Pharmacy Swine Flu Trial Moves Into Phase II - Pharmaceutical Society Of Australia

The first phase of a swine flu vaccination program trial conducted in Tasmania by the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia and the Department of Health and Human Services has proved popular with the community. Phase II of the pandemic vaccination program will now be rolled out to allow pharmacy-based clinics to support other elements of the swine flu vaccination program...

NOVAVAX Completes Enrollment Of Pivotal H1N1 Influenza Vaccine Clinical Trial In Mexico

Novavax, Inc. (Nasdaq: NVAX) announced that the enrollment of over 3,500 subjects in Mexico has been completed in Stage B of its pivotal 2009 H1N1 virus-like-particle (VLP) pandemic influenza vaccine study. With the 1,000 subjects already enrolled in Stage A of the trial, the enrollment in this pivotal trial is now complete with over 4,500 subjects...

Pandemic Flu, Like Seasonal H1N1, Shows Signs Of Resisting Tamiflu

If the behavior of the seasonal form of the H1N1 influenza virus is any indication, scientists say that chances are good that most strains of the pandemic H1N1 flu virus will become resistant to Tamiflu, the main drug stockpiled for use against it...

Loyola Physician Discusses What Happened To The Flu

Normally, this is the peak period for the flu in the United States. But that just doesn't seem to be the case this year. The number of states reporting widespread cases of the flu mysteriously plunged from 49 at the end of October to zero at the beginning of the January, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...

Also In Global Health News: Maternal, Child Health In Rwanda, Pakistan, India; Mongolia Weather; H1N1

Rwanda Targets Communities In Effort To Curb Maternal Mortality To reduce maternal mortality in Rwanda and reach U.N. Millennium Development Goal targets, the government will conduct maternal death audits in villages to help identify ways to improve outcomes, Rwanda's Minister of Health Richard Sezibera announced recently, the New Times/allAfrica.com reports...

Charles Manski Explores The Processes Of Making Public Policy Based On Limited Information

How might policymakers make reasonable decisions when they have limited information? That's the question Northwestern University's Charles F. Manski explores in his new paper, "Vaccination With Partial Knowledge of External Effectiveness." The paper is published online by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) at http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2010/02/05/0915009107.full...

Aggressive Response Helped Chilean Hospital Improve H1N1 Influenza Outcomes

A Chilean hospital's early use of antiviral treatment in influenza patients and other aggressive measures helped reduce the number of severe H1N1 cases and related deaths. Those are the findings of a new study, now available online, published in the March 15, 2010 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases...

WHO Emergency Committee Concludes 'Too Premature' To Declare H1N1 Has Peaked

The WHO's emergency committee concluded Tuesday that it was too early to declare that H1N1 (swine flu) has peaked in all parts of the world, the Associated Press reports. The announcement came after the committee met to review the most recent statistics of H1N1 activity around the world (2/24)...

Diagnostic Hybrids Receives FDA Emergency Use Authorization For D3 Ultra 2009 H1N1 Influenza A Virus ID Kit

Diagnostic Hybrids, a Quidel Company (NASDAQ: QDEL) has received emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its D3 Ultra 2009 H1N1 Influenza A Virus ID Kit, a monoclonal antibody fluorescent staining kit for the specific identification of 2009 H1N1 influenza A in direct patient specimens or incubated tissue cultures...

FDA Recommends H1N1 For Inclusion In Next Year's Flu Vaccine

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday recommended that the H1N1 (swine flu) strain be added to next year's seasonal flu vaccine, "putting an end to separate shots deployed against the pandemic," Bloomberg reports. The FDA committee voted unanimously to make the H1N1 strain one of the three strains included in the shot, according to the news service...

UNAIDS Director Cautions Against Funding Cuts To Global Fund

During an appeal to government and private donors to pledge money to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria on Monday, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe warned of the repercussions tightening budgets could play in the global fight against HIV/AIDS, the Associated Press reports...

Opinions: Don't Slow Fight Against HIV, TB, Malaria; U.S. Focus On Women, Girls

2010 To Be 'Decisive Year' For Global Health, Global Fund Director Says In a BusinessDay opinion piece, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Michel Kazatchkine reflects on the organization's progress and impact on global health outcomes since its creation in 2002, as detailed in the organizations' 2010 annual report...

Global Fund Releases Latest Impact Data, Projections For Improving Global Health In Next Decade

By 2015, mother-to-child HIV transmission will be virtually eliminated and deaths from malaria and tuberculosis will continue to decline if health investments for the diseases are maintained or scaled up, according to an annual results report published Monday by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Agence France-Presse/Africasia.com reports (3/8)...

Recent Releases In Global Health

WHO Bulletin Examines Communicable Diseases In Southeast Asia The WHO's March Bulletin is a special themed issue focusing on communicable diseases in Southeast Asia. The publication addresses tuberculosis, cholera, neglected tropical diseases and family planning in the region (March 2010)...

Ban, Clinton Launch Initiative Allowing Travelers To Donate To Global Health

Former President Bill Clinton and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York on Thursday launched MASSIVEGOOD - an initiative that allows travelers to make a $2 donation "to fight deadly diseases whenever they buy a plane ticket, book a hotel room or rent a car," Bloomberg/BusinessWeek reports (Varner, 3/4)...

UNITAID Statement On Launch Of MASSIVEGOOD

UNITAID welcomes the announcement today of the MASSIVEGOOD initiative, established to provide additional funding for UNITAID's work in expanding access to treatment for HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis...

2 Teams Advance On Answers To TB Epidemic By Going 'Back To The Drawing Board'

When people get exposed to the mycobacterium responsible for tuberculosis (TB), some will become sick with a disease that is a major cause of mortality around the world while others simply don't...

Discovery Of Gene That Affects Susceptibility To TB And Clues To How It Works

University of Washington (UW) researchers have identified a gene involved in susceptibility and resistance to tuberculosis. This same gene, they have found, has a role in the severity of leprosy, which is caused by a related pathogen. The researchers also have learned why this gene is important for susceptibility...

HIV, NCDs Impact Achievement Of MDGs, Study Says

Unequal progress in achieving U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for tuberculosis and child mortality in low-income countries is related to the countries' burdens of HIV and non-communicable diseases (NCD), according to a study published Tuesday in the journal PLoS Medicine, Reuters reports (Kelland, 3/2)...

Millennium Development Goals Being 'missed' Due To Narrow Disease Focus

Problems controlling common diseases like HIV, heart disease and diabetes in poor countries could be hindering efforts to meet the world's key child health and tuberculosis goals, a new study published in PLoS Medicine has warned...

Cempra Announces The Completion Of Phase 1 Studies For CEM-101, A Next-Generation Macrolide

Cempra Pharmaceuticals announced the successful completion of Phase 1 clinical trials of its oral formulation of CEM-101, which showed good tolerability in those studies. The company also announced plans to submit an IND to the FDA to begin a Phase 1 study with the company's intravenous formulation of CEM-101 in mid-2010...

Allergist Expert Onsite At The FDA Advisory Committee Meeting On LABAs

On Wednesday, March 10 and Thursday, March 11, the FDA is convening an Advisory Committee meeting on the clinical trial design for long acting beta-2 adrenergic agonists (LABA's). Bob Lanier, M.D...

Program Could Help Teens Control Asthma

An asthma program specifically tailored to teens could help those in rural areas manage their disease and avoid potentially fatal complications, Medical College of Georgia researchers say. Black males have a death rate from asthma that is six times greater than their white counterparts, and Dr...

New Asthma Prevention Study Underway At UHSM

The largest ever study to investigate whether its possible to prevent children with hay fever going on to develop asthma is now underway at UHSM (University Hospital South Manchester)...

What Are Hiccups? What Causes Hiccups?

A hiccup, also known as hiccough, synchronous diaphragmatic flutter (SDF), or singultus is a common condition that probably affects every human, in which there is an involuntary esophageal contraction of the diaphragm that recurs several times per minute. The diaphragm is the muscle that separates the chest from the abdomen - it is underneath the ribcage - and has a key function in breathing...

The Therapeutic Effect Of Worm-Derived Proteins On Experimental Colitis

Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) suffer from chronic inflammation of the gut leading to gastrointestinal motility alterations with symptoms such as abdominal pain, cramps and diarrhea that profoundly affect their quality of life...

InterMune Announces Posting Of Briefing Documents For FDA Advisory Committee Meeting On Pirfenidone

InterMune, Inc. (Nasdaq: ITMN) announced that the U.S...

Throne Speech Demonstrates Commitment To Health, Environment: Canadian Lung Association

The Canadian Lung Association is pleased that today's Speech from the Throne demonstrated a continued commitment to health and the environment...

Study Finds Pfizer's Pneumonia, Meningitis Vaccine Protects Against Recurrent Pneumonia In HIV Patients

Pfizer's Prevnar 7 vaccine, which protects against pneumonia and meningitis, has been shown to reduce the risk of recurrent pneumococcal infection in patients living with HIV in Malawi, according to a study published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, Reuters reports...

Draft Guidance From NICE Hopes To Help People With Motor Neurone Disease Breathe More Easily

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is currently developing guidance for the NHS on the use of non-invasive mechanical ventilation for people with motor neurone disease. The draft recommendations are now available on the NICE website for public consultation...

Accelr8 Announces Acceptance Of Scientific Presentation, And Pilot Results With A New Rapid Test For A Major Emerging Resistance Threat

Accelr8 Technology Corporation (NYSE Amex: AXK) announced that it has received acceptance to present results for a study on 2-hour, culture-free, quantitative pathogen identification. The study was co-authored with principal investigators at the Denver Health Medical Center and the Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis...

MicroPhage Seeks FDA Clearance To Market World's First Test Designed To Rapidly Identify Bacterial Infections And Antibiotic Susceptibility

MicroPhage announced that it has submitted human data from a pivotal clinical study of its 'Microphage MRSA/MSSA Blood Culture Test' to support a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 510(k) premarket notification process. The first of MicroPhage's instrument-free, rapid tests is based on the Company's patented Bacteriophage Amplification platform technology...

A Rocking Good Lecture

A University academic who left school early with dreams of being a rock star has been recognised for his internationally outstanding work in microbiology and his studies into the social lifestyle of the opportunistic bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa - the leading cause of death in Cystic Fibrosis patients and an important cause of hospital acquired infections...

Overcoming Multidrug Resistance In Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Cells

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) most commonly affects children, in whom there is an overall cure rate of 85%. A strong predictor of poor outcome is resistance to chemotherapy with glucocorticoids. Such resistance is caused, at least in part, by an inability of the leukemic cells to die by a process known as mitochondrial apoptosis...

CDC's Advisory Committee On Immunization Practices Recommends Pfizer's Prevnar 13? Vaccine For The Prevention Of Invasive Pneumococcal Disease

Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) announced that the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has recommended the use of Prevnar 13? (Pneumococcal 13-valent Conjugate Vaccine [Diphtheria CRM197 Protein]) for healthy children aged 2 months through 59 months for the prevention of invasive pneumococcal disease...

FDA Approves Pneumococcal Disease Vaccine With Broader Protection

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Prevnar 13, a pneumococcal 13-valent conjugate vaccine for infants and young children ages 6 weeks through 5 years. Prevnar 13 will be the successor to Prevnar, the pneumococcal 7-valent conjugate vaccine licensed by the FDA in 2000 to prevent invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) and otitis media...

News From The American Journal Of Pathology, March 2010

Toxin Does Not Affect MRSA-Induced Pneumonia A group led by Dr. James M. Musser at the Center for Molecular and Translational Human Infectious Diseases Research of The Methodist Hospital Research Institute in Houston, Texas has demonstrated that the cytotoxin Paton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) does not affect methicillin-resistant Staphlococcus aureus (MRSA)-induced pneumonia...

World MRSA Day 2010 Theme, 'The MRSA Epidemic - A Call To Action'

MRSA Survivors Network, the nonprofit and official organization for World MRSA Day has announced the theme for 2010: "The MRSA Epidemic- A Call to Action...

Genome Study Shows How Strep Throat Germ Circumvents Our Immune System

Investigators at The Methodist Hospital Research Institute in Houston examined for the first time the long-term response to strep throat on a genome-wide level, shedding light on how group A streptococcus interacts with the patient's immune system and attempts to circumvent it. Results were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)...

Hospital-Acquired Infections, MRSA, Killed 48,000 Americans In One Year

According to a new study, sepsis and pneumonia, two common conditions caused by hospital-aquired infections like MRSA, killed 48,000 Americans in 2006, and cost the nation over 8 billion dollars to treat...