Federal Funds Support Health Depts., But Leadership Is Key - Study
The surge of funds for bioterrorism preparedness over the past decade does not appear to be improving local public health resources in general, according to research from Purdue University...

Chimerix Initiates Phase 2 Study Of CMX001 In Stem Cell Transplant Recipients Seropositive For Cytomegalovirus
Chimerix, Inc., a biotechnology company developing orally-available antiviral therapeutics, announced the initiation of a multi-center Phase 2 clinical trial designed to evaluate CMX001 in stem cell transplant recipients who are seropositive for cytomegalovirus (CMV). CMX001 is a broad-spectrum antiviral agent with demonstrated activity against double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) viruses...

Tetanus, Hepatitis Vaccination Campaign Launched In Chile Amid Fears Of Disease Outbreaks
"Chile launched a hepatitis and tetanus vaccination campaign Friday and doctors warned of outbreaks of diarrhea and infection among thousands of people displaced by the earthquake and the tsunami that heavily damaged or destroyed 36 hospitals and made garbage dumps of coastal towns and cities," the Associated Press reports...

Infectious Virus Hidden In Chromosomes During Latency Can Be Passed From Parents To Children
Human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) infects nearly 100 percent of humans in early childhood, and the infection then lasts for the rest of a person's life...

New Research Shows Immune Cells Use Bungee Of Death To Kill Dangerous Cells
Immune cells ensnare dangerous cells that are on the run with a bungee-like nanotube, according to research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study, by researchers from Imperial College London, shows that natural killer (NK) cells use this bungee to destroy cells that could otherwise escape them...

Exploring Echinacea's Enigmatic Origins
An Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist is helping to sort through the jumbled genetics of Echinacea, the coneflower known for its blossoms - and its potential for treating infections, inflammation, and other human ailments...

Heat Therapy Shown Effective In Treating Cutaneous Leishmaniasis Among U.S. Soldiers In Iraq
A single session of heat therapy using the Thermomed™ device appears to be as effective as a 10-day intravenous course of sodium stibogluconate (Pentostam) for the treatment of Leishmania major skin lesions, according to a new study by Naomi Aronson and her colleagues at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) and Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC)...

Dissolution Of The Meat Hygiene Service And Merger With The Food Standards Agency
The Board of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has decided to dissolve the executive agency status of the Meat Hygiene Service (MHS) and to bring its staff and functions into the FSA to form the core of a new FSA Operations Group...

Xhale Innovations To Demonstrate The HyGreen Hand Hygiene System At The Fifth Decennial International Conference On Healthcare-Associated Infections
Xhale Innovations (XI) announced today that it will showcase its hand hygiene system, HyGreen™, at the Fifth Decennial International Conference on Healthcare-Associated Infections to be held March 18 - 22, 2010. This real-time hand hygiene recording and reminding system is designed to assist healthcare facilities with their infection control programs. According to XI CTO, Dr...

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...

Max Planck Scientists Develop A Fingerprint For Genes: New Strategy To Play Major Role In Research On Human Diseases
Cells may not have a mouth, but they still need to ingest substances from the external environment. If this process - known as endocytosis - is affected, it can lead to infectious diseases or cardio-vascular diseases, cancer, Huntington's and diabetes...

Vitamin D Crucial To Activating Immune Defenses
Scientists at the University of Copenhagen have discovered that Vitamin D is crucial to activating our immune defenses and that without sufficient intake of the vitamin, the killer cells of the immune system - T cells - will not be able to react to and fight off serious infections in the body...

Consumer Advisory - Salmonella In Hydrolysed Vegetable Protein (HVP), Canada
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) are closely following an investigation by U.S. authorities into possible Salmonella contamination of Hydrolysed Vegetable Protein (HVP) in the United States. HVP is used as a flavour enhancer in many commercially processed foods...

Over-Utilization Of Intravenous Proton Pump Inhibitor In Non-Intensive Care Unit Patients
Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are the most effective agents for treating acid related gastrointestinal (GI) disorders. The utilization of intravenous (IV) formulations of PPIs has dramatically increased in health care institutions for inappropriate indications, route of administration and length of treatment...

Salmonella In HVP Additive Prompts Potentially Massive Processed Food Recall
Thousands of types of processed foods containing hydrolyzed vegetable protein or HVP made by Basic Food Flavors Inc in Las Vegas, Nevada, may pose a health risk due to possible contamination with Salmonella Tennessee, said the US Food and Drug Administration last week...

Successful Treatment Of Periodontal Disease Lowered Preterm Birth Incidences
Previous studies have explored the effect of periodontal treatment, irrespective of efficacy of treatment, in reducing infant prematurity. In a study titled "Risk of Preterm Birth Is Reduced with Successful Periodontal Treatment," lead researcher M. Jeffcott, and colleagues S. Parry and M. Sammel (all from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia) and G. Macones (Washington University, St...

Polio Vaccination Campaign To Target 85M Children In 19 West, Central African Countries
Global health organizations will launch a $30 million polio vaccination campaign on Saturday in West and Central Africa aimed at immunizing 85 million children under age 5, the Joint Global Polio Eradication Initiative and the International Federation of the Red Cross said on Thursday, Agence France-Presse reports (3/4)...

Conference Calls For East African Countries To Prioritize Water, Sanitation Programs
During a sanitation conference being held in Kampala, Uganda, this week, "experts have urged regional countries to prioritize programs aimed at increasing access to safe water and sanitation" to move them closer to reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) target in 2015, New Times/allAfrica.com reports...

BioVex Initiates Phase 1 Clinical Trial With Its Genital Herpes Vaccine, ImmunoVEXHSV2
BioVex Inc, a private biotechnology company developing new generation biologics for the treatment of cancer and prevention of infectious disease, announced that the first subject had been dosed in the Phase 1 study of its live attenuated genital herpes vaccine, ImmunoVEXHSV2. The Phase 1 study is an open label ascending dose trial, assessing safety and immune response in healthy volunteers...

Study Explores Role Of Nutrition On Risk Of Dengue Virus Infection
A new study led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators disproves reports that well-fed children are more vulnerable to the dengue virus. Mosquitoes spread the virus, which can cause severe flu-like symptoms and sometimes lethal complications...

Virus Infections May Be Contributing Factor In Onset Of Gluten Intolerance
A research project in the Academy of Finland's Research Programme on Nutrition, Food and Health (ELVIRA) has brought new knowledge on the hereditary nature of gluten intolerance and identified genes that carry a higher risk of developing the condition...

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...

Current Opinion Conference On Cellular Host-Pathogen Interactions Announced By Elsevier
Elsevier, the world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services has announced that the prestigious journal Current Opinion in Cell Biology (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ceb) will host a Cellular Host-Pathogen Interactions Conference, in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, on 5-7 September 2010 (http://conferences.current-opinion.com)...

Scientists Find New Form Of Prion Disease That Damages Brain Arteries
WHAT: National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists investigating how prion diseases destroy the brain have observed a new form of the disease in mice that does not cause the sponge-like brain deterioration typically seen in prion diseases. Instead, it resembles a form of human Alzheimer's disease, cerebral amyloid angiopathy, that damages brain arteries...

Salmonella Tennessee Identified In A Processed Food Ingredient
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is taking steps to protect the public following the early identification of Salmonella Tennessee in one company's supply of hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP). This is a common ingredient used most frequently as a flavor enhancer in many processed foods, including soups, sauces, chilis, stews, hot dogs, gravies, seasoned snack foods, dips and dressings...