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Suppressing mosquitoes - the only way of controlling dengue

There is no vaccine against dengue, an emerging tropical disease regularly also hitting tourists, so the only way of controlling it is by suppressing the mosquitoes transmitting the disease.

28 Nov 2011

Funds for AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria dry up

A global fund organization against three killer diseases says it has run out of money to pay for new grant programs for the next two years. An official with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said Thursday that it has been forced to cease giving new grants until 2014 because of global economic woes brought on by debt crises in the U.S. and Europe.

27 Nov 2011

Sub-Saharan African countries lose billions of dollars due to migration of doctors

Sub-Saharan African countries that train and invest in their doctors end up losing billions of dollars as the clinicians leave to work in developed nations, finds research published on bmj.com today.

24 Nov 2011

Malaria is almost under control in Suriname

Malaria is almost under control in Suriname. According to an impact study conducted by Hélène Hiwat - van Laar, who was awarded a PhD on the subject on 21 November at Wageningen University, a five-year control programme with new strategies has proved successful. The people most at risk nowadays are the mobile gold miner communities, especially those along the French Guianese border.

24 Nov 2011

BD MAX MRSA Assay receives CE Mark approval

BD Diagnostics, a segment of BD, today announced that it obtained CE Marking for the BD MAX MRSA Assay to rapidly and accurately identify methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in patients.

From BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) 24 Nov 2011

IPS reports on child poverty in Lesotho

"The triple threat of HIV, poverty and food insecurity is increasingly exposing children to abuse, exploitation and other human rights violations" in Lesotho, Inter Press Service reports in an article examining child poverty in the small southern African country.

24 Nov 2011

NIH-led study advances HIV vaccine research

HIV is coated in sugars that usually hide the virus from the immune system. Newly published research reveals how one broadly neutralizing HIV antibody actually uses part of the sugary cloak to help bind to the virus. The antibody binding site, called the V1/V2 region, represents a suitable HIV vaccine target, according to the scientists who conducted the study. In addition, their research reveals the detailed structure of the V1/V2 region, the last part of the virus surface to be visualized at the atomic level.

24 Nov 2011

Interview with AIDS economist Mead Over

ONE member Erin Hohlfelder presents excerpts of an interview she conducted with AIDS economist Mead Over in this ONE blog post. Over discusses his new book, titled "Achieving an AIDS Transition: Preventing Infections to Sustain Treatment," AIDS program financing, government roles, and creating incentives for HIV prevention program success.

24 Nov 2011

Community-based program battles gender-based violence

Hillary Anderson, a communications intern for Management Sciences for Health (MSH), writes in this post on MSH's "Global Health Impact" blog about the organization's Community-based Family Planning and HIV & AIDS Services (CFPHS) project, which "worked to address gender-based violence (GBV) in Malawi through behavior change communication (BCC) activities."

24 Nov 2011

Obama should announce scale-up of AIDS treatment programs

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's recent speech calling for an "AIDS-free generation" through the use of multiple prevention strategies, including more widespread antiretroviral therapy, "was a dramatic reversal of U.S. policy, which has historically viewed treatment more as a costly expense rather than our most powerful prevention investment," physician Loretta Ciraldo and Katrina Ciraldo, a student at Boston University School of Medicine, write in this Miami Herald opinion piece.

24 Nov 2011

Guardian International Development Journalism Competition results posted

The Guardian this week posted the results of its 2011 International Development Journalism Competition. "Sixteen finalists -- eight amateur, eight professional -- were sent to the developing world to write a feature on a theme suggested by the non-governmental organization that hosted their trip," the newspaper notes.

24 Nov 2011

Five ways pharmaceutical companies can address NTDs

In this Forbes opinion piece, journalist Sarika Bansal examines five ways in which pharmaceutical companies can address neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), including creating cross-sectorial research partnerships for neglected diseases; joining patent pools for neglected diseases; donating drugs for neglected diseases; creating facilities dedicated to neglected disease research; and allowing scientists to work on neglected disease, both formally and informally.

24 Nov 2011

Four-year project aims to boost kala-azar elimination efforts in India, Bangladesh

In this post in the Global Health Technologies Coalition's "Breakthroughs" blog, Elena Pantjushenko, a communications associate for GHTC member OneWorld Health (OWH), profiles a "comprehensive four-year project to boost kala-azar (leishmaniasis) elimination strategies in India and Bangladesh, where the concentration of disease burden is among the world's highest."

24 Nov 2011

Deadly outbreak of acute watery diarrhea spreads through Horn of Africa; Djibouti hit especially hard

"Recurring drought, insufficient hygiene and ongoing regional conflict are driving a deadly outbreak of acute watery diarrhea (AWD) across the Horn of Africa, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) reported" on Tuesday, the U.N. News Centre writes.

24 Nov 2011

Bloomberg examines Trans-Pacific Partnership trade initiative and potential impact to U.S. global efforts to tackle HIV

Bloomberg examines how a trade agreement being negotiated by leaders of the nine Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) countries -- Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, and the United States -- could potentially make it more difficult for people in TPP nations to get new generic drugs and may impact U.S.-led global efforts to tackle HIV/AIDS as outlined by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a recent speech at the NIH.

24 Nov 2011

Balanced approach needed to fight cholera outbreaks in Haiti

Jason Nickerson, a respiratory therapist and doctoral candidate in Population Health at the University of Ottawa, in this Global Health Hub post, recounts recent controversy surrounding "the health and humanitarian response to the earthquake and cholera outbreaks" in Haiti, noting tension "between the provision of [a cholera] vaccine as opposed to spending the money on improvements to water and sanitation" in the country.

23 Nov 2011

University of Rochester receives U.S. patent for HPV vaccine research

The University of Rochester has been awarded a U.S. patent for research essential to both human papillomavirus vaccines on the market.

23 Nov 2011

Accelr8 expands development plan for BACcel rapid diagnostic test

Accelr8 Technology Corporation announced that it successfully completed two technical feasibility studies for test methods that expand its BACcel rapid diagnostic test library and automation capabilities.

23 Nov 2011

U.N. says AIDS deaths decline for third successive year

The number of people dying of AIDS around the world declined last year for the third year in a row, at the same time that the fraction of people getting treatment for the infection reached almost 50 percent. Both facts are evidence that progress against the 30-year-old epidemic is gaining momentum, according to the United Nations' annual report on the global AIDS epidemic, released Monday.

23 Nov 2011

Panel discussion highlights USAID achievements on 50Th anniversary

This post in the Malaria Policy Center blog summarizes a panel discussion, titled "Partnerships for Global Health Success: Spotlight on USAID," that took place Monday in Washington, D.C., and was sponsored by Research!America.

23 Nov 2011