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Impact of environment and social gradient on Leptospira infection in urban slums

A study conducted in an urban slum setting in Salvador, Brazil has found that open sewers, accumulations of refuse, and inadequate floodwater drainage are acting as sources for transmission of the disease leptospirosis. The study is published in this week's PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

23 Apr 2008

Simplified economical method of giving rabies vaccine

A simplified economical method of giving rabies vaccine is just as effective as the expensive standard vaccine regimen at stimulating anti-rabies antibodies.

23 Apr 2008

Independent examines U.K. insurers' practices regarding MSM, risk of HIV

London's Independent on Saturday examined the practices of some insurance companies in the United Kingdom regarding men who have sex with men who are applying for policies for life insurance or major illnesses.

22 Apr 2008

Chicago Tribune profiles home for HIV-positive men

The Chicago Tribune recently profiled the Jo-Ray House, a home for HIV-positive men in Chicago. Jo-Ray was founded in 2003 by Ida Byther-Smith, who was diagnosed as HIV-positive in 1991.

22 Apr 2008

Sub-Saharan African countries not on track to meet MDGs, U.N. Secretary General Ban says

Sub-Saharan African countries likely will not meet the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals -- which include reducing the spread of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria -- by 2015, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday at the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development in Accra, Ghana, AFP/Google.com reports.

22 Apr 2008

Zimbabwe HIV/AIDS Union calls on groups to provide post-testing services

The Zimbabwe HIV and AIDS Activist Union recently called on organizations involved in the fight against the disease to stop offering HIV tests if they cannot provide post-testing services, the Herald/AllAfrica.com reports.

22 Apr 2008

Jamaica to launch new female condom as part of HIV/AIDS prevention efforts

Jamaica's National Family Planning Board in the next few weeks plans to launch a new female condom in an effort to provide women with increased control over HIV/AIDS prevention methods, the Jamaica Gleaner reports.

22 Apr 2008

Red colobus monkeys in Uganda found to harbor antibodies to an unknown orthopoxvirus

Researchers report this month that red colobus monkeys in a park in western Uganda have been exposed to an unknown orthopoxvirus, a pathogen related to the viruses that cause smallpox, monkeypox and cowpox. Most of the monkeys screened harbor antibodies to a virus that is similar - but not identical - to known orthopoxviruses.

22 Apr 2008

NIAID tackles drug-resistant tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) has long been one of the world’s great killers. Now, forms of drug-resistant TB--multidrug (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR)--are occurring at an ominous and accelerating rate. To help in the fight against drug-resistant TB, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has formulated an MDR and XDR TB research agenda.

22 Apr 2008

Number of HIV-positive state and federal inmates drops

Between 2005 and 2006 the number of state and federal prisoners who were HIV-positive decreased 3.1 percent -- from 22,676 to 21,980 inmates, according to a report by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). Another BJS report estimated that 44 percent of state inmates and 39 percent of federal inmates reported a current medical problem other than a cold or a virus.

22 Apr 2008

Severe acute watery diarrhoea with Vibrio cholerae positive cases in Vietnam

Between 5 March and 22 April the Ministry of Health of Vietnam reported 2,490 cases of severe acute watery diarrhoea including 377 that were positive for Vibrio cholerae, the bacterium causing cholera.

22 Apr 2008

Monkey malaria - the next bird flu?

An expert at the NIH has highlighted the threat of an emergent highly virulent form of malaria, questioning whether the disease has made the jump from animal to man.

22 Apr 2008

South Carolina House to consider bill that would eliminate requirement to inform school officials of students' HIV-positive status

The South Carolina House this week is scheduled to consider a bill (SB 970) that would eliminate a state law that requires the Department of Health and Environmental Control to notify school district superintendents and nurses if students test HIV-positive, the Columbia State reports.

21 Apr 2008

Daily Star examines antiretroviral access in Bangladesh

Bangladesh's Daily Star on Friday examined how most people living with HIV/AIDS in the country do not have access to antiretroviral drugs. According to the Star, the country's Essential Drugs Company does not manufacture or provide antiretrovirals to Bangladesh's only infectious diseases hospital because of the drugs' high cost.

21 Apr 2008

Commitment to conducting more basic research in search for HIV/AIDS vaccine 'prudent,' editorial says

The cancellation last fall of a Merck HIV/AIDS vaccine trial was "branded as a 'catastrophe' by one scientist and as setting the race for a cure 'back to square one' by others," a Washington Post editorial says, adding, "The hyperbole is understandable, but some perspective is in order."

21 Apr 2008

HHS Secretary Leavitt meets with health officials in Vietnam to discuss health issues, including HIV/AIDS

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt on Thursday met with health officials in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, to discuss health issues, including HIV/AIDS, Thanhnien News reports.

21 Apr 2008

Disabled people in Botswana largely neglected in HIV/AIDS efforts

Disabled people in Botswana have been largely excluded from the country's HIV/AIDS efforts, disability advocates said at a recent two-day workshop, Botswana's Mmegi reports.

21 Apr 2008

Gene mutation helps protect against malaria

New research suggests that not everyone who is bitten by a malaria-infected mosquito develops life threatening health problems according to scientists at the University of Toronto.

21 Apr 2008

Bird flu in one way or another is wiping out poultry in South Korea

Following the announcement by officials in South Korea of another bird flu outbreak, 5.3 million birds are expected to be culled to control the spread of the deadly virus.

21 Apr 2008

New method for testing treatments for Chagas' disease

Chagas' disease is a tropical parasitic sickness that currently affects more than 16 million people, with a staggering 100 million at risk, largely in the tropical areas of South and Central America. And yet the main drug used to treat the disease is highly toxic and causes serious side effects.

20 Apr 2008