University of Queensland research has shown "canecutter's" disease is a growing problem for travellers. A team led by PhD researcher Dr Colleen Lau from the School of Population Health, has discovered the disease, known medically as leptospirosis, was traditionally a concern for males working in the agricultural and livestock industries, as it is contracted from contact with the urine of host animals. Ms Lau said recreational exposure and international travel have emerged as increasingly important sources of infection over the past decade. "Many of the areas with a high incidence of leptospirosis are popular destinations for domestic and international travellers, " Dr Lau said.
Dengue fever, also known as breakbone fever, is a mosquito-borne infection that causes a severe flu-like illness. There are four different viruses that can cause dengue fever, all of which spread by a certain type of mosquito. Dengue can vary from mild to severe; the more severe forms include dengue shock syndrome and dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF). Patients who develop the more serious forms of dengue fever usually need to be hospitalized. There are currently no vaccines for Dengue fever. The best way to prevent the disease is to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes altogether. Although there is no certain treatment for Dengue, it can be treated as long as it is caught before developing into dengue chock syndrome or dengue hemorrhagic fever.
Using several scientific methods, including analyzing DNA from royal mummies, research findings suggest that malaria and bone abnormalities appear to have contributed to the death of Egyptian pharaoh King Tutankhamun, with other results appearing to identify members of the royal family, including King Tut's father and mother, according to a study in the February 17 issue of JAMA. The 18th dynasty (circa 1550-1295 B.C.) of the New Kingdom was one of the most powerful royal houses of ancient Egypt, and included the reign of Tutankhamun, probably the most famous of all pharaohs, although his tenure was brief. He died in the ninth year of his reign, circa 1324 B.
Scientists battling malaria have earned a major victory. According to a Nature Genetics study, an international group of researchers has used genomics to decode the blueprint of Plasmodium falciparum - a strain of malaria most resistant to drugs that causes the most deaths around the world. The discovery may lead to advanced pharmaceuticals to fight the disease and prevent drug resistance among the 250 million people infected by malaria each year. "Combating malaria resistance is nothing short of an arms race, " says lead author Dr. Philip Awadalla, a pediatrics professor at the UniversitĂ de MontrĂ al, a scientist at the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Center and scientific director of CARTaGENE.
bioMerieux a world leader in the field of in vitro diagnostics confirms its VIDAS® SLM is fully validated as an AOAC Official Method(SM), available for food manufacturers who would like to test black pepper for Salmonella contamination. Food manufacturers are taking a close look at the black pepper used in their products in the wake of a series of illnesses involving hundreds of people in over 40 states, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Food & Drug Administration (FDA) suspect can be traced to contaminated black pepper used in salami and other meat products produced by a manufacturer in Rhode Island. "We're very pleased that bioMerieux sought AOAC Official Method(SM) approval of their VIDAS Salmonella tests for black pepper, " said James Bradford, Executive Director, AOAC International.
During a video address to the 7th U.S.-Islamic World Forum meeting in Doha, Qatar, on Saturday, President Barack Obama appointed Rashad Hussain, deputy associate White House counsel, to serve as Special Envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the Associated Press reports. As the president's liaison to the OIC, Obama "said Hussain will continue working to repair U.S.-Islamic relations and develop the types of partnerships Obama called for when he addressed the Muslim world during a speech last year in Cairo. ... Obama recounted efforts by his administration to foster partnerships with Muslims on education, economic development, global health, and science and technology, " the news service writes (Superville, 2/14).
In the wake of Johns Hopkins' success in virtually eliminating intensive-care unit bloodstream infections via a simple five-step checklist, the safety scientist who developed and popularized the tool warns medical colleagues that they are no panacea. "Checklists are useful, but they're not Harry Potter's wand, " says Peter Pronovost, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a patient safety expert. "The science needed to best develop focused, unambiguous and succinct checklists for medicine's thousands of diagnoses and procedures is in its infancy, and there can be unintended consequences of reliance on simple tools.
Oncogenic retroviruses are a particular family of viruses that can cause some types of cancer. Thierry Heidmann and his colleagues in the CNRS-Institut Gustave Roussy-Universite Paris Sud 11 "RĂ trovirus endogĂ¨nes et elements retroides des eucaryotes superieurs" Laboratory have studied these viruses. They have identified a "virulence factor" that inhibits the host immune response and allows the virus to spread throughout the body. This factor is a sequence of amino acids that is located in the envelope protein of the virus. These scientists have also shown that once mutated to lose its immunosuppressive capability, this envelope protein could serve as a basis for the development of vaccines.
The European Medicines Agency and Swissmedic will from now on be able to exchange confidential information about the authorisation and safety of medicines used in the context of the H1N1 pandemic influenza. The confidentiality arrangement was agreed between the European Medicines Agency on the one side and the Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products, Swissmedic, on the other side, on 12 February 2010. The partners will be able to exchange confidential scientific and technical information to ensure the safety, quality, efficacy and post-authorisation follow-up of medicines used in the context of the pandemic. This closer co-operation will provide the two authorities earlier access to information on the basis for their respective recommendations on pandemic medicines and complete the overall view on their safety.
Lancet Comment Examines Interconnectedness Of Global Health, Public Health "Global health and public health are indistinguishable, " according to a Lancet Comment that examines the interconnectedness of the fields. "Yet global health is still often perceived as international aid, technologies, and interventions flowing from the wealthier countries of the global north to the poorer countries of the global south. ... With the new understanding that many health problems have a linked aetiology and a common impact, and that innovative solutions can come from all sectors, collaborative relationships become, at a minimum, bidirectional - and optimally, multilateral" (Fried et al.