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PEPFAR releases 8th annual report to Congress

The Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog notes that PEPFAR recently released its 8th annual report to Congress.

8 May 2012

FDA approves Clinigen’s Foscavir sNDA to treat HIV/AIDS-related CMV infections and herpes

Clinigen Healthcare, the pharmaceutical products division of Clinigen Group, announced today that its supplemental new drug application (sNDA) for Foscavir (foscarnet sodium), a treatment for HIV/AIDS-related cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections and herpes, has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.

From Clinigen Group 8 May 2012

VOA News examines South Africa's rural public health sector

VOA News features a five-part series on South Africa's rural public health sector, which the news service writes is "plagued by a high burden of infectious diseases, severe doctor and nurse shortages, lack of medicines and essential medical equipment and incompetent management," resulting in high patient death rates.

8 May 2012

Man-made waterways contribute to malaria breeding grounds, study suggests

A recent study, conducted by Elizabeth Whitcombe, visiting senior research scholar at the earth system science interdisciplinary center at the University of Maryland, and published in the May 13 issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, "mapped meteorological, irrigation and medical reports during British rule in India" and concluded modern-day India should learn lessons from the past to improve engineering plans and epidemiological "modeling of environmental factors controlling vector borne disease," especially malaria, SciDev.Net reports.

8 May 2012

Blog examines fight against NTDs in Burundi

The Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases' "End the Neglect" blog examines the fight against neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in Burundi, writing, "In 2007, the Legatum Foundation, an international private investment organization that promotes sustainable development throughout the world agreed to fund the treatment of NTDs in Burundi and brought together several partners to assist Burundi's Ministry of Health."

8 May 2012

Research reveals possible strategy to reverse fibrosis in liver and other organs

An international team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, report that significant numbers of myofibroblasts - cells that produce the fibrous scarring in chronic liver injury - revert to an inactive phenotype as the liver heals. The discovery in mouse models could ultimately help lead to new human therapies for reversing fibrosis in the liver, and in other organs like the lungs and kidneys.

8 May 2012

Cascades Tissue Group applauds third annual ‘STOP! Clean Your Hands Day’

North America's fourth largest producer of towel and tissue paper, Cascades Tissue Group, applauds the third annual "STOP! Clean Your Hands Day," today, May 7, for building greater awareness for the importance of hand hygiene. The day also marks a good time to note that paper towels are the most hygienic choice when it comes to drying hands.

8 May 2012

Meningitis B vaccine on the horizon

Meningitis B is particularly dangerous for children, leading to 120 deaths in the UK every year. There are around 1,200 new cases of meningitis B every year. Around 1 in 10 victims die and another 15 per cent are left with permanent disabilities - often limbs have to be amputated due to blood poisoning. The infection causes inflammation of the membranes surrounding the spinal cord and brain. Symptoms include a severe headache, vomiting, a rash, sensitivity to light and a stiff neck.

8 May 2012

NIH responds to criticism over handling of controversial bird flu studies

In a letter dated April 25, Amy Patterson, associate director for science policy in the office of the director of the National Institutes of Health, "has refuted criticism of the way a meeting held to allow a biosecurity advisory group to review controversial bird flu studies was handled," denying "the agenda was crafted to achieve a predetermined outcome," the Canadian Press/Winnipeg Free Press writes.

7 May 2012

Various combinations of biomarkers are required to unequivocally diagnose specific disease

With a range of diseases, doctors need unique features which they can use to unequivocally identify a patient's illness for an appropriate diagnosis. Scientists therefore search for the biomarkers for an illness or a combination of biomarkers, known as biosignatures, which are as easy as possible to measure.

7 May 2012

Satellite-guided plan to effectively control tsetse fly

For the first time, scientists have created a satellite-guided plan to effectively control the tsetse fly - an African killer that spreads "sleeping sickness" disease among humans and animals and wipes out $4.5 billion in livestock every year.

7 May 2012

Scientific American examines worldwide spread of drug-resistant gonorrhea

Scientific American examines how strains of cephalosporin-resistant gonorrhea have "been emerging in Japan, and moving east and west from there, for at least a decade." The magazine writes, "Rapid international travel allowed the resistance mutation to hopscotch the globe," noting antibiotic-resistant strains that have been identified in Sweden, England, Norway, the Philippines, Spain, and France.

7 May 2012

NovaDigm reports positive data from Phase 1 NDV-3 vaccine program

NovaDigm Therapeutics, a company developing innovative vaccines for fungal and bacterial infections, today announced the presentation of positive data for its NDV-3 vaccine program in a second Phase 1 study.

7 May 2012

Chesapeake Regional Medical Center rolls out automated disinfection robot

Chesapeake Regional Medical Center rolled out the newest member of its environmental team last week, a five-foot, automated disinfection robot named Tru-D (Total Room Ultraviolet Disinfection). Implementation of the mobile, high-tech disinfection device is part of a $2 million CDC grant awarded to Duke University for the prevention of healthcare-associated infections (HAI's).

7 May 2012

Hot water pasteurisation reduces amount of E. coli on meat

Following the E. coli case in Norway in 2006, when 17 people fell ill and one child died after eating mutton sausages, the meat industry introduced a number of measures in order to reduce the risk of food poisoning from meat. Clean animals and good hygiene during slaughtering are essential preconditions for food safety.

7 May 2012

NFID to host 15th Annual Conference on Vaccine Research from May 7–9

The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases will host the 15th Annual Conference on Vaccine Research, May 7–9, 2012, at the Hyatt Regency Inner Harbor in Baltimore, MD.

5 May 2012

Dengue fever costs Puerto Rico nearly $38M a year, study shows

"The costs of treating and coping with dengue fever in Puerto Rico total nearly $38 million a year, a new study," published Wednesday in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, finds, according to U.S. News & World Report.

5 May 2012

Study reveals steepest decline in HPV vaccine completion among girls

The proportion of insured girls and young women completing the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine among those who initiated the series has dropped significantly - as much as 63 percent - since the vaccine was approved in 2006, according to new research from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston.

5 May 2012

Guardian examines launch of GAVI-sponsored immunization campaign in Ghana

Ghana's recent "rollout of the rotavirus vaccine and, to much acclaim, a new vaccine against pneumococcal infections, makes it the first country in sub-Saharan African to introduce two new vaccines at the same time," the Guardian reports.

5 May 2012

Breckenridge finalizes agreement with Huahai to market Nevirapine Tablets

Breckenridge Pharmaceutical, Inc. announced today that it has finalized its agreement with Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. (Huahai) to market Nevirapine Tablets. Nevirapine 200mg Tablets are AB rated to Viramune a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) used to treat HIV-1 infection and AIDS, which is marketed by Boehringer Ingelheim.

5 May 2012