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GeoVax's phase 2a trial results indicate excellent safety profile for HIV vaccine

GeoVax Labs, Inc., announced today that early results from part A of an ongoing phase 2a clinical trial indicate an excellent safety profile and highly reproducible immunogenicity.

10 Dec 2010

Three-day meeting on eliminating river blindness kicks off in Nigeria

A three-day meeting of the WHO African Program for Onchocerciasis (River blindness) Control (WHO/APOC) opened in Abuja, Nigeria, on Tuesday, PANA/Afrique en ligne reports (12/8).

10 Dec 2010

Celulas Genetica to submit international patent application for Rutherford Procedure

Emerging Healthcare Solutions, Inc. announced today that its newly acquired biotechnology division Celulas Genetica will submit an international patent application for the Rutherford Procedure, a revolutionary new stem-cell treatment for liver disease.

10 Dec 2010

COPD becomes third leading cause of death in the U.S.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) released a report today, "Deaths: Preliminary Data for 2008," confirming that Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) became the third leading cause of death in the U.S. for 2008.

10 Dec 2010

Haitian cholera pathogen closely related to 'El Tor O1' variant from South Asia

Scientists from Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. and Harvard Medical School have successfully employed single molecule, real-time (SMRT™) DNA sequencing technology to rapidly characterize the pathogen responsible for the recent deadly cholera epidemic in Haiti. Published online Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, the results provide the first whole genome sequence analysis and most detailed genetic profile to date of the Haitian Vibrio cholerae outbreak strain.

10 Dec 2010

Opinions: Questioning WHO's relevance; Reforming foreign aid; Efforts to prevent child marriage

"The WHO - for 62 years the world's go-to agency on all public health matters - is today outmoded, underfunded, and overly politicized," Jack Chow, former assistant director-general on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria at WHO, writes in a Foreign Policy Argument where he outlines some of the major issues facing the WHO, including personnel challenges, the agency's "archaic" governance system and a "new atmosphere, where [other] organizations are taking health into their own hands."

10 Dec 2010

Scientists to develop ultra-rapid sexually transmitted infection detection system for clinics

Scientists from the University of Southampton have secured funding to develop an ultra-rapid sexually transmitted infection (STI) detection system for clinics that can detect STIs in under 15 minutes.

9 Dec 2010

Vibrio cholerae evolves two new mechanisms to cause similar disease

New clinical strains of cholera appear to have evolved a distinctly different mechanism to cause the same disease according to research published in the current issue of the online journal mBio-.

9 Dec 2010

Bacterium used to tackle Dengue fever

This January Australian scientists will start deploying a strange bacterium called Wolbachia pipientis in an attempt to halt disease transmission by mosquitoes especially Dengue fever. They are targeting the Aedes aegypti mosquito that transmits Dengue. Dengue is a viral disease that leads to high fever, severe muscle and joint pain and can also be fatal.

9 Dec 2010

Genetic Immunity to present DermaVir and DermaPrep transdermal delivery system at HIV DART 2010 conference

Genetic Immunity, a US/Hungarian biopharmaceutical company developing nanomedicine vaccines, will present data at this week's HIV DART 2010 conference, "Frontiers in Drug Development for Antiretroviral Therapies," in Los Cabos, Mexico. The conference brings international researchers together to discuss the latest developments in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

9 Dec 2010

Scientists determine 500 three-dimensional protein structures from bacterial and protozoan pathogens

Scientists at Seattle Biomedical Research Institute and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine have reached a major milestone in the effort to wipe out some of the most lethal diseases on the planet.

9 Dec 2010

USAID, PEPFAR and HHS welcome WHO's endorsement of rapid diagnostic test for TB

The United States welcomes the policy statement and roadmap issued today by the World Health Organization (WHO) charting the rollout of the Xpert MTB/RIF rapid diagnostic test for tuberculosis (TB) and rifampicin resistance, a proxy for multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB).

9 Dec 2010

Researchers develop statistical model to predict severity of seasonal influenza

Researchers have developed a statistical model for projecting how many people will get sick from seasonal influenza based on analyses of flu viruses circulating that season. The research, conducted by scientists at the National Institutes of Health, appears today in the open-access publication PLoS Currents: Influenza.

9 Dec 2010

Agilent, UC Davis to develop MassCode PCR technology for identifying food-borne pathogens

Agilent Technologies Inc. today announced it is collaborating with the University of California, Davis in the area of food safety. The research collaboration will focus on the development of a new process that can reduce the time required to identify food-borne pathogens from several days to only a few hours.

9 Dec 2010

Haitian health ministry says more than 2,000 have died from cholera; Report identifies outbreak's source, some dispute findings

More than 2,000 people have died of cholera in Haiti since late October, Haitian officials said on Monday, the Associated Press/Washington Post reports (12/6). According to Haitian health ministry figures, a total of "2,013 people have died from the water-borne bacterial infection and 88,789 cases have been recorded," Agence France-Presse writes (12/6).

9 Dec 2010

VIRxSYS presents study results of VRX1116 at HIV DART 2010

VIRxSYS Corporation, a privately held company developing vaccines and RNA therapies, today presented results from a study of VRX1116 at HIV DART 2010 in Los Cabos, Mexico, showing that vaccinated monkeys challenged with highly pathogenic simian immunodeficiency virus achieve sustained viral load reduction, preservation of the immune system and increased survival compared to controls.

9 Dec 2010

Cranberry juice consumption does not reduce urinary tract infections

Drinking cranberry juice has been recommended to decrease the incidence of urinary tract infections, based on observational studies and a few small clinical trials. However, a new study published in the January 1 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, and now available online, suggests otherwise.

9 Dec 2010

WHO endorses rapid TB test

"The World Health Organization endorsed a new, rapid test for tuberculosis Wednesday that cuts the diagnosis time for patients from months to hours," CNN reports (Gray, 12/8).

8 Dec 2010

Rapid TB test endorsed by WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) said that a new test that can detect tuberculosis (TB), including drug-resistant forms, in less than two hours could revolutionize treatment of the disease. Tuberculosis is still a major killer worldwide killing 4,700 people every day last year. The annual death toll of 1.7 million includes 380,000 people who are at particular risk because they have HIV, the virus that depresses the immune system and causes Aids.

8 Dec 2010

UBC's new formulation of Amphotericin B for Visceral Leishmaniasis remains stable in tropical climates

A new formulation of Amphotericin B (AmB) developed by University of British Columbia researchers has been shown to be stable in tropical climates and effective in treating Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) in mouse models.

8 Dec 2010

Disease/Infection News

GeoVax's phase 2a trial results indicate excellent safety profile for HIV vaccine

Three-day meeting on eliminating river blindness kicks off in Nigeria

Celulas Genetica to submit international patent application for Rutherford Procedure

COPD becomes third leading cause of death in the U.S.

Haitian cholera pathogen closely related to 'El Tor O1' variant from South Asia

Opinions: Questioning WHO's relevance; Reforming foreign aid; Efforts to prevent child marriage

Scientists to develop ultra-rapid sexually transmitted infection detection system for clinics

Vibrio cholerae evolves two new mechanisms to cause similar disease

Bacterium used to tackle Dengue fever

Genetic Immunity to present DermaVir and DermaPrep transdermal delivery system at HIV DART 2010 conference

Scientists determine 500 three-dimensional protein structures from bacterial and protozoan pathogens

USAID, PEPFAR and HHS welcome WHO's endorsement of rapid diagnostic test for TB

Researchers develop statistical model to predict severity of seasonal influenza

Agilent, UC Davis to develop MassCode PCR technology for identifying food-borne pathogens

Haitian health ministry says more than 2,000 have died from cholera; Report identifies outbreak's source, some dispute findings

VIRxSYS presents study results of VRX1116 at HIV DART 2010

Cranberry juice consumption does not reduce urinary tract infections

WHO endorses rapid TB test

Rapid TB test endorsed by WHO

UBC's new formulation of Amphotericin B for Visceral Leishmaniasis remains stable in tropical climates

Digital pathology and the PathoVerse: A conversation with Dr. Singh

Bioprocess Efficiency with Cell Density Monitoring

Exploring electron microscopy for plant and microbial imaging at the John Innes Centre

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