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Global Fund completes reorganization of workforce, tightens focus to 20 'high-impact countries'

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria "is cutting its workforce and tightening its focus on 20 countries hardest hit by AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria," Reuters reports. Gabriel Jaramillo, who took over as general manager of the fund in January, "said in a statement that the fund had completed a reorganization that would rebalance its workforce with 39 percent more people managing grants and 38 percent fewer in support roles," the news service notes.

3 May 2012

African-Americans with HIV less likely to adhere to ART therapy

African-Americans with HIV are much less likely to adhere to drug therapy than others with the disease, according to a University of Michigan study.

3 May 2012

Roundup: Mass. health cost control bill could save $8B to $34B; Md. weighs hospital rate freeze; Iowa Senate passes a fix for HIV insurance program

As Massachusetts' state legislators put the finishing touches on a major health care cost-control bill, there is still one big question: How much could it save? A recent report claims employers and employees could see between $8 billion and $34.5 billion in savings over nine years.

3 May 2012

Flu paper publication amidst threats of bioterrorism raises need for better rules of censorship

According to the editor of the scientific journal Nature, Dr Philip Campbell current procedures to assess and censor medical research potentially of use to terrorists need to be improved. He was speaking about the recent controversy regarding the bird flu virus H5N1 study. The study was initially stopped from publication fearing risk of bioterrorism. He was speaking to BBC News.

2 May 2012

Tips to help homeowners tick-proof their yards

For more than 250,000 Americans, the bite of a deer tick meant the start of a life changing disease. With record warm temperatures and the start of May's National Lyme Disease Awareness Month, Mosquito Squad is on watch and has six tips to help homeowners tick-proof their yards.

2 May 2012

FDA approval of TDF/FTC as PrEP for HIV infection receives support

In public comments submitted this week, a group of 14 leading HIV/AIDS and health organizations stated their support for Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of emtricitabine/ tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF/FTC or Truvada) as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent HIV infection in adult men and women.

2 May 2012

Levetiracetam to be tested for seizure management in malaria endemic regions

Michigan State University researchers, with the help of a groundbreaking medical device, are starting a clinical trial in Africa they hope will provide relief for the hundreds of thousands of children who survive cerebral malaria but are left stricken with epilepsy or other neurologic disorders.

2 May 2012

Medical Brands' cranberry-based oral capsule granted Class IIa medical device status

Medical Brands has obtained a Class IIa medical device status through the appropriate Competent Authorities for Cranberry-Active, a patented cranberry-based oral capsule clinically shown to support urinary tract health.

2 May 2012

ImmuVen awarded $1.68M NIH Phase II SBIR grant to develop IMV0123

ImmuVen was awarded a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant totaling $1.68 million from the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIH) for continuing development of its therapeutic pipeline (IMV0123) against superantigens produced by methicillin-sensitive and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcal aureus.

2 May 2012

Nanocomposite dental cavity-filling kills harmful bacteria

Scientists using nanotechology at the University of Maryland School of Dentistry have created the first cavity-filling composite that kills harmful bacteria and regenerates tooth structure lost to bacterial decay.

2 May 2012

New global strategy to reduce measles deaths and congenital rubella syndrome

Today, the partners leading efforts to control measles announce a new global strategy aimed at reducing measles deaths and congenital rubella syndrome to zero.

2 May 2012

Study assesses perceived impact of CMS payment policy on hospital infection prevention efforts

The 2008 decision by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to cease additional reimbursement to hospitals for certain healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) has led to enhanced focus on infection prevention and changes in practice by front-line staff, according to a national survey of infection preventionists published in the May issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).

2 May 2012

Sanofi Pasteur announces new quadrivalent influenza vaccine Phase III pediatric data

Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of Sanofi, announced today new Phase III data for its investigational quadrivalent influenza vaccine (QIV) in children 6 months through 8 years of age.

2 May 2012

Synthetic stool transplant for C. difficile treatment

A synthetic mixture of intestinal bacteria could one day replace stool transplants as a treatment for Clostridium difficile (C. difficile). C. difficile is a toxin-producing bacteria that can overpopulate the colon when antibiotics eradicate other, naturally protective bacteria living there.

2 May 2012

'Mandatory oversight' of potentially dangerous biological research will be necessary

"In the sobering annals of disaster prevention, genetic manipulation of the H5N1 influenza virus is looming as a seminal case," John Steinbruner, director of the Center for International Security Studies at the University of Maryland, writes in an opinion piece in The Hill's "Congress Blog," noting that two "laboratory experiments have rendered the highly virulent avian strain transmissible among ferrets, strongly suggesting that it would be transmissible among humans as well."

2 May 2012

Copenhagen Consensus report argues for addressing chronic, NCDs in developing countries

In the second part of a series of Slate articles highlighting issues being examined by the Copenhagen Consensus Center, Bjorn Lomborg, director of the center, examines the global burden of non-communicable diseases, which "receive the smallest amount of donor assistance of all health conditions, having lost ground since 1990 relative to infectious diseases," he writes.

2 May 2012

World behind on pledge to reduce HIV/AIDS infections, improve treatment, U.N. report says

"The world is falling behind in its pledge to reduce HIV/AIDS infections and improve treatment, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a U.N. report released Monday" by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the Associated Press reports.

2 May 2012

Ciprofloxacin, TMP-SMX no longer safe for outpatient urinary tract infection

In a surveillance study of over 12 million bacteria, investigators at The George Washington University and Providence Hospital found E. coli antimicrobial resistance to ciprofloxacin, the most commonly prescribed antimicrobial for urinary tract infections in the U.S., increased over five-fold from 2000 to 2010.

2 May 2012

High-dose glucocorticoids double risk of bacterial infections in children with JIA

Children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis have higher rates of bacterial infection requiring hospitalization, and use of high-dose steroids significantly increases that risk, according to research from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

2 May 2012

Efforts to fight cholera in DRC need to include sanitation, waste facility improvements, behavior change, UNICEF official says

A cholera epidemic that began in January 2011 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is continuing because of "poor hygiene, lack of awareness of the population about transmission mechanisms, very limited access to protected and monitored water sources and lack of sanitation infrastructure," according to Nona Zicherman, chief of emergency operations in DRC for UNICEF, IRIN reports.

2 May 2012

Disease/Infection News

Global Fund completes reorganization of workforce, tightens focus to 20 'high-impact countries'

African-Americans with HIV less likely to adhere to ART therapy

Roundup: Mass. health cost control bill could save $8B to $34B; Md. weighs hospital rate freeze; Iowa Senate passes a fix for HIV insurance program

Flu paper publication amidst threats of bioterrorism raises need for better rules of censorship

Tips to help homeowners tick-proof their yards

FDA approval of TDF/FTC as PrEP for HIV infection receives support

Levetiracetam to be tested for seizure management in malaria endemic regions

Medical Brands' cranberry-based oral capsule granted Class IIa medical device status

ImmuVen awarded $1.68M NIH Phase II SBIR grant to develop IMV0123

Nanocomposite dental cavity-filling kills harmful bacteria

New global strategy to reduce measles deaths and congenital rubella syndrome

Study assesses perceived impact of CMS payment policy on hospital infection prevention efforts

Sanofi Pasteur announces new quadrivalent influenza vaccine Phase III pediatric data

Synthetic stool transplant for C. difficile treatment

'Mandatory oversight' of potentially dangerous biological research will be necessary

Copenhagen Consensus report argues for addressing chronic, NCDs in developing countries

World behind on pledge to reduce HIV/AIDS infections, improve treatment, U.N. report says

Ciprofloxacin, TMP-SMX no longer safe for outpatient urinary tract infection

High-dose glucocorticoids double risk of bacterial infections in children with JIA

Efforts to fight cholera in DRC need to include sanitation, waste facility improvements, behavior change, UNICEF official says

The Proteoform Puzzle: Unlocking the Next Frontier

Synthetic Biology and the Pursuit of Living Diagnostics

Modular, Scalable, Intelligent: How n6 Is Rethinking NGS Library Prep

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