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Guidelines to help protect vulnerable populations from flu

While it is important to get vaccinated against the flu virus as early as possible, it is never too late to reap the benefits of this vaccine. According to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the peak months for the spread of the flu virus are January and February and the season can last into mid-May.

26 Oct 2012

USPTO issues patent to Tobira’s cenicriviroc for treatment of HIV-1 infection

Tobira Therapeutics, Inc., developer of innovative antiretroviral therapies for HIV, today announced the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued patent 8,183,273, claiming compositions of matter of a broad family of compounds with activity against chemokine receptors CCR5 and CCR2.

26 Oct 2012

Durata completes target enrollment in dalbavancin Phase 3 trial for ABSSSI

Durata Therapeutics today announced that it has completed its target enrollment for DISCOVER 2 ("Dalbavancin for Infections of the Skin COmpared to Vancomycin at an Early Response"), the second global, Phase 3 clinical trial of Durata's lead product candidate, dalbavancin, under investigation for the treatment of acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (ABSSSI) caused by susceptible gram-positive bacteria.

26 Oct 2012

UC Riverside entomologists reconstruct the evolutionary history of assassin bugs

Assassin bugs, so named because these insects lie in ambush for prey that they attack with speed and precision, are found all over the world. Nearly 140 species of these bugs are blood-sucking; because they can bite humans around the mouth, they are also called kissing bugs. All kissing bugs can spread Chagas disease, a neglected tropical disease that imposes an economic burden on society.

26 Oct 2012

Winter safety tips for older adults

Winter is a special time for celebration. It should also be a time for added caution if you or someone in your family is an older adult. It is the season for falls, slips on icy streets and other dangers that can be especially harmful for older adults.

25 Oct 2012

New York Times blog features interview with Indian polio expert

To mark World Polio Day, the New York Times' "India Ink" blog features an interview with Naveen Thacker, a member of the team that led India's polio eradication efforts. The country has not recorded a new case of polio since January 2011 and is in line to be declared polio-free in January 2014 if no new cases occur, according to the blog.

25 Oct 2012

Global Health Service Partnership 'could be the start of something big'

Writing in GlobalPost's "Global Pulse" blog, Claire Panosian Dunavan, a professor of medicine and infectious diseases at the University of California, Los Angeles, reflects on the Global Health Service Partnership, a new public-private partnership launched by Vanessa Kerry, daughter of Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) "to boost the education of doctors and nurses in sub-Saharan Africa."

25 Oct 2012

Meningitis outbreak spreads; Mass. revokes Compounding Center's license

The Massachusetts Board of Pharmacy has permanently revoked the license of the New England Compounding Center, the facility implicated in a nationwide outbreak of fungal meningitis, Gov. Deval Patrick announced Tuesday. ... State Director of Healthcare Safety Madeleine Biondolillo said ... investigators witnessed "black particulate matter" in some vials of medicine returned amid the nationwide recall of NECC's products.

25 Oct 2012

Indonesia plans to include HIV treatment in universal health care coverage

During a meeting with UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe on Tuesday, Indonesia Minister of Health Nafsiah Mboi "pledged to scale up HIV testing and treatment programs" with a "focus on 141 districts where key affected populations are the highest," a UNAIDS feature story reports.

25 Oct 2012

Examining the need for TB indicators, activities in global AIDS response blueprint

In a post in the Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog, Lucica Ditiu, executive secretary of the Stop TB Partnership, examines the need to include tuberculosis (TB) in the global AIDS response blueprint that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced at the XIX International AIDS Conference.

25 Oct 2012

Communicable diseases responsible for majority of deaths in Africa, WHO official says

Speaking on Monday in Luanda, Angola, at the opening session of the inaugural meeting on Medical Education, sponsored by the Faculty of Medicine of Agostinho Neto University, WHO Regional Director for Africa Luis Gomes Sambo said communicable diseases account for 63 percent of deaths in Africa, with HIV and tuberculosis (TB) responsible for the majority of those, the Angola Press reports.

25 Oct 2012

Special issue of Global Polio Eradication Initiative news bulletin recognizes World Polio Day

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative has published a special issue of its "Polio News" bulletin in recognition of World Polio Day on October 24.

25 Oct 2012

Oxfam says 'no evidence' AMFm has saved lives; Global Fund says claims are 'untrue,' Guardian reports

Noting "the U.K. government has contributed £70 million [$112 million] to the Affordable Medicines Facility for malaria (AMFm)," the Guardian reports, "The charity Oxfam has cast doubt on the international scheme that aims to boost the provision of the most effective treatment for malaria."

25 Oct 2012

Scientists unravel physical properties of lung mucus

Mucus coats our airways' internal surfaces. The viscous gel humidifies the lungs and prevents viruses and other small particles like diesel soot from entering the body unchecked. Previously unclear was the extent to which such nanoparticles are able to move through the lungs' mucus. Here, the research evidence was contradictory. Scientists could not explain why, in inhaled medication development, drug nanoparticles often simply got stuck in the mucus never making it to their target destination inside the lung cells.

25 Oct 2012

Obese patients more likely to have complications after total knee replacement surgery

Obese patients have a greater risk of complications following total knee replacement surgery, including post-surgical infections, according to a new literature review recently published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (JBJS).

25 Oct 2012

New method of oral vaccination could help boost immunity to TB, influenza and C. difficile

Scientists at Royal Holloway, University of London have developed a pioneering new method of oral vaccination which could help boost immunity to TB and influenza, as well as prevent C. difficile for which there is currently no vaccine.

25 Oct 2012

Feedback intervention improves hand hygiene compliance in modern hospitals

A major three-year trial led by researchers at UCL, in partnership with the Health Protection Agency, has shown that giving one-to-one feedback to healthcare workers makes them twice as likely to clean their hands or use soap.

25 Oct 2012

New method of testing for West Nile virus

While the United States has largely been spared the scourge of mosquito-borne diseases endemic to the developing world-including yellow fever, malaria and dengue fever-mosquito-related illnesses in the US are on the rise. One pathogen of increasing concern in the U.S. is an arbovirus known as West Nile.

24 Oct 2012

Meningitis outbreak linked to pharmaceutical compounding has long history

News outlets report that the FDA released a list of customers - including some major hospitals - of the New England Compounding Center. But the FDA later "found technical problems" and withdrew the list, promising to repost it as soon as the data are corrected.

24 Oct 2012

Blueprint for AIDS-free generation must allow HIV funds to be used for family planning

In the Huffington Post's "Politics" blog, Serra Sippel, president of the Center for Health and Gender Equity, notes that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said at the XIX International AIDS Conference in July that all women should be able to decide "when and whether to have children" and that PEPFAR, in a guidance released last week.

24 Oct 2012

Disease/Infection News

Guidelines to help protect vulnerable populations from flu

USPTO issues patent to Tobira’s cenicriviroc for treatment of HIV-1 infection

Durata completes target enrollment in dalbavancin Phase 3 trial for ABSSSI

UC Riverside entomologists reconstruct the evolutionary history of assassin bugs

Winter safety tips for older adults

New York Times blog features interview with Indian polio expert

Global Health Service Partnership 'could be the start of something big'

Meningitis outbreak spreads; Mass. revokes Compounding Center's license

Indonesia plans to include HIV treatment in universal health care coverage

Examining the need for TB indicators, activities in global AIDS response blueprint

Communicable diseases responsible for majority of deaths in Africa, WHO official says

Special issue of Global Polio Eradication Initiative news bulletin recognizes World Polio Day

Oxfam says 'no evidence' AMFm has saved lives; Global Fund says claims are 'untrue,' Guardian reports

Scientists unravel physical properties of lung mucus

Obese patients more likely to have complications after total knee replacement surgery

New method of oral vaccination could help boost immunity to TB, influenza and C. difficile

Feedback intervention improves hand hygiene compliance in modern hospitals

New method of testing for West Nile virus

Meningitis outbreak linked to pharmaceutical compounding has long history

Blueprint for AIDS-free generation must allow HIV funds to be used for family planning

Redefining control and consistency in anaerobic microbiome workflows

AI in Healthcare: How generative tools are transforming clinical practice

The future of automation: Machine learning–driven hepatocyte and organoid counting

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