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Gates pledges $750 million to Global Fund

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, pledged $750 million on behalf of the foundation to the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Associated Press reports.

27 Jan 2012

Mass. Eye and Ear cornea specialist wins RPB Senior Scientific Investigator Award

Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB) has granted Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary cornea specialist James Chodosh, M.D., M.P.H., a $150,000 Senior Scientific Investigator Award. RPB Senior Scientific Investigator Awards support nationally recognized scientists conducting eye research at medical institutions in the United States.

27 Jan 2012

MSF warns about lack of access to antiretroviral treatment in DRC, urges government, donor action

"Eighty-six percent of HIV-positive people in the Democratic Republic of Congo [DRC] have no access to antiretrovirals, medical charity Doctors Without Borders said Wednesday," calling the "conditions of access to care for people living with HIV/AIDS ... catastrophic," Agence France-Presse reports.

27 Jan 2012

New technique to overcome genetic oddity of P. falciparum

The parasite that causes malaria is a genetic outlier, which has prevented scientists from discovering the functions of most of its genes. Researchers at National Jewish Health and Yale University School of Medicine have devised a technique to overcome the genetic oddity of Plasmodium falciparum, the major cause of human malaria.

27 Jan 2012

Gates urges governments, wealthy donors not to cut aid to poor countries; Annual letter sets foundation's priorities

In a speech to the European Parliament on Tuesday, Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, "told European lawmakers in Brussels not to cut aid to poor countries despite the economic and budgetary problems facing" European Union (E.U.) countries, Agence France-Presse reports.

27 Jan 2012

New study aims to prevent bacterial infections in sub-Saharan African kids

Bacteria infections - most of which are preventable via vaccines readily available in the developed world - and not malaria are the leading cause of death for children in sub-Saharan Africa. A new Michigan State University project based in Nigeria and funded by a $5.8 million grant aims to help prevent these diseases by collecting local data on the ailments, spurring vaccine use and development. Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the research led by Stephen Obaro focuses on diseases such as pneumonia, sepsis and meningitis.

25 Jan 2012

U.S. military provides medical care, education services to women, children in Tanzania

The U.S. Army news service reports on a five-day Medical Civil Action Program, or MEDCAP, in Tanzania, during which "Tanzanian medical providers working in partnership with U.S. service members from Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa provided medical care to more than 2,100 Tanzanian women and children."

25 Jan 2012

U.K. government to increase NTD spending fivefold between 2011 and 2015

"The U.K. government has announced a fivefold increase in spending on combating neglected tropical diseases [NTDs] as part of an international effort to help rid the world of a group of infectious diseases that currently affect one billion people and kill more than half a million every year," BMJ reports.

25 Jan 2012

Universal access to HIV treatment can be achieved

"Thirty years after AIDS made its deadly debut, a future without the disease is finally within reach," a Boston Globe editorial states, adding, "But just as science is on the verge of winning the battle, financial resources and political will are flagging."

25 Jan 2012

South Africa's population would be 4.4M more if not for AIDS, data show

"There would be more than 4.4 million more people in South Africa if it were not for the AIDS pandemic, according to a survey released on Monday" by the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR), SAPA/News 24 reports.

25 Jan 2012

Celebrating polio eradication efforts in India with 'Guarded optimism'

In part one of a two-part blog post in USAID's "IMPACTblog," USAID Worldwide Polio Eradication Coordinator Ellyn Ogden reports on the "hard work and dedication of the Indian government at the national, state, district, block and panchaiyat levels" that was required for the country to have a year free of polio.

25 Jan 2012

Only one in five young adults received a swine flu shot during 2009-2010 epidemic

Only about one in five young adults in their late 30s received a flu shot during the 2009-2010 swine flu epidemic, according to a University of Michigan report that details the behavior and attitudes of Generation X.

25 Jan 2012

AIDS journal now available for the iPad

Wolters Kluwer Health announced today the release of AIDS app for the iPad® providing health care professionals with full mobile accessibility to the latest research into HIV and AIDS, the top-ranked journal in it field. AIDS is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW), part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

25 Jan 2012

OraQuick HIV1/2 test as accurate as traditional blood test

A saliva test used to diagnose the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), is comparable in accuracy to the traditional blood test, according to a new study led by the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) and McGill University.

25 Jan 2012

Genoscience, BioLineRx to develop and commercialize BL-8020 for HCV

BioLineRx, a biopharmaceutical development company, announced today it has signed a worldwide, exclusive license agreement with Genoscience, a French company focused on viral disease therapeutics, to develop and commercialize BL-8020, an orally available treatment for Hepatitis C.

24 Jan 2012

Gilead commences GS-7340 Phase 2 trial in HIV

Gilead Sciences, Inc. today announced the initiation of a Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating GS-7340 for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in treatment-naïve adults. GS-7340 is a novel prodrug of tenofovir, the active agent in Viread.

24 Jan 2012

Cholesterol receptor allows entry of HCV virus into human liver cells

A molecule embedded in the membrane of human liver cells that aids in cholesterol absorption also allows the entry of hepatitis C virus, the first step in hepatitis C infection, according to research at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine.

24 Jan 2012

Mass. Gov. again seeks health insurance payment overhaul; Iowa lawmakers review denial of health coverage to residents with HIV

Articles detail the Massachusetts state of the state address, efforts in Iowa to probe denials in the high risk pool and other legislative news.

24 Jan 2012

No whooping cough deaths in California in one whole year

The news comes after the state experienced a whooping cough epidemic in 2010 when 9,000 were infected. Most vulnerable to the disease are infants too young to be fully immunized. Ten babies died after exposure from adults or older children. The last year in which no one died was 1991, when the state recorded just 249 cases of pertussis.

24 Jan 2012

Gal-pagos reptiles living near human settlements harbor antibiotic-resistant bacteria

Land and marine iguanas and giant tortoises living close to human settlements or tourist sites in the Gal-pagos islands are more likely to harbor antibiotic-resistant bacteria than those living in more remote or protected sites on the islands, researchers report in a new study.

24 Jan 2012