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Study sheds light on cellular mechanisms involved in flu resistance

Scientists from the University of Utah School of Medicine have discovered that a mouse protein called IFITM3 contributes to the body's defense against some types of viral infections by binding to an enzyme responsible for regulating the pH of a cell's waste disposal system.

2 Apr 2012

NanoViricides reports positive pre-IND meeting with USFDA for FluCide

NanoViricides, Inc. announced today that its previously announced pre-IND Meeting was held with the USFDA on March 29th, 2012, as scheduled. This pre-IND meeting focused on FluCide, designated as NV-INF-1, the Company's novel anti-influenza drug.

2 Apr 2012

Phage therapy can combat Pseudomonas infections in CF patients

Scientists in Cork have identified a novel therapy for the bacteria which cause infections in cystic fibrosis patients.

2 Apr 2012

ViiV, Shionogi announce initial results from dolutegravir Phase III study on HIV-1

ViiV Healthcare and Shionogi & Co., Ltd. today announced that initial results have been received from the SPRING-2 (ING113086) Phase III study of the investigational integrase inhibitor dolutegravir in treatment-naive adults with HIV-1.

2 Apr 2012

Vaccines for measles may not increase risk of febrile seizures in 4-6 year olds

Vaccines for measles were not associated with an increased risk of febrile seizures among 4-6 year olds during the six weeks after vaccination, according to a study by the Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center that appears in the current issue of Pediatrics.

2 Apr 2012

ERS, ECDC publish European Union Standards for Tuberculosis Care

Today, the European Respiratory Society (ERS) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) publish their jointly developed European Union Standards for Tuberculosis Care.

2 Apr 2012

Report examines political history of international AIDS conferences

In this post in the Center for Strategic & International Studies' (CSIS) "Smart Global Health" blog, Katherine Bliss, deputy director and senior fellow at the CSIS Global Health Policy Center, discusses a report -- titled, "The International AIDS Conference Returns to the United States" -- that "examines the political history of the international AIDS conferences from 1985 to the present."

31 Mar 2012

India's success against polio is promising step in defeating disease worldwide

"That India is free of wild polio today is a testament to the commitment of the Indian government," which "invested more than $1 billion over the last decade and collaborated with community leaders, health workers, businesses, and parents," as well as governments, non-governmental organizations, and multilateral agencies, to fight the disease, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius writes in a Foreign Affairs opinion piece.

31 Mar 2012

Study examines TB services in prisons in countries receiving Global Fund grants

According to a study recently published in a special supplement of the Journal of Infectious Diseases, half of countries receiving grants from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria provide tuberculosis (TB) services in prisons; "even when TB services were provided to prisoners, they were limited in scope; and "few of the programs receiving a grant from the Global Fund offered services dedicated to the treatment and prevention of multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB)," an aidsmap news story reports.

31 Mar 2012

U.S. releases policy requiring dual-use biological research reviews amid bird flu debate

"The U.S. government on Thursday released a new policy that will require federal agencies to systematically review the potential risks associated with federally funded studies involving 15 'high consequence' pathogens and toxins, including the H5N1 avian influenza virus," Science Insider reports.

31 Mar 2012

'Large-scale action' needed in Myanmar to prevent spread of artemisinin-resistant malaria parasites

In this New York Times opinion piece, Frank Smithuis, director of Medical Action Myanmar in Yangon, and Nick White, professor of tropical medicine at the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit in Bangkok, recount a brief history of the development of anti-malaria drugs and their contribution to "a significant global reduction in malaria" and note that this progress "is now threatened by the emergence of malaria parasites that are resistant to artemisinin on the Cambodia-Thailand border ..., the same place where chloroquine resistance emerged 50 years ago and spread across Asia and Africa to claim millions of lives."

31 Mar 2012

Dengue infection makes mosquito's blood feeding more efficient

Mosquitoes infected with dengue virus experience an array of changes in the activity of genes and associated functions of their salivary glands, and these changes may lead to increased virus transmission, according to a recent study led by George Dimopoulos, Ph.D., of the Malaria Research Institute and Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University.

31 Mar 2012

Data from Cempra's CEM-101 Phase 2 trial on N. gonorrhoeae infections to be presented at ECCMID

Cempra Inc., a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company focused on developing antibiotics to meet critical medical needs in the treatment of bacterial infectious diseases, today announced that data will be presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) demonstrating that CEM-101 (solithromycin) is active against antibiotic-resistant strains of N. gonorrhoeae.

31 Mar 2012

Data from Cempra's CEM-101 Phase 2 trial on CABP to be presented at ECCMID

Cempra Inc., a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company focused on developing antibiotics to meet critical medical needs in the treatment of bacterial infectious diseases,today announced that data will be presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID), in London, March 31 to April 3,demonstrating CEM-101's (solithromycin's) efficacy to be comparable to levofloxacin in a Phase 2 trial of patients with community-acquired bacterial infections.

31 Mar 2012

Abbott receives CE Marking for PLEX-ID instrument and assays

Abbott announced today it has obtained CE Marking (Conformite Europeene) in the European Union to market its rapid, high-throughput PLEX-ID instrument, along with three assays for use on the system: PLEX-ID Viral IC Spectrum, PLEX-ID BAC Spectrum BC and PLEX-ID Flu.

31 Mar 2012

FDA approves Roche's cobas p 630 pre-analytical instrument

Roche announced today the FDA approval of a new pre-analytical instrument that provides an integrated primary tube handling solution for its widely adopted automated molecular testing platform.

31 Mar 2012

Cancer patients with CDI may benefit from DIFICLIR drug

New data presented at the 22nd European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) demonstrate that in cancer patients with CDI, DIFICLIR(fidaxomicin) may offer significant benefits in terms of clinical cure, recurrence and sustained clinical cure.

31 Mar 2012

IPS reports on research study examining knowledge, beliefs of cervical cancer among Argentinian women

Inter Press Service reports on a research study conducted in Argentina that "explored women's knowledge and beliefs about cervical cancer, in the provinces with the highest mortality from this highly preventable form of cancer, to design more effective policies."

31 Mar 2012

Risk of botulism at California fish processing company

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in a complaint filed by the Department of Justice, is seeking to stop the processing and distribution of fish products at a California company because of a risk of botulism and other food hazards.

30 Mar 2012

Stop TB Partnership, TAG release report on tuberculosis research funding

The Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog reports the findings from the second edition of the 2011 Report on Tuberculosis (TB) Research Funding and Trends from 2005-2010, released Thursday by Treatment Action Group (TAG) and the Stop TB Partnership.

30 Mar 2012