Lancet Study Examines Childbirth Practices, Outcomes In Asian Countries A Lancet study examines childbirth practices and the relationship between these practices and maternal and perinatal outcomes in nine Asian countries, as assessed by a WHO global survey…
A new study of children in Ukraine has found that for the growing number of HIV-infected children, the quality of care and the relationship between children and their caregivers play an important role in their development…
GeoVax Labs, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: GOVX) (the “Company”), an Atlanta-based, biopharmaceutical company developing human vaccines for diseases caused by HIV-1 (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) and other infectious agents, provided an update on its vaccine trials progress…
An experimental vaccine was found to reduce the rate of tuberculosis infections in patients living with HIV, “the first time a shot has been shown to reduce cases of the most common AIDS-related cause of death in poor nations,” Bloomberg reports (Bennett, 1/29). Tuberculosis accounts for up to one-third of AIDS deaths worldwide, CBC News reports…
“The Obama administration is expected to propose in its fiscal 2011 budget Monday new funding to combat preventable and tropical diseases, malnutrition and other conditions afflicting the world’s poor, as part of a strategy to broaden its approach to global health,” the Wall Street Journal reports…
A new study weighs in on the controversy over sex education, finding that an abstinence-only intervention for pre-teens was more successful in delaying the onset of sexual activity than a health-promotion control intervention. After two years, one-third of the abstinence-only group reported having sex, compared to one-half of the control group…
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced today the appointment of 24 new members to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA). The PACHA’s chair, Dr. Helene Gayle, was appointed in August 2009…
The development of antibiotics gave physicians seemingly miraculous weapons against infectious disease. Effective cures for terrible afflictions like pneumonia, syphilis and tuberculosis were suddenly at hand. Moreover, many of the drugs that made them possible were versatile enough to knock out a wide range of deadly bacterial threats…
Suneva Medical, a privately-held aesthetic medical device company, announced that two clinical studies suggest Artefill may be a safe, effective, long-term treatment option for age-related and HIV lipoatrophy patients…
Results from clinical trials conducted in Tanzania show that a new vaccine against tuberculosis, Mycobacterium vaccae (MV), is effective in preventing tuberculosis in people with HIV infection…
The following summarizes selected women’s health-related blog entries. ~ “Dem Lawmaker: Strong Likelihood of Using Reconciliation To Pass Health Bill,” Jordan Fabian, The Hill’s “Blog Briefing Room”: Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y…
President Barack Obama’s FY 2011 budget request for global health totals $9.6 billion and includes funding for global health activities within the State Department, USAID and HHS, the Wall Street Journal reports. “That compares with $8.8 billion enacted for fiscal 2010,” according to the newspaper (McKay, 2/1)…
NPR’s “Morning Edition” examines how global family planning fits into the Obama administration’s global health policy. “The administration has already restored funding for the United Nations Population … Fund, which for eight years received no U.S. support. And in his first week, President Obama lifted an executive order that existed in the Reagan and Bush administrations that prohibited U.S…
The African Union (AU) Summit concluded in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Tuesday with newly elected AU chairman Bingu Wa Mutharika, of Malawi, encouraging African leaders to make agriculture and food security a top priority, Angola Press reports (2/2). “Mr…
GSK Head Discusses Company Interest In NTDs The Associated Press features a Q&A with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) CEO Andrew Witty, who “is pushing to sell more products in fast-growing ‘emerging markets’ such as Brazil, Russia, India and China” while simultaneously “increasing efforts to bring medicines for tropical diseases to the poorest countries, at minimum profit…
A team of scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has identified two compounds that act on novel binding sites for an enzyme used by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes AIDS…
On the twentieth anniversary of the Medical Research Council’s (MRC) research unit’s presence in Uganda, Director Heiner Grosskurth looks back on the changing landscape of research into HIV/AIDS at the commemorative scientific symposium in Entebbe today…
U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday introduced a congressional resolution condemning an anti-gay bill before Uganda’s parliament, “calling it an attack on human rights and an obstacle to battling HIV/AIDS,” Agence France-Presse reports…
The Mintaka Foundation for Medical Research in Geneva announced today that the Wellcome Trust, London, has awarded it approximately CHF 4,500,000 to meet the remaining costs of bringing its flagship product, an anti-HIV microbicide known as 5P12-RANTES, to a first safety trial in the clinic. Every year, there are millions of new infections from HIV…
“Two Republican congressmen who help oversee billions of dollars for people with AIDS are asking the federal government for an accounting of fraud and mismanagement complaints leveled against AIDS programs nationwide,” The Washington Post reports. “Reps. Joe L. Barton (Tex.) and Greg Walden (Ore.) sent a letter Thursday to the U.S…
Changes “aimed at increasing the agency’s efficiency and making it more user-friendly” include combining “the work of the malaria branch, the epidemiology program and HIV/AIDS efforts” under the newly formed Center for Global Health, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports (Poole, 1/1)…
About 20,000 People Homeless After Tajikistan Earthquake, Officials Say “Tajikistan officials say about 20,000 people have been left homeless after an earthquake rocked the impoverished central Asian nation” on Saturday, VOA News reports. The quake severed electrical supplies and communications in affected areas, officials said (1/3)…
NPR’s “All Things Considered” examines the Obama administration’s global HIV/AIDS policy. “Instead of relying on one program, such as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief or PEPFAR, [U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Eric] Goosby says the U.S…
Scientists at the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology (GIVI) have discovered a new agent that might inhibit the infectivity of HIV. The agent, surfen, impairs the action of a factor in semen that greatly enhances the viral infection. Surfen might be used to supplement current HIV microbicides to greatly reduce HIV transmission during sexual contact…
Expert Panel Releases 2010 Adult Immunization Schedule, Stresses Importance of Vaccination Each year, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) reviews the recommended Adult Immunization Schedule to ensure that the schedule reflects the most current scientific knowledge of vaccines and vaccine preventable disease…
