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Continued HIV/AIDS progress could lead to increased life expectancy, population among developing countries, U.N. report says

Life expectancy in developing countries could increase to 69 years by 2050 if the global health community sustains progress in controlling HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, according to a report released Wednesday by the United Nations Population Division, Montreal's Gazette reports (Edwards, Gazette, 3/12).

16 Mar 2009

Discovery of link between atrial fibrillation and increased risk of death in diabetic patients

Results from a large, international, randomised, controlled trial have shown that there is a strong link between diabetics who have an abnormal heart rhythm (atrial fibrillation) and an increased risk of other heart-related problems and death.

11 Mar 2009

Hendra and Nipah viruses shown to be susceptible to chloroquine

Two highly lethal viruses that have emerged in recent outbreaks are susceptible to chloroquine, an established drug used to prevent and treat malaria, according to a new basic science study by researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College in the Journal of Virology.

5 Mar 2009

Global AIDS Alliance sounds alarm on potential budget cuts

Amid initial indications that the administration's first budget will flat-line funding for global health, the Global AIDS Alliance is calling on President Obama, Vice President Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to keep their campaign commitments to scale up the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and accelerate efforts to ensure every child around the world gets a free basic education.

23 Feb 2009

Mercury in fish is a global health hazard

As the world's governments convene next week to discuss developing a legally binding treaty on mercury, citizens' groups from around the world have released a new report calling attention to the significant global human health hazards caused by mercury in fish and fish-eating marine mammals.

10 Feb 2009

HIPAA privacy rule fails to adequately protect patient privacy and hampers health research

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule does not adequately protect the privacy of people's personal health information and hinders important health research discoveries, concludes a new report from the Institute of Medicine.

5 Feb 2009

WHO receives funds for children's medicines research with UNICEF

WHO has received US$ 9.7 million in grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to work with UNICEF to conduct crucial research in children's medicines, with the aim of increasing the number of child-size medicines designed and formulated specifically for children.

21 Jan 2009

Family rejection of lesbian, gay and bisexual children linked to poor health in early childhood

For the first time, researchers have established a clear link between family rejection of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) adolescents and negative health outcomes in early adulthood.

30 Dec 2008

Blocking immune receptor molecule improves response to HIV-like virus, prolongs survival in monkeys

By blocking PD-1 (programmed death-1), an immune receptor molecule known to inhibit the immune response to chronic viral infections, scientists have safely and significantly reduced the plasma viral load and also prolonged survival of rhesus macaque monkeys severely infected with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), the nonhuman primate version of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

10 Dec 2008

Conquering cancer: A global effort

Despite the recent good news that cancer incidence and death rates for men and women in the United States continue to decline, cancer is projected to become the leading cause of death worldwide in the year 2010, and low- and middle-income countries will feel the impact of higher cancer incidence and death rates more sharply than industrialized countries.

10 Dec 2008

Biomarkers in blood could aid diagnosis of two severe and debilitating forms of malaria

Canadian researchers have identified protein biomarkers that shed new light on the development of two severe and debilitating forms of malaria.

8 Dec 2008

Measles Initiative to announce new achievements

The Measles Initiative partners - led by the American Red Cross, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United Nations Foundation, UNICEF and the World Health Organization - will announce the latest achievement in global health during a press teleconference on Thursday, December 4, 2008 at 10:00 a.m. EST, 4:00pm CET.

1 Dec 2008

Live oral Shigella vaccine licensed to PATH

The University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) has licensed a pediatric vaccine against Shigella bacteria to PATH, an international nonprofit group, to support clinical trials, with the goal of developing a vaccine suitable for children in resource-poor countries.

24 Nov 2008

International health research boosted by NIH grant to create bioethics master's degrees at Indiana and Moi Universities

A new partnership between the Indiana University and Kenya's Moi University will develop master's degrees at both universities that focus on ethical issues in international health research.

18 Nov 2008

Expert warns it would be ill-advised to mandate HPV vaccinations at this time

Vaccinating girls against the human papillomavirus (HPV) before they are sexually active appears to be successful in protecting them against cervical cancer, however, a Johns Hopkins University researcher and health policy expert warns it would be ill-advised to mandate vaccinations at this time.

12 Nov 2008

Impact of the global financial and economic crisis on health

We face a severe financial crisis of unprecedented dimensions in a world that has never before been so closely connected and interdependent. The consequences are global. The situation is volatile. The current financial crisis is rapidly becoming an economic crisis and threatens to become a social crisis in many countries.

12 Nov 2008

Leprosy forgotten but not gone

According to scientists in the U.S. leprosy is a disease which may be forgotten, but it is still around.

9 Nov 2008

Getting the flu early may protect against worse one later

New evidence about the worldwide influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 indicates that getting the flu early protected many people against a second deadlier wave, an article co-authored by an NIH epidemiologist concludes.

20 Oct 2008

Governments urged to fight pneumococcal disease

Pneumococcal disease, one of the world's leading causes of death and serious illness, must be recognised as an urgent global health issue together with HIV, malaria and TB, say the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Pneumococcal Disease Prevention in the Developing World in a report launching at the House of Lords today. Between 700,000 and one million children under the age of five die each year from pneumococcal disease, equivalent to malaria and more than AIDS and tuberculosis.

16 Oct 2008

TB Alliance receives pledge of up to $40 million from USAID

The Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance), a not-for-profit, product development partnership leading the development of new and affordable tuberculosis (TB) drugs, announced today a new grant and pledge of up to $40 million over the next five years from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

13 Oct 2008