The number of people living with HIV in the Middle East and North Africa has risen to 460,000 and some 68,000 people were newly infected in 2006 alone. In a bid to curb the region?s growing epidemic, countries have been working with UNAIDS to secure additional funding to scale-up the AIDS response in the region.
In a move that promises to expand the types of malaria vaccine candidates in clinical development, the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative today announced a new partnership with Sanaria Inc., a Maryland company, to accelerate development of a unique malaria vaccine candidate.
As of 7 December 2006, a cluster of 21 malaria cases, caused by Plasmodium falciparum, has been reported from the city of Kingston in Jamaica [1]. The outbreak is believed to have started in late October 2006. Of the 21 reported infections, 16 cases are females and five are males, ranging from five to 72 years. Four children are among the confirmed cases. For those with known date of onset, the range is from 27 September to 30 November. One case is in a United States resident who travelled to the island from 29 October to 6 November 2006.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today ordered firms to stop marketing unapproved drug products containing quinine, a drug used to treat malaria, citing serious safety concerns, including deaths, associated with quinine products. There are multiple unapproved products containing quinine currently marketed. However, there is only one quinine product approved by the FDA.
Back-to-back papers published online this week in Nature Genetics reveal important new details about the genetic variability of the malaria parasite and provide new clues for how it causes disease.
An international research team announced today the completion of a genome-wide map that charts the genetic variability of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum.
Malaria may be helping spread the AIDS virus across Africa, the continent hardest hit by the incurable disease. The way the two diseases interact greatly expands the prevalence of both among people in sub-Saharan Africa, a team of scientists said in a study in the journal Science.
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).
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.
Governments should keep the threat and funding of global terrorism in perspective, given the number of preventable deaths that occur daily from HIV, malaria and TB.