Disease/Infection News

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Report estimates human impact of cuts to U.S. global health spending over next five years

"Thousands of lives and years of gains made against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria could be lost if proportional reductions are made to achieve the $1.2 trillion in spending reductions required by the Budget Control Act of 2011," according to a report issued on Monday by the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), the Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog reports.

19 Oct 2011

Cholera outbreak in West, Central Africa accelerated by increased migration, UNICEF official says

"More than 85,000 cases of cholera in West and Central Africa are making this one of the region's most severe epidemics in recent memory," VOA News reports. "Grant Leaity, UNICEF's chief of emergency operations for West and Central Africa, says the epidemic is due, in part, to a greater movement of people across the region," VOA writes, noting, "Three simultaneous cross-border outbreaks are affecting people in two dozen countries along the coast from Guinea, and in the Lake Chad basin to the West Congo basin and around Lake Tanganyika."

19 Oct 2011

Nearly one-third of all countries affected by malaria on course to eliminate disease, WHO report says

"Nearly a third of all countries affected by malaria are on course to eliminate the mosquito-borne disease over the next 10 years, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday ... in a progress report published by the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) partnership at the start of an international Malaria Forum conference in Seattle," Reuters reports.

19 Oct 2011

RTS,S vaccine reduces risk of severe malaria in African children

First results from a large-scale Phase III trial of RTS,S, published online today in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), show the malaria vaccine candidate to provide young African children with significant protection against clinical and severe malaria with an acceptable safety and tolerability profile.

19 Oct 2011

Malaria elimination could be a reality soon

Malaria – a mosquito borne illness kills more than 780,000 people a year worldwide. Nearly a third of all countries affected by malaria are on course to eliminate the mosquito-borne disease over the next 10 years, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.

18 Oct 2011

First results from phase 3 malaria vaccine candidate trial

18 Oct 2011

New promise of a malaria vaccine

New results published today in the New England Journal of Medicine about a large-scale Phase III trial conducted in seven African countries of the malaria vaccine candidate RTS,S deserve a hearty round of applause.

18 Oct 2011

Los Angeles Times examines polio eradication campaigns in Pakistan

The Los Angeles Times examines polio eradication campaigns in Pakistan, which is one of just four countries where the disease remains endemic.

18 Oct 2011

Differences in key metabolic enzyme levels linked to liver damage susceptibility

Differences in the levels of two key metabolic enzymes may explain why some people are more susceptible to liver damage, according to a study in the October 17 issue of The Journal of Cell Biology (www.jcb.org).

18 Oct 2011

Focusing on disease eradication rather than control 'can pay off'

"Work on malaria suggests that focusing on the science and technology required to eliminate a disease, rather than just control it, can pay off -- and that such approaches could be applied to other diseases," SciDev.Net Editor David Dickson writes in a SciDev.Net editorial.

18 Oct 2011

Rep. Lee asks Obama to take leadership role in fight against HIV/AIDS

According to the Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) on Thursday sent a letter to President Barack Obama asking for "his leadership in launching a renewed global effort to end the AIDS pandemic on World AIDS Day, December 1."

18 Oct 2011

New global atlas for malaria elimination

A new global atlas charts prospects for malaria elimination by offering the first full-color, detailed depiction of a disease now declining in many parts of the globe. The "Atlas of Malaria-Eliminating Countries" spotlights countries successfully moving toward eliminating the disease and provides a visual tool to help focus resources where they are needed most.

18 Oct 2011

Natroba effective against head lice and nits

ParaPRO, LLC, announced that researchers have presented data showing the effectiveness of Natroba (spinosad) Topical Suspension, 0.9% against head lice and nits following one treatment without nit combing. Those data about the pediculicide, derived from a naturally-occurring soil bacterium, were presented in a poster session on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011 at the American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference and Exhibition in Boston.

18 Oct 2011

Globe and Mail reports on death of Zambian HIV/AIDS advocate Winstone Zulu

Toronto's Globe and Mail reports on the death on Thursday of Winstone Zulu, an HIV/AIDS advocate from Zambia who lived with the virus for two decades. "His death has devastated the international community of AIDS activists," the newspaper writes.

18 Oct 2011

HSV1 drugs could slow progression of Alzheimer's disease

Antiviral drugs used to target the herpes virus could be effective at slowing the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD), a new study shows.

From The University of Manchester 18 Oct 2011

VEC and AMA release updated information guide, 'Vaccines and Teens'

This week at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Vaccine Education Center at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (VEC) and the American Medical Association released an updated information guide called Vaccines and Teens for parents and physicians, detailing the most current recommendations and information about critical immunizations for older children.

18 Oct 2011

New treatment approach for septic Listeria infection

Research underway at the Trudeau Institute could lead to new treatments for people sickened by Listeria and other sepsis-causing bacteria. Dr. Stephen Smiley's laboratory has published a study in the scientific journal Infection and Immunity that supports a new approach to treating these infections.

18 Oct 2011

FDA clears BioHelix IsoAmp HSV molecular diagnostic assay

BioHelix Corporation has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 510(k) clearance for the company's first molecular diagnostic assay, the IsoAmp HSV Assay. The diagnostic test is intended for the detection of Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV1 & HSV2) in genital and oral lesion specimens from symptomatic patients.

18 Oct 2011

Single approach to tackling NCDs, NTDs includes improving governance, strengthening health systems

In this "End the Neglect" blog post, Alanna Shaikh, a writer for U.N. Dispatch, follows up on her previous post in which she asserts that "there is a single approach that will help to fight both" non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), writing that in order to tackle both types of diseases "we can improve governance and we can strengthen health systems."

18 Oct 2011

Two genetic variants associated with increased susceptibility to severe dengue

Researchers in South East Asia have identified two genetic variants associated with increased susceptibility to severe dengue. The study, funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Agency for Science, Technology, and Research, Singapore, offers clues to how the body responds to dengue infection.

18 Oct 2011