Disease/Infection News

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Interferon linked with increased risk of depression in HCV patients

There's a high rate of depression among patients with hepatitis C, but a standard treatment for the disease includes a drug, interferon, that can cause depression.

2 May 2012

FDA clears Great Basin’s first C. diff molecular diagnostic test

Great Basin Corporation, a privately-held life sciences company developing sample-to-result molecular diagnostic solutions, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted approval for its first molecular diagnostic test for Clostridium difficile.

2 May 2012

Antibiotic effective for plague gets FDA nod

Federal regulators – The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), have approved use of an antibiotic to treat plague, an extremely rare, sometimes-fatal bacterial infection.

30 Apr 2012

Some public health advocates disagree with Indian government's decision to roll out pentavalent vaccines, IPS reports

"Ignoring widespread concern over the safety, efficacy and cost of pentavalent vaccines" -- which provide protection against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, hepatitis B and haemophilus influenza type b (Hib) -- "India's central health ministry has, this month, approved inclusion of the prophylactic cocktail in the universal immunization program in seven of its provinces," Inter Press Service reports.

30 Apr 2012

Financial Times examines Cuban company selling larvicides for malaria control in Africa

Though "[m]ost international support credited with the recent decline in malaria in Africa has been channeled to providing bednets, diagnostics and drugs, a Cuban company called Labiofam is marketing bacterial larvicides in Africa to help fight the disease," the Financial Times reports.

30 Apr 2012

Dutch government grants export license allowing publication of controversial H5N1 study

"The Dutch government has agreed to grant an export license to allow Ron Fouchier, a virologist at the Erasmus Medical University in Rotterdam, to publish his work on H5N1 avian influenza in Science," Nature's "News Blog" reports (Owens, 4/27). "

30 Apr 2012

Capitol Hill event highlights U.S. advancements in malaria science, technology

This post in Malaria No More's "Malaria Policy Center" blog reports on a two-part event held on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, April 25, World Malaria Day, titled, "U.S. Advancements in Science and Technology in Malaria: A Showcase of Domestic Research & Development to Save Lives and Keep Americans Safe."

30 Apr 2012

Vitamin D strengthens innate immunity against viral infections

Vitamin D may be known as the sunshine vitamin, but a new research report appearing in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology shows that it is more than that. According to the report, insufficient levels of vitamin D are related to a deficiency in our innate immune defenses that protect us from infections, neoplasias or autoimmune diseases.

30 Apr 2012

FDA approves Levaquin for plague

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Levaquin (levofloxacin) to treat patients with plague, a rare and potentially deadly bacterial infection. The agency also approved the drug to reduce the risk of getting plague after exposure to Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes the disease.

30 Apr 2012

Without sustained investment in malaria fight, world faces resurgence of disease

"If we needed more evidence that the funding cuts at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria were going to be detrimental to people's lives, a new study ... makes it clear: Providing funding to fight malaria makes malaria go away," Kolleen Bouchane, director of ACTION, a global partnership of health advocacy organizations, writes in the Huffington Post's "Impact" blog.

30 Apr 2012

Airborne drones could provide innovative method of delivering food, medicines

In a Foreign Policy opinion piece, former U.S. Ambassador Jack Chow, who served as a special representative for HIV/AIDS under former Secretary of State Colin Powell and currently is a professor at Carnegie Mellon's Heinz College of Public Policy, examines the challenges of delivering humanitarian aid and how "[t]he technological versatility of airborne drones, the flying robots that are already transforming warfare, ... has the potential to revolutionize how humanitarian aid is delivered worldwide."

30 Apr 2012

Bacteria in belly buttons, armpits, and chronic wounds

Minutes after you were born, bacteria moved in. Since then, their populations have exploded, diversified and spread—on your skin and eyes and in your mouth and gut, not to mention other places. These bacterial cells now far outnumber your own cells.

30 Apr 2012

MDGHA, CHAI and Mylan partner to fight childhood deaths caused by diarrhea

Mylan Laboratories Limited, the Indian subsidiary of Mylan Inc., today announced that it has entered into a partnership with the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals Health Alliance (MDGHA) and the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) to fight childhood deaths caused by diarrhea.

30 Apr 2012

Milner-Fenwick releases four new ‘Hospital Quality of Care’ videos

Hospitals are under fire. With heightened regulations and guidelines by the federal government and national health care organizations, the pressure to improve patient outcomes has never been greater. In response, the leading publisher of patient education videos, Milner-Fenwick, has released four new videos within its Hospital Quality of Care Series to help facilities comply with growing regulatory requirements. These videos address key hospital issues such as medication safety, infection control, fall prevention and discharge education.

30 Apr 2012

Electronic survey facilitates testing for STIs in pediatric emergency department

More than 1 million youths ages 15-24 have sexually transmitted infections (STIs) caused by Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhea. Many others, however, are unaware they are infected because they have not been tested.

30 Apr 2012

UCLA develops compact and cost-effective RDT-reading device

In the fight against emerging public health threats, early diagnosis of infectious diseases is crucial. And in poor and remote areas of the globe where conventional medical tools like microscopes and cytometers are unavailable, rapid diagnostic tests, or RDTs, are helping to make disease screening quicker and simpler.

30 Apr 2012

CityBusters battle illness on public transit

The best place to enjoy a breath of fresh air may be a city bus, if Rice University students have their way. A team of graduating seniors has created a system for public transit that would continually clear the air of pathogens that can lead to tuberculosis (TB), flu and pneumonia.

30 Apr 2012

Five U.S. federal agencies provide significant contributions each year to global health R&D

A new report that the United States government is the largest funder of global health research and development (R&D) in the world, investing $12.7 billion over the past 10 years in the creation of new vaccines, drugs, diagnostics, and other products for neglected diseases of the developing world. That funding, according to the report, helped lead to the development of more than half of the 45 new health products in the last decade that have been used to save lives around the world.

30 Apr 2012

CDC dispels fears of air passenger carrying monkeypox

According to authorities passengers aboard a Delta Airlines flight from Detroit were barred from disembarking in Chicago for about three hours after one person was suspected of carrying a contagious disease. The incident occurred on Delta flight 3163, which landed at about 3:45 p.m.

29 Apr 2012

IOM releases summary of workshop on drug-resistant TB in India

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) on Friday released a summary of a joint workshop by the Institute of Medicine, the Indian National Science Academy, and the Indian Council of Medical Research, titled, "Facing the Reality of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis: Challenges and Potential Solutions in India."

27 Apr 2012