Disease/Infection News

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ARV drugs can prevent transmission of HIV

The finding of a team of researchers - including several members from Johns Hopkins - that HIV treatment with antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) can actually prevent transmission of the virus from an infected person to his or her uninfected partner has been named "Breakthrough of the Year" for 2011 by the journal Science.

23 Dec 2011

MSF publishes list of top 10 stories of 2011 about access to medicine

This Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) special report highlights the top 10 stories of 2011 regarding access to essential medicines, according to MSF.

23 Dec 2011

Federal officials seek to keep details on bird flu study secret

A federal board has asked two scientific journals to restrict access to details of a genetic study of the bird flu in which researchers altered the virus to be more easily transmittable between humans.

23 Dec 2011

WHO researchers release critique of methods to estimate global malaria incidence

"Richard Cibulskis and colleagues at the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland present a critique of different estimation methods of the worldwide incidence of malaria in this week's PLoS Medicine," according to a post in the PLoS Medicine "Community Blog."

23 Dec 2011

AVAC report outlines science-based agenda for ending AIDS epidemic

AVAC's annual report, titled "AVAC Report 2011: The End?," "is intended as a vision and a challenge to the field, and a first step in holding all of us -- civil society, researchers, governments, and funders -- accountable for progress" toward ending AIDS, according to the AVAC website (12/22).

23 Dec 2011

PBS NewsHour examines role of religious leaders in Morocco's fight against HIV/AIDS

In this post in PBS NewsHour's "The Rundown" blog, journalist Ray Suarez reports on the role of religious leaders in Morocco's battle against HIV/AIDS and stigma.

23 Dec 2011

UNICEF aims to vaccinate 1.7M children against measles in DRC

A UNICEF measles immunization campaign in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) aimed to vaccinate 1.7 million children under age five between December 19 and December 21, IRIN reports.

23 Dec 2011

'Dramatic gains' in fight against malaria in jeopardy due to Global Fund shortfall

In this post on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog, Kent Campbell, director of the Malaria Control Program at PATH, says "dramatic gains" made in the fight against malaria, and the possibility of ending the disease, are in jeopardy because the "Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which provides two-thirds of the global financing for efforts to combat malaria, is facing a financial crisis due to unfulfilled donor commitments."

23 Dec 2011

BBC News Magazine examines antiviral drug research

BBC News Magazine examines an antiviral drug called Draco, developed by Todd Rider, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "which has proven successful against all 15 viruses to which it has been applied in lab trials with human tissue and mice," including "the common cold, H1N1 or swine flu, a polio virus, dengue fever, and the notorious and fatal Ebola virus."

23 Dec 2011

UTA chemist to develop simple, paper-based test for drug-resistant TB

Developing a simple, paper-based test for drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) is the goal of a University of Texas at Austin chemist, whose project just received a $1.6 million point-of-care diagnostics grant through Grand Challenges in Global Health, an initiative created by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

23 Dec 2011

Congress cuts federal funding for needle exchanges

Media outlets report on several public health issues, including a renewed funding ban on needle exchanges and a call for recalling a stent system.

23 Dec 2011

JCV, CDC announce publication of 'Update on HIV Diagnostic Testing Algorithms'

Elsevier's Journal of Clinical Virology in collaboration with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today announced the publication of a special supplement entitled 'Update on HIV Diagnostic Testing Algorithms'.

23 Dec 2011

Religious leaders should come together to ensure access to NTD medicines for world's poorest

Most of the world's neglected tropical diseases occur among populations that adhere to Islam, Catholicism, or Hinduism, an observation that "affords an opportunity to establish a unique interfaith dialogue among religious leaders" leading to global action, Peter Hotez, president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, and Serap Aksoy, a professor at the Yale School of Public Health, write in a PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) editorial.

23 Dec 2011

Russia will not use HIV spending to fund needle exchange, methadone therapy, Reuters reports

Though Russia is doubling its budget for HIV in 2012 over 2010 levels, "no money will go to such internationally recognized efforts as needle exchanges" and methadone replacement therapy, Reuters reports.

23 Dec 2011

Enrollment complete in two Anacor's tavaborole Phase 3 trials on onychomycosis

Anacor Pharmaceuticals announced today that it has completed the enrollment of approximately 600 patients in the second of its two Phase 3 trials of tavaborole, a topical anti-fungal product candidate for the treatment of onychomycosis, a fungal infection of the nail and nail bed that affects approximately 35 million people in the United States.

23 Dec 2011

Longer looks: Manufacturing killer flu; The ironies of the individual mandate; When the elderly refuse help

In experiments conducted at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, researchers engineered a strain of H5N1. … The next logical step would be for the researchers to publish studies in major scientific journals, describing the newly created flu, including its genetic makeup.

23 Dec 2011

Science journal names UNC HIV prevention study as 2011 Breakthrough of the Year

The HIV Prevention Trials Network 052 study, led by Myron S. Cohen, MD of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has been named the 2011 Breakthrough of the Year by the journal Science.

23 Dec 2011

Hand washing tips to prevent illness and spreading germs

With holiday gatherings, New Year celebrations, and constant travelling, hand washing is one of the most important ways to prevent getting sick and spreading germs. Many illnesses, including the common cold, are spread by not washing hands properly with soap and water. According to statistics from the National Library of Medicine, the common cold accounts for approximately 22 million missed days of school and 20 million absences from work.

22 Dec 2011

Azithromycin shows promise against trachoma-related blindness

A UCSF study shows a popular treatment for a potentially blinding eye infection is just as effective if given every six months versus annually. This randomized study on trachoma, the leading cause of infection-caused blindness in the world, could potentially treat twice the number of patients using the same amount of medication.

22 Dec 2011

U.S. Science Advisory Board asks Science, Nature to omit data from bird flu studies amid security concerns

The U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity on "Tuesday asked two scientific journals to leave out data from research studies on a lab-made version of bird flu that could spread more easily to humans, fearing it could be used as a potential weapon," Reuters reports.

22 Dec 2011