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Malaria conference begins in Nairobi, will highlight outlook for RTS,S experimental malaria vaccine

The 5th Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) Pan-African Conference "kicked off in Nairobi late Sunday with a call for substantial and sustained support for research to guide evidence-based policies and the development of new malaria tools, which together could save countless lives," Xinhua reports (11/2).

2 Nov 2009

Aetna inks three-year agreement with HHC

Aetna announced today that it has reached an agreement with the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) to offer Aetna members in New York City in-network access to in-patient and out-patient services from HHC’s 11 acute care hospitals, six Diagnostic and Treatment Centers and four nursing homes.

2 Nov 2009

U.S. officially ends HIV travel ban

The White House on Friday announced an end to a 22-year-old travel ban on HIV-positive foreigners visiting the U.S. or seeking residency, the New York Times reports. The newspaper writes that President Barack "Obama announced that a rule canceling the ban would be published on Monday and would take effect after a routine 60-day waiting period" (Preston, 10/30).

2 Nov 2009

ART Advanced Research Technologies to secure $1.2M interim financing

ART Advanced Research Technologies Inc., a Canadian medical device company and a leader in optical molecular imaging products for the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries, announced that earlier today it filed a notice of intention to make a proposal to its creditors under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act with KPMG Inc. in order to provide the company with the liquidity it requires to pursue its solicitation process.

2 Nov 2009

House Democratic leaders pushing for vote on health reform

Speaker Nancy Pelosi could hold a vote on the final House of Representatives health care reform legislation this week.

2 Nov 2009

GOP is preparing its strategy, version of health overhaul legislation

The Republican Party is set to reveal an alternative health care reform bill to the Democratic ones in Congress just as the House prepares to take up Democratic legislation.

2 Nov 2009

Deaths from H1N1 rise by 700 in one week, WHO reports

The number of deaths from H1N1 (swine flu) rose by 700 in a week, to top 5,700 since the virus was first identified in April, the WHO reported Friday, Agence France-Presse reports (10/30).

2 Nov 2009

BioVex publishes OncoVEX (GM-CSF) Phase 2 study results

BioVex Inc, a company developing new generation biologics for the treatment and prevention of cancer and infectious disease, announced today that the data from its completed Phase 2 clinical study of OncoVEX (GM-CSF) for the treatment of advanced melanoma has been published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO). The previously announced top line results report a high objective durable response rate and a high complete response rate, combined with a relatively benign side effect profile.

2 Nov 2009

NIH awards $2 million grant for sickle cell disease research

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago will use a $2 million federal grant to investigate why patients with sickle cell disease experience chronic pain -- and to develop drugs to treat it.

2 Nov 2009

Washington Post examines role of USAID's Richard Greene

As part of its ongoing "Federal Player of the Week" series with the Partnership for Public Service, the Washington Post examines the role of Richard Greene, the head of USAID's Office of Health, Infectious Diseases, and Nutrition in the Bureau of Global Health.

2 Nov 2009

Zuma calls for renewed effort in fight against HIV/AIDS

South African President Jacob Zuma on Thursday called for a renewed effort in the country's fight against HIV/AIDS, the Star/Independent Online reports. During a speech to South Africa's National Council of Provinces, which also addressed the country's economy, Zuma pointed to what he called "chilling statistics" reflective of the "devastating impact HIV and AIDS" is having on the country (du Plessis, 10/30).

2 Nov 2009

superDimension launches the iLogic electromagnetic navigation bronchoscopy tool

superDimension, Inc.®, a private company that develops minimally invasive interventional pulmonology devices, announced today the launch of the iLogic System for early lung cancer detection and diagnosis. The device is the second generation version of inReach(TM), superDimension's electromagnetic navigation bronchoscopy (ENB) minimally invasive tool.

2 Nov 2009

Also in Global Health News: Undernutrition in Afghanistan; Namibia's HIV clinics, outreach programs

A Lancet World Report examines the deadly toll undernutrition is having on the people of Afghanistan, where the "issues of poverty and undernutrition have received curiously little attention: about a third of the population, more than 7 million people, are food insecure, according the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP).

2 Nov 2009

NIH-funded study using SphygmoCor published

AtCor Medical the developer and marketer of the SphygmoCor® system which measures central blood pressure and arterial stiffness noninvasively, today announced the publication of a key National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded study(1) using SphygmoCor in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC).

2 Nov 2009

Individual, employer mandates prove thorny topics for lawmakers

When President Clinton proposed requiring all Americans to buy insurance in the early 1990s, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office called it "an unprecedented form of federal action," adding that "[t]he government has never required people to buy any good or service as a condition of lawful residence in the United States," the Los Angeles Times reports.

2 Nov 2009

Pico-Tesla commences pilot study of its Resonator system for treating type 2 diabetes patients

Pico-Tesla, The Magneceutical™ Therapy Company, announced today that it has commenced a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Pilot Study of up to 165 persons who have type 2 diabetes, the most common form of diabetes.

2 Nov 2009

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, OPR launch an innovative oncology treatment initiative

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Oncology Physician Resource announced today the launch of an innovative oncology treatment initiative aimed at enhancing the quality of care for patients with certain types of cancer.

2 Nov 2009

St. David's Medical Center to use FDA cleared CARTO 3 Navigation System for treating cardiac arrhythmia

On Monday, November 2, 2009, Andrea Natale, M.D., F.A.C.C., F.H.R.S., an electrophysiologist and executive medical director of the Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute at St. David's Medical Center, will be the first physician in the United States to perform an ablation procedure to treat a patient with a cardiac arrhythmia, commonly known as an irregular heart rhythm, using the newly FDA-cleared CARTO® 3 Navigation System.

2 Nov 2009

Shortage of Tamiflu in liquid form contributes to dosage errors

Two pediatric patients in Pennsylvania hospitals received overdoses of the drug Tamiflu to treat their flu symptoms because of unawareness among staff as to the concentration of the drug given in an alternative liquid form. Both children were unharmed as a result of the errors, but details of the near misses have been published in a supplementary Pennsylvania Patient Safety Advisory to raise awareness of the issue.

2 Nov 2009

Phase Forward to support FDA's production rollout of the WebSDM tool

Phase Forward, a leading provider of data management solutions for clinical trials and drug safety, today announced a contract award to support the FDA’s production rollout of the company’s WebSDM™ Release 3.0 software, including the Empirica™ Study Clinical Trials Signal Detection system.

2 Nov 2009