Disease/Infection News

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Improvements in child survival a 'sweeping accomplishment'

"There is reason for optimism about the health of the world's youngest," columnist Tina Rosenberg writes in the New York Times "Opinionator" blog, noting, "A massive study published last week called the Global Burden of Disease report found that in the past 20 years, the death rate of children under five has dropped in every country in the world save three -- Kuwait, Tonga and Zimbabwe."

21 Dec 2012

Voluntary moratorium on H5N1 avian flu research likely to end soon

Following the conclusion of a two-day meeting at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) this week -- meant "to gather feedback from flu researchers, others in the science community, and the public on its draft framework for funding H5N1 gain-of-function studies and to continue an international dialogue on issues related to benefits and risks of the research" -- "experts anticipated that a voluntary moratorium on work with lab-modified strains that have increased transmissibility might end soon," CIDRAP News reports.

21 Dec 2012

UAB research succeeds in testing a vaccine against leishmaniasis

A research coordinated by the UAB has succeeded in testing a vaccine against leishmaniasis. The vaccine was tested with the best animal model existing, the golden hamster, and can be produced at low costs by using insect larvae.

21 Dec 2012

U.S. 'unprepared for' resurgence of MDR-TB, Wall Street Journal reports

"Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) is at epidemic proportions in some parts of the world -- a growing problem the U.S. is surprisingly unprepared for," the Wall Street Journal reports.

21 Dec 2012

International community condemns attacks on polio workers in Pakistan

"U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is calling the killing of health workers trying to vaccinate Pakistani children against polio in a U.N.-backed campaign 'cruel, senseless and inexcusable,'" the Associated Press reports, noting, "Ban said at his year-end news conference on Wednesday that the eight killed were among thousands across Pakistan 'working selflessly to achieve the historic goal of polio eradication.'"

21 Dec 2012

FDA seeks input from states on drug compounders

FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg convened a meeting that included federal officials and representatives from state boards of pharmacy and governors' offices. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reports on "rogue pharmacists."

21 Dec 2012

NPR, Inter Press Service examine efforts to prevent drug-resistant malaria

As part of its continuing coverage of malaria, NPR's "Shots" blog features a story on counterfeit anti-malarial drugs, which "are among the most popular drugs to fake." According to the blog, "These faux pharmaceuticals are particularly dangerous because malaria can kill a person in a matter of days," and, if the drugs contain only a small amount of the real drug, they can contribute to the development of drug-resistant malaria parasites.

21 Dec 2012

Kenya working to integrate PMTCT services into maternal, child health care clinics

"Health programs integrating services for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV into regular maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) clinics, rather than operating PMTCT services as stand-along programs, are showing positive results in Kenya, experts say," PlusNews reports.

21 Dec 2012

Youth advocates working to improve reproductive health education, services access in Latin America

In GlobalPost's "Global Pulse" blog, Mia Mazer, a media and communications intern with the International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region, writes about the formation of the Mesoamerican Coalition for Comprehensive Sexuality Education, a regional advocacy initiative of more than 40 different organizations that aims to hold governments accountable to a 2008 Ministerial Declaration, titled "Preventing through Education."

21 Dec 2012

Pergamum’s DPK-060 Phase II trial on acute external otitis meets primary end-point

Pergamum AB announced today that the primary end-point was met in the randomized Phase II trial of DPK-060 for treatment of acute external otitis.

21 Dec 2012

New technique to directly image biological structures at atomic levels

Investigators at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute have invented a way to directly image biological structures at their most fundamental level and in their natural habitats. The technique is a major advancement toward the ultimate goal of imaging biological processes in action at the atomic level.

21 Dec 2012

Ebselen effectively inhibits thioredoxin reductase system in H. pylori, M. tuberculosis

A drug currently being used to treat ischemic strokes may prove to be a significant advance in the treatment of tuberculosis and ulcers. In a new research report appearing online in The FASEB Journal, a compound called ebselen effectively inhibits the thioredoxin reductase system in a wide variety of bacteria, including Helicobacter pylori which causes gastric ulcers and Mycobacterium tuberculosis which causes tuberculosis.

21 Dec 2012

Three more polio workers shot in Pakistan

"Three workers in a polio eradication campaign were shot in Pakistan on Wednesday, and two of them were killed, the latest in an unprecedented string of attacks over the past three days that has partially halted the U.N.-backed campaign," Reuters reports.

20 Dec 2012

Rwanda implementing programs to prevent cancer

In a Huffington Post "Impact" blog post, Tom Murphy, founder of the development blog "A View From The Cave," examines Rwanda's efforts to reduce cancer incidence by implementing screening programs for breast and cervical cancers and vaccinating girls and young women for human papillomavirus (HPV), the leading cause of cervical cancer.

20 Dec 2012

U.S. preparedness for drug-resistant TB strains questioned

Multidrug-resistant TB is at epidemic proportions in some parts of the world -- a growing problem the U.S. is surprisingly unprepared for. The U.S. beat back multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in the 1990s.

20 Dec 2012

QweCI and HEALTHY FUTURES project to host symposium on links between climate, VBDs

The HEALTHY FUTURES (Health, environmental change and adaptive capacity) and QWeCI (Quantifying Quantifying Weather and Climate Impacts on Health in Developing Countries) projects will jointly host a symposium on links between climate and vector-borne diseases (VBDs) at the upcoming 4th East African Community Health and Scientific Conference, scheduled for 27th-29th March 2013 in Kigali, Rwanda.

20 Dec 2012

Researchers report seroprevalence of three avian flu virus strains in pigs in southern China

Researchers report for the first time the seroprevalence of three strains of avian influenza viruses in pigs in southern China, but not the H5N1 avian influenza virus. Their research, published online ahead of print in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, has implications for efforts to protect the public health from pandemics.

20 Dec 2012

Lancet reports on global efforts to develop malaria vaccine

The Lancet reports on global efforts to develop a malaria vaccine, writing, "Since the mid-1980s, various malaria vaccine candidates have been tested in the hope of finding a molecule that can provide long-lasting immune protection against the disease that still kills 600,000 to 1.2 million people in sub-Saharan Africa each year. However, none has yet made it into routine use."

20 Dec 2012

Science supports early interventions for children in adversity

Neil Boothby, U.S. government special adviser and senior coordinator to the USAID administrator on children in adversity, writes in a USAID "IMPACTblog" post that the international community has scientific evidence and empirical data "that sho[w] investments made early in the lives of children yield greater returns than at any other point in the life cycle."

20 Dec 2012

Researcher explores new PCR system to discover dangerous foodborne pathogens

Pina Fratamico is on the quest to find the easiest and fastest way to test for harmful Escherichia coli in ground beef. In an article published in Frontiers in Microbiology on the 20th of December, she explores using a next-generation real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) system to discover specific gene targets that indicate the presence of dangerous foodborne pathogens. The results show that assays performed using this PCR system are rapid, sensitive, and reliable.

20 Dec 2012