UMN: Bio-Med Library - Public Health

Thursday December 30, 2004

As aid agencies struggled to cope with the scale of the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster, the UN today warned that the next few days would be critical in the fight to control potential outbreaks of disease.

The incidence of diarrhoea is increasing, but is no greater than would be expected at this stage of a natural disaster, David Nabarro, the head of crisis operations for the World Health Organisation, said.

"We remain really concerned about the situation," he said, adding that it was becoming clearer whether or not medical supplies were matching the needs of the areas affected by the disaster. "It's a normal anxiety that we have at this time, that we've got a clearer understanding of the needs but we've also got a clearer concern about the supplies," Mr Nabarro said.

Read more...Guardian Unlimited

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Links to on-site and regional newsbites and information

ReliefWeb

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28 December 2004 -- The World Health Organization, together with national governments, is currently conducting extensive assessments of the situation in devastated parts of Southeast Asia. The health needs of the populations affected are immediate and substantial. Priorities will be to implement measures to prevent disease outbreaks, particularly water-borne diseases.

WHO: Latest Information

What WHO is doing

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By Scott Allen, Globe Staff | December 29, 2004

Counting the dead from this week's tsunamis in South Asia is a logistical nightmare, as relief officials contend with casualties spread across 11 countries, including many remote islands and villages whose exact populations were never officially tallied. Thousands of bodies are probably lost at sea, making them impossible to count, and relief groups say the government of at least one country, Burma, is not being candid about the extent of the disaster there.

The estimated toll from Sunday's enormous waves has climbed from 11,000 in the immediate aftermath to more than 52,000 yesterday, as government officials reached isolated places such as India's Chowra Island -- where two-thirds of the inhabitants are believed to have died.

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Triple-Drug Therapy Promising Against African HIV Subtype

Triple-drug antiretroviral regimens that are widely used in the United States and Europe against one HIV-1 subtype appear to be effective in South African patients infected with a different HIV-1 subtype who also have tuberculosis (TB) or Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), according to a study published in the Feb.1 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online. The South African subtype, known as subtype C, is rapidly spreading in developing countries, where TB and KS are major factors in AIDS morbidity and mortality. Since the triple-drug regimens have markedly reduced the morbidity and mortality associated with the subtype that predominates in developed countries (subtype B), the implication is that they may be similarly effective against the C subtype in developing countries as well.

Press Release
For Immediate Release: Dec. 28, 2004

Contact: Steve Baragona
sbaragona@idsociety.org
703-299-0412

Read more...Eurekalert.com

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The Associated Press
Updated: 12:54 p.m. ET Dec. 29, 2004

GENEVA - The United Nations warned Wednesday that respiratory and waterborne diseases could break out in areas affected by southern Asia’s tsunami disaster “in the next few days.”

Although relief organizations are distributing medical supplies to prevent the outbreak of disease, the main focus is still on dealing with the wounded, said Jamie McGoldrick, an emergency relief coordinator of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Geneva.

“Diseases will start to come through in the next few days,” McGoldrick told the Associated Press. “No doubt people will be affected, kids are drinking stagnant water.”

Read More...MSNBC News

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WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Despite critics who say patients' bills of rights laws are actually designed to protect health care providers, new research published in the current issue of the American Journal of Medicine found just the opposite.
"There is little evidence these laws have much impact on providers' economic concerns," said Mark Hall, J.D., professor of law and public health at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.

Hall reviewed managed care patient protection laws in the 48 states that have enacted them and also surveyed state regulators about law content. Commonly known as patients' bills of rights, these laws are aimed at restraining the perceived excesses of managed care, including "gate-keeping," or denying insurance payment for medically necessary treatment and restricting patients' choice of physicians Critics of the laws, however, say they actually provide protection to providers. Hall's research was designed to assess the validity of these claims by evaluating the laws' impacts.

Read more...EurekAlert.com

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Posted 12/22/2004 9:27 PM

By Anita Manning, USA TODAY
Imagine showing up to work one day and finding half your co-workers out sick. Imagine the business world in slow motion, healthy workers overburdened by taking on the jobs of the sick, hospitals overflowing with patients, schools closed and not enough medicine to go around.

That's an apocalyptic vision of what could burst out of a smoldering bird flu outbreak that has spread across Asia, threatening to turn into a global epidemic of flu: a pandemic.

Scientists long have expected another flu pandemic, the kind of wildfire epidemic that emerges every few decades. Nobody knows when it will happen or how bad it could be.

Plans are being made to handle what could be a public health nightmare, but "much of the world is unprepared for a pandemic of any size," the World Health Organization says.

An Institute of Medicine report, "The Threat of Pandemic Influenza," last month estimated that in a worst-case scenario, up to 207,000 people could die of the flu in the USA along with 733,000 hospitalizations and 42 million people treated as outpatients. By comparison, an average flu season claims 36,000 lives and results in 200,000 hospitalizations

Read more...USA Today

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Dec 21, 2004 (CIDRAP News) – Overcoming the threat of avian influenza is the single most pressing agricultural and public health issue facing Southeast Asia, Singapore's minister of state for national development, Cedric Foo, said yesterday in opening a regional meeting on the disease, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.

In his address to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Singapore, Foo made a point others have raised in recent months: that combating the deadly avian flu will require regional collaboration.

"A coordinated regional approach to prevent, control and eradicate HPAI [highly pathogenic avian influenza] is crucial to overcoming this threat," AFP quoted Foo as saying.

The ASEAN members agreed today to focus on several activities for preventing and controlling avian flu, according to Xinhua, the Chinese news service.

The report said tasks were split out this way: Singapore will share information on regional epidemiologic studies; Thailand will attend to disease surveillance and alerts as well as diagnostic abilities; and Malaysia is to focus on disease-free zones, containment, and emergency preparedness. Coordinating countries will make detailed work plans.

Members of the ASEAN task force on avian flu will meet next in Thailand in May, the story added.

From CIDRAP

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Posted By: News-Medical in Healthcare News
Published: Tuesday, 21-Dec-2004
Printer Friendly Email to a Friend

Australia is one of the first countries in the world to implement new screening technology across all States that will help detect an increased number of diseases in newborns.
Department of Health A/Director General Dr Neale Fong said the technology, tandem mass spectrometry, which was introduced in WA this month, was the biggest step forward in newborn screening in the past 35 years.

"This new innovation has been pioneered in Australia and increases the detection at birth of inheritable disorders from four to over 20," he said.

All babies will be tested for free at birth for the early signs of treatable disorders by the WA Newborn Screening Program at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children.

Read more...News-Medical.Net

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12/20/2004 1:35:00 PM

To: National Desk

Contact: Sabrina Jones of the American Public Health Association, 202-777-2509 or sabrina.jones@apha.org

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The American Public Health Association recently adopted 20 policies addressing a broad range of issues in public health from underage alcohol consumption and nutrition labeling in restaurants to the supply of flu vaccinations and threats to immigrants' health care. The Association also approved an operational measure in support of smoke-free cities.

The following are brief descriptions of the measures approved by the Association's Governing Council during its 132nd Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., Nov. 6-10, 2004. The descriptions are brief summaries; full language of the 2004 policies is available at http://www.apha.org/legislative/policy/policysearch/.

Read more...U.S. Newswire

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12/20/2004 1:35:00 PM

To: National Desk

Contact: Sabrina Jones of the American Public Health Association, 202-777-2509 or sabrina.jones@apha.org

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The American Public Health Association recently adopted 20 policies addressing a broad range of issues in public health from underage alcohol consumption and nutrition labeling in restaurants to the supply of flu vaccinations and threats to immigrants' health care. The Association also approved an operational measure in support of smoke-free cities.

The following are brief descriptions of the measures approved by the Association's Governing Council during its 132nd Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., Nov. 6-10, 2004. The descriptions are brief summaries; full language of the 2004 policies is available at http://www.apha.org/legislative/policy/policysearch/.

Read more...U.S. Newswire

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20 Dec 2004 16:35:03 GMT

Source: Reuters

By Frank Nyakairu

KAMPALA, Dec 20 (Reuters) - A key anti-HIV/AIDS drug distributed in Africa causes drug resistance in pregnant women, but only if they ignore doctors' orders on how to take the pills, medical officials said on Monday.

The drug, nevirapine, is distributed as part of U.S. President George W. Bush's high-profile bid to fight the spread of the disease in Africa and help AIDS sufferers.

The announcement confirms in part media reports which suggested single doses of nevirapine, used to stop HIV-positive mothers passing the virus to their babies, could result in resistance to future treatment.

Uganda's Makerere University Medical School and two U.S. institutions issued a joint statement on Monday in a bid "to clarify the scientific facts, based on the full body of evidence".

They were the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the U.S.-based Elisabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.

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Wed., December 15, 2004 Tevet 3, 5765

By Shlomo Shamir

NEW YORK - The World Health Organization is launching an Israeli-Palestinian journal devoted to public health issues, a WHO communique from Geneva announced yesterday.

Its purpose is to promote projects for improving public health in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, the announcement emphasized.

The periodical, entitled "Bridges," will appear every two months and include articles on public health matters by Israeli and Palestinian experts.

Editing and production will also be handled jointly by Israelis and Palestinians.

The first issue was published yesterday on the WHO Internet site.

Articles will deal with health issues of interest to both sides, and special principles have been established to ensure topics are presented in a balanced manner, the announcement said.

In keeping with these principles, the journal will depict the conflict's negative effects on both sides, priority will be given to highlighting positive cooperation and emphasis will be placed on human interest stories.

Article from: HAARETZ.com

Press Release: WHO Media Centre

Bridges

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Hello U of M Public Health Faculty,

Cindy Gruwell here, the Public Health liaison. I would like to ask for your assistance....

I am in the process of purchasing public health monographs for the library's collection. Although I have a number of items under consideration, I would appreciate your sharing items that you feel would make nice additions to our collection.

Of course I don't have an endless budget, but I do feel I could accomodate most reccomendations.

I am also taking reccomendations for the Public Health Blog. Please feel free to share your comments.

Please contact me at either gruwell@umn.edu or by phone at:626-3995.

Thank you,

Cindy

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Posted on Thursday, December 16, 2004 @ 3:30 PM PST by

A $42.6 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will create a powerful new approach to developing a more affordable, accessible cure for malaria, which kills more than a million children each year. UC Berkeley will conduct research to perfect a microbial factory for the compound artemisinin, currently the most effective treatment for malaria, and Amyris, a new biotech company founded on the breakthroughs in synthetic biology pioneered at UC Berkeley, will develop the process for industrial fermentation and commercialization.

Scienceblog.com

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Javier Ochoa Repáraz defended his PhD thesis at the University of Navarre Faculty of Science on the development of an acellular vaccine aginst Salmonella enteritidis. This involves a world pandemia considered to be the most importante zoonosis or illness/infection transmissible salmonellosis by animals to humans under natural conditions. It is estimated that the incidence of acute worldwide is more than a thousand million cases per annum and causes three million deaths.

Basque Research

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BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown a connection between health and socioeconomic status (SES), demonstrating higher instances of heart disease, cancer and other evidence of poor health in those lower in the economic scale. The question is why, and how early in life these effects begin taking shape.

Eurekalert.com

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Rapidly distributing antibiotics to people exposed to anthrax spores during a bioterrorist attack, could by itself, prevent about 70 percent of anthrax infections, according to researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. To increase the prevention rate to 90 percent, their study found that at least 63 percent of the population would need to be immunized with vaccine before an anthrax attack, which might not be practical. However, the study found that anthrax vaccination given even after an attack could be beneficial in reducing the length of time antibiotic treatment would be needed. These findings could be an important tool for policymakers who must develop effective strategies for containing an anthrax outbreak. The study is published in the December 16, 2004, edition of Nature.

Eurekalert.com

Contact: Tim Parsons
paffairs@jhsph.edu
410-955-6878
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health

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From Barbara Alving, M.D., Director of the Women's Health Initiative and Acting Director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
A Women's Health Initiative (WHI) review of a recent abstract on the effects of oral contraceptive use on cardiovascular disease has found flaws in both the design and interpretation of the WHI data used in the study. The October presentation of the abstract at the annual scientific meeting of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine – and subsequent media coverage – may have created the impression that OC use is linked to lower risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, the WHI review of the abstract shows no evidence that OC use is linked to lower risk of CVD.

The abstract used information provided by WHI participants at baseline when they first joined the study. Such analyses are limited and considered exploratory and they should not be used to reassure women about OC use. There is a large and reputable body of higher scientific evidence linking current OC use to future increases in risk of stroke and heart attack, especially in older women and in smokers. The abstract bears no relationship to the findings from the WHI clinical trials of hormones, which showed that postmenopausal hormone use clearly does not reduce, and in fact may increase the risk for CVD.

Contact: NHLBI Communications Office
nhlbi_news@nhlbi.nih.gov
301-496-4236
NIH/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Eurekalert.com

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Frequent PubMed users may be interested in exploring two browser enhancements which allow users to initiate PubMed searches directly from a web browser window, and which are customized for University of Minnesota users.

Continue reading "PubMed Bookmarklet and Toolbar Search Plugin Enhanced with U of M Find It Service"

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Google Scholar is here! This new application of Google's popular (nay, essential?) Web indexing and ranking strategy enables the user "to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research."

Relevance ranking in Google Scholar incorporates citation frequency data, a la the Institute for Scientific Information's Web of Science product. Also using that citation data, article citations found in Google Scholar incorporate a convenient link to other articles which have cited it.

Molecular Biosciences Virtual Library

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Researchers at Johns Hopkins University said Wednesday that early detection -- and not a pre-exposure vaccination -- is the key to limiting an outbreak of anthrax.

Ron Brookmeyer, Elizabeth Johnson and Robert Bollinger published their results in the journal Nature, saying that delivering antibiotics within six days of exposure can prevent up to 70 percent of cases of the disease.

But, the researchers said, at least 63 percent of those exposed must have been vaccinated and quickly receive a full regimen of antibiotics to reach a prevention rate of 90 percent.

Brookmeyer said the public health system may not quite be up to the task of catching early onset.

"It is true that, caught early, we think antibiotics would work, but most cases when people become ill with anthrax, inhalational anthrax, you don't recognize it as anthrax right away," he said.

"I think we can do better," he said. "I think there are a lot of improvements that can be made to public health preparedness in terms of detecting emerging outbreaks."

From CNN Health

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Scientists have found a ''molecular Achilles heel'' in the organism that causes pneumonia, providing a target for the development of a new class of antibiotics that could eventually eradicate the disease.

Their report is scheduled to appear in the Dec. 28 edition of Biochemistry, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society.

''Streptococcus pneumoniae places an enormous burden on the welfare of humanity,'' says Thomas Leyh, Ph.D., a professor of biochemistry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and lead author of the paper. ''Worldwide, the organism takes the lives of some 3,700 people daily, the majority of whom are children below the age of five.''

Science Blog

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New research indicates that frequently used pesticides, including types that were once thought to be relatively benign, make be linked to the widespread disappearance of California frog populations. A researcher at California State University, Sacramento has found evidence that frog declines are associated with upwind pesticide use.

Sacramento State environmental studies professor Carlos Davidson says there is a strong association between upwind pesticide use and declines in four frog species: the red-legged frog, the mountain yellow-legged frog, the foothill yellow-legged frog and the Cascades frog. And the declines were most strongly associated with the use of cholinesterase-inhibiting pesticides, which include many of today's most heavily used pesticides. Davidson's findings appear in the December issue of the Journal of Ecological Applications.

Science Blog

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A team of researchers based partly in South Africa has identified a key set of immune system molecules that helps determine how effectively a person resists infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Their work shows that mothers with a specific type of genetic makeup may be less likely to pass HIV to their offspring.

The finding has important implications for the development of vaccines to combat the AIDS epidemic, according to Bruce D. Walker, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute researcher. Walker is one of the leaders of the project, and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Partners AIDS Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Science Blog

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Fri Dec 10, 2004 01:11 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Among patients treated at urban public hospital emergency rooms for skin and soft-tissue infections, more and more often the cause appears to be the antibiotic-resistant 'superbug' known as MRSA, new research shows.

MRSA -- methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus -- is not killed by penicillin-type drugs, so these kinds of antibiotics can no longer be considered standard treatment for wounds and abscesses, Dr. Bradley W. Frazee and colleagues suggest in the Annals of Emergency Medicine.

Frazee's team at Alameda County Medical Center in Oakland, California, obtained cultures from 137 patients who came to their emergency department with such infections.

Reuters Health

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Friday, December 10, 2004 - Page updated at 12:00 A.M.

By Paul Recer
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — A novel type of antibiotic has been shown in laboratory tests to powerfully attack and control tuberculosis, and some experts predict it could become the first new drug in 40 years to combat the killer disease effectively.

Results from mouse experiments conducted by researchers in a Belgium lab of Johnson & Johnson suggest the new drug works better and faster than current medications, suggesting it could reduce by half the time required to cure TB. Early trials show the new drug is safe, and human testing is under way.

Clinicians say there is a critical need for a new tuberculosis treatment because the disease has become increasingly resistant to current drugs. TB kills more than 2 million people a year worldwide. The last major new TB drug, rifampin, was introduced in 1963.

The candidate drug, R207910, is part of a new group of anti-TB compounds called diarylquinolines, or DARQ. It attacks tuberculosis by neutralizing an enzyme the TB bacillus uses to make energy. This mechanism is different from that of rifampin, isoniazid and pyrazinamide, the cocktail of drugs that is standard treatment for TB.

Dr. Koen Andries, lead author of a study on the drug published this week in the journal Science, said experiments with a laboratory-mouse species commonly used to test TB drugs show the new compound concentrates in the lungs and other organs that are the major targets of tuberculosis.

Seattle Times

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[Health India]: Washington, Dec 10 : HIV infection might soon be curtailed as scientists have reportedly suceeded in identifying key genes that help the body to fend off deadly viruses.

The study, a joint project by the Universities of Oxford, KwaZulu-Natal and Harvard and published in Nature, provides a greater understanding of how some people can survive symptom free for years, while others rapidly develop AIDS.

The researchers collected data from HIV-positive women attending antenatal clinics in Durban, South Africa and found that type B molecules do the best job of identifying HIV infected cells for termination, and consequently the speed of progression in the infection seemed to be strongly linked to which version of the B molecule gene each woman carried.

newkerala

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Report says human tests could begin ‘very soon’

By Rick Weiss

Washington Post

A chemical compound that drug developers had shelved as a failed treatment for inflammation has unexpectedly become the most promising new tuberculosis medicine to emerge in 40 years, scientists said Thursday.

The surprise discovery that the drug is a potent antibiotic – and one that in animals, at least, has many advantages over current TB drugs – has generated a flurry of excitement among public health specialists struggling to control the growing global scourge.

FortWayne.com

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Contact: Jessica Lawrence-Hurt
jlawrenc@aaas.org
1-202-326-7088
American Association for the Advancement of Science

Antibiotic is effective in mice, safe in humans, Science study suggests
This release is also available in French.
A new antibiotic shows promise, thus far in mice, for treating tuberculosis much faster than current drugs do, scientists report. Additional evidence indicates that the antibiotic may work against multidrug-resistant strains of the tuberculosis bug. Studies in healthy human volunteers have indicated that the drug is safe for humans to take, and further human studies are currently underway.

These findings, by Koen Andries of Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development, LLC in Beerse, Belgium and colleagues, will appear online in the 9 December Science Express, part of the journal Science, published by AAAS, the nonprofit science society.

EurekAlert

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Contact: Elizabeth Crown
e-crown@northwestern.edu
312-503-8928
Northwestern University

Northwestern University researchers have identified a key molecular "signal" that allows malarial parasites to release virulence proteins inside human red blood cells.
The investigators, led by Kasturi Haldar and N. Luisa Hiller, also found that the process by which the malarial parasite remodels red blood cells is far more complex than scientists previously had realized.

Haldar is Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor in Pathology and professor of microbiology-immunology and Hiller a sixth-year student in the Integrated Graduate Program in the Life Sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Other key researchers on this study were Souvik Bhattacharjee; Christiaan van Ooij; Konstantinos Liolios; Travis Harrison; and Carlos Estrano.

Findings from the Northwestern study were published in the Dec. 10 issue of the journal Science.

Eurekalert

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he malaria parasite survives in its host by remodeling the red blood cells in which it dwells. Once ensconced in its newly refurbished home, the parasite evades detection by the host's immune system. Alan F. Cowman, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) international research scholar at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues report on studies that reveal this clever survival strategy, in the December 10, 2004 issue of the journal Science. Their findings provide a novel target for new anti-malaria drugs.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute

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Contact: Anne A. Oplinger
aoplinger@niaid.nih.gov
301-402-1663
NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

In an effort to expand the supply of flu vaccine available in the United States in the future, a clinical trial of an influenza vaccine widely used in Europe has begun recruiting participants at four sites nationwide. Funding for the study comes from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, which is collaborating with the vaccine's manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals of Rixensart, Belgium, to conduct the study.

The new trial aims to enroll 1,000 healthy adults by December 23rd to assess the immune response and safety of the vaccine. More than 126 million doses of the test vaccine, Fluarix, have been distributed in more than 70 countries worldwide, demonstrating a similar safety profile as U.S.-licensed injectable flu vaccine, but the Fluarix vaccine has never been tested or licensed for use in the United States.

Press Release: http://www.niaid.nih.gov

Posted by Cindy Gruwell at 07:39 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

MANILA, Dec. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- The World Health Organization (WHO)Thursday warned that the recent appearance and widespread distribution of an avian influenza virus, Influenza A/H5N1, has the potential to ignite the next pandemic and result in unpredictable calamities.

The WHO's Regional Office for the Western Pacific said in a statement that all countries should develop or update their influenza pandemic preparedness plans for responding to the widespread socioeconomic disruptions that would result from having large numbers of people unwell or dying.

According to the WHO, the focus of the preparedness plans is an estimate of how deadly the next pandemic is likely to be, whose answers from experts have ranged from 2 million to over 50 million.

However, the WHO said that the specific characteristics of a future pandemic virus cannot be predicted. It is also unknown how pathogenic a novel virus would be, and which age groups will be affected.

China View

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December 09, 2004

A team of researchers based partly in South Africa has identified a key set of immune system molecules that helps determine how effectively a person resists infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Their work shows that mothers with a specific type of genetic makeup may be less likely to pass HIV to their offspring.

HHMI: Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Posted by Cindy Gruwell at 05:40 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Wed Dec 8, 2004 01:04 PM ET

By Patricia Reaney

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists said Wednesday they have identified key genes involved in the body's response to HIV, which causes AIDS -- a finding that could narrow the search for an effective vaccine against the deadly illness.

A vaccine is considered the Holy Grail in the battle against the global AIDS epidemic but efforts to find one have been hampered because of HIV's uncanny ability to mutate.

"We have narrowed down the focus of which particular genes are important in determining the outcome of HIV infection," said Dr Philip Goulder, of the Partners AIDS Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital in the United States.

Reuters Health

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Posted 12/7/2004 7:22 PM Updated 12/7/2004 9:56 PM

By Kathleen Fackelmann, USA TODAY
A scientific report released today suggests that older men with high lead concentrations in their bodies have a much higher risk of developing cataracts, the leading cause of blindness.
This is the first large study to show that lifetime exposure to lead in the environment might play a role in the formation of cataracts, a clouding of the eye's lens.

The findings suggest that there might be ways to reduce the risk of cataracts, a condition once thought to be an inevitable part of growing older, says Howard Hu, one author of the study. The report appears in today's Journal of the American Medical Association.

USA Today

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Public release date: 7-Dec-2004

A new treatment for the age-old scourge of cholera and perhaps a whole new type of antibiotic medicine may emerge from chemicals discovered in an Australian seaweed, new research results suggest.

Researchers at the University of New South Wales have found that compounds known as furanones – isolated from the seaweed Delisea pulchra – can prevent the bacteria that cause cholera from switching on their disease-causing mechanisms.

EurekAlert

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Innovative/Translational Caner Research - Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation
Application Receipt Date: February 15, 2005

Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation, a funding source for cancer research, is currently accepting applications for innovative grants for translational research in ovarian, uterine, breast, or cervical cancer. Only one grant application will be accepted from each accredited school. The grant will be up to $100,000 (combined direct and indirect costs) for a two-year period. If indirect costs are requested, they cannot exceed 15%. If selected, the funds will be paid in two payments. Complete application may be requested from Roxy McCann
doni0007@umn.edu or 5-2662.

Translational Research Program 2005 - Leukemia – Lymphoma – Myeloma
Application Receipt Date: March 15, 2005

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society provides early-stage support for clinical research on leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma, which is intended to develop innovative approaches to treatment, diagnosis or prevention. The program fosters collaboration between basic research findings to clinical usefulness. The Translational Research Program is specifically intended for the support of work that has clinical application as a near-term goal. Proposal should be based on epidemiological, molecular, cellular or integrated systems findings and be conceptually innovative. The application should have a clear plan for the clinical exploitation of the studies proposed. The feature of the proposal will be an important consideration of the review process. Awards will be limited to a maximum of $200,000, which include direct costs and a maximum overhead of $20,000 or 11.1% of the direct costs per year for three years. Renewal funding for two additional years may be available from the Society.
http://www.LLS.org

Pre-Application Meeting for NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer
The Office of Technology and Industrial Relations, Office of the Director, National Cancer Institute, will hold a pre-application meeting for investigators planning to submit applications in response to Request for Applications (RFA) to be released under the NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer, including RFA CA-05-024 "Centers of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence" (U54) (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-CA-05-024.html) and RFA CA-05-026 "Cancer Nanotechnology Platform Partnerships" (R01) (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-CA-05-026.html). This meeting will provide prospective applicants with an opportunity in a public meeting to receive answers to their questions about the RFA. Representatives from the following offices will be available to answer questions relevant to applications responding to these RFAs: Office of Technology and Industrial Relations (OTIR), NCI; Division of Cancer Biology, NCI; Grants Administration Branch, NCI; and the Special Review and Resources Branch, NCI. Staff will be available to discuss the intent and requirements of the RFA. The complete text of these RFAs will be available via this website as soon as they are posted on the NIH Guide. Potential applicants to these RFAs are not required to attend the pre-application meeting.
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-CA-05-006.html http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-CA-05-006.html

Centers of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence

Letters-Of-Intent Receipt Date: February 25, 2005
Application Receipt Date: March 25, 2005

The NCI invites applications from investigators interested in participating in an initiative to establish up to five Centers for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence (CCNEs). The CCNEs will be a national resource that will integrate the basic and clinical sciences with engineering to develop and apply nanotechnology to cancer research to accelerate the application of this science to the clinic. Using the NIH U54 cooperative agreement mechanism, the NCI intends to commit approximately $90.8 M in FY 2005-2009 (approximately $20 M in FY 2005) to fund up to five CCNEs. Any individual with the skills, knowledge, and resources necessary to carry out the proposed research is invited to work with his or her institution to develop an application for support. An individual can be the PI on only one application submitted under this announcement. However, an individual may be listed as a participant in multiple CCNE applications provided that his/her research proposals are discrete. Application materials are available from the NIH Office of Extramural Research (OER); http://grants.nih.gov/grants/oer.htm/
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-CA-05-025.html

Cancer Nanotechnology Platform Partnerships

Letter of Intent Receipt Date: February 25, 2005
Application Receipt Date: March 25, 2005

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) invites applications for research project grants (RPGs) to support development of nanotechnology platforms for basic, applied, and translational multi-disciplinary research that uses nanotechnology (e.g., nanoscale devices or nanomaterials less than 1000 nm in size, although the assembly, synthesis, and/or fabrication of components at dimensions less than 300 nm should be demonstrated ) in cancer research. Proposed projects will be eligible for consideration if they address one or more of the following thematic/programmatic areas of focus: molecular imaging and early detection, in vivo imaging, reporters of therapeutic efficacy, multifunctional therapeutics, prevention and control of cancer, and research enablers. This funding opportunity will use the R01 award mechanism. The NCI intends to commit approximately 7 million dollars in FY 2005 to fund approximately 10 new grants in response to this RFA. An applicant may request a project period of up to 5 years and a budget for total costs up to 1 million dollars per year. An applicant may submit one application in response to this RFA. Application materials are available from the NIH Office of Extramural Research (OER); http://grants.nih.gov/grants/oer.htm .
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-CA-05-006.html

Community Participation in Research

Letters of Intent Receipt Date (s): April 17, 2005, 2006, 2007
Application Receipt Dates(s): May 17, 2005, 2006, 2007

The ultimate goal of this PAR is to support research on health promotion, disease prevention, and health disparities that is jointly conducted by communities and researchers. This PAR invites NIH research project grant (R01) and exploratory/developmental grant (R21) award mechanisms. The number of applications each applicant may submit is unrestricted. http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-05-026.html

To view all grants available through the Cancer Center, visit http://www.cancer.umn.edu/page/aboutus/grantopp.html

Posted by Cindy Gruwell at 12:48 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government announced new rules Monday aimed at helping trace the source of food contamination, particularly in the event of a bioterror attack on the food supply.

Food manufacturers and others who work in the nation's human and animal food supply will have to keep records showing where they received food and where they shipped it next.

The idea behind the rules, announced by the Food and Drug Administration, is to help investigators figure out where in a long chain of supply a particular item of food may been tainted.

The regulations implement part of a law, passed after the 2001 anthrax attacks, which focused attention on many of the nation's vulnerabilities to bioterror attacks. Just Friday, outgoing Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said he worries "every single night" about a possible terror attack on the food supply.

"For the life of me, I cannot understand why the terrorists have not attacked our food supply because it is so easy to do," Thompson said at a news conference announcing his resignation.

On Monday, however, Thompson was considerably more upbeat.

"Publication of this record-keeping rule represents a milestone in U.S. food safety and security," he said in a statement. "We have a lot of work yet to do, but our nation is now more prepared than ever before to protect the public against threats to the food supply."

The new rules affect anyone who manufacturers, processes, packs, transports, distributes, receives, holds or imports food. Officials at every step must keep records showing the chain of supply, including the immediate previous source of all food received and the next recipient of all food released.

CNN Health

Posted by Cindy Gruwell at 12:40 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)