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International experts meet to focus on impact of vaccines on global health at a time of public scepticism and complacency

International experts gather in Prague today for a three day meeting focused on the impact of vaccines on public health, at a time of increasing concern that public scepticism and complacency could undermine the positive impact of current and future vaccine campaigns.

31 Mar 2011

Opinions: Foreign aid budget; asking beneficiaries for feedback; least-developed countries

"As the CR [continuing resolution] talks between the House Republicans and the administration and Senate Democrats near their deadline, the House negotiators should put America's foreign aid budget on the table," Dick Morris, a former adviser to Sen. Trent Lott and President Clinton, writes in an opinion piece in The Hill.

31 Mar 2011

HHS unveils new website on vaccine and immunization for consumers

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services today unveiled an innovative new website to help parents and other consumers learn about the most effective way to protect themselves and their children from infectious diseases and learn about immunization.

31 Mar 2011

Roche launces new GS GType HLA Primer Sets for HLA genotyping

454 Life Sciences, a Roche Company, announced today the launch and immediate availability of the new GS GType HLA Primer Sets for high- and medium-resolution genotyping of class I and class II loci of the Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) genes.

30 Mar 2011

Study finds global adolescent death rates exceed rates for child, infant deaths

A study published on Tuesday in the Lancet found that in a reversal of historical trends, "death rates among adolescents are now higher than in children," Reuters reports.

30 Mar 2011

Mary Ann Liebert to launch new 'Shingles and PHN' open access journal

Shingles and PHN, a new, bimonthly open access peer-reviewed journal, will be launched in fall 2011 by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.

30 Mar 2011

Prompt treatment with correct antibiotic may prevent longer hospital stay in children with severe pneumonia

In critically ill children with pneumonia, delays of even a few hours to treatment with the correct antibiotic can mean more days in the hospital, reports a study in the April issue of The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.

30 Mar 2011

Scientist develops new model to understand peoples' behaviors during flu outbreaks

When influenza pandemics arrive, the specter of disease spread through person-to-person contact can mean that schools close, hand sanitizer sales rise, and travellers stay home. But is severing social and business interactions with our neighbors really better than taking a chance on getting sick?

29 Mar 2011

SRI International, CDD receive NIAID grant to develop TB information repository

SRI International, an independent nonprofit research and development organization, and Collaborative Drug Discovery, provider of a web-based drug discovery software platform, announced that they have been awarded a grant to support the first year of a software development project focused on tuberculosis drug discovery efforts.

29 Mar 2011

FDA clears new BD ProbeTec Qx Amplified DNA Assays to detect HSV 1 and 2

Clinicians now have a new tool to help diagnose symptomatic patients with Herpes Simplex Viruses -- one of the most common sexually transmitted infections in the world.

From BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) 29 Mar 2011

Chembio develops DPP assay for rapid detection of HIV and HEP B/C

A kidney recipient in a New York City hospital recently contracted HIV from the transplanted organ, which came from a living donor, according to the New York State Department of Health. Although an initial screening had been performed on the donor, he or she apparently had unsafe sex after the test but before donating the kidney.

28 Mar 2011

Gates discusses foundation's global health priorities in India during visit to country

During a visit to the Indian state of Bihar, Bill Gates, co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, on Thursday discussed his foundation's work in India and global health priorities, ANI/Sify News reports.

28 Mar 2011

HIV uses base excision repair pathway to insert DNA into host-cell genome

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the cause of AIDS, makes use of the base excision repair pathway when inserting its DNA into the host-cell genome, according to a new study led by researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute. Crippling the repair pathway prevents the virus from completing this critical step in the retrovirus's life cycle.

25 Mar 2011

EU supports new collaborative research projects on tuberculosis

It's March 24th again and the World Tuberculosis Day reminds us that for almost 50 years no new drugs have been developed against this terrible disease, which is currently killing nearly two million people worldwide each year. It's a global problem because the emergence of drug resistant strains of this infectious disease - normally associated with poverty - is a growing problem even in high-income economies.

25 Mar 2011

Financial Times, other media outlets highlight key issues in Global TB fight

In recognition of World Tuberculosis Day on Thursday, the Financial Times published a series of stories on TB worldwide.

25 Mar 2011

U.S. statewide bank crises study finds no major impact of depression on mortality

A study published today provides a new perspective on the Great Depression of the 1930s. A widely held view is that there were remarkable improvements in life expectancy of over five years.

25 Mar 2011

Collaborative study may lead to strategies to reduce antibiotic resistance

In a study that literally analyzed competing bacteria fighting it out to the death, a University of Houston (UH) researcher and his colleagues identified evolutionary 'winners' and 'losers.' Continuing research to understand the basis of these fates may become a useful tool is designing roadblocks to antibiotic resistance.

24 Mar 2011

Physicians launch international advocacy campaign on TB

Physicians across the globe are coming together to advocate for a large, underrepresented patient population - those suffering from tuberculosis. On World TB Day, March 24th, a team of physician and researchers led by Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine's Tuberculosis Research Unit will nationally launch "I am TB," an international advocacy campaign aimed at reducing stigma among patients with TB and those at risk for the disease.

24 Mar 2011

Strong 'innate immunity' effective in chikungunya patients

Chikungunya is transmitted by mosquitoes of the genus Aedes. The disease is spreading in the world and periodically sparks new outbreaks. Africa, Asia, the Indian Ocean and even Southern Europe are now affected.

23 Mar 2011

CMU's CNAST receives DSF Charitable Foundation grant to develop novel biomedical tools

The DSF Charitable Foundation has given a $3.9 million grant to Carnegie Mellon University's Center for Nucleic Acids Science and Technology to further the development of novel biomedical tools targeted at monitoring and manipulating gene expression.

22 Mar 2011