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Lung immune cells orchestrate the body's repair response following flu infection

There's more than one way to mop up after a flu infection. Now, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania report in Nature Immunology that a previously unrecognized population of lung immune cells orchestrate the body's repair response following flu infection.

4 Oct 2011

Kenya national AIDS program considering mandatory HIV testing

VOA News examines how Kenya's National Aids Control Council and STI Control Program (NASCOP) is considering proposing mandatory HIV testing for adults and children who seek medical care for other conditions, noting that some AIDS organizations are expressing ethical concerns because of continuing stigma and discrimination. For now, "fears of mandatory testing in Kenya are premature, as Kenyan law currently bans such practices," the news service writes.

4 Oct 2011

Familiarity with snack foods changes children's expectations about fullness

New research, led by psychologists at the University of Bristol, has found that children who are familiar with a snack food will expect it to be more filling.

4 Oct 2011

Medicare home-health firms under scrutiny

An inquiry by the Senate Finance Committee has found that the nation's three largest home-health companies tailored the care they provided to Medicare patients to maximize their reimbursements from the federal program.

4 Oct 2011

Phagenesis closes Series B funding

Phagenesis Ltd, the global leader in the treatment of dysphagia (inability to swallow safely) today announced that it has closed a €7 million Series B funding round designed to accelerate the company's development plans.

4 Oct 2011

Despite increase in health care spending in Angola, quality of care remains low

"Angola has tripled its spending on health care since 2006, but for the vast majority of Angolans who can't afford sparkling new private clinics -- or better yet, care abroad -- a trip to the hospital is still a nightmare," Agence France-Presse reports.

4 Oct 2011

Alzheimer's may originate in a form similar to that of infectious prion diseases

The brain damage that characterizes Alzheimer's disease may originate in a form similar to that of infectious prion diseases such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow) and Creutzfeldt-Jakob, according to newly published research by The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

4 Oct 2011

Addressing high-risk groups, couples counseling in HIV prevention

In this post in the Center for Global Development's "Global Health Policy" blog, Mead Over, a senior fellow at the center, follows up on a post last week in which he wrote that a panel of senior economists commissioned by the Rush Foundation was to address the question of how to spend an additional, but hypothetical, $10 billion on HIV/AIDS programs in Africa over the next five years.

4 Oct 2011

CNRS researcher wins 2011 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for immunology work

The 2011 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine has been awarded to Jules Hoffmann, a French citizen native of Luxembourg, CNRS senior researcher emeritus and professor at the university of Strasbourg, jointly with Bruce A. Beutler for their discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity.

4 Oct 2011

Congress blocks funding meant for food aid, health care to Palestinian Authority

"Congress has ... blocked $200 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority [PA] since August, in a move a PA official described as 'collective punishment' for its United Nations bid" for statehood, GlobalPost reports.

4 Oct 2011

Certain care situations result in poorer hand hygiene practice in ED

Researchers studying hand hygiene of healthcare workers in the emergency department found certain care situations, including bed location and type of healthcare worker performing care, resulted in poorer hand hygiene practice.

4 Oct 2011

IPS examines the practice of breast ironing in Cameroon

Inter Press Service reports on the practice of breast ironing in Cameroon, a custom carried out by one-quarter of mothers in the country that is meant to reverse female sexual development in an effort "to avoid sexual contact between young girls and boys."

4 Oct 2011

Residential washing machines may not eliminate hospital-acquired bacteria

Residential washing machines may not always use hot enough water to eliminate dangerous bacteria like methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Acinetobacter, a Gram-negative bacteria, from hospital uniforms, according to a study published in the November issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.

4 Oct 2011

Canada Supreme Court rules Vancouver's safe drug-injection site can stay open

"Vancouver's Insite clinic, the only such safe-injection site for people who use drugs in North America, can stay open, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Friday in a landmark defeat for the federal government," Reuters reports.

4 Oct 2011

Telestroke improves care and reduces costs

The use of long-distance video and data hookups to link remote community hospitals with stroke neurologists in large centres provides the same level of care as having everyone in the same room, according to a new study presented today at the Canadian Stroke Congress.

4 Oct 2011

Supreme Court opens new term, health law challenge tops agenda

The cases coming before the court "address some of the central issues facing the country," said former Solicitor General Walter Dellinger. The clashes over health care and immigration "are not mere lawyers' issues, but fundamental questions about how the country is governed."

4 Oct 2011

G&D, Precise Biometrics partner to provide Match-on-Card technology

Precise Biometrics announces that they have entered into a partnership agreement with Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) that will provide Precise Match-on-Card technology for use on G&D smart-cards.

4 Oct 2011

Columbian scientists tap global computer network in search of leishmaniasis drugs

"Colombian scientists are using a global network of personal and institutional computers to search for potential drugs against leishmaniasis, a disease that affects 12 million people worldwide," SciDev.Net reports. The researchers at the University of Antioquia "will harness the calculation potential of the almost two million computers that make up the World Community Grid, funded by the IBM Corporation," the news service writes.

4 Oct 2011

Creabilis receives $20 million in Series B funding

Creabilis SA, a clinical stage European biotechnology company addressing unmet medical needs in dermatology, inflammation and pain, has raised €15 million ($20 million) in a Series B funding round led by Abbott Biotech Ventures.

4 Oct 2011

Central African Republic declares new cholera outbreak

Central African Republic Health Minister Jean-Michel Mandaba on Friday declared a new outbreak of cholera in the south of the country had already killed at least 10 people, Agence France-Presse reports.

4 Oct 2011