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Vitamin D may help prevent dental caries

A new review of existing studies points toward a potential role for vitamin D in helping to prevent dental caries, or tooth decay.

28 Nov 2012

Microneedle-based measles vaccine can immunize against measles

Measles vaccine given with painless and easy-to-administer microneedle patches can immunize against measles at least as well as vaccine given with conventional hypodermic needles, according to research done by the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

28 Nov 2012

REEAD technology can diagnose malaria infections with very high sensitivity

Malaria is a life-threatening disease that strikes more than 200 million people every year - mainly in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The disease is caused by the Plasmodium parasite, which is spread by infected mosquito bites. Today, malaria can be prevented and successfully treated, but more than half a million people nevertheless die every year from the disease.

28 Nov 2012

Scientists adapt modern weather prediction techniques to generate local flu outbreak forecasts

Scientists at Columbia University and the National Center for Atmospheric Research have adapted techniques used in modern weather prediction to generate local forecasts of seasonal influenza outbreaks.

28 Nov 2012

Global Polio Eradication Initiative IMB report optimistic but warns of possible polio resurgence in 2013

Though there is "significant risk" of a resurgence of polio in 2013, a new report from the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) is optimistic about the eradication of the disease, noting that 99.9 percent of polio has been stopped worldwide, with 175 cases reported so far in 2012 compared with 350,000 reported in 1988, BBC News reports.

28 Nov 2012

Gilead Sciences receives EC approval for Viread to treat HIV-1 infected children

Gilead Sciences, Inc. today announced that the European Commission has granted marketing authorization for two new indications for once-daily Viread (tenofovir disoproxil fumarate).

28 Nov 2012

Blog examines Myanmar's achievements in fighting NTDs

"President Obama recently made a historic visit to Myanmar, becoming the first U.S. President to visit the country," the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases' "End the Neglect" blog reports.

27 Nov 2012

New system can predict timing and severity of seasonal influenza outbreaks

Scientists have developed a system to predict the timing and severity of seasonal influenza outbreaks that could one day help health officials and the general public better prepare for them. The system adapts techniques used in modern weather prediction to turn real-time, Web-based estimates of influenza infection into local forecasts of seasonal flu.

27 Nov 2012

China's Health Ministry orders hospitals to treat HIV patients

"China's Health Ministry has banned hospitals from turning away patients infected with HIV/AIDS," the Associated Press/Fox News reports.

27 Nov 2012

Recognizing pharmaceutical philanthropy's role in fighting NTDs

"In October 1987, Roy Vagelos, then the chief executive of pharmaceutical company Merck, launched the largest pharmaco-philanthropic venture ever," William Foege, an epidemiologist and former director of the CDC, writes in a Washington Post opinion piece highlighting the company's efforts to combat onchocerciasis in the developing world through the free distribution of its drug Mectizan.

27 Nov 2012

Clinics on Cambodian-Thai border aim to prevent spread of drug-resistant malaria

BBC News examines "a worrying drop in the effectiveness of the artemisinin-based drugs" against malaria along the Cambodian-Thai border, and how clinics are attempting to combat the trend by offering monetary incentives to patients to complete treatment regimens.

27 Nov 2012

Wall Street Journal reports on challenges of fighting multi-drug resistant TB in India

"More than one-quarter of people diagnosed with tuberculosis [TB] at a clinic in India's largest city of 18 million have a strain that doesn't respond to the main treatment against the disease, according to preliminary data from a new diagnostic being tested," the Wall Street Journal reports.

27 Nov 2012

New SARS-like virus detected in total of six people from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, WHO says

"A new virus from the same family as SARS which sparked a global alert in September has now killed two people in Saudi Arabia, and total cases there and in Qatar have reached six, the World Health Organization said" on Friday, Reuters reports.

27 Nov 2012

California researchers develop new strategy to find novel antibiotics for bacterial infections

Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have developed a new strategy for finding novel antibiotic compounds, using a diagnostic panel of bacterial strains for screening chemical extracts from natural sources.

27 Nov 2012

Routine HIV testing can reduce illness and death across Canada

Offering routine HIV testing to the general population rather than only to high-risk individuals will significantly reduce illness and death, argues Dr. Julio Montaner and coauthors in an editorial in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

27 Nov 2012

Roche’s cobas 4800 HPV Test receives CE mark

Roche today announces an expanded CE mark indication for the cobas 4800 HPV Test. The newly expanded indication for the cobas® 4800 HPV Test as a primary screen means Pap cytology is no longer required as a co- or pre-test in countries that accept a CE mark.

From Roche Sequencing and Life Science 27 Nov 2012

Some nicotine-free snus products can increase risk of caries

It is a myth that snus (Swedish snuff) users today have fewer dental caries. On the contrary, some types of nicotine-free snus contain both carbohydrates and starch that increase the risk of cavities. Those are the findings of a thesis from Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

27 Nov 2012

GW professor receives federal grant to study effects of microsporidia in HIV patients

Imtiaz A. Khan, M.D., professor of microbiology, immunology, and tropical medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, received a $1.6 million federal grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to study the effects of microsporidia-opportunistic inter-cellular pathogens-that cause morbidity and mortality in HIV patients.

27 Nov 2012

Experimental flu vaccine technique could reduce time needed to develop new shots for humans

"An experimental vaccine based on a molecule related to DNA protects animals against influenza and may one day offer an ultra-rapid way to develop new shots for humans, German scientists reported on Sunday," Reuters reports.

27 Nov 2012

Viewpoints: Sen. Corker's plan to avoid the 'fiscal cliff'; Romney's brave attempt to deal with health entitlements; Fixing the drug shortage

I have shared with House and Senate leaders as well as the White House a 242-page bill that, along with other agreed-upon cuts that are to be enacted, would produce $4.5 trillion in fiscal reforms and replace sequestration.

27 Nov 2012

Disease/Infection News

Vitamin D may help prevent dental caries

Microneedle-based measles vaccine can immunize against measles

REEAD technology can diagnose malaria infections with very high sensitivity

Scientists adapt modern weather prediction techniques to generate local flu outbreak forecasts

Global Polio Eradication Initiative IMB report optimistic but warns of possible polio resurgence in 2013

Gilead Sciences receives EC approval for Viread to treat HIV-1 infected children

Blog examines Myanmar's achievements in fighting NTDs

New system can predict timing and severity of seasonal influenza outbreaks

China's Health Ministry orders hospitals to treat HIV patients

Recognizing pharmaceutical philanthropy's role in fighting NTDs

Clinics on Cambodian-Thai border aim to prevent spread of drug-resistant malaria

Wall Street Journal reports on challenges of fighting multi-drug resistant TB in India

New SARS-like virus detected in total of six people from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, WHO says

California researchers develop new strategy to find novel antibiotics for bacterial infections

Routine HIV testing can reduce illness and death across Canada

Roche’s cobas 4800 HPV Test receives CE mark

Some nicotine-free snus products can increase risk of caries

GW professor receives federal grant to study effects of microsporidia in HIV patients

Experimental flu vaccine technique could reduce time needed to develop new shots for humans

Viewpoints: Sen. Corker's plan to avoid the 'fiscal cliff'; Romney's brave attempt to deal with health entitlements; Fixing the drug shortage

Evolving spectrophotometry for modern biopharma workflows

Scaling B-cell cloning workflows for antibody development

Fluidics in Modern Healthcare & Medical Device Innovation

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