Disease/Infection News

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ITI receives FDA clearance for new Q fever assay kit

This week the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared the first nucleic acid amplification In vitro diagnostic (IVD) test that detects Coxiella burnetii, the bacteria that causes Q fever.

7 Jun 2011

Focus on getting more people on antiretroviral therapy as AIDS turns 30

Sunday marked the 30th anniversary of the first published report of the disease that came to be known as AIDS, the Los Angeles Times reports. Though the "promise" of a vaccine "has not materialized," "[s]ome progress has been made on other fronts," the newspaper writes.

7 Jun 2011

PATH malaria vaccine initiative to collaborate with GSK and Crucell in development of 2nd-generation malaria vaccine

The PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) announced today that it has entered into a collaboration with Dutch biopharmaceutical company Crucell N.V. and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). This collaboration is aimed at developing a second-generation vaccine against malaria—a deadly disease that kills close to 800,000 people annually, most of them young children under age five in Africa. MVI drives the development of malaria vaccines by joining its scientific, managerial, and field expertise with companies, universities, and governments to test potential malaria vaccines and invest in those with the most promise.

6 Jun 2011

Life Technologies develops qPCR-based accurate test to detect E. coli

Life Technologies Corporation today announced that it has developed a custom test (assay) to accurately detect the E. coli bacterium that has killed at least 22 people and affected more than 2,100 worldwide, including four new cases reported in the United States. Shipments of the TaqMan® E. coli 0104 Detection Kit to test foods thought to be associated with the outbreak are now in Europe.

6 Jun 2011

Commentary on 30th anniversary of AIDS

"Thirty years into the AIDS epidemic, we are faced with a choice. Are we content to tinker at the fringes of the epidemic, spending untold billions to treat a fraction of those in need for decades into the future? Or can we summon the political will to effectively deploy the prevention interventions that are already available to us and to make the necessary investments in research that could end this epidemic in our lifetime?"

6 Jun 2011

An anniversary — AIDS turns 30

Three decades after the first cases of AIDS were recorded, more than 60 million people have been infected worldwide. Scientists agree that the epidemic is far from over and, even with major treatment advances and improvement in understanding the illness, hurdles remain in the effort to eradicate the disease.

6 Jun 2011

PING, HP partner to reduce malaria through mobile health monitoring technology

On the heels of the United Nations Social Innovation Summit, HP and nonprofit organization Positive Innovation for the Next Generation (PING) are launching a collaboration to improve the quality and efficiency of disease surveillance in Botswana through mobile health monitoring technology that can enhance protection and prevention against major malaria outbreaks.

6 Jun 2011

E coli outbreak linked to tainted bean sprouts

It has been announced by German officials late Sunday that domestically grown bean sprouts may be the source of the Escherichia coli (E. coli) outbreak that has killed 22 people and sickened at least 1,600. All but one of the deaths occurred in Germany, the source of the entero haemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) outbreak that has affected 12 countries. The other victim died in Sweden.

5 Jun 2011

GAVI welcomes lower pentavalent vaccine price

In the lead up to its first pledging conference on June 13, the GAVI Alliance announced today it has achieved commitments from two emerging market vaccine manufacturers to lower prices for the life-saving pentavalent vaccine, which protects against five deadly diseases. Developed country manufacturers have also offered price reductions on rotavirus and human papillomavirus, or HPV, vaccines.

5 Jun 2011

New E. coli outbreak alarms Europe

An Escherichia coli (E. coli) outbreak of disease in Germany has left 22 people dead and it is alarming populations across Europe.

5 Jun 2011

Ross River Fever vaccine trials begin

Australian researchers are working on a new vaccine that could protect against mosquito-borne Ross River Fever. They are conducting the world-first trial of the vaccine with positive results reported so far.

5 Jun 2011

MRSA found in cow’s milk

Scientists have discovered a new strain of the drug-resistant germ known as MRSA in cow’s milk and some evidence that the animals could be a source of the infection in humans.

5 Jun 2011

FDA constantly takes steps to monitor E. coli O104 outbreak in U.S. food supply

The U.S. FDA has been in routine contact with the European Union and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to monitor the current outbreak of E. coli O104 and to track any illnesses in the U.S. that may be related to the outbreak.

4 Jun 2011

U.S. foreign aid recipients own billions in Treasury securities, CRS report says

"The Congressional Research Service released a report last month, a copy of which Fox News exclusively obtained, showing that in fiscal year 2010, the latest year that data was available, the U.S. handed out a total of $1.4 billion to 16 foreign countries that held at least $10 billion in Treasury securities," FoxNews.com reports.

4 Jun 2011

Preliminary data from Ion PGM sequencer reveals German E. coli outbreak is a new hybrid strain

Life Technologies Corporation today announced that preliminary data from DNA sequencing performed in cooperation with the University Hospital Muenster, Germany, on the Ion Personal Genome Machine strongly suggests that the bacterium at the root of the deadly outbreak in Germany is a new hybrid type of pathogenic E. coli strains.

4 Jun 2011

International drug policy panel calls for legalization of some drugs, de-criminalizing drug use

The Global Commission on Drug Policy - a panel that includes former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Executive Director Michel Kazatchkine, and several other current and former world leaders - has released a report calling for "the legalization of some types of drugs and an end to the criminalization of drug users," The Voice of Russia reports.

4 Jun 2011

Primary care providers treat hepatitis C patients effectively through Project ECHO model

Under a completely new way of providing health care, primary care clinicians in remote villages, prisons and poor urban neighborhoods who were trained to treat patients with hepatitis C achieved excellent results identical to those of specialists at a university medical center.

4 Jun 2011

College students more likely to talk about sexual health issues after watching TV shows

"What would Samantha and Miranda do?" That's what viewers of the past HBO series Sex and the City may ask themselves when faced with the prospect of uncomfortable discussions about sexual health with partners, friends and doctors.

4 Jun 2011

GW researchers demonstrate Mta1 gene's role in survival of schistosomes

By using mice lacking a crucial gene that controls the process of chromatin remodeling of cytokines including those responsible for inflammation and comparing them to normal wild type mice with the gene, researchers at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences have shown that the gene, Mta1, is essential for the parasite Schistosoma haematobium to establish a productive infection and survival in the host.

4 Jun 2011

Budget cuts should not include U.S. global AIDS program

"Now is not the time for the United States - or any other country - to reduce spending on programs that deliver life-saving drugs at so tiny a cost," a Des Moines Register editorial states, noting the relatively small cost of PEPFAR.

4 Jun 2011