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Australia sees early rise in flu cases

Australia is gripped with a fourfold increase in the number of people suffering flu. This rise is even before the usual peak season in August and September. Already nearly 8,000 cases have been reported compared with about 2,000 at the same time last year. The increase has disproportionately affected Queensland, NSW and South Australia. In January and February more than 1,700 people were recorded with flu, compared with fewer than 300 the year before.

20 Jul 2011

MDL announces HPV-16 Status reflex test

Medical Diagnostic Laboratories, L.L.C. (MDL) is a CLIA certified infectious disease laboratory which specializes in high-complexity, state-of-the-art, automated DNA-based molecular analyses.

20 Jul 2011

Software uses Twitter to track dengue outbreaks in Brazil

The New Scientist reports on a software program that is being used "to identify a high correlation between the time and place where people tweet they have dengue and the official statistics for where the disease appears each season."

20 Jul 2011

Final SVR results from Pharmasset's PSI-7977 phase 2b study in HCV

Pharmasset, Inc. announced today the final sustained virologic response (SVR) results from its phase 2b PROTON study with PSI-7977 dosed once daily in combination with peginterferon alfa 2a and ribavirin in subjects with hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 2 or 3 who have not been treated previously.

20 Jul 2011

MDI, Eldan partner to distribute Detect-Ready MRSA Panel in Israel

Molecular Detection Inc. (MDI), a company developing Detect-Ready tests designed to increase the speed and accuracy of infectious disease diagnosis, and life sciences and diagnostics distributor Eldan, a part on the Neopharm Group, today announced that they have entered into an exclusive agreement for distribution of MDI's Detect-Ready MRSA Panel in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

20 Jul 2011

Kool Smiles inaugurates new Elkhart office to offer dental services

Kool Smiles, a leading dental health provider for children and adults, has opened a new office in Elkhart. Kool Smiles of Elkhart, which began seeing patients on July 11, puts quality dental care within reach of even more previously underserved area residents.

20 Jul 2011

Shah discusses importance of partnerships in global health

The Malaria Policy Center's "Malaria Watch" blog describes comments made by USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah during a recent global health community call. During the call, Shah "stressed that to solve global health issues there needs to be shared 'responsibility across all partners.' Partnerships help 'save money, and saving money can save lives,'" the blog notes.

20 Jul 2011

Three-drug regimen more effective for treating H. pylori infection

Helicobacter pylori, the bacterium known to cause peptic ulcers, is also the primary cause of gastric cancer, which is a leading cancer killer globally.

20 Jul 2011

New trends in HIV cure research presented at IAS 2011

Researchers speaking on the final day of the 6th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention (IAS 2011) have focused on the growing interest in the scientific path to an HIV Cure.

20 Jul 2011

IAS conference opens with push for treatment as prevention

The 6th International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention taking place in Rome this week "started optimistically as the hype surrounding the use of antiretroviral treatment to prevent HIV infection gained momentum. But the focus of much discussion … will undoubtedly be on how to transform the recent promising research findings into workable policy," PlusNews reports.

20 Jul 2011

Papua New Guinea government stepping down as Global Fund grant principal recipient

Following an audit last year by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria that found Papua New Guinea's National Department of Health (NDOH) "had not complied with grant guidelines and some $7 million had been misdirected," the government is stepping down as the principal recipient (PR) of Global Fund grants in order to "improve its response," IRIN reports.

20 Jul 2011

Raw eggs are not safe for consumption under any circumstances

A flurry of Internet sites are touting raw egg drinks or shakes as "primal and powerful," with others suggesting uncooked eggs be blended with vanilla or avocado for a tasty, healthy snack and insisting that the connection between raw eggs and salmonella is a myth.

20 Jul 2011

Janssen presents EDURANT 96-week Phase 3 trial data at International AIDS Society Conference

Janssen Therapeutics, Division of Janssen Products, LP, presented today 96-week findings from two pivotal Phase 3 clinical trials, known as ECHO and THRIVE, comparing the efficacy, safety and virology profile of its non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor EDURANT tablets versus efavirenz (EFV) in antiretroviral treatment-naive, HIV-1-infected adults.

20 Jul 2011

UNC receives $3M federal grant for AIDS research

Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill schools of medicine and pharmacy have been awarded a $3 million federal grant to develop and test a new generation of treatments aimed at preventing sexual transmission of HIV to uninfected individuals.

19 Jul 2011

EPA to expand Cooperative Research And Development Agreement with NanoLogix

NanoLogix, a biotechnology innovator in the rapid detection and identification of live-cell bacteria and microorganisms, announced today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) intends to expand its Cooperative Research And Development Agreement (CRADA) with NanoLogix to include additional water-borne pathogens.

19 Jul 2011

Swaziland's King Mswati urges men to get circumcised to prevent HIV infection

Swaziland's King Mswati III on Friday called on men in the kingdom to get circumcised to help reduce their risk of contracting HIV, Agence France-Presse reports. "Urging his nation to 'take care of your lives - stay away from activities that could give you the disease,' the king struck a very different note from his pronouncement to parliament a decade ago that HIV-positive people should be 'branded and sterilized,'" the news agency writes.

19 Jul 2011

UNAIDS' Sidibe calls for increased access to HIV drugs at IAS conference opening

UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe on Sunday at the opening of the 6th International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention in Rome "called ... for an increase in access to drugs that help treat or prevent the spread of the disease, saying it is 'morally wrong' to keep millions of people off lifesaving medication," the Associated Press/Boston Globe reports.

19 Jul 2011

Mayo Clinic licenses M. tuberculosis complex speciation test from QIAGEN

Mayo Clinic has licensed patent rights from QIAGEN to enable Mayo Medical Laboratories to offer an M. tuberculosis complex speciation test. The test expands Mayo Medical Laboratories' current offering for tuberculosis testing, which already includes M. tuberculosis complex culture, molecular identification and drug susceptibility testing.

From QIAGEN Manchester Limited 19 Jul 2011

HIV vaccine discovery requires 'open mind'

In response to Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson's July 5 piece in which he highlighted several scientific "breakthroughs" in the search for an AIDS vaccine, Robert Gallo, director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, writes in a Post letter to the editor, "Although Mr. Gerson correctly noted that these discoveries are unrelated, he misperceived their relative significance."

19 Jul 2011

Anti-malaria drug provides key insight into potential treatments for autoimmune diseases

In a study published recently in the journal Science Signaling Van Andel Research Institute (VARI) scientists demonstrate on the molecular level how the anti-malaria drug chloroquine represses inflammation, which may provide a blueprint for new strategies for treating inflammation and a multitude of autoimmune diseases such as arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and certain cancers.

19 Jul 2011