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New searchable influenza gene database

A Medical College of Wisconsin and Children's Research Institute team in Milwaukee has created a free, searchable genetic database that will significantly improve diagnostic testing and genetic tracking of human and animal influenza viruses.

26 Apr 2007

Valid consent for genomic epidemiology in developing countries

Genetic research has the potential to improve global health by discovering what makes people susceptible or resistant to certain diseases, and what causes the diseases themselves, thereby guiding prevention efforts.

25 Apr 2007

Financial incentives help control MRSA infections in NHS hospitals

Improved levels of risk management standards in NHS hospitals would reduce MRSA infections by between 11% and 20%, according to new research by Professor Neil Rickman of the University of Surrey and colleagues.

25 Apr 2007

WHO facilitates influenza vaccine technology transfer to developing countries

As part of a concerted effort to ensure more equitable access to a potential pandemic influenza vaccine, six developing countries are being awarded grants to establish in-country manufacturing capacity for influenza vaccine. The countries are Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Thailand and Viet Nam.

25 Apr 2007

WHO warns bird flu could kill 7 million

The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a warning regarding the deadly bird flu virus currently circulating.

24 Apr 2007

Scientists discover new virus responsible for deaths of 3 transplant recipients

Scientists in the Greene Infectious Disease Laboratory of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and colleagues in the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory in Melbourne, Australia and 454 Life Sciences have discovered a new virus that was responsible for the deaths of three transplant recipients who received organs from a single donor in Victoria, Australia.

24 Apr 2007

Global meeting on access to potential pandemic vaccines

In recent months, several developing countries have brought to the world's attention their need to have access to an adequate stock of H5N1 and other pandemic vaccines.

24 Apr 2007

Global drive to eradicate polio moves to Afghanistan and Pakistan

Cross-border polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan and Pakistan, two of the four remaining countries which have never stopped polio, plan to vaccinate nearly 50 million children between them in the coming week.

24 Apr 2007

Discovery of new virus

24 Apr 2007

Rabies kills three despite proven experimental treatment

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States an experimental rabies treatment that saved the life of a Wisconsin teenager in 2004 has failed to help other children infected with the deadly virus.

23 Apr 2007

Developing world can expect a 'pandemic of cancer' by 2020

The developing world is expected to account for more than half of all cancer cases in the world by 2020 say medical experts.

23 Apr 2007

Latest food scare in the U.S.A. - ground beef contaminated with E. coli

In the latest food scare in the United States seven brands of frozen ground beef have been recalled because it is feared some of it may be contaminated with E. coli bacteria.

22 Apr 2007

New report will help reduce Venousthromboembolism in hospitals

Every hospital patient should have their own risk assessment for VTE that will improve patient safety and help save thousands of lives each year, says an expert working group whose report was launched by the Chief Medical Officer (CMO).

20 Apr 2007

New risk maps identify geographic areas predicting spread of avian flu

The 2003 epidemic of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in the Netherlands is the only recent epidemic of HPAI in the developed world.

19 Apr 2007

No one gets the blame but turkey company gets compensated for bird flu scare

A turkey producer in Britain has been awarded compensation to the tune of almost 600,000 pounds following an outbreak of bird flu at a farm there earlier in the year.

19 Apr 2007

Grave warning about the state of AIDS treatment scale-up

The new AIDS treatment access numbers released by the World Health Organization (WHO) today are a grave warning about the state of AIDS treatment scale-up.

18 Apr 2007

Global Fund must fund salaries of health workers to deliver HIV, TB and malaria treatments

In this week's PLoS Medicine, a team of international health experts issue a bold call to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria: fund the salaries of health workers or else risk a situation in which medicines for these three diseases are made available in poor countries but there are no health professionals to deliver them.

18 Apr 2007

Vaccination week in the Americas

The countries of the Americas are preparing a huge promotional effort for the fifth year of Vaccination Week in the Americas, which this year aims to immunize some 55 million persons.

18 Apr 2007

Towards universal access: scaling up priority HIV/AIDS interventions in the health sector

Access to antiretroviral therapy for advanced HIV infection in low- and middle-income countries continued to grow throughout 2006, with more than 2 million people living with HIV/AIDS receiving treatment in December 2006, a 54% increase over the 1.3 million people on treatment one year earlier in these countries.

18 Apr 2007

Staph infections among hospitalized patients are on the rise

The study, conducted by Gary Noskin, MD, infectious disease specialist and associate chief medical officer at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, also revealed that the increase in staph infections is resulting in millions of dollars of excess healthcare costs due to longer hospitalizations.

17 Apr 2007