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Global Fund releases additional audits as part of internal investigation

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria on Tuesday posted the results of several internal audits, showing "that 12 more probes had turned up an additional $20 million of mismanagement, alleged fraud and misspending," the Associated Press/CBSNews.com reports.

4 Nov 2011

'Medicine that grows' confronts antibiotics resistance

It's been called "the trots," "Montezuma's Revenge," "the runs" and worse. But no matter the name, when it strikes, victims wish for a medicine that could go straight to the offending bacteria to quickly knock it dead.

4 Nov 2011

Inhibitex third quarter revenue increases to $1.3 million

Inhibitex, Inc. today announced its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2011 and provided an update on several recent corporate developments, including top-line safety and antiviral data from the first cohort in its ongoing clinical trial designed to evaluate higher doses of INX-189, an oral nucleotide polymerase inhibitor, being developed to treat chronic infections caused by hepatitis C virus (HCV), administered as monotherapy or in combination with ribavirin for seven days.

4 Nov 2011

Kenyan company receives WHO prequalification for generic ARV

"The cost of HIV/AIDS medicine is expected to drop by 30 percent in Kenya, enabling more people to access life-prolonging drugs, after the World Health Organization (WHO) gave the green light to a local company manufacturing generics, The Star newspaper reported on Wednesday," AlertNet reports.

4 Nov 2011

Investment in USAID has saved millions of lives, is critical for U.S. security

In this Politico opinion piece, Brian Atwood and colleagues, all former USAID administrators in previous Democratic or Republican administrations and current advisers to the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, write, "Over the last half-century, USAID has had an extraordinary record of accomplishment. Using less than one percent of the U.S. budget annually, the American people have demonstrated their deepest values through USAID programs, saving tens of millions of lives worldwide with immunization programs, oral rehydration therapy, treatment for HIV/AIDS and work on other diseases."

4 Nov 2011

Important to keep obstacles to malaria control in mind as research moves forward

In a post in the Center for Strategic & International Studies' "Smart Global Health" blog, Julia Nagel, web and social media assistant at the Global Health Policy Center, examines "the obstacles that global malaria control efforts face," writing that "eradicating malaria is complex and difficult" because "there are four species of human malaria" that "respond differently to medicines, exhibit drug resistance in different ways, and most importantly, make finding a fool-proof vaccine against all malaria nearly impossible."

4 Nov 2011

Global Fund, China agree to cut $95M from grants for health programs in the country

"The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria announced on Monday that it will withhold $95 million from the $270 million in grants it had planned to give China" after "months of discussion between the charity and Chinese officials," China Daily reports.

4 Nov 2011

Healthcare workers who wear gloves less likely to wash their hands

Healthcare workers who wear gloves while treating patients are much less likely to clean their hands before and after patient contact, according to a study published in the December issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.

4 Nov 2011

Financial investment, progress in HIV/AIDS treatment must be protected by international patent law

In this Hill opinion piece, John Castellani, CEO and president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, writes, "Over the past three decades, more than 30 treatments have been approved to treat HIV/AIDS," but he adds, "While this is remarkable progress, it's not enough."

4 Nov 2011

Media coverage of potential link between hormonal contraception, HIV risk needed more 'critical thinking'

In a Nature News opinion piece, James Shelton, science adviser for USAID's Bureau for Global Health, discusses media coverage of recent findings from the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases showing that women's use of hormonal contraception (HC) may increase the risk of HIV acquisition or transmission.

4 Nov 2011

PlusNews reports on importance of cost-effectiveness of ZAMSTAR study for policymakers, donors amid economic downturn

PlusNews reports on the results of the Zambia-South Africa TB and AIDS Reduction (ZAMSTAR) study released on Monday at the International Lung Health Conference in Lille, France, which show that "home-based tuberculosis (TB) education and testing reduced community TB prevalence by about 20 percent."

4 Nov 2011

Measles virus develops a strategy of diabolic elegance

Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered why measles, perhaps the most contagious viral disease in the world, spreads so quickly. The virus emerges in the trachea of its host, provoking a cough that fills the air with particles ready to infect the next host. The findings may also help in the fight against ovarian, breast and lung cancers.

3 Nov 2011

Study outlines evolution of malaria, leishmaniasis and trypanosomiasis

One of the most comprehensive analyses yet done of the ancient history of insect-borne disease concludes for the first time that malaria is not only native to the New World, but it has been present long before humans existed and has evolved through birds and monkeys.

3 Nov 2011

EBV vaccine could prevent mononucleosis and cancers linked to virus

In a new article from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and Harold Varmus, M.D., director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), join Gary Nabel, M.D., Ph.D., director of NIAID's Vaccine Research Center, and Jeffrey Cohen, M.D., chief of NIAID's Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, in summarizing a recent meeting of experts who gathered to map directions toward an EBV vaccine.

3 Nov 2011

Synthetic artemisinin discovery could make malaria treatments more affordable, accessible

"Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, and the biotech start-up Amyris have developed a process to manufacture artemisinin, a crucial ingredient in first-line malaria drugs that until now had to be extracted from a natural crop called sweet wormwood," PBS NewsHour reports.

3 Nov 2011

UC Merced professor designs powerful chemical inhibitor against HIV

In a significant step toward reducing the threat of HIV, UC Merced Professor Patricia LiWang has designed what may be the most effective chemical inhibitor against infection of the virus.

3 Nov 2011

Nearly half of pregnant women in Southern China's poor areas do not get tested for syphilis, study shows

"Nearly half of pregnant women do not get tested for syphilis in poor areas of southern China where the sexually transmitted disease has seen a resurgence, researchers said Wednesday" in a study published in the WHO's November 2011 Bulletin, the Associated Press/Washington Post reports.

3 Nov 2011

New version of chitosan effective in capturing flu virus

With flu season just around the corner, scientists are reporting development of a new material for the fiber in face masks, air conditioning filters and air cleaning filters that captures influenza viruses before they can get into people's eyes, noses and mouths and cause infection. The report on the fiber appears in ACS' journal Biomacromolecules.

3 Nov 2011

IP-K and Sanofi form new HBV research collaboration

One of the most common and serious infectious diseases, Hepatitis B, is to be targeted in a new collaborative venture between the internationally-renowned translational research institute, Institut Pasteur Korea (IP-K), and the Korean arm of the leading global healthcare company, Sanofi-Aventis Korea. The goal is to develop and validate a high throughput assay to screen IP-K's chemical libraries for novel compounds that can be developed as new drugs.

3 Nov 2011

Final results from Medivir's TMC435 phase IIb study on genotype-1 hepatitis C

Medivir AB, a research-based speciality pharmaceutical company focused on infectious diseases, today announces final results from the ASPIRE study.

3 Nov 2011

Disease/Infection News

Global Fund releases additional audits as part of internal investigation

'Medicine that grows' confronts antibiotics resistance

Inhibitex third quarter revenue increases to $1.3 million

Kenyan company receives WHO prequalification for generic ARV

Investment in USAID has saved millions of lives, is critical for U.S. security

Important to keep obstacles to malaria control in mind as research moves forward

Global Fund, China agree to cut $95M from grants for health programs in the country

Healthcare workers who wear gloves less likely to wash their hands

Financial investment, progress in HIV/AIDS treatment must be protected by international patent law

Media coverage of potential link between hormonal contraception, HIV risk needed more 'critical thinking'

PlusNews reports on importance of cost-effectiveness of ZAMSTAR study for policymakers, donors amid economic downturn

Measles virus develops a strategy of diabolic elegance

Study outlines evolution of malaria, leishmaniasis and trypanosomiasis

EBV vaccine could prevent mononucleosis and cancers linked to virus

Synthetic artemisinin discovery could make malaria treatments more affordable, accessible

UC Merced professor designs powerful chemical inhibitor against HIV

Nearly half of pregnant women in Southern China's poor areas do not get tested for syphilis, study shows

New version of chitosan effective in capturing flu virus

IP-K and Sanofi form new HBV research collaboration

Final results from Medivir's TMC435 phase IIb study on genotype-1 hepatitis C

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