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Zimbabwean lawmakers take public HIV tests in campaign to fight stigma

"Zimbabwean lawmakers started taking public HIV tests on Wednesday in a campaign seeking to raise awareness and fight the stigma associated with AIDS," VOA News reports.

23 Jun 2012

Censoring 'dual-use' scientific research not an effective strategy to mitigate security risks

"It's easy to get the impression that recent controversy over research into mutated versions of the H5N1 flu virus has created a clear split between a scientific community that wants the research to proceed and the results to be published and a biosecurity community that doesn't," biological-weapons expert Tim Trevan writes in this Nature opinion piece.

23 Jun 2012

AIDS.gov blog republishes post in which U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator discusses AIDS 2012 conference

In an effort to "raise awareness around the U.S. global response to HIV/AIDS," the AIDS.gov blog has republished a post by U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Ambassador Eric Goosby in which he discusses the XIX International AIDS Conference, taking place in the U.S. for the first time in more than 20 years from July 22-27.

23 Jun 2012

No definitive link between hormonal contraceptives and increased risk of HIV infection among women, CDC says

"There is no clear link between the use of contraceptives such as the birth control pill or Depo-Provera shots and an increased risk that a woman will contract HIV, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday," Reuters reports, noting that the WHO came to the same conclusion in February.

23 Jun 2012

Researchers identify new virus alert signal that triggers the human immune system

Researchers from Aarhus University have now located the place in the human body where the earliest virus alert signal triggers the human immune system. They have also discovered a new alarm signal, which is activated at the very first sign of a virus attack.

23 Jun 2012

Scientists identify novel animal reservoir for tick-borne diseases

A team of scientists at Washington University in St. Louis has been keeping a wary eye on emerging tick-borne diseases in Missouri for the past dozen years, and they have just nailed down another part of the story.

23 Jun 2012

Success in fighting malaria helping to fuel Africa's economic growth, Reuters reports

Reuters examines how the fight against malaria in Africa is helping to fuel the continent's economic growth. "

22 Jun 2012

U.S. journal Science publishes controversial H5N1 research

The U.S. journal Science on Thursday published the results of a controversial study in which researchers at the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands "identified five mutations apparently necessary to make the [H5N1] bird flu virus spread easily among ferrets, which catch the same flus that humans do," the New York Times reports (McNeil, 6/21).

22 Jun 2012

UC3M joins European research project on tuberculosis treatments

Scientists at the Carlos III University in Madrid (UC3M) are participating in a European research project designed to study tuberculosis treatments. The objective of the study is to improve diagnostic imaging technology in order to help develop new drugs to treat the disease.

22 Jun 2012

Research funding in sub-Saharan Africa needs to 'reflect true disease burden'

With the disease burden of AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria expected to make up less than 15 percent of the total disease burden in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) by 2030, and non-communicable diseases to account for nearly 40 percent of the total in the region, "[a] revision of the approach to research and health care in SSA is therefore urgently needed, but international donors and health communities have generally been slow to respond to the changing environment."

22 Jun 2012

Shanghai Institutes of Preventative Medicine, Gentris sign MOU to advance personalized medicine

Gentris Corporation, a global leader in the application of genomic biomarkers to clinical studies, announced today that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Shanghai Institutes of Preventative Medicine to advance global personalized medicine.

22 Jun 2012

Selenium reduces Staph populations in medical implants

Selenium is an inexpensive element that naturally belongs in the body. It is also known to combat bacteria. Still, it had not been tried as an antibiotic coating on a medical device material. In a new study, Brown University engineers report that when they used selenium nanoparticles to coat polycarbonate, the material of catheters and endotracheal tubes, the results were significant reductions in cultured populations of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, sometimes by as much as 90 percent.

22 Jun 2012

Polio eradication efforts threatened by funding shortfall, vaccination resistance in some countries, experts say

Marking the 10th anniversary since Europe was declared polio-free, the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative on Wednesday released a report saying there is "a unique window of opportunity to stamp out polio for good," with the number of reported cases at historical lows, but a funding shortfall of about $1 million is threatening eradication progress, Reuters reports.

22 Jun 2012

GlobalPost examines investment in community care workers in South Africa as PEPFAR moves toward local implementation of programming

"Nearly a decade after it came into being, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) ... is moving increasingly to support local leadership and implementation capacity" in South Africa, GlobalPost's "Global Pulse" blog reports.

22 Jun 2012

New issue of 'Global Fund News Flash' available

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria on Tuesday released Issue 4 of its newsletter, the "Global Fund News Flash." The issue features a commentary by Mireille Guigaz, a Global Fund Board member representing France, on the Global Fund's work in Madagascar, and a piece examining "a Board decision last November that 55 percent of all funding for grant renewals should go to low-income countries," among other stories.

21 Jun 2012

India emerging as model for improvement in developing countries

In this NDTV opinion piece, Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, reflects on his recent trip to India, writing, "During my recent visit, I had a chance to see the latest progress on things that matter a lot to us: on eradicating polio and curtailing the spread of infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, for example."

21 Jun 2012

Examining the threat of multi-drug resistant TB in India

The Wall Street Journal reports on a rise of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (TB) in India, writing, "India's slow response to years of medical warnings now threatens to turn the country into an incubator for a mutant strain of tuberculosis that is proving resistant to all known treatments, raising alarms of a new global health hazard."

21 Jun 2012

VOA News, PlusNews examine tuberculosis in South Africa

Several articles published on Tuesday examine tuberculosis (TB) in South Africa. "According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the country has the highest rate of new TB cases annually," VOA News writes, adding, "Thousands of people in South Africa continue to be infected by a disease that's been virtually eradicated in the developed world."

21 Jun 2012

New research suggests local strains of cholera may have contributed to Haiti's epidemic

NPR's "Shots" blog reports on efforts to determine the source of Haiti's cholera epidemic, writing, "Most researchers currently believe that United Nations peacekeeping soldiers introduced cholera to Haiti in October of 2010," but researchers from the University of Maryland report they "have found two very different cholera strains in some of the first Haitians to be struck by the disease."

21 Jun 2012

VOA News examines South African policy promoting exclusive breastfeeding for mothers with HIV

VOA News examines the South African government's decision in September 2011 to stop providing a free six-month supply of infant formula to mothers with HIV and have "its health facilities ... encourage the women to exclusively breastfeed for at least the first six months of their babies' lives."

21 Jun 2012

Disease/Infection News

Zimbabwean lawmakers take public HIV tests in campaign to fight stigma

Censoring 'dual-use' scientific research not an effective strategy to mitigate security risks

AIDS.gov blog republishes post in which U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator discusses AIDS 2012 conference

No definitive link between hormonal contraceptives and increased risk of HIV infection among women, CDC says

Researchers identify new virus alert signal that triggers the human immune system

Scientists identify novel animal reservoir for tick-borne diseases

Success in fighting malaria helping to fuel Africa's economic growth, Reuters reports

U.S. journal Science publishes controversial H5N1 research

UC3M joins European research project on tuberculosis treatments

Research funding in sub-Saharan Africa needs to 'reflect true disease burden'

Shanghai Institutes of Preventative Medicine, Gentris sign MOU to advance personalized medicine

Selenium reduces Staph populations in medical implants

Polio eradication efforts threatened by funding shortfall, vaccination resistance in some countries, experts say

GlobalPost examines investment in community care workers in South Africa as PEPFAR moves toward local implementation of programming

New issue of 'Global Fund News Flash' available

India emerging as model for improvement in developing countries

Examining the threat of multi-drug resistant TB in India

VOA News, PlusNews examine tuberculosis in South Africa

New research suggests local strains of cholera may have contributed to Haiti's epidemic

VOA News examines South African policy promoting exclusive breastfeeding for mothers with HIV

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