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New SARS-like virus not spread easily, WHO reports

"A new strain of a potentially deadly virus related to SARS, which has killed one man in Saudi Arabia and left a Qatari man critically ill in London, does not appear to spread easily from person to person, the World Health Organization says," according to the New York Times.

2 Oct 2012

Proton pump inhibitors does not lead to higher rates of pneumonia

Previous studies that have associated the use of proton pump inhibitors (PPI) - which include popular anti-heartburn medications like Prilosec and Nexium - with an increased incidence of pneumonia may not have found a true cause-and-effect relationship.

2 Oct 2012

IPS examines debate over impact of climate change on health

"More intense rainfall, rising temperatures and climate-driven migration of human and animal populations due to repeated drought all affect the spread of tropical diseases," Inter Press Service writes in an article examining the impact of climate change on health, a topic that "generated debate among the experts attending the 18th International Congress on Tropical Medicine and Malaria, held Sept. 23-27 in Rio de Janeiro."

2 Oct 2012

Washington Post examines Haiti's efforts to fight lymphatic filariasis

The Washington Post reports on Haiti's efforts to fight lymphatic filariasis, a parasitic mosquito-borne disease that can cause elephantiasis and is present in 80 percent of the country.

2 Oct 2012

News outlets examine challenges to fighting polio in Pakistan, Nigeria

In Pakistan, one of only three nations worldwide where polio remains endemic, "rumors and conspiracy theories about the vaccine ... have helped the country maintain its unenviable status," recording 91 cases of the disease in 2011, Agence France-Presse reports.

2 Oct 2012

Case stories describe technical support for Global Fund grant recipients

On its website, the International HIV/AIDS Alliance describes a new publication, titled "Of Spices and Silk: Sharing Stories of Technical Support to Global Fund Grants in Asia," which presents 11 case stories showing how the Alliance's regional Technical Support Hubs have provided assistance to Global Fund grant recipients.

2 Oct 2012

Inhibiting DUSP6 protein can restore immune cells’ responsiveness to a more youthful state

The older we get, the weaker our immune systems tend to become, leaving us vulnerable to infectious diseases and cancer and eroding our ability to benefit from vaccination. Now Stanford University School of Medicine scientists have found that blocking the action of a single protein whose levels in our immune cells creep steadily upward with age can restore those cells' response to a vaccine.

1 Oct 2012

Researchers track spread of human invasive non-Typhoidal Salmonella in sub-Saharan Africa

A new study out today (Sunday 30 September) reveals that the emergence and spread of a rapidly evolving invasive intestinal disease, that has a significant mortality rate (up to 45%) in infected people in sub-Saharan Africa, seems to have been potentiated by the HIV epidemic in Africa.

1 Oct 2012

Bioengineers design inexpensive, rapid medical diagnostic tests

By mimicking nature's own sensing mechanisms, bioengineers at UC Santa Barbara and University of Rome Tor Vergata have designed inexpensive medical diagnostic tests that take only a few minutes to perform.

29 Sep 2012

WHO urges action to stop spread of drug-resistant malaria in Vietnam, Myanmar

"The World Health Organization said Thursday that governments in the Mekong region must act 'urgently' to stop the spread of drug-resistant malaria which has emerged in parts of Vietnam and Myanmar," Agence France-Presse reports.

29 Sep 2012

World leaders unite behind global polio eradication efforts at U.N. General Assembly

Political leaders, donor representatives, and medical experts on Thursday met on the sidelines of the 67th U.N. General Assembly session "to celebrate polio eradication efforts that have already reduced the incidence of the crippling and potentially fatal disease by 99 percent around the globe," the U.N. News Centre reports.

29 Sep 2012

Funding neglected disease R&D beneficial to Europe, developing countries, report says

In this bulletin from Science Business, Karen Hoehn, vice executive director and director of international affairs at the German Foundation for World Population, highlights "a study by the independent research group Policy Cures, 'Saving Lives and Creating Impact: E.U. Investment in Poverty-Related and Neglected Disease.'"

29 Sep 2012

Kenyan government releases new guidelines for treatment, prevention of visceral leishmaniasis

"The Kenyan government has launched guidelines for the treatment and prevention of visceral leishmaniasis, also known as kala azar or black fever, in a move government officials say is meant to contain the parasitic disease, which is endemic in the northern region of the country," IRIN reports.

29 Sep 2012

MicroDose completes third and final MDT-637 Phase 1 study on RSV infection

MicroDose Therapeutx, Inc., announced today the completion of its third and final Phase 1 clinical study for MDT-637 with its novel inhaled antiviral fusion inhibitor, MDT-637, for the treatment of RSV infection.

29 Sep 2012

Screening practices for multidrug-resistant organisms in ICUs vary widely between hospitals

Screening practices for multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) in intensive care units (ICUs) vary widely from hospital to hospital, according to a new study published in the October issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).

29 Sep 2012

Bas-Congo virus associated with acute hemorrhagic fever in Africa

An isolated outbreak of a deadly disease known as acute hemorrhagic fever, which killed two people and left one gravely ill in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the summer of 2009, was probably caused by a novel virus scientists have never seen before.

28 Sep 2012

New report: African-American youth see more alcohol ads in magazines and TV

African-American youth ages 12-20 are seeing more advertisements for alcohol in magazines and on TV compared with all youth ages 12-20, according to a new report from the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

28 Sep 2012

Shingles becoming more common in Australia

The herpes zoster virus, which causes shingles, is becoming more common as the population ages. In Australia the number of cases has doubled between 2000 and 2010. Hospital emergency departments report a 2–6% increase in cases per year.

28 Sep 2012

Education key to ending AIDS

"When we talk about HIV prevention, we tend to frame it as a medical challenge and of course it is one," UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe writes in the Huffington Post's "Impact" blog.

28 Sep 2012

New malaria-transmitting mosquitoes: an interview with Jennifer Stevenson, Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

In the area in which we carried out the study, which was in the western Kenyan highlands, the main mosquitoes that have been confirmed to transmit malaria are the females of Anopheles gambiae sensu stricto, Anopheles arabiensis and Anopheles funestus.

28 Sep 2012