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New GHI research examines conflicts between donor and recipient countries

In the early 2000s, the international aid community started to fund health programs through Global Health Initiatives (GHIs) which provide aid and support for tackling infectious diseases, and for implementing immunization programs against childhood diseases. However priorities set by GHIs and by governments are not always the same.

4 Jul 2011

Researchers use clever technique to look at in vivo virus-bacterium interactions

Viruses are the most abundant parasites on Earth. Well known viruses, such as the flu virus, attack human hosts, while viruses such as the tobacco mosaic virus infect plant hosts.

2 Jul 2011

Science should inform global AIDS policy

Thirty years have passed since the first reported case of AIDS, and "we now have an unprecedented opportunity, based on solid scientific data, to control and ultimately end the AIDS pandemic," after decades of the idea being "a distant aspiration because we lacked sufficient evidence-based tools to convert the hope to reality," Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, writes in a Science editorial.

2 Jul 2011

Infected astrocytes can cause neuroAIDS

A longstanding medical mystery - why so many people with HIV experience memory loss and other cognitive problems despite potent antiretroviral therapy - may have been solved by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University.

2 Jul 2011

CDC helping to detect and control disease outbreaks in other countries

"The Atlanta-based CDC is expanding its involvement in cases of illness overseas, from helping track the source of the highly toxic E. coli outbreak in Germany to homing in on the cause of cholera in the aftermath of Haiti's earthquake," in an effort "to stop epidemics before they can reach the United States," Reuters/MSNBC.com reports.

2 Jul 2011

TB fight must break from status quo

"As WHO prepares for reform, it is also adjusting to a new financially constrained environment. WHO's STOP TB department, like others, has to downsize and refocus its activities. With increasing demand for guidance, technical support, and capacity-building in countries, the STOP TB department and partnership will have to do more with less in the future," a Lancet editorial states.

2 Jul 2011

MSF website lends voice to TB patients

"Medecins Sans Frontieres, whose volunteer doctors run TB clinics around the world, has launched a website called TB and Me, where patients are regularly blogging on their experiences," Sarah Boseley writes in the Guardian's "Global Health Blog."

2 Jul 2011

Aquatain surface layer helps control malaria mosquitoes in rice-agro ecosystems

A thin, liquid layer applied on the surface of inundated rice paddies effectively kills malaria mosquito larvae without having an impact on other aquatic life. Rice yield remains the same and water was saved because of the anti-evaporative properties of the layer.

2 Jul 2011

Antimicrobial copper surfaces reduce risk of acquiring hospital infection

Professor Bill Keevil, Head of the Microbiology Group and Director of the Environmental Healthcare Unit at the University of Southampton, has presented research into the mechanism by which copper exerts its antimicrobial effect on antibiotic-resistant organisms at the World Health Organization's first International Conference on Prevention and Infection Control.

2 Jul 2011

Lancet seminar on tuberculosis

The current issue of the Lancet features a seminar on tuberculosis that "presents current perspectives on the scale of the epidemic, the pathogen and the host response, present and emerging methods for disease control, and the ongoing challenge of tuberculosis control in adults in the 21st century".

2 Jul 2011

European joint project to develop novel HCV vaccine based on nanotechnology

HCVAX is a European joint project that reaches out to develop a vaccine against hepatitis C based on nanotechnology. The German Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Braunschweig and its department "Vaccinology and Applied Microbiology" is now a part of the transnational consortium with researchers from Germany, France and Switzerland.

2 Jul 2011

Transnational research group examines how viruses evade immune system

Understanding the tricks and survival strategies of viruses to effectively combat them: That is the goal of the virtual institute VISTRIE that received its funding commitment today.

2 Jul 2011

Early infection with H. pylori protects against allergy-induced asthma

Infection with the gastric bacterium Helicobacter pylori provides reliable protection against allergy-induced asthma, immunologists from the University of Zurich have demonstrated in an animal model together with allergy specialists from the University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.

2 Jul 2011

Liverpool scientists receive medical innovation award for dental device

A team of scientists from the University of Liverpool has won an award for developing a device that can identify early tooth decay and plaque before it is visible to the human eye.

1 Jul 2011

Thai health authorities plan to screen residents of northeast region for deadly fluke worms

Health officials in northeast Thailand plan to screen residents over the age of 30 for fluke worms, which can be cured with one tablet of praziquantel or lead to fatal bile duct cancer in 10 to 20 years if left untreated, Reuters reports.

1 Jul 2011

'Exact correlation' between peacekeeper arrival and cholera outbreak in Haiti, study says

"Evidence 'strongly suggests' that a United Nations peacekeeping mission brought a cholera strain to Haiti that has killed thousands of people," according to a study conducted by a team of epidemiologists and physicians and published in the July issue of the CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, the Associated Press reports.

1 Jul 2011

Using American diplomacy to fight NTDs

In a PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases editorial, Peter Hotez of the Sabin Vaccine Institute outlines the diplomatic benefits of fighting NTDs in developing countries. He discusses why the State Department and USAID should be involved and outlines how they could work to expand NTD control.

1 Jul 2011

Study identifies key virus-sensing mechanism necessary for successful immune response against HIV

Although our body's defense mechanisms are usually capable of detecting and destroying many types of pathogens, some viruses are able to evade the immune system and make us sick. In particular, "retroviruses," such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), are notorious for eluding host immune defenses and causing disease.

1 Jul 2011

UAB receives $31.7M award for Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions

The University of Alabama at Birmingham has received a five-year, $31.7 million award for its Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions (ATN), formed in 2001 to respond to the HIV epidemic in youth.

1 Jul 2011

Researchers identify altered expression of endogenous retroviruses in BSE-infected macaques

Prion diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle are transmissible neurodegenerative diseases linked to the aggregation of the prion protein in the central nervous system.

1 Jul 2011