Merck & Co., Inc. announced their candidate AIDS vaccine failed to provide protection in a human study designed to test for efficacy. In this Merck trial involving high risk volunteers, an equal number of people received either placebo or AIDS vaccine. The independent Data Safety Monitoring Board recommended that the trial be stopped because it was not reaching its efficacy endpoints.
Researchers at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN), Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB) and Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) have successfully developed a miniaturized device that can be used to detect the highly pathogenic avian flu (H5N1) virus.
The global epidemic of Type 2 diabetes is an indicator of serious underlying issues in our society, says a University medical expert.
The bacterium that causes a highly contagious and sometimes deadly form of diarrhea is frequently carried by persons who do not have any of the disease symptoms, according to a study in the Oct. 15 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, now available online.
The obesity epidemic has spawned not just diabetes, but another serious public health problem: a surge in fatty liver disease, which can lead to cirrhosis and liver failure. Now, research suggests that limiting consumption of high-glycemic-index carbohydrates can prevent the condition in mice. A clinical trial is now testing this idea in overweight adolescents, as well as the possibility of reversing fatty liver disease through diet.
The cholera outbreak in northern Iraq continues to be a major threat to public health in the region with over 3.3 million people presumed to be exposed to the risk of an epidemic, according to an update by the United Nations health agency.
Giving a daily antiretroviral pill to people to prevent HIV could profoundly slow the spread of the infection in sub-Saharan Africa, where it is a full-blown epidemic, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers report.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced grants totaling $280 million to help fight tuberculosis, an epidemic that infects one-third of people on earth and kills nearly 2 million yearly—mostly in the poorest countries.
The number of people struck by a cholera outbreak in Northern Iraq has doubled to 16,000 people but the death toll remains the same at 10, the United Nations health agency reported.
A new book of pocket-charts that will help health workers to identify people at risk of heart attacks and strokes and save lives by prescribing the most appropriate treatment is published by the World Health Organization (WHO).