The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, India today gave its approval for implementation of project entitled ?prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV/AIDS? with financial outlay of Rs.342.81 crore awarded by the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Round II funding) as additionality over and above the provision for integrated National AIDS Control Programme (NACP).
While investigating a fungus known to cause an infection in people with AIDS, two grantees of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), unexpectedly discovered a potential strategy for treating metastatic melanoma, one of the deadliest forms of skin cancer.
Using hormonal contraception does not appear to increase women’s overall risk of infection with the AIDS virus, report the authors of a large study commissioned by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health.
By training professionals in high-biodiversity regions to advance the drug discovery process in-country, a novel program drives drug discovery costs down as it promotes tropical biodiversity conservation. An international team describes a successful test of the program in Panama in the December, 2006 issue of BioScience.
Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s High Temperature Materials Laboratory are helping diesel engine and parts manufacturers develop technologies to meet tough new emissions regulations that go into effect in 2007.
A panel of academic, industry and government representatives, presenting at the ACNP Annual Meeting, concluded that several factors have impeded the development of novel treatments for mental illness, including: incomplete understanding of the impact of mental illness on the brain; continued skepticism of results from animal models for certain disorders, and an outdated paradigm of treatment and the industry preference toward so-called “me-too” drugs.
Bill Clinton, former President of USA, says India is the new epicenter of the global pandemic of HIV. He commented this with British interviewers on the World AIDS Day.
A sugar molecule present on embryonic stem cells also has been found on the surface of a type of adult stem cell, a discovery that may help researchers isolate and purify adult stem cells for use in therapies aimed at bone healing, tendon repair and cartilage regeneration, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center report.
President George W. Bush marked Worlds AIDS Day on Friday by declaring: “The pandemic of HIV/AIDS can be defeated.” Bush’s AIDS initiative, announced in 2003, is the largest international health initiative dedicated to a single disease.
Surveillance for the HIV virus is weak in most of the world and prevention and treatment programmes often fail to reach high-risk drug users, homosexuals and sex workers, the World Health Organisation said.