Monday 6 April 2009

Disease/Infection News Update from News-Medical.Net - 7th April 2009

We'd like to remind you about our latest website launched late 2008, Talk Medical (http://talk.news-medical.net). Here you can post news from your organization or company, post events you are involved in or feel would be of interest to the wider community, blog to your heart's content on current health issues or simply just share any interesting health stories you may have.

Featured Posts

Health of Women is Indeed Our Precious Wealth

bobby ramakant

W o r l d H e a l t h D a y 7 April 2009 Health of Women is Indeed Our Precious Wealth On this year's World Health Day, let us focus on addressing issues that can improve health status of women. A wide array of socio-economic, cultural and gender-based inequalities continue to aggravate risk for women. The latest effort in this direction was a symposium on ‘nutrition in women’ held in New Delhi . Its main aim was to draw attention to the very pertinent observations of a ‘Multi Centric Study on… Continue

The Welcomed Medical Benefits Of Stem Cell Therapy

Dan Abshear

Over 100 years ago, a Russian histologist suggested stem cells be applied for scientific research. They are the human body’s equivalent of a generator, as they can renew, regenerate, and replicate under the right conditions. The apex of cellular therapy and regenerative/reparative medicine has been reborn after an 8 year moratorium that basically halted federal funding for stem cell research with most states in the U.S. Now the NIH can award grants to scientists involved with biomedical resear… Continue

Breastfeeding reduces risk of childhood obesity

Jane Philpott

Three decades ago, it was proposed that disease risk in human adults may be programmed by environmental influences acting on hormones, metabolites and neurotransmitters, during sensitive periods of early development. Since then, much supporting evidence for this hypothesis has… Continue

Latest News


California HIV/AIDS group launches web-based program aimed at MSM
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=47972
The Palm Springs, Calif.-based Desert AIDS Project has launched an Internet-based education and prevention program aimed at men who have sex with men, the Desert Sun reports. The program was launched ahead of the area's White Party Easter weekend, according to the Sun.

Inter Press service examines research into PrEP
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=47973
Inter Press Service last week examined how researchers are investigating the use of antiretroviral drugs as a possible method of pre-exposure prophylaxis. AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition's Executive Director Mitchell Warren recently said that such efforts are "a pivotal moment in HIV/AIDS research."

Ugandan First Lady calls for increased efforts to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=47974
Uganda's first lady Janet Museveni recently called for increased efforts to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission in the country, Uganda's New Vision reports.

Cambodia aims to decrease HIV/AIDS prevalence to 0.6% by 2010
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=47975
Cambodia aims to decrease its HIV/AIDS prevalence to 0.6% by 2010, compared with a prevalence of more than 0.7% in 2008 and 0.9% in 2006, Xinhuanet reports.

First Lady Obama to partner with French First Lady Bruni-Sarkozy on global HIV/AIDS efforts
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=47976
First lady Michelle Obama and French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy on Friday in Strasbourg, France, agreed to collaborate on efforts to address HIV/AIDS worldwide, AFP/Google.com reports.

Partner behavior better predicts STD risks
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=47938
Risky behaviors such as not using condoms or having sex with multiple people put young adults at risk for contracting sexually transmitted diseases, but perhaps not as much as the characteristics of their sexual partners, University of Florida researchers say.

Locking parasites in host cell could be new way to fight malaria
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=47930
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have discovered that parasites hijack host-cell proteins to ensure their survival and proliferation, suggesting new ways to control the diseases they cause.

Experts discuss disease-fight dollars for developing world
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=47915
The debate over how to spend the hundreds of millions of dollars earmarked to fight AIDS and other killer diseases in developing countries will come under the spotlight at a meeting of international experts.

UNITAID reaches deal with travel agencies to raise donations for HIV/AIDS, TB, Malaria
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=47889
UNITAID on Wednesday announced that it has reached an agreement with three travel reservation systems that will allow users to make voluntary $2 donations to HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria efforts, AFP/Google.com reports.

U.S.-funded HIV/AIDS, malaria initiatives represent 'new approach' to foreign aid, opinion piece says
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=47892
In her book "Dead Aid," author Dambisa Moyo comes to "disastrously wrongheaded conclusions" regarding U.S. foreign aid, columnist Michael Gerson writes in a Washington Post opinion piece.

Doctors identify patients at high risk of Clostridium difficile
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=47773
Doctors have developed and validated a clinical prediction rule for recurrent Clostridium difficile ( C. difficile ) infection that was simple, reliable and accurate, and can be used to identify high-risk patients most likely to benefit from measures to prevent recurrence.

Self-collection of samples in sex workers works best when screening for STIs
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=47747
Researchers at the University of Westminster have used a simple and convenient method for screening female commercial sex workers (CSW) for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) without the need for them to attend clinics.

Need for more African American HIV/AIDS researchers
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=47748
African Americans, who make up 13 percent of the U.S. population, are disproportionately affected by AIDS, accounting for nearly 49 percent of newly diagnosed HIV/AIDS cases nationwide.

A magic bullet for superbugs
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=47741
Attaching an antimicrobial drug, which is activated by light, to a peptide that binds to bacteria and stops them making toxins, produced a "magic bullet" that was highly effective at killing the superbug, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

Insecticide spraying targeted at mosquito larvae can help control malaria in urban areas, study says
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=47704
The use of insecticide to kill mosquitoes during the larval stage of development can control malaria effectively in urban areas when combined with existing malaria interventions, such as insecticide-treated nets, according to a study published Tuesday in PLoS One, ANI/Thaindian News reports.

Somali religious leaders increase efforts to reduce stigma, discrimination for people living with HIV/AIDS
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=47692
Islamic religious leaders in Somalia are increasing efforts to reduce stigma and discrimination against HIV-positive people in the country, IRIN/Plus News reports. Religious leaders in the predominantly Muslim country are encouraging people to treat HIV-positive people with respect and are becoming involved in HIV prevention efforts, according to IRIN/Plus News.

Teacher-student relationships in Kenyan province places girls at increased risk for HIV, education official says
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=47693
An increasing number of sexual relationships between teachers and students in Kenya's Nyanza province is placing girls at increased risk of HIV/AIDS, Geoffrey Cherongis, Nyanza's provincial director of education, said recently, IRIN/Plus News reports. Cherongis said that some HIV-positive teachers engage in sexual relations with female students and spread the virus to "young girls who hardly know the kind of thing they are getting into."

Funding HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria 'smart investment,' U.N. Secretary General Ban says
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=47690
Funding programs aimed at fighting HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria is a "smart investment," United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Monday in a video message to a meeting in Cacares, Spain, to call on donors to fund United Nations-supported efforts against the three diseases, Xinhuanet reports.

Health officials in Canadian province develop communications strategy to address increase in HIV cases
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=47691
Health experts are developing plans to increase HIV/AIDS awareness in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan in response to the virus' rising incidence in the province, Moira McKinnon, Saskatchewan's chief medical health officer, said recently, the Regina Leader-Post reports.

'Compassion,' 'sense of justice' could 'motivate' Washington, D.C., to 'do more' for HIV-positive people, opinion piece says
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=47694
"[C]ompassion and a sense of justice can motivate" the Washington, D.C., community "to do more" for people living with HIV/AIDS in the district, Patricia Wudel -- executive director of Joseph's House, which provides hospice services for HIV-positive people -- writes in a Washington Post opinion piece in response to an earlier opinion piece by columnist Courtland Milloy (Wudel, Washington Post, 3/29).

Community spread of trachoma could be stopped by treating all household members
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=47625
All members of the household need to be treated for trachoma in order to prevent rapid re-infection, according to a new study published in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Regular handwashing more important than isolation in controlling MRSA infection
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=47631
Regular handwashing by hospital staff and visitors did more to prevent the spread of the MRSA superbug than isolating infected patients.

Intestinal parasites significantly reduce immune response to the cholera toxin
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=47636
Cholera patients also infected with parasitic intestinal worms have a significantly reduced immune response to the cholera toxin, according to a report published March 31st in the open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

River blindness under control in Escuintla, Guatemala
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=47611
An international team of researchers led by Rodrigo Gonzalez of the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala reports that the transmission of onchocerciasis or river blindness has been broken in Escuintla, Guatemala, one of the largest endemic areas in the Western Hemisphere to date to stop the transmission of the parasitic disease.

AHF lauds 'Lancet' editorial criticizing Pope on condoms and HIV
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=47616
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) today lauded the respected British medical journal, 'The Lancet,' for its strongly-worded editorial criticizing Pope Benedict XVI for his public remarks early last week suggesting that condoms are fueling the spread of AIDS in Africa.

AP/Google.com examines efforts to address drug-resistant tuberculosis in China, other countries
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=47606
The AP/Google.com on Monday examined efforts to prevent and control the spread of drug-resistant tuberculosis in China and other countries.

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