Infectious Diseases News and Research

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Tips for healthy living for the year ahead

Whether you are a vegetarian, vegan, carnivore or pescetarian, vegetables should be a central part of your diet. Often referred to as a "protective food," dark green foods provide essential vitamins and nutrients to your body that protect you from many of life's worst diseases.

17 Dec 2009

New Tandem fund of $300 million presents financing option for Canada’s biotechnology industry

The new Tandem fund of $300 million announced last week presents a much-needed financing option for Canada’s biotechnology industry. The Fund received investments from the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), and Export Development Canada (EDC), contributing $80 and $75 million respectively to the Fund.

17 Dec 2009

Santa Claus: A public health pariah?

Santa should share Rudolf's snack of carrots and celery sticks rather than brandy and mince pies and swap his reindeer for a bike or walk, says a public health expert in the Christmas issue published on bmj.com today.

17 Dec 2009

Risk of H1N1 exposure alters U.S. holiday plans

Forty percent of U.S. adults intend to change their holiday plans due to the risk of being exposed to the H1N1 flu virus, according to a nationwide survey commissioned by JohnsonDiversey, a global leader in the commercial cleaning and sanitizing industry.

17 Dec 2009

Infection control program protects immunocompromised cancer patients from H1N1 infection

Despite a 100-fold increase in H1N1 influenza cases in the Seattle area during spring 2009, an aggressive infection control program to protect immunocompromised cancer patients and thorough screening measures resulted in no corresponding increase in H1N1 cases among the total patient population at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, according to a new study by researchers and physicians at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the SCCA.

17 Dec 2009

H1N1 outbreak reveals existing gaps in nation's public health emergency preparedness

The seventh annual Ready or Not? Protecting the Public's Health from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism report, released today by the Trust for America's Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), found that the H1N1 flu outbreak has exposed serious underlying gaps in the nation's ability to respond to public health emergencies and that the economic crisis is straining an already fragile public health system.

16 Dec 2009

MRSA, the most concerning pathogen to surveyed for skin and skin structure infections

Arlington Medical Resources (AMR) and Decision Resources find that methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is the most concerning pathogen to surveyed European infectious disease specialists with regard to their treatment of skin and skin structure infections.

16 Dec 2009

Human Rhodesian sleeping sickness in Uganda points to infected livestock movements

The northwards spread of human Rhodesian sleeping sickness in Uganda is likely due to the movement of infected livestock, according to new findings from an interdisciplinary research group including members from the Centre for Infectious Diseases, University of Edinburgh; the Ministry of Health, Uganda; and the Universities of Oxford and Southampton.

16 Dec 2009

Post-surgical infections raise healthcare expenditures

Post-surgical infections significantly increase the chance of hospital readmission and death and cost as much as $60,000 per patient, according to Duke University Medical Center researchers who conducted the largest study of its kind to date.

16 Dec 2009

Genocea Biosciences to develop Chlamydia trachomatis vaccine with UPMC grant

Genocea Biosciences, a leading vaccine discovery and development company, today announced it has been awarded a grant from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s (UPMC) Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) Cooperative Research Center for the development of vaccines for Chlamydia trachomatis.

15 Dec 2009

Tibotec Virco Virology BVBA acquires Ground Zero Software's LAB TRACKER HIV EMR system

Tibotec Virco Virology BVBA today announced the acquisition of LAB TRACKER(TM) HIV, a customized electronic medical record (EMR) system, from the company Ground Zero Software. LAB TRACKER(TM) HIV is a full-service, scalable software platform designed to meet the complex disease-management needs of health care providers who are treating people living with HIV/AIDS.

15 Dec 2009

Freie Universität professor receives ERC grant for bacterial biofilm formation study

Prof. Dr. Regine Hengge at the Department of Biology, Chemistry, and Pharmacy at Freie Universität Berlin has been awarded funding from the European Research Council (ERC) for her research project to investigate the formation of bacterial biofilms. Hengge will receive an ERC Advanced Investigator Grant in an amount of up to two million euros.

15 Dec 2009

Protozoan parasite may be the cause for dinosaur extinction

Infectious diseases can be transmitted by sneezing, touching, or - for Tasmanian devils - biting each other on the face, a habit that may have driven the dinosaurs to extinction through the transmission of a protozoan parasite.

15 Dec 2009

Scientists create Pandemic Influenza Planning Tool to model the spread of pandemic influenza

As communities brace for rising wintertime influenza cases, scientists are developing a mathematical and visual analytic toolkit to help health officials quickly analyze pandemics and craft better response strategies.

15 Dec 2009

Modified blood adult stem-cell transplant regimen reverses sickle cell disease

A modified blood adult stem-cell transplant regimen has effectively reversed sickle cell disease in 9 of 10 adults who had been severely affected by the disease, according to results of a National Institutes of Health study in the Dec. 10 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

13 Dec 2009

Clinical trial of 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine

HIV-infected adults currently are being recruited to participate in a clinical trial of 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine. The study, sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health, will enroll approximately 240 men and women between the ages of 18 and 64.

13 Dec 2009

NCKUH and NHRI sponsor virology lab in Vietnam Children’s Hospital

A Virology Lab in Children’s Hospital No. 1 (CH1), Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, sponsored by National Cheng Kung University Hospital (NCKUH) and National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) in Taiwan was launched on November 11th, 2009.

11 Dec 2009

Speaker Pelosi lauds lift of ban on federal funding for syringe exchange initiatives

Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement today applauding the inclusion of language in the fiscal year 2010 Consolidated Appropriations Act lifting the ban on federal funding for syringe exchange initiatives to prevent the spread of HIV. The omnibus bill passed the House this afternoon by a vote of 221 to 202.

11 Dec 2009

NIH awards $14.6M for Eukaryotic Pathogen Genome Database Resource expansion

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Georgia have been awarded a five-year, $14.6 million contract from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the US National Institutes of Health, to expand and extend work on the Eukaryotic Pathogen Genome Database Resource, http://EuPathDB.org.

11 Dec 2009

FY2010 State and Foreign Ops bill expected to move on the Hill this month

The fiscal year 2010 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations bill, which includes funding for global health-related measures, "is moving on the Hill as part of a mammoth catch-all spending bill that's expected to move through both chambers this month," Foreign Policy's blog, "The Cable," reports. "

10 Dec 2009

Infectious Diseases News and Research

Tips for healthy living for the year ahead

New Tandem fund of $300 million presents financing option for Canada’s biotechnology industry

Santa Claus: A public health pariah?

Risk of H1N1 exposure alters U.S. holiday plans

Infection control program protects immunocompromised cancer patients from H1N1 infection

H1N1 outbreak reveals existing gaps in nation's public health emergency preparedness

MRSA, the most concerning pathogen to surveyed for skin and skin structure infections

Human Rhodesian sleeping sickness in Uganda points to infected livestock movements

Post-surgical infections raise healthcare expenditures

Genocea Biosciences to develop Chlamydia trachomatis vaccine with UPMC grant

Tibotec Virco Virology BVBA acquires Ground Zero Software's LAB TRACKER HIV EMR system

Freie Universität professor receives ERC grant for bacterial biofilm formation study

Protozoan parasite may be the cause for dinosaur extinction

Scientists create Pandemic Influenza Planning Tool to model the spread of pandemic influenza

Modified blood adult stem-cell transplant regimen reverses sickle cell disease

Clinical trial of 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine

NCKUH and NHRI sponsor virology lab in Vietnam Children’s Hospital

Speaker Pelosi lauds lift of ban on federal funding for syringe exchange initiatives

NIH awards $14.6M for Eukaryotic Pathogen Genome Database Resource expansion

FY2010 State and Foreign Ops bill expected to move on the Hill this month

Discover how SciY empowers scientists

Why use light scattering to analyze proteins and viral vectors?

Changing the landscape of R&D to build clinical success from the ground up

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