H5N1 bird flu resurfaced in poultry in northern Vietnam, killed birds among a flock of more than 100 ducks. – Vietnam newspaper reported that H5N1 bird flu had killed several birds among a flock of more than 100 ducks in Thai Nguyen city in Vietnam.
Ebola haemorrhagic fever in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, says WHO. – The Ministry of Health (MoH) of the Democratic Republic of the Congo declared on 25 December an outbreak of Ebola haemorrhagic fever in Mweka District, Kasai Occidental province based on laboratory results from the Centre International de Recherches M?dicales de Franceville (CIRMF) in Gabon.
Treatment for advanced hepatitis C doesn’t work, researchers find. NIH study shows decline in health of those with advanced liver disease due to hepatitis C. – An NIH funded multi-center clinical trial found no benefit from “maintenance therapy,” low-dose peginterferon used for hepatitis C patients who have not responded to an initial round of treatment.
109 medicines and vaccines now in development for HIV/AIDS by America?s pharmaceutical research companies. – America’s pharmaceutical research companies are testing 109 medicines and vaccines to treat or prevent HIV/AIDS and related conditions, according to a report released by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).
Timing is Everything When it Comes to Childhood Asthma. There is a relationship between childhood asthma with the winter season after birth. – Children who are born four months before the peak of cold and flu season have a greater risk of developing childhood asthma than children born at any other time of year, according to new research from Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Despite national guidelines, private insurers, ER, federal and state agencies fail to routinely test for HIV. New data at national summit show that routine testing would lower record numbers of ‘late testers,’ save lives and reduce transmission. – While the U.S. AIDS epidemic simmers largely unnoticed by most Americans, a failure to widely implement routine HIV testing continues to fuel its spread, HIV researchers and experts said.
GARDASIL?, Merck’s Cervical Cancer Vaccine, Demonstrated Efficacy in Preventing HPV-Related Disease in Males in Phase III Study. – GARDASIL [Human Papillomavirus Quadrivalent (Types 6, 11, 16, and 18) Vaccine, Recombinant], the cervical cancer vaccine from Merck & Co., Inc., prevented 90 percent of external genital lesions caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) types 6, 11, 16 and 18 in a pivotal Phase III study in men aged 16 to 26.
Millions of people infected with HIV may hope for healing promises, as a patient who has had undetectable HIV viral loads for almost two years after bone marrow transplant. – An HIV-positive person, who underwent a bone marrow transplant to treat leukemia, has had undetectable HIV viral loads for almost two years. HIV-positive man was ill from leukemia and had underwent treatment by the team led by Prof. Eckhard Thiel, director of the Medical Clinic with a focus on hematology and oncology.
Protein identified as TIM 3 that turns off HIV-fighting T cells in HIV positive patients sufferring from AIDS. – In HIV-infected patients the body’s immune system is unable to fight off the virus. A new study to be published online on November 10th in the Journal of Experimental Medicine shows that T cells in HIV-infected individuals express a protein called TIM-3, which inactivates their virus killing capacity.
Stress may activate immune cells in the skin, resulting in inflammatory skin disease. – Current research suggests that stress may activate immune cells in your skin, resulting in inflammatory skin disease. The related report by Joachim et al., “Stress-induced Neurogenic Inflammation in Murine Skin Skews Dendritic Cells towards Maturation and Migration: Key role of ICAM-1/LFA-1 interactions,” appears in the November issue of The American Journal of Pathology.
