Infectious Diseases News and Research

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Humanized BLT mice help prevent HIV/AIDS transmission

The more than 2.7 million new HIV infections recorded per year leave little doubt that the HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to spread globally. That's why there's the need for safe, inexpensive and effective drugs to successfully block HIV transmission.

19 May 2011

Abbott RealTime PCR assay for measuring HCV viral load receives FDA marketing approval

Abbott announced today that it has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market its RealTime PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test for measuring the viral load of hepatitis C (HCV), the leading cause of liver cancer in the United States.

19 May 2011

Vitamin D plays a key role in protection against childhood asthma

Vitamin D, which is primarily absorbed from the sun, plays a role in protection against childhood asthma. Now, a new study led by Valencian researchers has shown that children who live in colder, wetter cities are at greater risk of suffering from this respiratory problem, since there are fewer hours of sunlight in such places.

19 May 2011

Affymetrix launches new menu of multiple genomic microarray tools

Affymetrix, Inc. today announced the availability of multiple genomic microarray tools that will further enable scientists in the applied research field.

18 May 2011

Kool Smiles inaugurates new Takoma Park dental office

Kool Smiles, a leading dental health provider for children and adults, now has opened its doors to additional families in Maryland with a new office location in Takoma Park. Kool Smiles of Takoma Park officially opened on May 2 as the organization continues to expand access to quality dental care for families in underserved communities across the nation.

18 May 2011

Bill Gates calls for greater immunization efforts in World Health Assembly address

Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, on Tuesday called for a "Decade of Vaccines" in a keynote address at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, saying strengthening immunization programs against infectious diseases worldwide could save 10 million lives by 2020, Reuters reports.

18 May 2011

Impaired ability to handle oxidative stress may contribute to asthma development

An impaired ability to handle oxidative stress that arises from exposure to secondhand smoke and other environmental triggers may contribute to the development of asthma, according to results obtained from the Shanghai Women's Health Asthma and Allergy Study. The results of the study suggest regulating the body's antioxidant defense system may play an important role in asthma prevention.

18 May 2011

Thirty years of AIDS

Thirty years ago next month, the CDC released the first report on a mysterious disease among gay men in Los Angeles. The AIDS epidemic had begun. It has since claimed the lives of an estimated 600,000 Americans and is currently ravaging Africa.

18 May 2011

New research demonstrates how geographic profiling can help combat infectious diseases

Every 30 seconds, infectious diseases such as malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis kill as many people as Jack the Ripper did in his entire career. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal International Journal of Health Geographics demonstrates how the mathematical model of geographic profiling, used in the hunt for serial killers, can help combat infectious diseases.

18 May 2011

Bill Gates urges wiser vaccine coverage worldwide to save millions

Tuesday this week, Bill Gates called for strengthened immunization programs against infectious diseases to save 4 million lives by 2015 and 10 million lives by 2020, calling it the best possible investment in global health. He was addressing the annual assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, attended by health ministers from the U.N. agency's 193 member states.

17 May 2011

Accelr8 presents initial ICU pilot study results at ATS International Conference

Accelr8 Technology Corporation announced that clinical investigators led by Ivor S. Douglas, MD/FRCP (UK) from Denver Health presented initial ICU pilot study results at the 2011 ATS International Conference.

17 May 2011

Researchers discover bed bugs with MRSA in lower-income area residents

As if the recent resurgence of bed bugs wasn't bad enough, Canadian researchers have found some of the little blood-sucking critters carrying methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, the potentially deadly superbug known as MRSA.

17 May 2011

FDA nod for hepatitis C drug

Merck & Co have finally won the Food and Drugs Administration – FDA’S approval on Friday to sell a new drug considered a major advance against the liver-destroying hepatitis C virus. The drug brand named, Victrelis is expected to help transform treatment of the potentially fatal disease with higher cure rates and shorter courses of therapy for some patients. Merck shares rose 0.6 percent in after-hours trading to $37.33, up from their $37.08 close on the New York Stock Exchange. Approval of Victrelis was widely expected after a FDA advisory panel recommended the drug in an 18-0 vote in April.

17 May 2011

Pacific Biosciences, Mount Sinai collaborate to advance genomic research

Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. announced a bi-coastal collaboration to advance clinical research through the Mount Sinai Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology to be led by Eric E. Schadt, Ph.D.

16 May 2011

Study: HIV treatment drugs slash transmission risk

AIDS researchers offered evidence backing up the long-standing idea that people infected with HIV who are being treated are much less likely to transmit the virus than those who are not on drugs. This finding is being hailed as a breakthrough.

16 May 2011

Global health Product Development Partners consortium select GVK BIO as preferred provider

GVK Biosciences, Asia's leading drug discovery research & development organization announced today that it has been selected as a preferred provider to a consortium of 14 global Product Development Partners (PDPs) for clinical services in Asia. GVK BIO is the only partner that is headquartered in India.

16 May 2011

Pre-existing malaria prevents secondary infection by another Plasmodium strain

A team of researchers have found that pre-existing malaria prevents secondary infection by another Plasmodium strain, the parasite responsible for malaria, by restricting iron availability in the liver of the host.

16 May 2011

Early HIV treatment can reduce transmission risk by 96%, preliminary study results show

Preliminary results from a multicountry clinical trial, sponsored by the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), show that HIV-positive people who take combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) can reduce the risk of transmitting the virus to their HIV-negative partners by 96 percent, U.S. researchers announced on Thursday " in what is being hailed as a breakthrough in HIV prevention," the Los Angeles Times reports.

16 May 2011

AIDS spread prevention by vaccine and anti HIV drugs

A latest vaccine against HIV/AIDS has shown to be effective in monkeys and has protected macaques the most widespread primate genus, against the monkey equivalent of HIV, Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV). This could provide a fresh approach to an HIV vaccine, a study suggests. US researchers say the vaccine offered protection to 13 of 24 Rhesus macaques treated in the experiment. In 12 of the monkeys, the vaccine was still effective 12 months later.

15 May 2011

MRSA superbug detected in bed bugs and supermarket meats: Report

Scientists have made an alarming discovery. They have found that bedbugs can carry the staph “superbug” MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus).

15 May 2011