UMN: Bio-Med Library - Public Health

The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) has submitted detailed recommendations to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on the agency's Draft Pandemic Influenza Preparedness and Response Plan.

"Although IDSA applauds HHS's efforts on a thoughtful and scientifically based plan, we are proposing a number of recommendations that, if incorporated, could help to strengthen the U.S. and global response to an influenza pandemic," said Walter E. Stamm, MD, IDSA president.

Press release from IDSA

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The University of Illinois at Chicago has received $8.1 million in grant funding from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for three innovative public health research and training projects.

Three separate grants were funded:

Prevention of Disease

The Illinois Prevention Research Center at UIC received a five-year, $4.1 million grant from the CDC to help eliminate health disparities and create healthy communities through research, training and sharing knowledge. The grant will fund the center's largest research project, aimed at preventing and controlling diabetes in Latino and African-American populations.

News Release from UIC

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Friday, October 29, 2004 Posted: 9:56 AM EDT (1356 GMT)

ATLANTA, Georgia (Reuters) -- A rare sexually transmitted disease that is spreading among gay and bisexual men in Europe could be poised to surface in the United States, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.

The CDC urged doctors and clinics across the nation to be prepared to diagnose and treat gay and bisexual men infected with Lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV).

Article from CNN.com

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Volume 10, Number 11—November 2004

The new issue is out!

Link

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29 Oct 2004

Federal health officials could import up to 5.2 million additional flu vaccine doses from Canada and Germany to help mitigate an unexpected national flu vaccine supply shortage if manufacturing facilities in those countries pass FDA inspections, HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson announced Thursday, USA Today reports.

Article from: Medical News Today

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - MedImmune's FluMist nasal vaccine should be included in the U.S. government's Vaccines for Children program, expanding its distribution to children over the age of 5 and teens, federal advisers said on Thursday.

MedImmune said the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meeting in Atlanta had expanded its recommendations on FluMist to include children and adolescents aged 5 to 18 for the 2004-05 season. The vaccine, a weakened version of the influenza virus dripped into the nose, was previously recommended for healthy adults aged 18 to 50.

Article from Reuters Health

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Associated Press
October 28, 2004

WASHINGTON -- For the second time in a year, a federal judge on Wednesday ordered the military to stop requiring anthrax vaccines for U.S. military personnel.

In response, the Pentagon halted mandatory anthrax vaccinations "until further notice."

U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan said the Food and Drug Administration violated its procedures when it gave final approval to the vaccine last year because it failed to give the public an adequate opportunity to comment.

"The men and women of our armed forces deserve the assurance that the vaccines our government compels them to take . . . have been tested by the greatest scrutiny of all -- public scrutiny," Sullivan said.

Articel from the INDYSTAR.com

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Morning Edition, October 28, 2004 ·

President Bush says that the nation's health care system should rely more on market forces. But some public health experts say this year's flu vaccine shortage illustrates that the free market and health care don't always mix

Hear NPR's Julie Rovner.

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Last Updated: 2004-10-25 15:59:52 -0400 (Reuters Health)

By Megan Rauscher

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The results of the first early test of a new type of tuberculosis vaccine show that it elicits strong immune responses in adults with or without a previous bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccination.

Dr. Helen McShane, from the Centre for Clinical Vaccinology and Tropical Medicine at the University of Oxford in the UK, and colleagues report the study results in the journal Nature Medicine.

Article from Reuters

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Last Updated: 2004-10-25 13:23:21 -0400 (Reuters Health)

By Jeremy Lovell

LONDON (Reuters) - Biological weapons that can wipe out whole populations pose one of the biggest threats to the world today yet remain almost completely uncontrolled, the British Medical Association said Monday.

It urged the United States to stop blocking attempts to strengthen the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) when it comes up for renewal in 2006.

Article from Reuters

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Tuesday, October 26, 2004

BY PATRICIA ANSTETT
FREE PRESS MEDICAL WRITER

There's no need to panic about flu shots, two federal health officials reassured the public Tuesday. More vaccine is coming to ensure that most people at high-risk of getting the flu with get vaccinated, they said.

"This is not a crisis; this is a challenge," Dr. Cristina Beato, acting assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said. She spoke at a media briefing in Detroit, as part of a national tour to educate the public about this season's flu vaccine shortage.

Articel from Detroit Free Press

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For years, women who have been concerned about an increased risk of heart disease and stroke have shied away from using birth control pills, or they've worried about what effect The Pill would have later in life.

Now, as it turns out, The Pill is actually much safer than previously thought. In fact, it may actually lower the risk of these cardiovascular diseases - and it may even cut the risk of cancer.

Article from MaineToday.com

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Last Updated: 2004-10-22 15:15:28 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A measles outbreak earlier this year was contained by instituting quarantine measures after exposed persons refused post-exposure preventative treatment, according to a report from the Iowa Department of Pubic Health and other state offices.

As described in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, local and state health departments contacted people exposed to a student returning to Iowa from India who had come down with measles.

Two of these contacts caught measles, and people exposed to them were also identified.

Articel from Reuters Health

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By Grace-Marie Turner

The State Policy Network, under Tracie Sharp's expert leadership, is holding its 12th annual meeting in Austin this week, with the first day featuring a health care summit (which I chaired).

Health care is a front-line issue for the leaders of state-based think tanks from around the country attending the meeting. They heard presentations on consumer-directed health care, Medicaid reform, medical malpractice, and evidence-based medicine, and took a visit to the Heart Hospital of Austin.

Article from the Galen Institute

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United Press International

By DEE ANN DIVIS, Senior Science & Technology Editor

Wednesday, October 20, 2004

WASHINGTON, Oct 20, 2004 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- A majority of public health experts surveyed for a recent biodefense report thinks state and local public health departments should stop being a provider of last resort for medical care in the United States.

The reason, over 60 percent of study participants said, is the overall size of the public health workforce is insufficient to handle the job in the face of budget deficits and increasing demands -- particularly those made by biodefense programs.

About 30 percent of public health departments provide comprehensive primary care services, according to a survey of 694 local public health agencies done by the National Association of County and City Health Officials in 2000. Such care is the rough equivalent of going to a pediatrician or the family doctor and does not generally refer to care at public hospitals. Comprehensive primary care services were most often provided by agencies in large metropolitan areas, according to the survey.

URL of this page: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_20770.html (*this news item will not be available after 11/19/2004)

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Thorpe KE, Florence CS, Howard DH, Joski P.

the Robert W. Woodruff Professor and Chair, Department of Health Policy and Management, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, in Atlanta.

Obese people incur higher health care costs at a given point in time, but how rising obesity rates affect spending growth over time is unknown. We estimate obesity-attributable health care spending increases between 1987 and 2001. Increases in the proportion of and spending on obese people relative to people of normal weight account for 27 percent of the rise in inflation-adjusted per capita spending between 1987 and 2001; spending for diabetes, 38 percent; spending for hyperlipidemia, 22 percent; and spending for heart disease, 41 percent. Increases in obesity prevalence alone account for 12 percent of the growth in health spending.

PMID: 15496437

U of M students, faculty, and staff may access this article through the following link

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Recommendations to head off a similar situation in the future
Thursday, October 21, 2004 Posted: 12:02 PM EDT (1602 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The flu vaccine shortage has set off a scramble to find ways to prevent any repetition of this year's calamity, which has restricted shots to those most at risk.

The recommendations range from the mundane -- extending the vaccination season through the winter -- to the monumental -- spending millions more on research and guaranteeing that the government buys unused flu vaccine to stabilize the volatile market.

Article from CNN.com

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21/10/2004 - A new technology that could revolutionise vaccine delivery by eliminating the need for refrigeration has been given UK government funding in a project to deliver immunisations to the developing world.

The UK Department for International Development has awarded the company behind the development, Cambridge Biostability, a £950,000 (€1.38bn) grant to bring to production a pentavalent childhood vaccine - i.e. one that guards against five infections in one shot - that can be stored without refrigeration.

Article from In-PharmaTechnologist.com

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Health group wants task force, nutrition plan and campaign

By Nanci Hellmich / USA TODAY

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A new report by a national health advocacy group calls state and national policies ineffective tools in the war against obesity.

The Trust for America's Health, a nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C., went a step further this week and recommended that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention become the nation's "command and control center" to manage the crisis.

Article from the Detroit News: Health

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Tokyo, Japan, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Japan's Health Ministry reported a record 209 new HIV/AIDS infections in the July through September quarter, with most victims in their 20s or 30s.

The previous record high for a three-month period was 199, recorded in the second quarter of this year.

Article from the Washington Times

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Newswise — What does the flu vaccine shortage have in common with the September 11 terrorist attacks? They are both the consequence of America’s aversion to “big government,” says Swarthmore College economist Mark Kuperberg.

The way to avoid future repeats of the vaccine shortage, Kuperberg argues, is government action on two fronts: one, extending to flu vaccine manufacturers the protection afforded to makers of childhood vaccines under the National Vaccine Compensation Fund and, two, mechanisms similar to those used in agriculture that protect manufacturers from getting stuck with unused supplies.

Article from newswise

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18 October 2004 – An unprecedented loss of biodiversity has reduced the amount of food available to the world's 900 million rural poor and should receive widespread attention, UN Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette said today.

"Given the growing interdependence among countries and expanding trade in agricultural goods and services, maintaining biodiversity for food security is as much a global priority as a local one," she said at a commemoration in New York of World Food Day.

Article from UN News Centre

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Last Updated: 2004-10-19 16:13:03 -0400 (Reuters Health)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Aventis-Pasteur said on Tuesday it had squeezed out an extra 2.6 million doses of flu vaccine beyond what the company already has promised.

This will give the United States a total of 58 million doses of influenza vaccine this year, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson told a news conference.

Article from Reuters

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Last Updated: 2004-10-19 15:57:03 -0400 (Reuters Health)

By Maggie Fox

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly 1.7 million U.S. veterans under the age of 65 had no health care coverage in 2003 -- no access to private insurance, to Medicare or Medicaid or to the Veterans Affairs health program -- health care advocates said on Tuesday.

Many had seen combat in Vietnam or the Gulf Wars and most were employed, the Physicians for a National Health Program and Public Citizen said in a joint report.

"The number of uninsured veterans has increased by 235,159 since 2000, when 9.9 percent of non-elderly veterans were uninsured, a figure which rose to 11.9 percent in 2003," the groups said.

They found that more than one in three veterans under the age of 25 lacked health coverage, and one in 10 of those aged 45 to 65.

Article from Reuters

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Last Updated: 2004-10-19 9:49:56 -0400 (Reuters Health)

By Patricia Reaney

LONDON (Reuters) - British scientists have taken tips from Mother Nature to develop a new technology that could deliver cheaper, life-saving vaccines that don't require refrigeration to millions of children in remote areas of the world.

About two million youngsters die every year from vaccine-preventable diseases, like measles. Each year up to 50 percent of vaccines are ruined because of temperature damage.

The stable-liquid vaccine technology devised by researchers at Cambridge Biostability Ltd eliminates the need for costly refrigeration.

"It could revolutionise how we deliver vaccines in the developing world," said Dr Stewart Tyson, of Britain's Department for International Development, which will provide 950,000 pounds ($1.7 million) for the project.

Article from Reuters

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Hello,

Do you have a RSS News reader on your desktop? If you do you can now link to this blog. Simply create a new feed, add the title and insert the following

URL: http://blog.lib.umn.edu/gruwell/publichealthliaison/index.rdf

U of M students, faculty, and staff may contact me at gruwell@umn.edu if you have questions.

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Current Medicine LLC is pleased to announce the latest updates to the images.MD library:

Our Heart Failure collection, one of our more popular selections, has just been revised with 160 brand new images, along with updates to over 140 more.

To keep your research and studies in infectious diseases current and relevant, we've extensively revised content throughout ten collections devoted to this specialty, including Pleuropulmonary and Bronchial Infections, Cardiovascular Infections, and Fungal Infections. Over 80 new images have been added with updates to more than 500 additional entries.

Finally, we've included an additional 500 images from the Current Reports and Current Treatment Options medical journals to enhance the value of every collection we provide.

We are committed to keeping our content and up-to-date as possible so you can get the information and resources you need for your study, lecture, or presentation. Please do not hesitate to contact our staff at info@images.md if you have any questions or comments about our image library.

Thanks for being a part of images.MD!

The Staff at Current Medicine LLC

Students, faculty and staff may access images.MD at:
http://www.biomed.lib.umn.edu/bmsabouts.html#imagesmd

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PLoS Medicine

We are pleased to present the inaugural issue of PLoS Medicine, an international open-access medical journal from the Public Library of Science.

Please read our editorial "Prescription for a Healthy Journal" and message from the PLoS founders "A Medical Journal for the Internet Age".

PLoS Medicine: Table of Contents

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The goal of the NIH Roadmap is to accelerate and strengthen biomedical research enterprise. During consultation with the extramural scientific community that led to the development of the NIH Roadmap process, it was frequently mentioned that the criteria used to evaluate research grant applications were not placing appropriate emphasis on some important types of biomedical research.

http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-05-002.html

Addendum – Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPOREs) in Human Cancer for the Year 2004

This addendum is to clarify for applicants the qualifying cancer sites for Gynecological Cancer SPOREs. The GYN or Gynecological Cancer SPORE solicitation is intended for applications focused predominantly on cancers of the endometrium and/or cervix. Applicants cannot propose projects on ovarian cancer; Ovarian Cancer SPOREs are solicited independent of other GYN cancers. Any questions regarding the eligibility or responsiveness of a GYN Cancer SPORE application should be directed to Dr. Jane Fountain, the program director for the Gynecological Cancer SPOREs.

http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-CA-05-001.html

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Applications are being solicited for the Masonic/Dietz Family Award for Educational Travel. Recognizing that educational travel and sharing of knowledge is essential to successful cancer research the Charlton Dietz Family through the Masonic Cancer Center Fund has established this award for educational travel.

Award: Awards may be up to $1000 for educational travel. Up to four awards will be made. Educational opportunities may include but are not limited to conferences, courses and site visits.

Applicants: Graduate students, fellows, research-related staff and faculty within a cancer/cancer-related educational program or research area.

Application: No more than a one-page request will be accepted. The following information must be included:

· Applicant’s name
· Applicant’s research interest or educational focus
· Name, date and location of educational opportunity
· Budget for travel, may include transportation, accommodations, food and registration.
· Rationale for how attendance will contribute to applicant’s cancer/cancer-related education or research.

Applications should be received no later than Oct. 25, 2004. The awards will cover travel from January 1st, 2005 through June 30th, 2005.

Applications should be forwarded to:
Mary Sumpmann RN, MS
Associate Director of Administration
Cancer Center
MMC 806 or
sumpm001@umn.edu

Review Process: The Executive Committee of the Center will identify a committee to review requests. Awardees will be identified and notified by Nov. 15th, 2004.

Follow Up: Awardees will be asked to submit 1/3-1/2 page summary of the value of the educational opportunity

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Last fall, more than 30 Cancer Center members participated in Minnesota’s first CancerPlan Summit. During the past year, about a dozen Cancer Center members helped draft Minnesota’s first comprehensive cancer control plan.

Now you have an opportunity to weigh in on this important initiative and support the contributions of your colleagues. We ask that you attend the second annual Summit, set for Nov. 16. The draft plan will be presented for discussion. Your comments will help shape the final plan that beginning next year will integrate and coordinate Minnesota’s approach to the entire spectrum of cancer control, including prevention, early detection, treatment, survivorship and palliation.

•The Summit will be held 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Nov. 16, at the Radisson Riverfront Hotel in St. Paul
•Registration is $35 per person and covers conference materials, continental breakfast, lunch and reception. The Cancer Center will reimburse the registration fee for cancer center members. Registration deadline is Oct. 31, so please register as soon as you can.

For more information about the CancerPlan Minnesota initiative and to register for the Summit, visit www.cancerplanmn.org. Or contact DeAnn Lazovich, Ph.D. (6-9099; lazov001@umn.edu) or Marva Bohen (4-2620; bohen001@umn.edu).

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The University of Minnesota Department of Pediatrics and The Cancer Center are offering a new training program that will provide opportunities for on predoctoral and three postdoctoral students to enhance their research training and experience in pediatric cancer epidemiology. Postdoctoral trainees may include medical fellows who have completed their clinical training and are beginning a research training period as well as recent Ph.D. recipients in health sciences. For more information contact the Program Director, Julie Ross, 626-2902, ross@epi.umn.edu. Click here for a pdf version of a flyer with more detail.

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Notice Number: NOT-OD-05-002

Key Dates
Release Date: October 12, 2004

Issued by
National Institutes of Health (NIH), (http://www.nih.gov/)

Background

The goal of the NIH Roadmap is to accelerate and strengthen biomedical research enterprise. During consultation with the extramural scientific community that led to the development of the NIH Roadmap process, it was frequently mentioned that the criteria used to evaluate research grant applications were not placing appropriate emphasis on some important types of biomedical research (see http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/). The Roadmap Trans-NIH Clinical Research Workforce Committee proposed a modification of the NIH Peer Review Criteria for investigator-initiated research grant applications that would better accommodate interdisciplinary, translational, and clinical projects. The updated review criteria were adopted at the August 5, 2004 meeting of the Directors of the NIH Institutes and Centers. According to the schedule shown below, the updated criteria will replace the review criteria adopted on June 27,1997 (see http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/not97-010.html).

Implementation

These updated review criteria will be effective for research grant applications received on or after January 10, 2005 that fall into the following categories:

Investigator initiated research grant applications;
Investigator initiated research grant applications submitted in response Program Announcements (PAs) whether published before or after this announcement;
Solicited research grant applications submitted in response to Requests for Applications (RFAs) will continue to use the review criteria described in the RFA.

Additional information at: NIH Link

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Covington center helps with research
Sunday, October 17, 2004
By Regina McEnery
Newhouse News Service
CLEVELAND -- An international team of researchers, including a researcher at the Tulane National Primate Research Center near Covington, has brought millions of vulnerable women closer to a potentially powerful weapon against HIV.

The experimental drug, a topical agent applied before sexual intercourse, has only been tested in animals. It is both expensive and complicated to produce on a mass scale. But the research team, led by scientists at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, predicts a less expensive cousin one day can be developed.

Article from: The Times Picayne

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October 18


News of an effective vaccine against malaria being developed is certainly a shot in the arm for the fight against this disease which kills over a million children and infects an estimated 300 million annually. Researchers led by Pedro Alonso from the University of Barcelona reportedly vaccinated thousands of children — the ultimate target group — in Mozambique and reportedly cut their risk of developing severe malaria by nearly 60 per cent. This is a remarkable rate of success when compared to several other vaccines that are in various stages of development around the world.

Article from: HindustanTimes.com

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Don't expect imports of flu shots from Canada or other countries to ease the crippling shortage, the nation's health secretary cautioned Thursday.

The Food and Drug Administration is in discussions with two companies that sell flu vaccine in Canada and elsewhere, and have found a few million unsold doses.

But that vaccine is not licensed for sale in the United States, and thus meeting FDA requirements in time for this flu season "is doubtful," Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson told reporters Thursday.

Article from CNN.com

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(CNN) -- None of the influenza vaccine produced by Chiron Corp. in its Liverpool, England plant is salvageable, the Food and Drug Administration announced Friday.

A recent FDA inspection of the plant found "good manufacturing practice violations," Commissioner Dr. Lester Crawford said.

Public health inspectors now say they cannot vouch for the safety of any of the doses.

British authorities shut down production at Chiron's Liverpool plant after investigating possible bacterial contamination.

The shortfall in flu vaccine -- roughly half the U.S. supply -- means there will not be enough for those most at risk of infection this flu season.

Article from CNN.com

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[Date: 2004-10-15]

The UK is providing 30 million euro to build a new centre for cancer research and cell biology at Queen's University in Belfast, making Northern Ireland one of Europe's leaders in the fight against cancer.

The centre will focus on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer by investigating the causes of the disease.

'The creation of a world-class centre for cancer research and cell biology, recognised as a flagship by the international scientific community, will ensure that Queen's and Northern Ireland contribute in a strategically important way to future UK and international research initiatives in cancer,' said Professor Peter Gregson, Vice-Chancellor of Queen's University.

Article from CORDIS News

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Catherine Brahic
15 October 2004
Source: SciDev.Net

Researchers have developed a protein able to block the transmission of HIV in monkeys.

They say their findings could lead to a new kind of microbicides — creams and gels applied directly to the vagina or rectum to stop transmission of the disease.

Currently, no microbicides are available on the market, but several candidates are being tested in clinical trials.

The new potential microbicide, developed by Michael Lederman of Case Western Reserve University, United States, and colleagues, could lead to a 'second generation' of products that would either complement the ones currently in trials or replace them if these were to fail.

Lederman's candidate drug is based on a modified protein. Unlike the products that are being tested, this protein seems to stop transmission by preventing HIV from getting into host cells — a necessary step for the virus to replicate and spread infection.

Article from SciDev Net

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Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)

October 15, 2004
Posted to the web October 15, 2004

Maputo

Clinical tests of a product candidate to be a vaccine against malaria, the RTS/ASO2A, that were carried out by the Manhica Health Reaserach Centyre, in the southern Mozambican province of Maputo, revealed its efficacy and safety to reduce this disease, that has been the main cause of deaths in Mozambique and in Africa at large.

The results were anounced by Mozambican Health Minister Francisco Songane, during a press conference caaled for that effect on Thursday.

The tests, that covered a total of 2,022 children, showed a 30 per cent efficacy on clinically detectable malaria (with symptoms), 45 per cent on non-symptomatic cases, and 58 per cent on severe malaria cases.

Article from allAfrica.com

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Last Updated: 2004-10-14 16:26:22 -0400 (Reuters Health)

By Paul Simao

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Hispanics in the United States are more likely to be overweight or obese, develop diabetes and die from strokes, AIDS and liver disease than whites, federal officials said on Thursday.

Those problems, when combined with an expected jump in the U.S. Hispanic population, pose a challenge to the well-being of the nation in the form of lost productivity, higher health-care costs and social inequality, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned.

There are more than 35 million Hispanics living in the United States, making them the largest minority group. Their numbers are expected to swell to more than 100 million and account for nearly 24.5 percent of the population by 2050.

Article from Reuters

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The CDC is providing information regarding the flu vaccine shortage.
Please go to the following address for the latest information.

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/vaccineshortage.htm

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Five-year study will watch changes in brains of 800
Wednesday, October 13, 2004 Posted: 5:05 PM EDT (2105 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- About 800 older Americans will be asked to lend their brains to science this spring, part of a major government study to track early Alzheimer's disease.

Researchers will use brain-scanning MRIs and other tests to track people who have either early stage Alzheimer's or a milder type of memory loss known as "mild cognitive impairment." Over several years, they'll compare biological changes deep within those patients' brains to the aging that takes place in the brains of cognitively healthy seniors.

Article from CNN.com

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Drug/DNA combination could offer longer-lasting more efficient flu vaccine
Research from Sweden suggests that adding the drug tucaresol to plasmid DNA influenza vaccines could offer longer-lasting and more efficient protection against the influenza virus. The findings appear in the October 2004 issue of the Journal of Virology.

Annual flu epidemics continue to pose major health problems worldwide despite yearly vaccination efforts. Studies indicate protection offered by the current vaccine to be short-lived and only capable of targeting specific strains of the virus. Because influenza strains are highly variable, a vaccine with higher efficacy is necessary.

Article from EurekaAlert

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Potential for developing a new cream or gel to block AIDS transmission during heterosexual sex
WASHINGTON -- Researchers have shown that it may be possible to block male to female HIV transmission in heterosexual intercourse and have identified the target for blocking that transmission, according to an article from the Oct. 14 issue of Science, presented today at the American Medical Association 23rd Annual Science Reporters Conference in Washington, D.C.
"Effective methods for blocking the transmission of HIV are urgently needed," said Michael Lederman, M.D., Scott R. Inkley Professor of Medicine and director of the Case Western Reserve University/University Hospitals of Cleveland Center for AIDS Research, in Cleveland, Ohio, and lead author on the paper. "Our study focuses on a strategy for preventing transmission of HIV through the vagina. We have identified a potential target, a mechanism critical for the transmission at vaginal sites of infection, that may offer a simple strategy for preventing HIV transmission."

Article from EurekAlert

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By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Oct. 14 (HealthDayNews) -- While U.S. health officials say it's too soon to predict the severity of the coming flu season, unofficial accounts indicate it could be relatively harsh.

If that proves true, it could leave health-care providers scrambling. They are already reeling from the surprise announcement last week that British regulators had suspended the license of a firm that had been expected to produce nearly half of the United States' anticipated 100 million to 105 million vaccine doses.

Article from Forbes.com

Posted by Cindy Gruwell at 01:37 PM