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60 Minutes examines PEPFAR in Uganda

CBS News' 60 Minutes reports from Uganda about how PEPFAR has helped people living with HIV/AIDS throughout the country and the challenges Uganda still faces in fighting the spread of the virus. The show includes interviews with Peter Mugyenyi of the Joint Clinical Research Center in Kampala, Uganda, and other doctors on the ground, who discuss how HIV-positive children and adults are alive today as a result of PEPFAR and how the program has helped to improve the way Africans view the United States.

5 Apr 2010

Perrigo, Cobrek Pharmaceuticals receive FDA approval for generic Evoclin Foam 1%

Perrigo Company today announced that together with its partner Cobrek Pharmaceuticals, Inc. final approval has been received from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to manufacture and market Clindamycin Phosphate Foam 1%, a generic version of Evoclin® Foam 1% of Stiefel. As the ANDA was first to file with a Paragraph IV certification against Evoclin®, 180 days of generic exclusivity was granted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

5 Apr 2010

Peregrine's PS-targeting antibodies block HIV from entry into blood cells

Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced the publication of data showing phosphatidylserine (PS)-targeting antibodies can block one of the key ways the AIDS virus gains entry into certain blood cells. The data were generated by scientists at Duke University as part of their ongoing AIDS vaccine research. The article titled "Anti-Phospholipid Human Monoclonal Antibodies Inhibit CCR5-Tropic HIV-1 and Induces β-Chemokines" is available online today and will be published in the April 12, 2010 edition of the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

5 Apr 2010

China's SFDA finds certain batches of Jiangsu Yanshen's human use rabies vaccine substandard

Simcere Pharmaceutical Group, a leading pharmaceutical company specializing in the development, manufacturing, and marketing of branded generic and proprietary pharmaceuticals in China, today reported that China's State Food and Drug Administration ("SFDA") issued a statement on its investigation into the human use rabies vaccine manufactured by Jiangsu Yanshen Biological Technology Stock Co., Ltd.. Simcere obtained a controlling stake in Jiangsu Yanshen on October 24, 2009.

5 Apr 2010

Wall Street Journal examines railway hospital in India

The Wall Street Journal examines Lifeline Express, "the world's first hospital on rails," which is run by Impact India, a group that "initially focused on immunization and prevention of diseases such as polio and malaria." Its success has spread to China and Zimbabwe, where three Lifeline Express trains are operated, and to "hospital river boats based on the India model have been set up to tend to patients in Bangladesh and Cambodia." It has also been used as a model for other health projects in India, according to the newspaper.

3 Apr 2010

Student hygiene education programs can help reduce school absenteeism

Inadequate access to safe water and poor sanitation infrastructure contribute to an estimated 1.87 million deaths per year from devastating diarrheal diseases, mostly among children less than five years of age in the developing world. But, according to a new study released in the April issue of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, school-based student hygiene education programs can impact behavior in the home and significantly reduce absenteeism amongst students.

3 Apr 2010

Games for Life wins British Airways Business Opportunity Grant

Games for Life, a Tucson-based non-profit organization has won a British Airways Business Opportunity Grant which includes ten international flights and five international freight shipments.

3 Apr 2010

Greater Than AIDS: Clear Channel Communications announces new effort to broadcast HIV/AIDS information

Clear Channel Communications, Inc. has announced a bold new effort to broadcast information about HIV/AIDS and promote HIV testing as part of Greater Than AIDS, a coordinated response to AIDS in the United States. Leading up to National HIV Testing Day (June 27), Clear Channel Radio's Urban, Urban AC, and Inspirational/Gospel radio stations in more than 60 markets will air new public service announcements (PSAs) which will direct listeners to targeted online resources that provide lifesaving information about HIV/AIDS and local testing resources.

3 Apr 2010

Researchers explore microbial infection of human cells in space environment

In a first-of-its-kind experiment, the unique conditions of spaceflight will be used to examine how cells remain healthy or succumb to disease, particularly in the face of stress or damage.

3 Apr 2010

NewsHour examines research of HIV positive patients who can suppress the virus

PBS' NewsHour examines how a team of U.S. researchers is heading up a study in Lima, Peru, of patients living with HIV whose immune systems are able to suppress the virus.

3 Apr 2010

Scientists provide first-ever glimpse of HIV protein structure

Scientists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have provided the first-ever glimpse of the structure of a key protein-gp120-found on the surface of a specific subgroup of the human immunodeficiency virus, HIV-1.

3 Apr 2010

Recent releases in Global Health

"Achieving the [Millennium Development Goal] MDG 4 target of reducing newborn and child mortality will require concerted efforts to scale up evidence-based interventions, especially community-based preventive and therapeutic strategies in primary care," according to a Lancet comment that reflects on the challenges associated with developing "the appropriate mix of strategies" to improve maternal health.

3 Apr 2010

Premature fall in the swine flu vaccination rates worries health officials

Last fall there was a mad rush for the HINI vaccine for the deadly swine flu that had gripped countries across the world. H1N1 flu has killed about 12,000 Americans and put 265,000 into the hospital in the last pandemic. This year has seen a few signs of seasonal flu, which kills about 36,000 people in the United States each year and puts 200,000 in the hospital.

2 Apr 2010

Utilizing "synthetic population" in simulating spread of infectious outbreaks

Did you know that filling out your census card will help computer scientists model how diseases spread in the United States?

2 Apr 2010

Variant of ATG16L1 gene associated with higher risk for Crohn's disease

The ATG16L1 gene is located on chromosome 2 and encodes a protein involved in the formation of autophagosomes during autophagy. Autophagy is a cytoplasmic process that keeps a cell stable. Hampe et al first identified ATG16L1 as a Crohn's disease (CD) susceptibility gene in 2007, and many other studies have arisen since then. However, the definite relationship of variants of ATG16L1 with IBD remains unclear.

2 Apr 2010

Practicing safer sex: New condom technology to keep partners "in the moment"

Each year there are an estimated 19 million new sexually transmitted infections (STIs) diagnosed in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Today, more than 68 million Americans live with STIs despite the fact that a condom could prevent them. A recent Kinsey Report points to disruption of "the mood" as a main barrier to condom use.

2 Apr 2010

Nonromantic sexual partnerships: Risks and rewards

A University of Iowa study found that one-third of sexual relationships in the Chicago area lack exclusivity. One in 10 men and women reported that both they and their partner had slept with other people.

2 Apr 2010

Scientists identify potential new method for treating sleeping sickness

Scientists have identified a potential new approach to treat human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), commonly known as sleeping sickness, which afflicts "tens of thousands of people in sub-Saharan Africa" annually, IRIN reports. By targeting an enzyme the sleeping sickness parasite needs in order to survive, researchers say they can kill it without causing harm to the patient (4/1).

2 Apr 2010

Hepatitis C infected donor kidneys thrown away despite urgent need

More than half of donor kidneys in the United State infected with hepatitis C are thrown away, despite the need among hepatitis C patients who may die waiting for an infection-free organ, Johns Hopkins research suggests.

2 Apr 2010