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HSPH receives CDC grant to evaluate HIV combination prevention initiative in Botswana

A new four-year, $20 million grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will enable Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers to evaluate the impact and cost-effectiveness of a unique combination of HIV prevention strategies in Botswana.

22 Sep 2011

Archbishop Tutu calls on Obama to lead the world in expansion of HIV treatment

Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights advocate Archbishop Desmond Tutu writes in a Washington Post opinion piece that President Barack Obama "is in a position to make a game-changing impact on the war against AIDS" and he "should lead the world in a massive effort to expand access to treatment and rid humanity of AIDS -- the most devastating disease of our time."

22 Sep 2011

Early ART cost effectiveness in resource-poor settings

A study published in PLoS Medicine shows "that the new WHO guidelines for early [antiretroviral treatment (ART)] initiation can be cost-effective in resource-poor settings, information that should help policymakers in developing countries allocate their often limited resources," according to a PLoS press release.

22 Sep 2011

Cornell researchers identify how T. gondii controls host's immune system

Toxoplasma gondii parasites can invade your bloodstream, break into your brain and prompt behavioral changes from recklessness to neuroticism. These highly contagious protozoa infect more than half the world's population, and most people's immune systems never purge the intruders.

22 Sep 2011

Celebrating partnerships that lead to sustainable, locally managed HIV/AIDS response efforts

Mary Fanning, South Africa's country coordinator for PEPFAR, writes in a New Age guest column, "In the fight against HIV/AIDS, this is a time of hope. It's also a time to celebrate the partnerships that are advancing this work and to recommit to a plan to ensure prevention, treatment and care for those infected and affected is sustainable and locally managed."

22 Sep 2011

Theraclone initiates TCN-032 Phase 1 trial in influenza A

Theraclone Sciences, Inc., a therapeutic antibody discovery and development company, announced today first dosing of subjects in a Phase 1 clinical trial of TCN-032, a broadly protective, fully human monoclonal antibody for the treatment of influenza A virus.

22 Sep 2011

Early ART can be cost-effective and decrease mortality in HIV patients

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College and GHESKIO have shown that early treatment of HIV not only saves lives but is also cost-effective. Results are published in today's edition of PLoS Medicine.

22 Sep 2011

Three Johns Hopkins scientists receive NIH Director's New Innovator Awards

A pioneer in the field of epigenetics who has been spearheading the use of genome-wide technology for epigenetics research, a researcher who has revealed a weakness in the tuberculosis bacterium that makes it more susceptible to antibiotics, and a scientist who seeks to revolutionize new methods for toxicological testing to improve human health and reduce animal testing have received Director's Awards from the National Institutes of Health.

22 Sep 2011

NIH to honor IGB faculty member with innovator award

Douglas A. Mitchell, IGB faculty member in the Mining Microbial Genomes for Novel Antibiotics research theme and assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry, is a recipient of the 2011 National Institutes of Health Director's New Innovator Award. The award recognizes bold ideas from some of the nation's most promising new scientists.

22 Sep 2011

Viewpoints: Progressives relish fight for 'shared sacrifice;' Desmond Tutu seeks to renew battle against HIV

To get our books in order, Obama would raise taxes on the rich while gaining savings by ending the wars abroad and reducing Medicare and Medicaid's unnecessarily high payments to drug companies. Republicans rise in defense of tax cuts for the wealthy and insist that deficit reduction come solely from cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and other "entitlements." The president stands for shared sacrifice; the Republicans for sheltering the privileged few. Progressives will have no problem standing with the president in this fight.

22 Sep 2011

GAVI Alliance cited as “game changer” in international development aid

The heads of the US and UK governments’ aid programmes have recognised the GAVI Alliance as offering ”game changing” lessons in the fight against global poverty.

21 Sep 2011

People should be concerned about flu every year

As temperatures begin to cool, coughing and sneezing inevitably follow. So begins flu season in the United States — and preventable deaths, says David Kimberlin, M.D., University of Alabama at Birmingham professor of pediatrics and president-elect of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society.

21 Sep 2011

Two IGB faculty members recognized as University Scholars

Paul Kenis and James Slauch have been named as University Scholars, a program created to recognize the university's most talented teachers, scholars and researchers.

21 Sep 2011

Converting genetic data into biomedical knowledge a true challenge for statisticians

Within a decade, a combination of advanced measurement techniques and statistics will enable scientists to develop methods to diagnose serious diseases caused by genetic defects. Ten years after that, there may be medicines available to repair these defects.

21 Sep 2011

New FDA-approved antiviral drugs offer treatment hope for hepatitis C

The Methodist Hospital in Houston is excited to share significant news for patients who need treatment for hepatitis C genotype 1, a viral infection that causes liver inflammation that can lead to diminished liver function or symptoms for liver failure.

21 Sep 2011

UTHealth doctoral student receives ASM, NIH research fellowships for E. coli study

A doctoral student at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) has been awarded two research fellowships to study the spread of E. coli, a hard-to-treat bacterium that can lead to food poisoning.

21 Sep 2011

ASU scientists receive USDA grants to combat food-related illness

Roughly 1 in six Americans are sickened every year by food-borne ailments, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The effects of these illnesses range from acutely unpleasant to lethal, and the problem may be getting worse, as our food supply becomes more global, with an increasing number of antibiotic-resistant pathogens.

21 Sep 2011

Bird flu strikes Eastern India yet again as culling operations begin

On Tuesday, the federal government in India announced that it had ordered poultry farms in the eastern part of the country to cull chickens and destroy eggs to rein in an new outbreak of bird flu.

21 Sep 2011

Polio in China

Polio has spread to China for the first time since 1999 after being imported from Pakistan, the World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed. It said a strain of polio (WPV1) found in China was genetically linked with the type now circulating in Pakistan. At least seven cases have now been confirmed in China's western Xinjiang province, which borders Pakistan.

21 Sep 2011

Pakistan officials move to contain dengue epidemic that has infected thousands

"On top of a raging insurgency and devastating seasonal floods, Pakistan is reeling from a particularly acute outbreak of dengue fever that has left local authorities scrambling to contain the epidemic" and has put a strain on the health care system, the Washington Post reports, adding that the disease "has already infected thousands across the country and killed as many as two dozen people."

21 Sep 2011