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President Obama silent on the creation of a Global Fund for Education: Global AIDS Alliance

One year ago, on September 28, 2008, then-Candidate Barack Obama used the world stage provided by the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative to promise that, if elected, he would work to create a Global Fund for Education.

22 Sep 2009

GeoVax requests FDA meeting to discuss IND for its therapeutic HIV/AIDS vaccine

GeoVax Labs, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: GOVX) (the "Company"), an Atlanta-based, biopharmaceutical company developing human vaccines for diseases caused by HIV-1 (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) and other infectious agents, today announced that it has requested a pre-Investigational New Drug (IND) meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to discuss a proposed IND for GeoVax's therapeutic vaccine as a treatment for individuals infected with HIV/AIDS.

22 Sep 2009

AHF’s first AIDS treatment center to open in Washington, DC

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the US’ largest non-profit HIV/AIDS healthcare provider, which provides medical care and/or services to more than 100,000 individuals in 21 countries worldwide, is honored to announce the September 24th grand opening of AHF’s first AIDS treatment center in Washington, DC, where the HIV rate is now reported to be 3%—higher than the rate in Lagos, Nigeria. The health care center, AHF’s first to be named in honor of Hollywood actor and longtime AIDS advocate Blair Underwood, will include a state-of-the-art, full-service HIV/AIDS treatment clinic as well as an on-site AHF Pharmacy. The facility will be known as the AHF Blair Underwood Clinic.

22 Sep 2009

Bacterium responsible for outbreaks identified

University of Central Florida Microbiology Professor Keith Ireton has uncovered a previously unknown mechanism that plays an important role in the spread of a deadly food-borne bacterium.

22 Sep 2009

IRIN examines HIV/AIDS advocates' reaction to U.N. agency for women

IRIN examines how a recent resolution to create an agency to promote women's "rights and wellbeing" by the U.N. General Assembly is being welcomed by international HIV/AIDS advocates. According to IRIN, "[w]omen make up 60 percent of people living with AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, a figure that rises to 75 percent in the 15-24 age range. In Asia, nearly 50 million women are at risk of becoming infected with HIV from their partners."

21 Sep 2009

Also in Global Health news: HIV/aids in Zambia; Ugandan medical workers; Obama administration officials' Q&A, speech; South African health care reform efforts; texting to combat drug shortages in Africa

The Post of Zambia examines the findings of a recent report revealing "the devastating effects" the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Zambia is having on the country's ability to meet the U.N. Millennium Development Goals. The article also looks at the relationship between HIV/AIDS and nutrition, maternal health and education (Chackwe, 9/21).

21 Sep 2009

TIME examines voluntary airline tax that aims to fund global health projects

TIME examines a voluntary airline tax, to be introduced in the U.S. and several European countries in January, that aims to "make up a shortfall in official government aid to poor countries — a shortfall exacerbated by the world financial crisis." The tax will be used to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and it will also go towards improving maternal health and reducing child mortality.

21 Sep 2009

Recent releases: Climate change, health; ITNS; Mexico H1N1; Policy Tracker; TB treatment; blogs

In addition to the Lancet's recent publication of an opinion piece and letter by 18 doctor association leaders about the potential health risks associated with climate change, the journal includes an editorial about sexual and reproductive health and climate change and a comment on the upcoming Copenhagen conference in December (9/19).

21 Sep 2009

My Insurance Expert in support of the AIDS Walk Detroit 2009

My Insurance Expert, one of the nation leading online services to compare and secure affordable health insurance, is supporting AIDS Walk Detroit 2009 with a corporate donation and encouraging employees and friends to participate in the annual fund-raiser.

19 Sep 2009

Rwanda to receive second shipment of AIDS drug

Apotex Inc. today announced that the second shipment of Apo-TriAvir, the generic triple-combination AIDS drug produced to simplify AIDS treatment in developing countries, was leaving for Rwanda, the only country to have benefited from Canada's Access to Medicines Regime (CAMR).

19 Sep 2009

National Institutes of Health funds for thymus research

The National Institutes of Health have awarded, as part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, a two-year, $2 million grant to a University of Georgia genetics researcher and her colleagues for studies on the thymus, the organ in humans that produces disease-fighting T-cells.

18 Sep 2009

Also in global health news: HIV/AIDS in Bangladesh; river blindness in Tanzania; potential immune system booster; compounds might fight TB

BDNews24.com reports on a new $13 million U.S.-government initiative aimed at "providing HIV-prevention services to two million at-risk people in Bangladesh including injecting drug users, male, female and transgender sex workers and their clients, and HIV-positive people through a network of 50 health centres." USAID will partner with Family Health International (FHI) to implement the program (9/17).

18 Sep 2009

President Obama's commitment to global AIDS and health is in doubt: GAA

Later today, Ambassador Eric Goosby will be sworn in as the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator. "While we welcome Ambassador Goosby to his new post, and look forward to working with him on a broad range of issues that affect the health and well-being of the world's vulnerable populations, there are a number of as-yet unanswered questions about the true commitment of the Obama Administration to global AIDS and health, including PEPFAR [President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief]," said Dr. Paul Zeitz, GAA executive director.

18 Sep 2009

Educational initiative proves successful in identifying and diagnosing fibromyalgia

According to The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the Fibromyalgia Circle of Care Initiative has achieved dramatic success in heightening awareness, diagnosis and best practice treatment of fibromyalgia – a complex and chronic pain disorder that plagues an estimated 10 million Americans.

17 Sep 2009

Discovery of key molecule may yield new therapies for AIDS and cancer

Discovery by Hebrew University of Jerusalem researchers of an additional role for a key molecule in our bodies provides a further step in world-wide efforts to develop genetic regulation aimed at controlling many diseases, including AIDS and various types of cancers.

17 Sep 2009

Funding, health professional shortage could prevent South Africa from reaching 2011 ARV target, Health Minister says

South Africa's shortage of health professionals combined with a budget shortfall of over $130 million for the government's HIV programs could keep the country from reaching its goal of providing 80 percent of the people living with HIV/AIDS in need of treatment with antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) by 2011.

17 Sep 2009

Leading doctors call for climate change action to prevent 'global health catastrophe'

On Wednesday, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) and the Lancet simultaneously published an editorial (available here and here) and an accompanying letter (here and here) from 18 doctor association leaders to highlight the need for action at a December U.N. conference on climate change in Copenhagen, Reuters reports (Doyle, 9/16).

17 Sep 2009

Researchers discover HIV Nef protein's role in cell mobility inhibition

In order to be able to ward off disease pathogens, immune cells must be mobile and be able to establish contact with each other. The working group around Professor Dr. Oliver Fackler in the Virology Department of the Hygiene Institute of the Heidelberg University Hospital has discovered a mechanism in an animal model revealing how HIV, the AIDS pathogen, cripples immune cells: Cell mobility is inhibited by the HIV Nef protein.

17 Sep 2009

Matrix Laboratories receives tentative FDA approval for its NDA

Mylan Inc. today announced that its privately held Indian subsidiary, Matrix Laboratories Limited, has received tentative approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) for its New Drug Application (NDA) for Efavirenz, Lamivudine and Tenofovir Disoproxil Fumarate Tablets, 600 mg/300 mg/300 mg.

16 Sep 2009

Pros and cons of HIV treatments in developing countries

Palumbo is co-leading a clinical study of anti-HIV medicines in Africa and India for the International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials Group (IMPAACT). The randomized trial found that a cohort of 82 HIV-infected children ages 6 to 35 months responded better to treatment with the protease-inhibiting drug lopinavir (LPV/r) than did a cohort of 82 children in the same age group who received the anti-retroviral drug nevirapine (NVP).

16 Sep 2009