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Experts discuss treatment as prevention at USAID-, World Bank-sponsored debate

In this post in the Center for Global Development's "Global Health Policy" blog, Amanda Glassman, director of Global Health Policy and a research fellow at the center, reports on last week's USAID- and World Bank-sponsored debate on treatment as prevention, "where debaters were asked to support or oppose the proposition that countries should spend the majority of flat or declining HIV prevention budgets on 'treatment as prevention,' building off the results of the HPTN 052 study which found a relative reduction of 89 percent in the total number of HIV-1 transmissions resulting from the early initiation of antiretroviral therapy.

15 Nov 2011

New technology speeds up 'near real-time' vaccination data collection

New technology now makes it possible to collect 'near real-time' data about whether people are having any side effects from vaccination. By studying people who received the 2009-10 swine flu vaccination in Scotland, researchers showed that this rapid reporting can add another layer of safety to future vaccination campaigns. In addition, the data collected revealed no significant safety issues in patients exposed to the vaccine.

15 Nov 2011

Study examines abortion services for women living with HIV in Brazil, Namibia, S. Africa

In this paper published in the Journal of the International AIDS Society, researchers from South Africa, Namibia, Brazil, and the U.S. "explore the existing evidence related to global and country-specific barriers to safe abortion for all women, with an emphasis on research gaps around the right of women living with HIV to choose safe abortion services as an option for dealing with unwanted pregnancies."

15 Nov 2011

Possible link between norovirus and food allergies

Researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin have found a possible link between norovirus, a virus that causes "stomach flu" in humans, and food allergies.

15 Nov 2011

Increased access to PMTCT needed to end pediatric AIDS, build an 'AIDS-free generation'

In this post in the Huffington Post's "Impact" blog, Charles Lyons, president and CEO of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, responds to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's speech at the NIH last week in which she called for an "AIDS-free generation," writing, "As Secretary Clinton pointed out, we've never before had as many tools to get ahead of the disease as we do now," such as male circumcision and treatment as prevention, "but one of the cornerstones of her strategy to create an AIDS-free generation is a tool we've actually had in our arsenal for a long time: the ability to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV."

14 Nov 2011

Cambodia set to distribute more than 2.5M mosquito nets by end of year

"Millions of Cambodians are set to receive insecticide-treated mosquito nets as part of a government-led effort to mitigate the risk of malaria and dengue fever," IRIN reports.

14 Nov 2011

Great Basin seeks FDA 510(k) approval for C. difficile molecular diagnostic test

Great Basin Corporation, a privately held life sciences company developing sample-to-result molecular diagnostic solutions, today announced it has submitted a 510(k) application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its first molecular diagnostic test for Clostridium difficile (C. diff).

14 Nov 2011

Senior UK Parliamentarians visit Bangladesh to see full impact of pneumonia on children

To mark World Pneumonia Day, a senior UK parliamentary delegation travelled to Dhaka this week to see firsthand the full impact of pneumonia on Bangladeshi children.

14 Nov 2011

Researchers retrace evolution of unusual bacterial infection

Researchers at Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston have retraced the evolution of an unusual bacterial infection as it spread among cystic fibrosis patients by sequencing scores of samples collected during the outbreak, since contained.

14 Nov 2011

IVI receives WHO prequalification for new oral cholera vaccine

Shanchol-, a new oral cholera vaccine developed through the International Vaccine Institute (IVI), an international organization established by the United Nations and based in Seoul, recently received prequalification from the World Health Organization.

13 Nov 2011

Brazilian Ministry of Health, Bristol-Myers Squibb sign technology transfer agreement for Reyataz

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company today announced a technology transfer agreement with the Brazilian Ministry of Health to expand access to Reyataz (atazanavir sulfate) in Brazil.

13 Nov 2011

Smoke-reducing chimneys prevent pneumonia among young children

Researchers at the University of Liverpool and the universities of California, Berkley and del Valle, Guatemala, have found that cases of severe pneumonia among young children are reduced by one-third in homes with smoke-reducing chimneys on cooking stoves.

11 Nov 2011

Rapid expansion of global vaccine campaign against pneumonia 'unprecedented'

"A global push to bring a vaccine against the bacterial cause of pneumonia to communities that need it most is ramping up quickly, expanding to nearly 60 countries in the next five years," PBS NewsHour's "The Rundown" reports.

11 Nov 2011

PEPFAR AIDSRelief shows success of country partnerships

Leia Isanhart Balima of Catholic Relief Services writes in this ONE blog post about the successes of the AIDSRelief program in Rwanda, and how that country's Ministry of Health has taken ownership over operations.

11 Nov 2011

UNICEF distributing hygiene, sanitation items in flood-affected Thailand to help prevent disease spread

"The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is distributing more than 300,000 hygiene and sanitation items to flood-affected families in Thailand, in an effort to prevent the spread of communicable diseases in the Asian country," Bernama reports.

11 Nov 2011

End to AIDS epidemic in sight, but political support needed for success

In this Washington Post opinion piece, columnist Michael Gerson recaps advances in the science of HIV/AIDS prevention over the last 18 months and the projected benefits of using combination preventive tools.

11 Nov 2011

Annual European CDC report says infectious diseases, drug resistance are concerns

"Europe's health is suffering, with around 80,000 cases of tuberculosis infection a year and serious problems with measles, HIV and threats from 'superbug' infections, an annual health report" from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said Thursday, Reuters reports.

11 Nov 2011

Mutations make Staph more resistant to antibiotics

Infectious diseases specialists from Austin Health are working closely with Microbiologists from the University of Melbourne to understand how Staph is becoming resistant to all antibiotic therapies.

11 Nov 2011

Third annual World Pneumonia Day to be observed on Saturday

The third annual World Pneumonia Day will be observed on Saturday.

11 Nov 2011

Kenya launches 5-year strategic plan to fight NTDs

"The Kenyan government launched a five-year national master-plan on Thursday to address neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) that have become a public health challenge in remote parts of the country," making Kenya "the first country in Africa to launch a broad-based strategic plan on combating neglected tropical ailments that include bilharzia, trachoma, kalaazar, intestinal worms, elephantiasis and Hydatid disease," Africa Science News reports.

11 Nov 2011