Disease/Infection News

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Showing PEPFAR effectiveness and value important in face of budget negotiations

With "looming budget cuts for FY2012 and recent reports about the decline in AIDS funding from the USG in FY2010 relative to FY2009 ... now, more than ever, PEPFAR needs to better demonstrate the effectiveness and value of its programs," Nandini Oomman, director of the HIV/AIDS Monitor at the Center for Global Development (CGD), writes in the CGD's "Global Health Policy" blog.

24 Aug 2011

Bacteria tweak their genes and proteins to gain strength

Scientists have discovered that bacteria like E. coli and Salmonella have a sneaky way of making minor alterations to their genes to boost their chances for infection.

24 Aug 2011

Researchers exploring how microwaves may be used to treat malaria

The New York Times describes a research proposal to investigate the use of low-level microwaves to treat malaria that has received a $1 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

24 Aug 2011

Toddlers sensitive to house dust mites at higher risk of developing asthma

Wheezy toddlers who have a sensitivity to house dust mites are more at risk of developing asthma by the age of 12, a University of Melbourne led study has shown.

24 Aug 2011

HIV-positive pregnant women across Africa face discrimination

HIV-positive women across Africa are facing discrimination, with many "say[ing] they have been pressured – even forced – not to have children because people assume they will infect their babies," PRI's The World reports. "Across the continent, there have been organized efforts to prevent HIV-positive women from having children," The World writes, referencing family planning programs aimed at HIV-positive women in Kenya, Namibia and Uganda.

24 Aug 2011

PEPFAR releases 2012 Country Operational Plan Guidance

PEPFAR recently released its 2012 Country Operational Plan Guidance, "which highlights seven program priorities: increasing prevention of mother-to-child transmission coverage and effectiveness; improving and refining the country's approach to treatment; programming for prevention impact; TB/HIV integration; testing and counseling; training new health care providers; and capacity building," according to the Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog.

24 Aug 2011

Afghan patients treated at U.S. military hospitals often carry MDR bacteria

Afghan patients treated at a U.S. military hospital in Afghanistan often carry multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria, according to a report in the September issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.

24 Aug 2011

Polio eradication 'at risk' as Chad and Pakistan face continued outbreaks, GPEI report says

"According to the latest report from the Independent Monitoring Board of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, continued transmission of polio is a 'global health emergency,' and plans to interrupt transmission by the end of 2012 are 'at risk,'" the Lancet Infectious Diseases reports, adding, "With a US$590 million funding gap and weak political leadership in some countries, the engagement of communities to plan and implement local approaches is paramount."

24 Aug 2011

Lack of access to water, sanitation in urban areas contributes to disease, impacts economies, water conference hears

"How best to provide clean water and sanitation to the world's cities and their expanding slums is the overriding theme of World Water Week, which opened Monday in Stockholm," Deutsche Presse-Agentur/M&C reports.

24 Aug 2011

Research may help explain why live attenuated influenza vaccine elicits protection

New research from the Trudeau Institute may help to explain why live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV), commonly known as FluMist, elicits protection.

24 Aug 2011

DTU, TGen researchers pinpoint source of cholera outbreak in Haiti

Employing technology that reads the entire DNA code, researchers led by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) have pinpointed the source of a cholera outbreak in Haiti that killed more than 6,000 people and sickened 300,000.

24 Aug 2011

Quality improvement program for preventing infections helps hospitals save lives and money

A quality improvement program that saves lives by dramatically reducing potentially lethal bloodstream infections in hospital intensive-care units across the state of Michigan also saves those hospitals an average of $1.1 million a year, new Johns Hopkins research suggests.

24 Aug 2011

MSFHR announces recipients of 2010/11 health research scholar and trainee funding competitions

The Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR) is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2010/11 research scholar and trainee funding competitions. Of the more than 300 applicants, MSFHR has funded 95 individuals working in diverse fields of health research.

24 Aug 2011

Hospital acquired Clostridium difficile bug defense system identified

American researchers have discovered the process by which the cells in the gut fight off toxins produced by a hospital bug - Clostridium difficile. Writing in Nature Medicine, they showed how a chemical - GSNO - deactivated a toxin from Clostridium difficile which causes inflammation and diarrhea. They hope to use their findings to develop a treatment for C. difficile.

23 Aug 2011

Research reveals significant increase in infections associated with cardiac electrophysiological devices

New research from the Jefferson Heart Institute shows that patients in the United States who receive cardiac electrophysiological devices (CIEDs), including permanent pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) are now at greater risk of contracting an infection over the life span of the device.

23 Aug 2011

FDA clears IQuum's Liat influenza A/B assay, analyzer

IQuum, Inc. announced today that it has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 510(k) clearance to market the Liat Influenza A/B Assay and the Liat Analyzer.

23 Aug 2011

AHF criticizes HHS for delays and mistakes in distributing HIV/AIDS funds

Today, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) criticized the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) agency for delays and mistakes in distributing funds through the Ryan White CARE Act, the largest federal program dedicated to providing care and treatment for people living with HIV. Despite an HHS statement to the contrary, the Foundation says that delays in funding are hurting programs that serve people living with HIV/AIDS across the nation.

23 Aug 2011

NPR interviews author of study on emerging HIV epidemic among MSM in MENA

NPR's health blog "Shots" interviewed Laith Abu-Raddad of the Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, co-author of a recent study published in PLoS Medicine that showed "more than five percent of men who have sex with men are infected by HIV in" the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), about "the challenges of researching such a taboo topic."

23 Aug 2011

Climate shifts may threaten to increase spread of malaria, health experts say

"Shifts in the world's climate and responses to those shifts – including construction of more irrigation systems – threaten to increase the spread of malaria, health experts say," AlertNet reports.

23 Aug 2011

Research into TB medication may shorten treatment regimen

Research of the common tuberculosis (TB) drug pyrazinamide, which is used in combination with other medications to treat the disease in a six-month regimen, "has now revealed that the drug does kill the latent form of the microbe, which does not cause observable symptoms," VOA News reports.

23 Aug 2011