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Indonesia issues order to override patents on 7 HIV, hepatitis drugs

"Indonesia's government has quietly issued an order to override the patents on seven important medicines used to treat people with HIV and hepatitis B and allow cheap versions to be made by local drug companies," Guardian Health Editor Sarah Boseley reports in her "Global Health Blog."

15 Oct 2012

GlaxoSmithKline to make clinical trial data available to other researchers

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) CEO Andrew Witty "said on Thursday detailed data from its clinical trials would be made available to other researchers," Reuters reports, adding, "That would include anonymized patient-level results that sit behind clinical trials of approved and failed drugs."

15 Oct 2012

PEPFAR launches training initiative for HIV/AIDS organizations in Bahamas

"On Wednesday, October 10, U.S. and Bahamian officials attended the official launch of 'The Caribbean Grant Solicitation and Management Program,' a new PEPFAR initiative that will be executed locally by the U.S.-based nonprofit World Learning through USAID," a press release from the U.S. Embassy in Nassau, Bahamas, reports.

15 Oct 2012

S. African National AIDS Council CEO speaks to PlusNews about reform, funding

Fareed Abdullah, CEO of the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC), who took office in July, spoke with PlusNews regarding the body's reform, the revival of provincial AIDS councils, resource mobilization, and the appointment of a new board that allows SANAC to operate independently.

15 Oct 2012

Tanzania investigating circulation of fake HIV drugs, stops local ARV production

BBC News reports on an investigation into the circulation of fake HIV drugs in Tanzania, writing, "Analysts say there is concern about the quality of locally made drugs given widespread corruption in political circles in the East Africa nation."

15 Oct 2012

Gardasil does not increase sexual activity in girls

The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine known as Gardasil is not associated with an increase in pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, or contraceptive counseling, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published online today in the journal Pediatrics.

15 Oct 2012

Global Fund, Churches Health Association of Zambia sign grant agreement worth $102M

"The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria signed a grant agreement worth $102 million with the Churches Health Association of Zambia [CHAZ] Wednesday," Devex's "Development Newswire" reports.

13 Oct 2012

Mexican government, NGOs working to expand access to clean syringes to prevent HIV among IDUs

Inter Press Service examines how Mexico's government and non-governmental organizations are working to stem the spread of HIV among people who use injection drugs. "According to a project financed by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria since 2011, the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Mexico is 5.77 percent among intravenous drug users ... compared to 0.24 to 0.3 percent in the general population aged 15 to 49," IPS writes, noting HIV prevalence among drug users is highest in "northern Mexico, one of the areas in the country hit hardest by drug trafficking."

13 Oct 2012

Financial Times features special report on NTDs

The Financial Times has published a special report on neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) featuring 10 articles examining issues including prevention, research, and treatment.

12 Oct 2012

UNAIDS to support Republic of Congo's efforts to reduce HIV MTCT

UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe "on Wednesday hailed the efforts of the Republic of Congo government in the fight against HIV/AIDS in general, and particularly in the reduction of transmission from mother to child," Xinhua reports.

12 Oct 2012

Bureaucracy in India slowing treatment of TB, Wall Street Journal reports

The Wall Street Journal examines how bureaucracy in India is slowing the treatment of tuberculosis (TB) in the country. The newspaper recounts the story of Rahima Sheikh, "one of 16 patients identified by Mumbai doctors to be resistant to virtually all traditional TB treatments."

12 Oct 2012

UNEP should work to bring about safe alternatives to DDT for malaria vector control

Some countries in Africa "still rely on dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) for malaria vector control," therefore "[i]t is ... problematic that the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP), without the consent of member states, and violating its own treaties, exerts relentless pressure to ban DDT globally," Richard Tren, director of Africa Fighting Malaria, and Richard Nchabi Kamwi, Nambia's minister of health and social services, write in a BMJ opinion piece.

12 Oct 2012

Medicare penalties for hospital-acquired infections didn't cut infection rate, study finds

The research, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, looked at the effect of a 2008 change that cut payments to hospitals for treating infections that patients received while hospitalized.

12 Oct 2012

Hospital superbugs can float on air currents and contaminate surfaces

Hospital superbugs can float on air currents and contaminate surfaces far from infected patients' beds, according to University of Leeds researchers.

12 Oct 2012

Zimbabwean AIDS activists march to National AIDS Council demanding accountability for AIDS levy funds

AIDS activists in Zimbabwe this week marched to the Harare headquarters of the country's National AIDS Council (NAC) and "demand[ed] the government account for millions of dollars it is raising through an AIDS-related tax," VOA News reports.

12 Oct 2012

Alverix receives FDA 510(k) clearance for new BD Veritor System kit

Alverix, Inc., a world leader in the design and manufacture of next-generation platforms for diagnostic Point-of-Care (POC) testing, today announced that BD Diagnostics, a segment of Becton Dickinson and Company, a leading global medical technology company, received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for nasopharyngeal wash, aspirate and swab in transport media specimens on the BD VeritorTM System for Rapid Detection of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

12 Oct 2012

Nelfinavir slows progress of HER2-positive tumor cells

After screening more than 2,300 drugs for their ability to halt the growth of breast cancer cells, Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered that the anti-HIV drug nelfinavir slows the progress of HER2-positive tumor cells, even if they are resistant to other breast cancer drugs.

12 Oct 2012

New mass spectrometry helps identify bacteria in clinical specimens within minutes

New mass spectrometry technology is helping Le Bonheur Children's physicians analyze microbiology samples quickly - identifying specific bacteria present in a sample within minutes.

11 Oct 2012

Examining funding for TB treatment in Europe

In a BMJ Group Blogs post, Caroline Robinson, global health advocacy manager for Results U.K., discusses the prevalence and treatment of tuberculosis (TB) and drug-resistant TB in Europe and provides the example of Romania.

11 Oct 2012

People living near livestock may be at increased risk of LA-MRSA

People who live near livestock or in livestock farming communities may be at greater risk of acquiring, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA), according to a new study led by an international team of researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Dutch Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) and VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam.

11 Oct 2012