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Health Canada grants medical device licence to Gen-Probe's PANTHER system

Gen-Probe Incorporated announced today that Health Canada has granted the Company a medical device license for the PANTHER system, a fully automated and integrated molecular testing system designed with the flexibility to handle a wide range of testing needs.

23 Aug 2011

Isconova expands Matrix M collaboration with Genocea to treat infectious diseases

Isconova AB, a leading international vaccine adjuvant company and Genocea Biosciences, Inc., a vaccine discovery and development company pioneering a new class of T cell‐based vaccines, today announced the expansion of their collaboration granting Genocea the right to use Isconova's Matrix M in vaccines targeting two additional diseases.

23 Aug 2011

Vertex receives Health Canada approval for INCIVEK to treat hepatitis C

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated today announced that Health Canada has approved INCIVEK tablets for a broad group of people with genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C with compensated liver disease, including cirrhosis.

23 Aug 2011

New open access journal on malaria

A post in the "Malaria Matters" blog announces "a new open access journal on malaria: Malaria Chemotherapy, Control and Elimination," which "has been recently launched by Ashdin Publishing."

22 Aug 2011

New report on adverse effects of vaccines

Vaccines have dramatically reduced illnesses and deaths due to infectious diseases over the past century. However, no pharmaceutical product is completely without risk and some people have experienced health problems associated with immunization.

22 Aug 2011

Should we be screening blood for hepatisi G?

Hepatitis G virus was identified in 1995. Some little research was carried out on the virus and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) declared it a non-harmful virus in 1997. Researchers in Saudi Arabia, writing in the International Journal of Immunological Studies present evidence to suggest that this may have been the wrong decision.

22 Aug 2011

No effective treatment yet for acute lung injury

Patients can essentially drown in their own fluids when trauma and infection prompt blood vessels to leak, flooding millions of air sacs in their lungs.

22 Aug 2011

Micro-organisms hide themselves from immune defences

That micro-organisms have a great capacity to vary their surface structure is well known. It is one of the reasons why it is so difficult to develop vaccines against HIV and malaria, and why new influenza vaccines have to be produced every year. But it seems that these micro-organisms are also able to completely avoid activating a strong immune response in the person attacked.

22 Aug 2011

Tiny molecule could bind to B cell EB12 receptor and prevent cancer

Infection with Epstein Barr means that the B cells, which are the primary memory cells of the immune system, are hi-jacked. When the virus has penetrated, researchers observe an excess of a special bio-antenna, a receptor known as EB12, suddenly sprouting from the surface of the B cells. But why they do so remains a mystery.

22 Aug 2011

Research uncovers natural defense mechanism that inactivates C. diff toxins

Groundbreaking research encompassing Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and University Hospitals Case Medical Center, has uncovered a natural defense mechanism that is capable of inactivating the toxin that spreads Clostridium difficile, or C. diff, an increasingly common bacterial infection in hospitals and long-term care settings.

22 Aug 2011

Researchers develop new methods to identify potential sources of food contamination

Unwanted bacteria, yeasts and moulds can cause major problems for the food industry as well as consumers. Norwegian researchers have developed new methods to identify potential sources of contamination.

22 Aug 2011

Scientists discover key defense mechanism against C. difficile infection

Researchers have discovered a key mechanism used by intestinal cells to defend themselves against one of the world's most common hospital-acquired bacterial infections - a mechanism they think they can exploit to produce a therapy to protect against the effects of the antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

22 Aug 2011

Radiolabeled protein reveals presence of S. aureus endocarditis in mouse model

A novel imaging probe developed by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators may make it possible to diagnose accurately a dangerous infection of the heart valves.

22 Aug 2011

Narcolepsy more prevalent in China during April

New research shows that the occurrence of narcolepsy in China is highly correlated to a seasonal pattern, with onset most frequent in April.

22 Aug 2011

Winter airway infections appear to trigger narcolepsy: Study

The onset of narcolepsy appears to follow seasonal patterns of H1N1 and other upper airway infections, according to a new study of patients in China that was led by Stanford University School of Medicine narcolepsy expert Emmanuel Mignot, MD.

22 Aug 2011

New CDI therapeutic approach may offer treatment for other bacterial diseases

Researchers at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have discovered a molecular process by which the body can defend against the effects of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), pointing the way to a promising new approach for treating an intestinal disease that has become more common, more severe and harder to cure in recent years.

22 Aug 2011

Hospital roundup: Catholic facilities losing nuns' leadership; Georgia infection rates; new VA system for Louisiana

In 1968, nuns or priests served as chief executives of 770 of the country's 796 Catholic hospitals, according to the Catholic Health Association. Today, they preside over 8 of 636 hospitals. ... The leadership shift has stirred angst in many Catholic hospitals about whether the values imparted by the nuns, concerning the treatment of both patients and employees, can withstand bottom-line forces without their day-to-day vigilance.

22 Aug 2011

AHF: Gilead's campaign for FDA approval of Truvada leads to black marketing in Florida

Today AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) decried the fact that the recent campaign by Gilead Sciences Inc. to obtain approval by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration for Truvada as PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) has led to a "black market" for the drug in Florida.

20 Aug 2011

Annual oral rabies vaccination program in eight western Pennsylvania counties

The annual oral rabies vaccination program, which helps control the spread of rabies in wild animals, is underway in eight western Pennsylvania counties.

20 Aug 2011

Disease mapping could help control and eliminate loiasis, other NTDs, study says

In this End the Neglect blog post, Linda Diep, communications and grassroots assistant with the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases, discusses how "mapping of Loa Loa Filariasis could help in the innovation of new strategies to eliminate and control onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis (LF), according to a recently released article from the open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases."

20 Aug 2011