Disease/Infection News

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New initiative aims to strengthen regulatory capacity, systems for delivery of medicines in Africa

"The need to ensure that people in Africa have access to essential, high quality, safe and affordable medicines has just received a major boost with the launch of the East African Community (EAC) Medicines Registration Harmonization Project in Arusha, Tanzania, on 30 March 2011," UNAIDS reports in a feature story on its website.

4 Apr 2012

MedImmune's quadrivalent flu vaccine may protect children

An intranasal vaccine that includes four weakened strains of influenza could do a better job in protecting children from the flu than current vaccines, Saint Louis University research shows.

4 Apr 2012

Discussion of NSABB recommendation to publish controversial bird flu studies to continue in London meeting

The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity's (NSABB) "reversal on publishing two controversial H5N1 studies is poised to shift discussions on the topic that continue in London this week, as more participants in the debate weigh in following the March 30 announcement," CIDRAP News reports.

4 Apr 2012

Scientists discover new anti-HCV antibodies

A team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has found antibodies that can prevent infection from widely differing strains of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in cell culture and animal models.

4 Apr 2012

SFU receives NIH grant to develop effective HIV/AIDS vaccine

Jamie Scott, a Simon Fraser University professor and Canada Research Chair in molecular immunity, and three international collaborators are getting a hefty financial boost in their efforts to develop an effective HIV/AIDS vaccine.

4 Apr 2012

Infections in older adults may increase risk of hospitalization for dangerous blood clots

Research shows older adults who get infections of any kind - such as urinary, skin, or respiratory tract infections - are nearly three times more likely to be hospitalized for a dangerous blood clot in their deep veins or lungs, University of Michigan Health System research shows.

4 Apr 2012

Young girls face increased risk of side effects after Gardasil vaccination

Younger girls are more likely than adult women to report side effects after receiving Gardasil, the human papillomavirus vaccine.

4 Apr 2012

Hepatitis B-infected patients with longer telomeres more likely to develop HCC

Hepatitis B-infected patients with significantly longer telomeres—the caps on the end of chromosomes that protect our genetic data— were found to have an increased risk of getting liver cancer compared to those with shorter ones, according to findings presented by researchers at Jefferson's Kimmel Cancer Center at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2012.

4 Apr 2012

InstantLabs receives PTM certification for Salmonella Species Food Safety Kit

InstantLabs Medical Diagnostics Corporation, developer of the portable Hunter Accelerated Real-Time PCR system, today announced that its Salmonella Species Food Safety Kit has been certified as Performance-Tested Methods (PTM) No. 031202 by the AOAC Research Institute.

3 Apr 2012

South Sudan hoping to mark three years without recording polio case

"South Sudan officials are hopeful the country will soon be declared polio-free," if the nation can go another four months without recording a polio case, VOA News reports. "Before 2008, the area that is now South Sudan had been considered free of polio," but "that year the country was re-infected through an imported strain that originated in Nigeria," the news service writes.

3 Apr 2012

NSABB recommends full publication of controversial bird flu studies

The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) on Friday recommended that revised versions of two controversial studies on H5N1 avian flu be published in scientific journals, reversing its previous recommendation that the studies only be published if certain details were withheld, the New York Times reports.

3 Apr 2012

PRI's 'The World' examines role of churches in fight against HIV in Swaziland

PRI's "The World" examines the role of churches in the fight against HIV in Swaziland. The news service highlights several church-run HIV programs, writing, "Churches have long played an important role in caring for the sick, but in terms of HIV prevention they've been at odds with the public health community. It has often come down to one issue: until recently, Swazi church leaders publicly rejected the use of condoms by their congregants. But now you hear many comments that suggest a change in thinking."

3 Apr 2012

April issue of WHO Bulletin available online

The April issue of the WHO Bulletin features an editorial on the WHO research agenda for influenza; a public health round-up; an article on influenza in Ghana; a research paper on population-based burden of influenza-associated hospitalization in rural western Kenya; and a policy paper on the integration of pneumonia prevention and treatment interventions with immunization services in resource-poor countries.

3 Apr 2012

Funding shortfalls could hinder implementation of treatment as prevention strategies, Al Jazeera reports

Al Jazeera examines the administration of combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) worldwide, focusing on treatment as prevention (TasP), but says current funding levels are insufficient to implement the strategy.

3 Apr 2012

Computer model can predict malaria epidemics in India

Scientists from the University of Liverpool are working with computer modelling specialists in India to predict areas of the country that are at most risk of malaria outbreaks, following changes in monsoon rainfall.

3 Apr 2012

Researchers discover regulation and functional significance of acute phase response during pneumonia

Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have discovered the regulation and functional significance of the acute phase response during a lung infection. The findings, which will be published in the May edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, demonstrate that the liver responds in order to increase defenses in the blood that prevent localized infections from spreading throughout the body.

3 Apr 2012

Positive outcome from AiCuris’ Letermovir phase 2b trial on HCMV infections

AiCuris announced today that data on the positive outcome of Letermovir (AIC246) tested in a phase 2b trial in transplant patients will be disclosed at several international meetings on behalf of the AIC246 study team.

3 Apr 2012

Merck announces data from ZOSTAVAX Phase III study on shingles

Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, announced today that data from the pivotal Phase III study with ZOSTAVAX(Zoster Vaccine Live) in adults ages 50 to 59 were published in the April 1 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases.

3 Apr 2012

Clemson researcher to continue African sleeping sickness study

Clemson University researcher James Morris received a $360,079 competitive renewal grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue his study of Trypanosoma brucei, the single-celled parasite that causes African sleeping sickness.

3 Apr 2012

Controversial study on lethal bird flu virus strain to be published

The controversial study on lethal flu virus strain is likely to be published in full. Last December the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity - NSABB recommended the two papers not be published in full by the journals - Nature and Science. The panel was concerned that details of the studies, which induced mutations in the H5N1 avian flu virus that made it transmissible among mammals by air rather than by close physical contact, could be used for bioterrorism. Critics of the recommendation raised fears that important science was being censored.

2 Apr 2012