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Inclusion of 'marginalized and criminalized' populations essential to HIV/AIDS response

In this post in the Human Rights and HIV/AIDS "Now More Than Ever" blog, Michel Kazatchkine, the former executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and newly appointed special envoy to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, examines why human rights are "so central to the AIDS response."

31 Jul 2012

Blog posts examine issues discussed at AIDS 2012

Laurie Garrett, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, published three new blog posts last week examining issues discussed at the XIX International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012).

31 Jul 2012

Limited funding, lack of flexibility forces decisions on how to spend money on disease treatment

Noting "the total clinic-level cost of providing a year's worth of antiretroviral drugs ... ha[s] dropped" in some countries, Charles Kenny, a fellow at the Center for Global Development and the New America Foundation, discusses "disagreement over the effectiveness of the global AIDS response" in this Bloomberg Businessweek opinion piece.

31 Jul 2012

'AIDS-free generation' possible with available tools for prevention, but not without political will

Noting that "the XIX International AIDS Conference [AIDS 2012] has just come to a close amid much talk of the beginning of the end of AIDS, turning the tide on HIV and even a potential cure," Julio Montaner, former president of the International AIDS Society (IAS) and director of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, writes in a Globe and Mail opinion piece, "It is now more certain than ever that we have the tools, medicines and expertise to stop this epidemic."

31 Jul 2012

Two new targets could enhance the body's defenses against West Nile and hepatitis C

Two new targets have been discovered for antiviral therapies and vaccines strategies that could enhance the body's defenses against such infectious diseases as West Nile and hepatitis C. The targets are within the infection warning system inside living cells.

31 Jul 2012

Views on AIDS: More funding will be needed for new attack on HIV; The epidemic hits hard in the South

The international AIDS conference in Washington has already made two points clear. There is no prospect that scientists will any time soon find the ultimate solutions to the AIDS epidemic, namely a vaccine that would prevent infection with the AIDS virus or a "cure" for people already infected with the virus.

31 Jul 2012

XIX International AIDS Conference concludes in Washington, D.C.

"The XIX International AIDS Conference [AIDS 2012] drew to a close Friday without the physical presence of President Obama but with a full cast of other high-profile U.S. politicians who expressed their commitment to ending the disease," CQ HealthBeat reports (Norman, 7/27).

30 Jul 2012

Ebola outbreak identified in Uganda

"The world's first major outbreak of Ebola hemorrhagic fever since 2009 has killed at least 14 of 20 people infected in a remote area of midwestern Uganda," the Wall Street Journal reports (Bariyo/McKay, 7/29).

30 Jul 2012

Progress with GSK in advancing VaxiRNA technology earns Alnylam $3.2M milestone payment

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a leading RNAi therapeutics company, announced today that it has earned a development milestone payment from GlaxoSmithKline, totaling $3.2 million. The milestone payment is related to progress in the companies' collaboration on the use of VaxiRNA technology for the production of GSK influenza vaccine.

30 Jul 2012

Nurse burnout leads to higher healthcare-associated infection rates

Nurse burnout leads to higher healthcare-associated infection rates (HAIs) and costs hospitals millions of additional dollars annually, according to a study published in the August issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).

30 Jul 2012

Combined approach reduces SSIs by 33% in patients after colorectal procedures

A surgical patient safety program that combines three components-accurate outcome measurement, support of hospital leadership, and engaged frontline providers-reduces surgical site infections (SSIs) by 33 percent in patients who undergo colorectal procedures, according to a new study published in the August issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

30 Jul 2012

EASL calls on the UN to take action to fight against viral hepatitis infection

Marking World Hepatitis Day, the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) calls on the different organizations which make up the United Nations systems to take action to fight against Viral Hepatitis (Hepatitis B and C), a potentially fatal infection of the liver which affects 500 million people.

30 Jul 2012

UTMB researchers receives NIH grant to develop engineered lung tissue for biomedical studies

University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston researchers have been awarded a two-year, $1.25 million National Institutes of Health grant to develop a method of custom-growing human lung tissue to make a three-dimensional model for biomedical studies.

30 Jul 2012

Researchers describe new human tissue dendritic cell with cross-presenting function

Researchers in Newcastle and Singapore have identified a new type of white blood cell which activates a killing immune response to an external source - providing a new potential target for vaccines for conditions such as cancer or Hepatitis B.

30 Jul 2012

Scientists decipher molecular causes of life-threatening candida fungal infections

With infectious diseases, it is often not the pathogen itself, but rather an excessive inflammatory immune responses death, for instance as a result of organ damage. On intensive care units, sepsis is the second-most common cause of death worldwide. In patients with a severely compromised immune system specially, life-threatening candida fungal infections represent a high risk of sepsis.

30 Jul 2012

Study examines how heterosexual men with HIV seek health care and support services

Heterosexual men make up a small but growing number of people infected with HIV in Canada. Yet a new study has found that many of them feel existing HIV-related programs and services don't meet their needs and are geared primarily or exclusively toward gay men and heterosexual women who are living with the virus.

30 Jul 2012

Health systems must prepare for aging population living with HIV

"Many health systems are not ready to cope with the relatively new phenomenon" of people living with HIV (PLHIV) growing older, PlusNews reports. "Data on aging with HIV is largely restricted to the developed world and very little is known about older Africans living with virus, despite the high caseload in this region," the news service writes, adding, "A July 2012 supplement of the medical journal, AIDS, notes that an estimated three million people in sub-Saharan Africa aged 50 and older are HIV-positive -- 14 percent of all infected adults.

30 Jul 2012

Early ART treatment delays AIDS-related health events in HIV-infected individuals

Further analyses of the landmark NIH-funded treatment-as-prevention study (HPTN 052) have found that providing antiretroviral treatment to HIV-infected individuals earlier, when their immune systems are healthier, delays AIDS-related health events, such as chronic herpes simplex virus and tuberculosis, as well as death. Additionally, researchers found that earlier HIV treatment is also cost-effective because it increases survival, prevents costly opportunistic infections and averts transmission of the virus to uninfected individuals.

30 Jul 2012

Results from HIV incidence study in Swaziland

The results from a nationally representative HIV incidence study in Swaziland indicate that the national rate of new HIV infections is 2.38% among adults ages 18-49. This figure, comparable to the 2009 UNAIDS estimate of 2.66% for Swaziland adults ages 15-49, suggests that the HIV epidemic in Swaziland may have begun to stabilize in the past few years.

30 Jul 2012

PEPFAR, private partner launch 5-year 'Labs for Life' initiative

At the XIX International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) on Thursday, PEPFAR and Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD), "announced Labs for Life, a new collaboration to help strengthen health care and laboratory systems in the developing world along with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)," a State Department fact sheet states.

28 Jul 2012

Disease/Infection News

Inclusion of 'marginalized and criminalized' populations essential to HIV/AIDS response

Blog posts examine issues discussed at AIDS 2012

Limited funding, lack of flexibility forces decisions on how to spend money on disease treatment

'AIDS-free generation' possible with available tools for prevention, but not without political will

Two new targets could enhance the body's defenses against West Nile and hepatitis C

Views on AIDS: More funding will be needed for new attack on HIV; The epidemic hits hard in the South

XIX International AIDS Conference concludes in Washington, D.C.

Ebola outbreak identified in Uganda

Progress with GSK in advancing VaxiRNA technology earns Alnylam $3.2M milestone payment

Nurse burnout leads to higher healthcare-associated infection rates

Combined approach reduces SSIs by 33% in patients after colorectal procedures

EASL calls on the UN to take action to fight against viral hepatitis infection

UTMB researchers receives NIH grant to develop engineered lung tissue for biomedical studies

Researchers describe new human tissue dendritic cell with cross-presenting function

Scientists decipher molecular causes of life-threatening candida fungal infections

Study examines how heterosexual men with HIV seek health care and support services

Health systems must prepare for aging population living with HIV

Early ART treatment delays AIDS-related health events in HIV-infected individuals

Results from HIV incidence study in Swaziland

PEPFAR, private partner launch 5-year 'Labs for Life' initiative

Real-time Raman monitoring for pharmaceutical hot melt extrusion

Synthetic Psychedelics: A Growing Public Health Concern

How the Vutara VXL simplifies single-molecule imaging

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