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Three 'critical issues' for Global Fund to consider to ensure 'further success'

While the recent report from a High-Level Independent Review Panel of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, "and the corresponding decisions of the Board, mark an important step towards the necessary improvements the Global Fund must make to fulfill its vital mandate in the coming decade and beyond," "the report does not provide direction or solutions on certain critical issues that will define the further success and impact of the Global Fund," Richard Feachem, founding executive director of the Global Fund, writes in a Lancet commentary.

19 Nov 2011

Cuts to U.S. global health spending would mean 'stark future' for millions

Disregarding advances "that have the potential to significantly reduce the death toll from HIV/AIDS, malaria, malnutrition, and other insidious killers, ... both the House and the Senate are pushing significant cuts to the 2012 Obama request for global health funding," Matthew Spitzer, president of the U.S. section of Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres, writes in an opinion piece on the Huffington Post's "Impact" blog.

19 Nov 2011

GPIU, prostate biopsy side study takes place until end of November

Qualified urologists and urology departments collaborating with microbiologists and infectious disease specialists are encouraged to join the new Global Prevalence Study of Infections in Urology (GPIU) with the last five calendared dates taking place this week and by the end of this month.

19 Nov 2011

Recent scientific progress in developing new HIV/AIDS interventions

Kaitlin Christenson, coalition director for the Global Health Technologies Coalition, "reflects on recent progress made by the scientific community in developing new interventions to combat HIV/AIDS as a result of leadership from the U.S. government" in this ONE blog post.

19 Nov 2011

HHS, CCSC to recognize healthcare professionals with excellence in preventing HAIs

Teams of critical care professionals and healthcare institutions with a record of reducing or eliminating healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are encouraged to submit their best practices to a national awards program.

19 Nov 2011

U.S., U.N. food agencies downgrade three Somalia famine zones to emergency status

U.S. and U.N. food agencies on Friday said three famine zones in Somalia had been downgraded to emergency status, as aid had reduced death rates, but "three other areas -- including the refugee communities of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu -- remain in the famine zone," the Associated Press/CBSNews reports.

19 Nov 2011

Scientists solve mystery behind why people with defective hemoglobin do not contract malaria

Why do people with a hereditary mutation of the red blood pigment hemoglobin not contract severe malaria? Scientists in the group headed by Prof. Michael Lanzer of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Heidelberg University Hospital have now solved this mystery.

19 Nov 2011

New class of malaria drugs could be used as both prevention, treatment, study shows

"A group of researchers led by Novartis AG have discovered novel malaria compounds that may prove to be more efficient than currently available treatments and could be used as a prophylactic," the Wall Street Journal reports.

19 Nov 2011

Sony Corporation, Global Fund enter into partnership to implement behavior change projects

"Sony Corporation and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria have entered into a partnership for the implementation of behavior change projects, in which Sony provides state of the art equipment and movies and the Global Fund ensures it gets to agencies best able to reach communities most in need," a Global Fund press release states, noting, "This partnership is the first pilot case that combines pro bono and in-kind contribution."

19 Nov 2011

Aid targeting high mortality diseases 'lays the groundwork' for improving primary health care services

"In recent years, initiatives such as the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria have helped rein in some of the biggest scourges," Paul Farmer, co-founder of Partners in Health and chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, writes in a Washington Post opinion piece.

19 Nov 2011

GAVI Alliance to fund roll-out of vaccines against cervical cancer, rubella in developing countries

The GAVI Alliance "has agreed to fund the roll-out of vaccines against cervical cancer in developing countries, offering protection against a disease that kills one woman every two minutes," Reuters reports.

19 Nov 2011

UVA develops new and faster method to track superbugs

University of Virginia Health System researchers are the first in the world to develop a new and faster method to track major infection-causing "superbugs" - a major key in preventing the spread of deadly infections.

19 Nov 2011

Abbott receives FDA approval for new Chagas assay

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved the first test for use as an additional, more specific test on human serum or plasma specimens found to be positive for antibodies to Trypanosoma cruzi.

19 Nov 2011

HVTN debunks top 10 myths about HIV vaccine research

Dec. 1 is World AIDS Day, and in commemoration of the occasion, the HIV Vaccine Trials Network, headquartered at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, debunks the top 10 myths about HIV vaccine research.

18 Nov 2011

Resistance of starved bacteria can be blocked

Many infections, even those caused by antibiotic-sensitive bacteria, resist treatment. This paradox has vexed physicians for decades, and makes some infections impossible to cure.

18 Nov 2011

Efforts to end AIDS could also reduce TB burden with proper funding

In response to Michael Gerson's November 11 column in which he said the end of AIDS is possible because of combination prevention and treatment innovations, David Bryden, the Stop TB advocacy officer at RESULTS, writes in a Washington Post letter to the editor, "Another benefit of [HIV] treatment is that it sharply reduces deaths from tuberculosis [TB], which is the primary killer of people living with HIV/AIDS."

18 Nov 2011

Potential new ways to design vaccines, antibiotics

A University of Louisville scientist has determined for the first time how the bacterium that causes Legionnaires' disease manipulates our cells to generate the amino acids it needs to grow and cause infection and inflammation in the lungs.

18 Nov 2011

Inovio announces results from SynCon avian influenza vaccine Phase I study

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc., which is advancing synthetic vaccines to fight cancers and infectious diseases, announced today that a single intradermal (ID) electroporation boost of its SynCon avian influenza vaccine generated HAI titers against six different, unmatched strains of H5N1 - a distinct new clinical achievement on the global research community's path to develop universal influenza vaccines.

18 Nov 2011

Multi-drug resistant bacteria widespread in Europe, report says

Multi-drug resistant bacteria "are increasing their grip in Europe with rates of drug resistance in one type of bacteria reaching 50 percent in the worst-hit countries, health officials said Thursday," Reuters reports.

18 Nov 2011

Doctors, aid workers warn of disease threats to displaced persons in Somalia

Inter Press Service examines how doctors and aid workers in and around Mogadishu, Somalia, "are warning that famine victims in internally displaced camps have become vulnerable to contagious diseases like cholera and measles, as conditions here are ripe for an outbreak."

18 Nov 2011