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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

Hypertension Diagnostics' revenue decreases by 9.2% for the fiscal year 2009

Hypertension Diagnostics, Inc. (OTCBB: HDII), today announced audited financial results for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2009.

21 Sep 2009

Abbott Prism HIV O Plus assay approved by FDA

The U. S. Food and Drug Administration today announced approval of the Abbott Prism HIV O Plus assay, as a screening tool designed to detect the presence of certain antibodies to HIV. The assay is one of five assays that run on the fully automated Abbott Prism System.

21 Sep 2009

HIV mutates itself to escape antibodies

A study of how HIV mutates in response to immune system pressure by Emory Vaccine Center researchers shows that the virus can take several escape routes, not one preferred route.

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

Study reveals that older widowers are likely to be diagnosed with a STD

Widowers take care: Older men who have recently lost their wives are more likely than still-married peers to be diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease (STD), according to a new study.

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

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

Biomagnetics and U.S. Government laboratory continue contract negotiations

Biomagnetics Diagnostics Corp., (PINK SHEETS:BMGP) a developer of revolutionary diagnostic systems and technology for HIV, hepatitis, tuberculosis, and malaria detection, today announced the Company is in continuing contract negotiations to acquire the rights to Integrated Optical Biosensor System (IBOS) technology developed by one of the U.S. Government’s top national security research institutions.

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

Study: Antiretroviral drugs may prevent HIV infection in women

Hopeful that some of the same antiretroviral (ARV) drugs used to treat HIV infection can also prevent it, researchers from the Microbicide Trials Network have enrolled the first participants into a new, large-scale clinical trial testing two approaches of the strategy in women.

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

VOICE clinical study for testing the efficacy of two HIV prevention strategies

A new, large-scale clinical trial is examining whether antiretroviral medications normally used to treat HIV infection can also prevent HIV infection in women when applied as a vaginal gel or taken as oral tablets once daily.

16 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

Inovio’s novel platform for developing DNA based vaccines to be discussed at EmTech

Inovio Biomedical Corporation, a leader in DNA vaccine design, development and delivery, announced today that Dr. J. Joseph Kim, CEO, has been invited to present at EmTech, the Emerging Technologies Conference hosted by MIT and produced by MIT’s Technology Review magazine. The conference will take place September 22nd - 24th on the MIT campus in Cambridge, MA.

16 Sep 2009

Precise T cell correlates of protection need to be identified for vaccine design

T cells are key players in the immune response to HIV, which are able to delete infected cells. This capacity is used for vaccine development against HIV. "To date however, success of this strategy remains elusive. Our understanding of T cell efficacy is still limited, and we need to identify precise T cell correlates of protection that could guide rationale vaccine design", says Victor Appay, Group leader HIV Pathogenesis and Immunosenescence, Hopital Pitie-Salpetriere, Paris, at the 2nd European Congress of Immunology ECI 2009 in Berlin.

16 Sep 2009