Disease/Infection News

RSS

Preventive measures are failing to stem the rising rate of HIV infection

An estimated 38 million people worldwide, including over 2 million children, are now infected with HIV, and a record 4.8 million became infected in 2003.

10 Feb 2005

Need for routine voluntary screening for HIV

A new cost-effectiveness analysis has led researchers from Duke University Medical Center and the Veterans Affairs (VA) Palo Alto Health Care System to recommend that routine voluntary screening for HIV

10 Feb 2005

Screening for toxoplasmosis for all pregnant women and newborns is necessary

Physicians found that signs, symptoms and identifiable risk factors are absent in more than half of the mothers of infants with congenital toxoplasmosis in a national study of children with this disease.

9 Feb 2005

Abandoned bones suggest TB wiped out leprosy in battle of killer diseases

The spread of tuberculosis may have killed off leprosy in Europe in the Middle Ages, according to research published in the latest issue of the Royal Society Proceedings B.

8 Feb 2005

Health risks increase in Guyana with leptospirosis

Leptospirosis has become a health concern in Guyana, as the number of cases continues to rise and 43 people were being treated for suspected cases of the bacterial disease, which is usually caused by exposure to water contaminated with the urine of infected animals.

8 Feb 2005

India trials investigational vaccine candidate designed to prevent HIV/AIDS

Announcing the trial, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss, said: "Developing a vaccine to prevent AIDS is one of the most difficult scientific challenges of our time. It is also one of the most urgent health needs. Perseverance is the way forward, and India has a long- term commitment."

7 Feb 2005

HIV-infected parents peport limiting physical contact with their children

Over one-fourth of HIV-infected parents reported avoiding certain physical interactions, like hugging or kissing, with their children due to a fear of transmitting the disease or of contracting an infection from them, according to an article in the February issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

7 Feb 2005

Prions, previously thought to accumulate mainly in the brain can also infect other organs

Prions, infectious proteins associated with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or Mad Cow Disease, were previously thought to accumulate mainly in the brain, but Yale and University of Zurich researchers report in Science that other organs can also become infected.

7 Feb 2005

Infection complicates 2 to 2·5% of breast implantations

Breast augmentation is the most frequent type of plastic surgery done in the UK and - after nose reshaping and liposuction - it is the third most common cosmetic procedure in the USA.

3 Feb 2005

Malaria experts to unveil top-flight research during international conference

Some of the world’s leading authorities on tropical diseases and parasitic infections will gather for an international conference at The University of Nottingham to discuss the latest breakthroughs in research and treatments.

3 Feb 2005

No association between a herpesvirus infection and pulmonary hypertension

Contrary to the results of a recent U.S. study, investigators in Japan found no association between a herpesvirus infection and a potentially life-threatening form of high blood pressure, as reported in the March 1 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online.

30 Jan 2005

Basis for deciding cost effectiveness of TB vaccination programmes questioned

Current risk assessment methods, which are used to inform the timing and extent of tuberculosis (TB) vaccination programmes, may overestimate the real risk of contracting the disease up to threefold, reveals research in Thorax.

26 Jan 2005

Increase in norovirus incidents on board cruise ships

There is an increase in norovirus incidents across the country in hospitals, day care centers, nursing homes and schools, according to Dave Forney, chief of the Vessel Sanitation Program of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

26 Jan 2005

WHO announces $2 billion gap in financing for AIDS treatment

Today, at the Davos World Economic Forum in Switzerland, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a report showing a "rapid expansion" in the number of people living in poor countries gaining access to life-saving AIDS treatment.

26 Jan 2005

$543,000 needed to support immediate health needs in Guyana

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has issued an urgent appeal for $543,000 to support immediate health needs in Guyana, where heavy rainfall has flooded densely populated areas, leaving thousands without shelter, food or water.

26 Jan 2005

Migration and Aids: social control, a brake on the spread of HIV in Senegal?

Ever since Aids appeared, migration has been thought to be a driving force behind the epidemic. The disease is often represented either as an “imported pathology”, migrants being the disease (or at least risk), carriers or as a “pathology of adaptation”.

25 Jan 2005

New highly active agents against leishmaniasis

Parasitic diseases, especially leishmaniases and trypanosomiases, kill hundreds of thousands of people every year in the world, mainly in the countries of the South. The most severe form of leishmaniosis (kala-azar, the visceral form), induced by Leishmania donovani and L. infantum, affects about 500 000 people per year and proves fatal if no treatment is given.

25 Jan 2005

Bill & Melinda give $750 million for vaccines and immunization

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced a grant of $750 million, and Norway committed $290 million, to support the work of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI).

25 Jan 2005

New technique can greatly facilitate the development of vaccines against infectious diseases such as smallpox, malaria and tuberculosis

Because the new technique can synthesize a large number of proteins very quickly, it has potential to accelerate vaccine development, particularly crucial in the fight against bioterrorism.

25 Jan 2005

Viacom and Kaiser launch year three of KNOW HIV/AIDS campaign

Viacom Inc. and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation today announced the year-three launch of the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning public education initiative KNOW HIV/AIDS, which includes targeted public service announcements (PSAs), HIV-themed programming, and free print and online information resources.

24 Jan 2005