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Survey reports patients' concern about the safety and access to flu vaccines

Although some parents may be lukewarm to the H1N1 vaccination, Lakeside Community Healthcare www.LakesideCommunityHealthcare.com, one of Southern California's largest integrated, comprehensive healthcare organizations, reports broader patient concern about both the safety of and access to the vaccine.

15 Oct 2009

FDA approves Ortho Clinical Diagnostics' anti-HIV 1+2 test for use on VITROS 5600 & 3600 systems

Ortho Clinical Diagnostics today announced U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of a diagnostic assay for the detection of antibodies to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) types 1+2 (Anti-HIV 1+2) for use on the VITROS® 5600 Integrated and VITROS® 3600 Immunodiagnostic Systems.

From Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, Inc. 15 Oct 2009

UNICEF and WHO call for an urgent plan to control diarrheal disease

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organization (WHO) released a joint report today demonstrating the urgent need to focus attention on diarrheal disease, a neglected illness responsible for the deaths of about 1.5 million children under 5 each year. This unacceptable loss of life can be stopped.

15 Oct 2009

Hospital visitation policy to reduce the spread of H1N1 flu

Due to the severity of the H1N1 flu and its potential to spread to patients, children and expectant mothers, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and Stanford Hospital & Clinics announced today that effective Monday, October 19, 2009, both hospitals will no longer allow non-patient visitors or family members under the age of 16 inside the hospitals.

15 Oct 2009

UT Southwestern Medical Center awarded $15.7M NIH contract to develop a new virus database

The National Institutes of Health has awarded a $15.7 million contract to UT Southwestern Medical Center and Northrop Grumman Corp. to develop an open-access national online database and analysis resource center that will help scientists study and combat viruses such as those that cause hepatitis, encephalitis, smallpox, acute respiratory distress and dengue fever, as well as newly emerging pathogenic viruses.

15 Oct 2009

Handwashing with soap is the best way to control flu and respiratory infections

People are more likely to wash their hands when they have been shamed into it, according to a study by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

15 Oct 2009

Human populations may have some level of existing immunity to the pandemic H1N1 influenza, say researchers

University of California, Davis, researchers studying the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus, formerly referred to as "swine flu," have identified a group of immunologically important sites on the virus that are also present in seasonal flu viruses that have been circulating for years. These molecular sites appear to result in some level of immunity to the new virus in people who were exposed to the earlier influenza viruses.

15 Oct 2009

Government of Canada to support H1N1 flu virus research

The Government of Canada through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) today announced support for five new research projects designed to help further understand and address the H1N1 flu virus.

15 Oct 2009

SHEA urges CDC to remove the use of N95 respirators from its recommendations for routine care

Today's announcement by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that it is modifying its guidance regarding measures that should be taken by healthcare workers who are in contact with either confirmed or suspected cases of H1N1 was met with concern by the scientific community that had submitted its recommendations to CDC.

15 Oct 2009

Interim data from Sanofi Pasteur's Influenza A 2009 Monovalent Vaccine clinical trials in infants and children

Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of the sanofi-aventis Group, announced today an interim analysis of data from clinical trials of the U.S. licensed Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 Monovalent Vaccine in infants and children 6 months through 9 years of age. The data indicate the vaccine is immunogenic and that one dose may protect many children.

15 Oct 2009

Genetic diversity thwarts the usefulness of malaria vaccine

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) have charted the extreme genetic differences that occur over time in the most dangerous malaria parasite in the world. While there is no approved vaccine for malaria, various experimental vaccines are in development.

15 Oct 2009

Environmental Solutions launches alcohol-free hand sanitizer

Environmental Solutions International announces alcohol-free Smart & Silky Instant Foaming Hand Sanitizer and Smart & Silky Kids Instant Foaming Hand Sanitizer now are available at more than 975 OfficeMax® locations nationwide and on www.officemax.com beginning this week, in addition to nationwide Target® stores.

15 Oct 2009

Surveillance of travel-related illness helps to detect and respond to H1N1 influenza

Because pandemics unfold in unpredictable ways, surveillance of travel-related illness is among the most powerful tools health officials and doctors can use to detect and respond to new pathogens like the novel H1N1 influenza, says the physician who heads the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Travelers' Clinic.

15 Oct 2009

News outlets examine efforts to control TB in South Africa

Agence France-Presse examines the ongoing fight to control the spread of tuberculosis in South Africa. "The World Health Organisation estimates almost one percent or 461,000 South Africans develop TB annually, with government figures showing that the disease was the country's leading natural cause of death in 2006," the news service writes.

15 Oct 2009

New York Times examines HIV stigma in Vietnam

The New York Times examines the story of Vietnamese orphans from the Mai Hoa AIDS Center who were turned away from a local primary school because they are HIV-positive. Though the principal at the primary school agreed to accept the children, the parents of the other students at the school refused to allow their children in classes with the orphans, leading the principal to turn the students away.

15 Oct 2009

Fero Industries to acquire Pyro Pharmaceuticals

Fero Industries, Inc. (the “Company”) is pleased to announce that the Company has entered into a Definitive Agreement to acquire Pyro Pharmaceuticals, Inc. of Irvine, California.

15 Oct 2009

Patients who are severely ill with H1N1 are at risk for developing PE, says study

Researchers utilizing computed tomography (CT) scans have found that patients with severe cases of the H1N1 virus are at risk for developing severe complications, including pulmonary emboli (PE), according to a study to be published online Oct. 14, 2009, in the American Journal of Roentgenology. The study will be published in the December issue of the AJR.

14 Oct 2009

Breakthrough in pancreatic cancer treatment

Epeius Biotechnologies (www.epeiusbiotech.com) confirms the first real breakthrough for pancreatic cancer seen in years; publishes a landmark report of tumor-targeted Rexin-G as stand-alone therapy in chemotherapy-resistant pancreatic cancer.

14 Oct 2009

DIATHERIX Laboratories granted EUA for H1N1-09 Influenza Test

DIATHERIX Laboratories, Inc. is pleased to announce it has been granted emergency use authorization (EUA) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its DIATHERIX H1N1-09 Influenza Test.

14 Oct 2009

NIBIB awards $1M grant to develop a rapid test for sepsis-related pathogens

Smiths Detection today announces the award of a $1m, two-year grant from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) to develop a rapid test for eight micro-organisms that commonly cause burn/wound infections leading to septicemia (blood-poisoning).

14 Oct 2009