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Anti-malarial drug combo could help address malaria crisis in Africa

Using a combination of two drugs—artemether and lumefantrine—is the most effective way to treat malaria in the areas of Africa where resistance to commonly used malaria drugs is high, concludes a randomised trial published in this week’s issue of The Lancet.

21 Apr 2005

Roll Back Malaria partnership has failed to control malaria

The Roll Back Malaria partnership (RBM)—an international alliance of over 90 organisations— has not only failed to control malaria, but its ineffectiveness has meant that malaria rates have increased since its inception, states an editorial in this week’s issue of The Lancet ahead of Africa Malaria Day on April 25, 2005.

21 Apr 2005

Global Health Service needed to fight AIDS

A report by the non-partisan Institute of Medicine is calling for the creation of a U.S. Global Health Service comprised of doctors, nurses and other health care workers to help combat HIV/AIDS in the world's hardest hit countries.

20 Apr 2005

Official Indian AIDS figures in dispute

A claim by AIDS expert Richard Feachem, that India now has the most HIV-positive people in the world has been dismissed by the Indian government.

20 Apr 2005

Missing samples of deadly flu strain now found

World Health Organization (WHO) officials say that all but one of the deadly flu virus samples mistakenly sent to labs outside the United States have been destroyed.

20 Apr 2005

Concern over H2N2 freeze-dried powder being available over the Internet

The World Health Organization fears that a global pandemic could occur should the H2N2 virus, the "Asian flu" strain of 1957, be unwittingly released, the virus which was mistakenly included in routine test kits and sent to 61 laboratories in 18 countries outside the United States.

19 Apr 2005

Experimental vaccine targeting West Nile virus

A small trial testing the safety of an experimental vaccine targeting West Nile virus (WNV) opened today at the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) Clinical Center in Bethesda, MD.

19 Apr 2005

Test kit mistake - labs in race to destroy deadly flu virus

As many as 3,750 medical laboratories, all but 75 of which are in the U.S., have been told by the World Health Organization to destroy a pandemic flu virus sent to them as part of routine testing kits.

13 Apr 2005

Scientists have discovered the mechanism that enables some CD4 T cells - the main target of HIV - to thwart the virus

The discovery, reported on April 13 in the online version of Nature, could open the door to an entirely new strategy for preventing the spread of HIV infection in the body's cells, according to the senior author of the study, Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology Director Warner C. Greene, MD, PhD.

13 Apr 2005

Marburg outbreak - experts struggling to get message across

Disease experts in Angola say it will be weeks before it is determined whether the on-going Marburg crisis can be averted in Angola where the disease has already killed at least 194 people.

12 Apr 2005

Mumps jabs may run out in Ireland

GPs in Northern Ireland are warning that following a mumps outbreak among teenagers and young adults, supplies of the MMR vaccine in Northern Ireland could be running out. Family doctors have been asked to return any unused supplies so these can be re-distributed.

12 Apr 2005

Researchers and drug giant team up to find cure for CJD

The Medical Research Council's Prion Unit, based at University College London, a leading British research group, is joining forces with drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to develop a cure for the disease Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD).

12 Apr 2005

Praise for Clinton Foundation plan for children with AIDS

UNICEF has praised a Clinton Foundation plan that will significantly increase the number of children receiving life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) drugs specifically formulated for them.

12 Apr 2005

New medical uses for the Kunjin virus

Queensland Government scientists at the Department of Health Services have collaborated with scientists at the University of Queensland (UQ) and The Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR) to discover new medical uses for the Kunjin virus.

12 Apr 2005

Pharmacies to sell syringes without a prescription

Beginning Tuesday, April 12th, pharmacists in San Francisco will be able to sell sterile syringes without a prescription when legislation passed by the Board of Supervisors and signed by Mayor Newsom last month goes into effect.

12 Apr 2005

Framework agreement creates safe blood for China

In an important step to help combat the spread of HIV/AIDS in China, The People's Republic of China's Ministry of Health signed a groundbreaking framework agreement with Washington, D.C.-based Safe Blood International Foundation (Safe Blood International), an organization dedicated to providing a safe blood supply for developing countries to help them stop the spread of HIV/AIDS and other blood-borne diseases at the Ministry of Health in Beijing.

12 Apr 2005

Cardiovascular disease: diet, nutrition and emerging risk factors

Despite improvements in death rates from cardiovascular disease (CVD) around the world, CVD remains a leading cause of death and ill health in the UK, where death rates are amongst the highest in the world. Reducing death rates from this disease remains high on the Government’s agenda, yet attention to the classical risk factors may not provide all the answers.

12 Apr 2005

Locals resist efforts to control the worst ever outbreak of Marburg

The World Health Organisation (WHO) have sent communications experts into Uige, the epicentre of the outbreak of Marburg epidemic to help Health experts in the fight to contain and eradicate the killer virus. It is hoped they will send a clear message to Angolans to take the necessary measures to fight the virus.

12 Apr 2005

$10 million from Bill Clinton to fight AIDS

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton announced this week that his foundation will donate $10 million towards treatment for children with AIDS in the developing world.

11 Apr 2005

South Africa protects itself against Marburg virus

The Marburg virus has already killed 193 people since the outbreak began in northern Angola in October and now South Africa is taking precautions to prevent the spread of the Marburg virus into the country.

11 Apr 2005