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Eritoran drug does not reduce risk of death in patients with severe sepsis

Administration of the drug eritoran to patients with severe sepsis and septic shock failed to demonstrate a significant effect on reducing all-cause 28-day mortality or 1-year mortality, compared with placebo, according to a study in the March 20 issue of JAMA.

20 Mar 2013

Hepatitis C and HIV co-infection treatment: an interview with Prof Boecher, Boehringer Ingelheim

Chronic hepatitis C infection is one of the most frequent chronic infectious diseases worldwide. The WHO estimates that 150 million people worldwide are chronically infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV).

20 Mar 2013

Prevalence of acute hepatitis C virus infection is nearly 1% among newly incarcerated inmates

study published in the March issue of Hepatology, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, estimates that the prevalence of acute hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is nearly one percent among newly incarcerated inmates with a history of recent drug use.

20 Mar 2013

WHO, Global Fund call for additional $1.6M a year to fight TB in low-, middle-income countries

"Low and middle-income countries need an additional $1.6 billion a year to fight tuberculosis, threatening progress made against the world's second-deadliest infectious disease," the WHO and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said in a joint statement released Monday, Bloomberg reports (Bennett, 3/18).

20 Mar 2013

Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) patients and Médecins Sans Frontières medical staff call for urgent action

If measures to tackle multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) are not significantly stepped up, including addressing barriers that prevent both research into better drug combinations and treatment scale up, MDR-TB rates will continue to increase worldwide and a historic opportunity to improve abysmal cure rates will have been squandered, medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières warned today.

20 Mar 2013

Mozambique completes first HIV vaccine clinical trial

Last week, "researchers at Mozambique's Polana Cancio Centre for Research and Public Health completed a trial evaluating the safety of an HIV vaccine candidate," the country's "first HIV vaccine trial," and it "is set to embark on a second, a demonstration of the country's increased HIV research capacity," PlusNews reports.

20 Mar 2013

Blog reports on PPP aimed at improving health status of poorest Central Americans, Mexicans

"At the Inter-American Development Bank's (IDB) recent annual meeting in Panama, the two richest men in the world" -- Mexican businessman and philanthropist Carlos Slim and Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – "discussed their contributions to a little-known public-private partnership that aims to improve the health status of the poorest Central Americans and Mexicans -- Salud Mesoamerica 2015 or SM2015," Amanda Glassman, director of global health policy and a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development (CGD), writes in the center's "Global Health Policy" blog.

20 Mar 2013

HIV treatment should be started earlier for most, but challenges remain

Noting "French researchers have identified 14 adults" who appear to have been functionally cured of HIV after beginning treatment "within a couple of months of infection" and continuing treatment "for one to seven and a half years" before stopping, a New York Times editorial writes, "The researchers estimate that as many as 15 percent of adults who start treatment early and continue for at least a year may then be able to stop their drug regimen and live healthily without the drugs."

20 Mar 2013

Viewpoints: Protect the FDA's regulatory efforts; Generic drug 'shenanigans;' Does Ryan not understand the 2012 election?

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in Mutual Pharmaceutical v. Bartlett, a case about the ability of consumers to bring lawsuits against the makers of generic drugs.

20 Mar 2013

HCV screening of IV drug users new to the prison system could identify thousands of new HCV cases annually

A study published in the March issue of Hepatology, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, estimates that the prevalence of acute hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is nearly one percent among newly incarcerated inmates with a history of recent drug use. Findings suggest that systematic screening of intravenous (IV) drug users who are new to the prison system could identify more than 7,000 cases of HCV across the U.S. annually—even among asymptomatic inmates.

19 Mar 2013

Hepatitis C virus rarely transmitted through sex between monogamous heterosexuals

Individuals infected by the hepatitis C virus (HCV) have nothing to fear from sex in a monogamous, heterosexual relationship. Transmission of HCV from an infected partner during sex is rare according to new research published in the March issue of Hepatology, a journal published by Wiley on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD).

19 Mar 2013

First Edition: March 19, 2013

Today's headlines include coverage of a new report about the troubling reach of Alzheimer's disease.

19 Mar 2013

Wall Street Journal examines new initiative to combat drug-resistant TB in India

The Wall Street Journal examines a new effort to combat drug-resistant tuberculosis In India, noting "[a]n international health initiative has brokered a landmark accord that aims to halve the price patients pay for advanced tests for a strain of tuberculosis that is resistant to standard drugs."

19 Mar 2013

Research provides better understanding of microbiological factors of periodontitis

Microbes from the human mouth are telling Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists something about periodontitis and more after they cracked the genetic code of bacteria linked to the condition.

19 Mar 2013

Global efforts to address malnutrition should factor in immunization

"On Red Nose Day, we are reminded of the famine in Ethiopia that triggered the first Comic Relief, over 25 years ago," and "as we reflect, we now know that the link between malnutrition and infectious disease makes for a particularly vicious circle," Seth Berkley, CEO of the GAVI Alliance, writes in an opinion piece in the Guardian's "Global Development Professionals Network."

19 Mar 2013

Mylan gets final approval from FDA for generic Xopenex Inhalation Solution

Mylan Inc. today announced that its subsidiary Mylan Specialty L.P. has received final approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its Abbreviated New Drug Application for Levalbuterol Inhalation Solution USP, 0.31 mg/3 mL (0.0103%), 0.63 mg/3 mL (0.021%), and 1.25 mg/3 mL (0.042%), (Concentrate).

19 Mar 2013

Blog examines new data on global burden of disease

"The Seattle-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation recently published the most recent global estimates of disease burden that update the leading causes of death and disability across the world," Todd Summers, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic & International Studies Global Health Policy Center, writes in the center's "Smart Global Health" blog.

19 Mar 2013

Bill Gates says capitalism funnels more resources into minor ailments than infectious diseases

Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, "has declared capitalism 'flawed' because it channels more resources to curing minor ailments such as male baldness than to addressing the diseases that destroy millions of lives every year," The Independent reports.

19 Mar 2013

Study shows widespread use of antiretroviral drugs would increase prevalence of MDR HIV

One of the most widely advocated strategies for dealing with HIV/AIDS could double the number of multi-drug-resistant HIV cases in the population of men who have sex with men in LA County over the next 10 years, cautions a new study.

19 Mar 2013

Mycolactone activation of N-WASP boosts Buruli ulcer formation

Mycobacterium ulcerans infects the skin and subcutaneous tissues and secretes a lipid toxin, mycolactone, which causes open skin lesions, known as Buruli ulcers.

18 Mar 2013

Disease/Infection News

Eritoran drug does not reduce risk of death in patients with severe sepsis

Hepatitis C and HIV co-infection treatment: an interview with Prof Boecher, Boehringer Ingelheim

Prevalence of acute hepatitis C virus infection is nearly 1% among newly incarcerated inmates

WHO, Global Fund call for additional $1.6M a year to fight TB in low-, middle-income countries

Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) patients and Médecins Sans Frontières medical staff call for urgent action

Mozambique completes first HIV vaccine clinical trial

Blog reports on PPP aimed at improving health status of poorest Central Americans, Mexicans

HIV treatment should be started earlier for most, but challenges remain

Viewpoints: Protect the FDA's regulatory efforts; Generic drug 'shenanigans;' Does Ryan not understand the 2012 election?

HCV screening of IV drug users new to the prison system could identify thousands of new HCV cases annually

Hepatitis C virus rarely transmitted through sex between monogamous heterosexuals

First Edition: March 19, 2013

Wall Street Journal examines new initiative to combat drug-resistant TB in India

Research provides better understanding of microbiological factors of periodontitis

Global efforts to address malnutrition should factor in immunization

Mylan gets final approval from FDA for generic Xopenex Inhalation Solution

Blog examines new data on global burden of disease

Bill Gates says capitalism funnels more resources into minor ailments than infectious diseases

Study shows widespread use of antiretroviral drugs would increase prevalence of MDR HIV

Mycolactone activation of N-WASP boosts Buruli ulcer formation

Synthetic Biology and the Pursuit of Living Diagnostics

Modular, Scalable, Intelligent: How n6 Is Rethinking NGS Library Prep

Evolving spectrophotometry for modern biopharma workflows

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