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Azithromycin associated with lower duration of bacterial carriage in E. coli outbreak

In the E coli outbreak in Germany in May 2011, treatment with azithromycin was associated with a lower frequency of long-term carriage of the bacteria and shorter duration of shedding of the bacteria in stool specimens, according to a study in the March 14 issue of JAMA.

14 Mar 2012

Bend Research announces licensing agreement with Affinium

Bend Research Inc., a leading independent drug-formulation development and manufacturing company, today announced a licensing agreement with Affinium Pharmaceuticals, Ltd.

13 Mar 2012

Inovio achieves strong T cell immune responses in PENNVAX-B Phase I HIV study

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that it has achieved strong T cell immune responses in a Phase I clinical study of PENNVAX-B, its product for the treatment of the HIV subtype prevalent in North America and Europe, in HIV-positive subjects.

13 Mar 2012

EBV can infect and may also contribute to lymphomas in man's best friend

More than 90 percent of humans have antibodies to the Epstein Barr virus. Best known for causing mononucleosis, or "the kissing disease," the virus has also been implicated in more serious conditions, including Hodgkin's, non-Hodgkin's and Burkitt's lymphomas. Yet little is known about exactly how EBV triggers these diseases.

13 Mar 2012

Medivir initiates two new HPC3001 and HPC3011 phase III trials in HCV

MedivirAB a research based specialty pharmaceutical company focused on infectious diseases announces that its oral, once daily investigational protease inhibitor TMC435, developed by Janssen Pharmaceuticals for the treatment of Hepatitis C virus (HCV), has commenced patient dosing and started screening in two new phase III clinical trials, HPC3001 and HPC3011, respectively.

13 Mar 2012

Trudeau Institute creates TICRO to expand the scope of biomedical research

The Trudeau Institute announced today that it has expanded the scope of its biomedical research by creating a contract research organization (CRO), the Trudeau Institute Contract Research Organization.

13 Mar 2012

Global Fund donors 'earmark' funds for capacity-building, Fund's general manager says

Gabriel Jaramillo, the general manager of the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said in an interview on Friday that "quite a few donors" to the fund "have earmarked portions of their donations to us, their contributions, to capacity-building," the Associated Press/Washington Post reports.

13 Mar 2012

Scientists at Seattle conference discuss progress, obstacles in fight against HIV/AIDS

"Scientists, stymied for decades by the complexity of the human immunodeficiency virus, are making progress on several fronts in the search for a cure for HIV infections," but "a major stumbling block is the fact that HIV lies low in pools or reservoirs of latent infection that even powerful drugs cannot reach, scientists told the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, one of the world's largest scientific meetings on HIV/AIDS," in Seattle last week, Reuters reports.

13 Mar 2012

Study addresses how human body controls gamma-herpesviruses

New research from the Trudeau Institute addresses how the human body controls gamma-herpesviruses, a class of viruses thought to cause a variety of cancers. The study, carried out in the laboratory of Dr. Marcia Blackman, awaits publication in The Journal of Immunology.

13 Mar 2012

Partner reduction strategies essential to reversing spread of HIV

"The rising enthusiasm for providing more medicines threatens to come at the expense of promising initiatives for preventing HIV infections in the first place -- initiatives that could save many lives, with less money," Craig Timberg, the newspaper's deputy national security editor, and Daniel Halperin, an epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina, write in this Washington Post opinion piece.

12 Mar 2012

Simple device for disinfecting stethoscopes

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 1,900,000 people contract infections in hospitals, (Hospital Acquired Infections - HAIs) every year and well over 99,000 die as a result; more deaths than from AIDS, breast cancer and auto accidents combined.

12 Mar 2012

U-M to research into treatment for hepatitis C

The Greenview Foundation has announced a gift of $57,000 to the University of Michigan Health System to support research on a treatment for hepatitis C.

12 Mar 2012

Top-line results from Inviragen's INV21 Phase 1 trial on HFMD

Inviragen today reported top-line results of a placebo-controlled, randomized Phase 1 trial of INV21, the Company's highly purified virus particle vaccine against Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD) caused by enterovirus 71.

12 Mar 2012

Chlamydia has evolved more actively than previously thought

In a study released today in Nature Genetics, researchers have found that Chlamydia has evolved more actively than was previously thought. Using whole genome sequencing the researchers show that the exchange of DNA between different strains of Chlamydia to form new strains is much more common than expected.

12 Mar 2012

New insight into causes of childhood pneumonia

The scientific journal Clinical Infectious Diseases has released its March Special Supplement focusing entirely on the research design of and pilot data from the Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health (PERCH) Project, which seeks to identify the causes of pneumonia among the world's most vulnerable populations.

12 Mar 2012

ICAP releases results from HPTN 064 Women's HIV Seroincidence Study

ICAP at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health is part of a network of research organizations that jointly released results, finding that HIV infection rates of black women living in certain parts of the U.S. are higher than previously estimated for black adolescent and women living in the U.S.

12 Mar 2012

Hospitals with infection control certification may have lower MRSA BSI rates

Hospitals whose infection prevention and control programs are led by a director who is board certified in infection prevention and control have significantly lower rates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bloodstream infections (BSI) than those that are not led by a certified professional, according to a new study published in the March issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of APIC - the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.

12 Mar 2012

Epidemic bacteria can damage mucins to enter and infect a body part

Boston, MA- Scientists from the Schepens Eye Research Institute, a subsidiary of Mass. Eye and Ear and affiliate of Harvard Medical School, have found for the first time that a bacterial pathogen can literally mow down protective molecules, known as mucins, on mucus membranes to enter and infect a part of the body.

12 Mar 2012

CDC launches new campaign to combat HIV among African-American women

To combat the high toll of HIV and AIDS among black women in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today launched Take Charge. Take the Test., a new campaign to increase HIV testing and awareness among African-American women.

12 Mar 2012

Common sexually transmitted bacterial infection more than doubles risk of HIV

A common sexually transmitted bacterial infection more than doubles the risk of HIV infection in African women, according to a study by researchers at RTI International.

11 Mar 2012