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New MRSA strains are not directly descended from old ones: Study

Check into a hospital and you run the risk of infection with a methicillin-resistant strain of the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. But present day MRSA might have been worse if it had descended directly from a 1950s version of the bug, according to a study co-authored by Barry N. Kreiswirth, PhD, a professor at the Public Health Research Institute of UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

27 Oct 2011

NPR's Tell Me More examines cholera in Haiti

NPR's Tell Me More host Michel Martin on Monday spoke with Louise Ivers of Partners In Health (PIH) in Haiti and journalist Jacqueline Charles of the Miami Herald about the ongoing cholera outbreak in Haiti.

27 Oct 2011

EC approves Pfizer's pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, Prevenar 13

Pfizer Inc. announced today that the European Commission has approved the Company's pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, Prevenar 13 (pneumococcal polysaccharide conjugate vaccine, for active immunization for the prevention of vaccine-type invasive disease caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae in adults aged 50 years and older.

27 Oct 2011

Cholera epidemic hits Western, Central Africa

"Western and central Africa are facing one of the biggest cholera epidemics in their history, the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said last month, in reporting that more than 85,000 cases of cholera have been registered since the beginning of the year, with nearly 2,500 deaths," according to the Guardian.

27 Oct 2011

Gilead, Bristol-Myers Squibb to develop and commercialize fixed-dose combination for HIV

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and Gilead Sciences, Inc. today announced a licensing agreement for Bristol-Myers Squibb to develop and commercialize a fixed-dose combination containing Bristol-Myers Squibb's protease inhibitor REYATAZ (atazanavir sulfate) and Gilead's cobicistat, a pharmacoenhancing or "boosting" agent that increases blood levels of certain HIV medicines to potentially allow for one pill once daily dosing.

27 Oct 2011

Report showcases high burden of NTDs in India, South Asia

The open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases on Tuesday "published a comprehensive report showcasing the disproportionately high burden of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in India and South Asia," the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Disease's "End the Neglect" blog reports.

27 Oct 2011

Children have fewer components that strengthen their immune defense than adults do

Children have fewer components that strengthen their immune defense than adults do. This is shown in a mapping of children's saliva that was carried out at Malmö University in Sweden. The study may have found an explanation for children's inability to fend off infections.

27 Oct 2011

IAC enters cooperative agreement with NCIRD

The Immunization Action Coalition (IAC), one of the nation's premier sources of immunization information, and the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are entering into a cooperative agreement that will distribute IAC's highly regarded publications to pediatricians, family physicians, and other healthcare professionals involved in providing immunization services. The award is for $1.4 million over five years.

27 Oct 2011

Study: pGJA-P/VAX vaccine shows promise against dental caries

In a report on a preclinical investigation titled "Flagellin Enhances Saliva IgA Response and Protection of Anti-caries DNA Vaccine," lead author Wei Shi, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his team of researchers demonstrate that anti-caries DNA vaccines, including pGJA-P/VAX, are promising for preventing dental caries. However, challenges remain because of the low immunogenicity of DNA vaccines.

27 Oct 2011

Study examines Global Fund's resource allocation decisions for HIV programs

A study published Wednesday in the Journal of the International AIDS Society assessed how the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria's "investments in HIV programs were targeted to key populations in relation to disease burden and national income," concluding, "There has been a sustained scale up of the Global Fund's support to HIV programs.

27 Oct 2011

New genomic approach can trace food-borne bacteria with unprecedented accuracy

With salmonella-tainted ground turkey sickening more than 100 people and listeria-contaminated cantaloupes killing 15 this year, the ability to detect outbreaks of food-borne illness and determine their sources has become a top public health priority.

27 Oct 2011

Drug-resistant infections may not contribute to higher surgical ICU death rates

The rates of antibiotic-resistant infections in the intensive care unit (ICU) have increased over the last decade. But new research from the University of Virginia suggests that surgical ICU death rates may, in fact, be declining and that drug-resistant infections are not likely to be a significant factor in overall mortality rates.

27 Oct 2011

Council on Foreign Relations releases interactive map tracking vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks

The Council on Foreign Relations' Global Health program "has released a user-friendly interactive map on the web that tracks 'Vaccine-Preventable Disease Outbreaks' around the world," Stewart Patrick, senior fellow and director of the council's Program on International Institutions and Global Governance, writes on the group's website.

27 Oct 2011

Disconnecting global AIDS from reproductive health stalled efforts to expand family planning services, UNFPA head says

Babatunde Osotimehin, the executive director of the U.N. Population Fund (UNPFA), said in an interview with the Guardian that "efforts to expand family planning services in the developing world stalled for a decade while global health organizations turned their energies to fighting HIV/AIDS. 'We made a mistake. We disconnected HIV from reproductive health. We should never have done that because it is part and parcel,' he said."

27 Oct 2011

Addressing barriers to successful immunization programs important while vaccine development progresses

Immunizations can be a cost-effective means of disease prevention, but "[t]o reach the fully realized stage of cost-effectiveness, ... it is vital to acknowledge -- and more importantly, address -- the barriers that often prevent them from either being as cheap or as widely used as needed," Forbes contributor Sarika Bansal writes in a Forbes opinion piece.

27 Oct 2011

HIV screening can detect more cases if focused on high risk groups

“Unexpectedly, non-targeted screening identified only a few new diagnoses, often already at late stages, and most newly diagnosed patients belonged to a high-risk group and had been tested previously,” Dr. Kayigan Wilson d'Almeida and colleagues from the Emergency Department HIV-Screening Group write in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

26 Oct 2011

Patients with HIV are not being screened enough for cancers: Study

According to a latest study finding presented at the Infectious Diseases Society of America 49th Annual Meeting, patients with HIV were less likely to have routine screening for breast, cervical and colon cancer compared with patients without HIV.

26 Oct 2011

Effectiveness of present flu vaccines may not be satisfactory: Study

According to a report published online October 25 in The Lancet Infectious Diseases there are gaps in the evidence for the effectiveness of licensed influenza vaccines in the United States. Individuals who are at risk for medical complications or people who are aged 65 years or older are especially affected by the gaps, the researchers write.

26 Oct 2011

Anti-HIV vaginal gel could also reduce genital herpes by half: Study

The study appears this week in the journal Cell Host & Microbe that tested the gel on women in South Africa (where the risk of HIV and herpes is great) found that the anti-HIV/AIDS drug tenofovir reduced herpes infections by 51% and HIV infections by 39%.

24 Oct 2011

The unvaccinated population contributing to the measles outbreak

As the US faces its largest outbreak of measles in 15 years - affecting 214 children so far – new research suggests too many unvaccinated U.S. children could be the reason. Experts speculate that unfounded fears regarding safety of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine leading to many children bring missed out could have led to this situation.

24 Oct 2011