

WHO Director-General opens executive board session with calls for reform

Kicking off a nine-day annual WHO executive board meeting Monday, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan called for the board to consider areas where the agency can redirect resources in a more targeted manner so as to achieve greater outcomes, Reuters reports.

19 Jan 2011

AMBR sensor measures growth and drug susceptibility of bacterial cells without use of microscope

With an invention that can be made from some of the same parts used in CD players, University of Michigan researchers have developed a way to measure the growth and drug susceptibility of individual bacterial cells without the use of a microscope.

19 Jan 2011

Guardian online series explores global health worker issues

The Guardian reports, as part of an online feature about health care workforces worldwide done in association with the Global Health Workforce Alliance (GHWA), that "Africa is desperately short of doctors and nurses. So is much of Asia. In 57 countries, the situation is deemed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to be at crisis point ... But in contrast to some other developing world problems, this is an issue that really does affect all of us. The world needs an estimated 4.2 million more health workers."

19 Jan 2011

New York Times examines Russia's 'inadequate fight' against HIV/AIDS

Russia's HIV/AIDS epidemic "has defied worldwide trends, expanding more rapidly year by year than almost anywhere else," the New York Times writes in an article that examines how the country has become "one of the world's low points in the effort to fight the spread of HIV," in large part due to the government's failure to reach out to injecting drug users (IDUs) and sex workers - the groups "at the heart" of the epidemic.

18 Jan 2011

Transcept announces Intermezzo NDA resubmission for treatment of middle of the night awakenings

Transcept Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that it has resubmitted its New Drug Application (NDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seeking approval of Intermezzo® for use as needed for the treatment of insomnia when a middle of the night awakening is followed by difficulty returning to sleep.

18 Jan 2011

Clinical studies by expert HIV clinicians suggest that HIV-TRePS may have clinical and economic benefits

Two multinational clinical studies indicate that the RDI’s system for predicting how HIV and AIDS patients will respond to different drugs could be a useful tool with potential clinical and economic benefits. The studies, published in the January issue of AIDS Patient Care and STDs, involved highly experienced physicians in the USA, Canada and Italy who used the system to help them select the optimum combination of HIV drugs for patients whose therapy was failing.

18 Jan 2011

Opinions: U.S. HIV funding; Global fund accountability; World food supply

President Barack Obama's Global Health Initiative is "pitting AIDS against other diseases by making investments in new areas of global health contingent on flat funding for efforts to fight the HIV epidemic," HIV/AIDS advocate and Yale College student Gregg Gonsalves writes in a Washington Post opinion piece.

18 Jan 2011

Women's eNews examines launch of U.N. Women

Women's eNews examines U.N.'s new agency U.N. Women, which officially got off the ground on Jan. 3. According to the news service, U.N. Women's "Manhattan headquarters remain unoccupied, said U.N. Women spokesperson Gretchen Luchsinger"; employees from the previous U.N. entities that focused on women's issues remain in "scattered offices around the U.N. Secretariat building"; and "[s]even high-level staff positions" remain unfilled.

14 Jan 2011

Best diet aid: Water

If you're like most people, losing those last few holiday pounds is high on your list of to-dos this month. Fortunately, one of the best diet aids is free, abundant and right at your fingertips: water.

12 Jan 2011

U.N. has 'largely' met its goals in Haiti since the quake, official says

The U.N. has mostly achieved its short-term goals since a major earthquake struck Haiti on January 12, 2010, Nigel Fisher, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Haiti, said during a video teleconference on Monday, Deutsche Presse-Agentur/M&C reports.

12 Jan 2011

Hybrid cochlear implant may benefit patients with profound hearing loss

Northwestern Memorial Hospital is one of nine centers in the U.S., and the only in Illinois, that is participating in a study investigating the effectiveness of a new cochlear implant device that aims to restore hearing for individuals with high-frequency hearing loss and functional low-frequency hearing.

12 Jan 2011

Adult Social Care can become more environmentally sustainable, says study

New research from the Institute for Sustainability, Health and Environment (ISHE) at the University of the West of England, shows that Adult Social Care can become more environmentally sustainable, more economical and still meet social objectives, with the right policies and strategies in place.

11 Jan 2011

Sangamo completes enrollment in SB-509-901 Phase 2b clinical trial in diabetic neuropathy

Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. announced today that the company completed enrollment of its Phase 2b double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial (SB-509-901) in subjects with diabetic neuropathy (DN). The company expects to have efficacy data from this study in the second half of 2011. The company also plans to present the first human clinical data from its Phase 1 trials of SB-728-T in HIV/AIDS in the first quarter of 2011.

10 Jan 2011

Male circumcision helps reduce rates of HPV transmission to women, study finds

"Among HIV-negative sexual partners, male circumcision helps prevent the transmission of human papillomavirus [HPV] from men to women," according to a study published online Thursday in the Lancet, HealthDay News/Bloomberg Businessweek reports.

10 Jan 2011

IDSA releases MRSA treatment guidelines

Physicians now have help in their battle against methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a potentially deadly infection that initially was limited to hospitals and health care facilities but has become a growing problem in healthy children and adults. The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) has released its first guidelines for the treatment of increasingly common MRSA infections.

7 Jan 2011