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MRC funds largest ever study of genetics relating to lung disease

Researchers from the Universities of Nottingham and Leicester are leading the largest ever study of the genetics relating to lung disease.

15 Nov 2012

Pharmaceutical compounding problems spread under lax regulation

News outlets report that congressional oversight was lacking and the Boston Globe uncovers documents about the company that started the meningitis outbreak.

15 Nov 2012

Paxvax PXVX0200 cholera vaccine demonstrates safety and immunogenicity in Phase 1 clinical trial

PaxVax Inc, which develops and commercializes innovative vaccines against infectious diseases in a socially responsible manner today announced results from a Phase 1 clinical trial of PaxVax's single-dose oral cholera vaccine candidate at the 2012 American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) Annual Meeting in Atlanta.

15 Nov 2012

Demand growing for female condoms despite myths

Mary Beth Hastings, vice president of the Center for Health and Gender Equality (CHANGE), writes in the Huffington Post's "Impact" blog that despite "the pervasive myth that no one wants female condoms," "[d]emand is increasing because female condoms provide men and women with something they want: more options when it comes to protecting themselves."

15 Nov 2012

Tuberculosis pathogen has an ingenious defence mechanism against oxygen

Flemish biologists lead by Joris Messens (VIB / Vrije Universiteit Brussel) have discovered that Mycobacterium tuberculosis - the bacterium that causes tuberculosis - has an ingenious defence mechanism against oxygen. This knowledge is important in the search for a treatment for tuberculosis. 9.4 million people are infected with tuberculosis annually and 1.7 million people die as a result.

15 Nov 2012

Global health community should save AMFm because it saves lives

The Affordable Medicines Facility-malaria began as a pilot program in 2010 to "provide a 'co-payment' to the manufacturers of [artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs)], thereby allowing commercial wholesalers and private or government health services to purchase the drugs at a fraction of the already low negotiated price," Kenneth Arrow, a Nobel laureate in economic sciences in 1972 and an emeritus professor of economics at Stanford University, writes in a New York Times opinion piece.

15 Nov 2012

Ebola, Marburg and Lassa viruses must be designated as emerging diagnoses

The Ebola, Marburg and Lassa viruses are commonly referred to as emerging diseases, but leading scientists say these life-threatening viruses have been around for centuries.

15 Nov 2012

MRSA outbreak tracked and contained using DNA sequencing

Scientists have used DNA sequencing for the first time to effectively track the spread of, and ultimately contain, an outbreak of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), according to new research published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

14 Nov 2012

Study finds lower uptake of HPV vaccination among racial/ethnic minorities

A new Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) study has found that improving Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination rates in black women may require culturally sensitive approaches that address ethnic-specific barriers.

14 Nov 2012

DNA sequencing helps detect MRSA outbreaks in hospitals

This study used DNA sequencing to examine an outbreak of MRSA in a hospital, to uncover new cases and, as the study developed, to intervene in the outbreak to end it more quickly. Sequencing illuminated each person infected and described the transmission of MRSA between people coming to the hospital and within the hospital.

14 Nov 2012

U.N. has 'moral responsibility' to address cholera outbreak in Haiti

Sometimes "[w]hen the international aid community descends on a vulnerable place ... good intentions make a bad situation even worse," a Boston Globe editorial states, adding that is "what happened two years ago, when United Nations peacekeepers arrived in Haiti in the wake of a devastating earthquake, bringing the deadly disease cholera with them."

14 Nov 2012

Certain UTI-causing bacteria become more difficult to treat with current antibiotics

Certain types of bacteria responsible for causing urinary tract infections (UTIs), the second-most-common infection in the United States, are becoming more difficult to treat with current antibiotics, according to new research from Extending the Cure (ETC), a project of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy.

14 Nov 2012

Blog examines RTS,S malaria vaccine trial results

In a post in the Center for Global Development's (CGD) "Global Health Policy" blog, Owen Barder, a senior fellow and director for Europe at the CGD, reports on the results of a large Phase III clinical trial conducted in Africa on the malaria vaccine candidate RTS,S, published online in the New England Journal of Medicine on Friday.

14 Nov 2012

New report shows slight increase in U.S., E.U. philanthropic funding for AIDS

"Private philanthropists in the European Union and the U.S. spent some $644 million on global HIV/AIDS programs in 2011, a five percent increase from 2010, largely driven by funding from a small number of large donors, a new report has revealed," IRIN reports.

14 Nov 2012

BMJ examines history, future of Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

The BMJ examines the history of fraud allegations against the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the organization's ongoing reform efforts.

14 Nov 2012

NPR, GlobalPost examine polio in Nigeria

NPR's "Shots" blog reports on an update about the polio situation in Nigeria, published Thursday in the CDC's latest issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), writing, "Despite beefed-up efforts to vaccinate kids and a flood of new resources, ... there have been twice as many polio cases as last year, and a few communities, where kids chronically miss vaccines, are serving as 'sanctuaries' for the poliovirus, giving it a place to replicate and survive."

14 Nov 2012

U.N., partners call for greater efforts to fight number one killer of children on World Pneumonia Day

On World Pneumonia Day (WPD), recognized on November 12, "the United Nations and its partners ... called for greater efforts to eradicate pneumonia, the number one killer of children under the age of five," the U.N. News Centre reports.

14 Nov 2012

Ligand Pharmaceuticals announces data from LG-7501 preclinical studies on HCV

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated announced that data from preclinical studies evaluating LG-7501 were featured in a poster presentation today at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases in Boston.

14 Nov 2012

Malaria Box helps identify three chemical series that target treatment of NTDs

The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) and Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) announce today the identification of three chemical series targeting the treatment of deadly neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), through DNDi's screening of MMV's open access Malaria Box.

14 Nov 2012

UCI study reveals novel immune system response to bacterial infections

UC Irvine biologists have discovered that fats within cells store a class of proteins with potent antibacterial activity, revealing a previously unknown type of immune system response that targets and kills bacterial infections.

14 Nov 2012