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USAID official discusses agency's efforts to address cholera in Haiti

A USAID official said Tuesday that potential violence following the release of Haiti's final presidential election results could interfere with efforts to contain the country's cholera epidemic, CBC News reports. "What we all worry about is if there is violence again and it disrupts for a couple of days," said Mark Ward, acting director of USAID's Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance. "That's my biggest headache right now," he added.

23 Dec 2010

Opinions: U.S. foreign aid; Malaria eradication; Moving Haiti forward; Health care financing

"At this critical time when we are concerned about our country's financial well being it is imperative that we curtail our charity to others," Bradley Blakeman, deputy assistant to former President George W. Bush and professor of politics and public policy at Georgetown University, writes in a Fox News opinion piece calling for the U.S., which he says "has done more than its fair share for others since our birth as a nation," to "curtail our foreign aid."

23 Dec 2010

New nanoparticle-based diagnostic platform provides rapid detection of sepsis

Blood poisoning can be fatal. If you suffer from sepsis, you used to have to wait as much as 48 hours for laboratory findings. A new diagnostic platform as big as a credit card will now supply the analysis after as little as an hour. This system is based on nanoparticles that are automatically guided by magnetic forces.

22 Dec 2010

Earlier ART initiation should be highest priority for global expansion of HIV patient care

Earlier initiation of antiretroviral therapy should be the highest priority for global expansion of HIV patient care. This finding, from a paper published in this week's PLoS Medicine, should help resource-limited nations to phase in the implementation of the new 2010 WHO recommendations for HIV treatment. "Immediate scale-up of the entire WHO guideline package may be prohibitively expensive in some settings," said lead author Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH of the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA.

22 Dec 2010

Vertex announces modification of telaprevir and VX-222 combination Phase 2 trial for treatment of HCV

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated today announced a modification of its Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating 12-week, response-guided regimens of its lead investigational hepatitis C virus (HCV) protease inhibitor, telaprevir, in combination with its lead investigational HCV polymerase inhibitor, VX-222.

22 Dec 2010

Majority of nurses are unaware of simple diagnostic test for sepsis

bioMerieux, a world leader in the field of in vitro diagnostics, announced the results of a survey demonstrating that most critical care nurses are unaware of a simple diagnostic test that may dramatically improve outcomes for sepsis patients.

22 Dec 2010

The Citizen examines potential impact of EU-India free trade agreement on HIV/AIDS patients in developing countries

The Citizen examines the potential impact a free-trade agreement between the EU and India currently under negotiation could have on patients living with HIV/AIDS in developing countries.

22 Dec 2010

Birth rate for U.S. teens falls to a record low

The birth rate for U.S. teens aged 15-19 years fell to a record low, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The 2009 birth rate of 39.1 births per 1,000 teens is down 6 percent from the 2008 rate of 42.5 births per 1,000. This is the lowest ever recorded in seven decades of tracking teenage childbearing. Birth rates for younger and older teens and for all race/ethnic groups reached historic lows in 2009.

22 Dec 2010

Contamination with potential disease-causing bacteria is commonly found on hands of anesthesia providers

Contaminating bacteria are very commonly found on the hands of anesthesia providers, with high rates of transmission to the surgical field during operations, reports a study in the January issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia, official journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society.

22 Dec 2010

AIDS patients with serum biomarkers are predisposed to immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome

A study in this week's PLoS Medicine suggests that AIDS patients with cryptococcal meningitis who start HIV therapy are predisposed to immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome - an exaggerated inflammatory immune response that kills up to one-third of affected people - if they have biomarkers in their blood showing evidence of a damaged immune system that is not capable of clearing the fungal infection.

22 Dec 2010

AIDS Healthcare Foundation sues AIDS drug maker for overcharging

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) will host a press teleconference on Wednesday, December 22nd at 9:30 AM Pacific/12:30 PM Eastern to announce that it has filed a lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson’s Tibotec Therapeutics for overcharging AHF for AIDS drugs purchased under the 340B program.

21 Dec 2010

Expansion of HIV screening worthwhile

According to researchers, screening for the AIDS virus to include every American at least once and the highest-risk people once a year could prevent more than 80,000 infections over the next 20 years. The team from Yale University in Connecticut and Stanford University in California reported that if treatment for infected people were integrated into such a program, it would prevent an estimated 212,000 new infections.

21 Dec 2010

Country must make wise choices in preventing infections, says study on future of AIDS in Cambodia

Despite Cambodia's remarkable history in driving down HIV infections, a report released today on the future of AIDS in the country argues that future success is not guaranteed and the government needs to focus increasingly on wise prevention tactics and assume more of the financing of its AIDS program.

21 Dec 2010

Study provides evidence on prevalence of two separate mosquito species which carry malaria parasite

In notable back-to-back papers appearing in the prestigioous journal Science in October, teams of researchers, one led by Nora Besansky, a professor of biological sciences and a member of the Eck Institute for Global Health at the University of Notre Dame, provided evidence that Anopheles gambiae, which is one of the major mosquito carriers of the malaria parasite in Sub-Saharan Africa, is evolving into two separate species with different traits.

21 Dec 2010

AmeriCares, Baxter team up to deliver IV solutions to prevent cholera outbreak in Haiti

AmeriCares and Baxter International Inc. have teamed to deliver additional lifesaving intravenous solutions to Haiti as part of their ongoing effort to stem the cholera outbreak. AmeriCares has been working around the clock to distribute IV solutions, oral rehydration salts, antibiotics, hand sanitizers and other critical aid since the outbreak was reported in October.

From Baxter International Inc. 21 Dec 2010

Researchers develop new malaria vaccine strategy based on ingestion of genetically modified starch

Researchers from two laboratories in northern France have successfully vaccinated and protected mice by feeding them starch derived from green algae and genetically modified to carry vaccine proteins.

21 Dec 2010

Training more effective than anti-inflammatory drugs in treating tennis elbow

Training and ergonomic advice are more effective than anti-inflammatory drugs and cortisone injections in treating tennis elbow, and give fewer side effects. This is the conclusion of a thesis presented at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

21 Dec 2010

Cholera deaths in Haiti top 2,500, health ministry says

The Haitian health ministry on Sunday said there had been 2,535 cholera deaths since the outbreak hit in mid-October, "dashing hopes the fatality rate might be beginning to taper off," Agence France-Presse reports.

21 Dec 2010

New research sheds light on complex regulatory pathways for effective innate immune system

New research by scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences reveals that the immune system has an effective backup plan to protect the body from infection when the "master regulator" of the body's innate immune system fails.

21 Dec 2010

New CPT code for use with T-SPOT.TB test

Oxford Immunotec, Inc. announces that a new and specific Current Procedural Terminology (CPT®) code has been established by the American Medical Association for use with the T-SPOT®.TB test. The new Category I code, 86481, is described as "Tuberculosis test, cell mediated immunity antigen response measurement; enumeration of gamma interferon-producing T-cells in cell suspension." This new code will be effective as of January 1, 2011.

21 Dec 2010

Disease/Infection News

USAID official discusses agency's efforts to address cholera in Haiti

Opinions: U.S. foreign aid; Malaria eradication; Moving Haiti forward; Health care financing

New nanoparticle-based diagnostic platform provides rapid detection of sepsis

Earlier ART initiation should be highest priority for global expansion of HIV patient care

Vertex announces modification of telaprevir and VX-222 combination Phase 2 trial for treatment of HCV

Majority of nurses are unaware of simple diagnostic test for sepsis

The Citizen examines potential impact of EU-India free trade agreement on HIV/AIDS patients in developing countries

Birth rate for U.S. teens falls to a record low

Contamination with potential disease-causing bacteria is commonly found on hands of anesthesia providers

AIDS patients with serum biomarkers are predisposed to immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome

AIDS Healthcare Foundation sues AIDS drug maker for overcharging

Expansion of HIV screening worthwhile

Country must make wise choices in preventing infections, says study on future of AIDS in Cambodia

Study provides evidence on prevalence of two separate mosquito species which carry malaria parasite

AmeriCares, Baxter team up to deliver IV solutions to prevent cholera outbreak in Haiti

Researchers develop new malaria vaccine strategy based on ingestion of genetically modified starch

Training more effective than anti-inflammatory drugs in treating tennis elbow

Cholera deaths in Haiti top 2,500, health ministry says

New research sheds light on complex regulatory pathways for effective innate immune system

New CPT code for use with T-SPOT.TB test

Unlocking drug amorphization: Continuous, solvent-free twin screw granulation

How can super-resolution technology help study neurotransmission?

The Proteoform Puzzle: Unlocking the Next Frontier

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