Disease/Infection News

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Decision to destroy remaining stocks of the smallpox virus has again been postponed

The World Health Organization (WHO), meeting in Geneva have now decided that more research needs to be carried out on Smallpox.

22 May 2005

WHO says world must prepare for bird flu pandemic

Reports of disturbing changes to the H5N1 virus circulating in Asia is causing great concern and has prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to urge countries to prepare for a influenza pandemic.

22 May 2005

WHO warns of threat of bird flu pandemic

A Vietnamese study which has shown that there are signs of greater human to human transmission of bird flu, has prompted the UN health agency to call on countries around the world to continue with their preparations for a threatened flu pandemic.

20 May 2005

Infants with Krabbe disease saved by cord blood stem cells

Children with a fatal genetic disorder called Krabbe Disease can be saved and their brain development preserved if they receive stem cells from umbilical cord blood before symptoms of the disease develop, according to a study published in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

20 May 2005

Human cells can silence an essential part of HIV's genetic make-up

For the first time, scientists have shown that humans use an immune defense process common in plants and invertebrates to battle a virus.

19 May 2005

Premature use of stem cell therapy could put patients at risk

The premature use of stem cell therapy could put many patients at risk of viral or prion diseases unless appropriate safety systems are in place, warn experts in this week’s BMJ.

19 May 2005

World Bank and IMF preventing transfer of foreign aid to HIV/AIDS programmes

Multilateral financial organisations that aim to reduce poverty are preventing foreign aid from reaching HIV/AIDS programs in developing countries, states an article in this week’s issue of The Lancet.

19 May 2005

Bird flu pandemic a real possibilty

According to the the World Health Organization (WHO), the pattern of human bird flu infections in Vietnam suggests the H5N1 virus that causes the illness is evolving in ways that makes it more contagious.

18 May 2005

UN wants ban on creation of smallpox virus in labs

Health officials around the world are being urged by United Nations experts to ban scientists from making the deadly smallpox virus in laboratories for fear it could fall into terrorist hands.

18 May 2005

Fourth case of hantavirus in Alberta raises concern

An outbreak of hantavirus in Alberta, Canada, is caucing concern and Health authorities there are asking for help from Health Canada to deal with the potentially fatal disease.

18 May 2005

Global project to combat parasites that cause cancer and infection in millions

Many cancers are associated with infections (for example cervical cancer is linked to the human papilloma virus) but there is no stronger link between a human malignancy and a parasitic infection than that between cancer of the bile ducts and a liver fluke called Opisthorchis viverrini.

18 May 2005

New combination vaccine effective against plague

Plague, a bacterium that ravaged Europe in the Middle Ages and is today one of the most feared potential agents of bio-terrorism, may have met its match, according to Wake Forest University School of Medicine scientists.

18 May 2005

World Health Assembly hears warning on avian influenza threat

The 58th World Health Assembly heard a warning from Dr. LEE Jong-wook, Director-General of the World Health Organization, on what he called the "most serious known health threat the world is facing today, which is avian influenza."

18 May 2005

HIV/AIDS is the biggest killers in every South African province except the Western Cape

A new report by the Medical Research Council in South Africa has quantified the leading causes of death in each province for the first time, and has found that HIV and Aids are the biggest killers in every province except the Western Cape.

17 May 2005

The Gates Foundation approach to the world's health problems has its critics

A recent article in The Lancet criticized the premise that a Grand Challenge to scientific and technological know-how is the best route to combating malaria, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and other diseases that kills millions of people each year.

16 May 2005

Two new retroviruses among central Africans who hunt nonhuman primates

A team of researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Army Health Research Center (CRESAR) in Cameroon have discovered two new retroviruses among central Africans who hunt nonhuman primates.

16 May 2005

Polio vaccination launched despite objection from religious group

A partnership between Mali's Ministry of Health and the UN children's fund UNICEF launched a third and final phase of polio immunisation on May 13th, aiming to reach 3.6 million children. Regardless of recent opposition from religious leaders, the three day programme plans to inoculate all children five years and under.

15 May 2005