Health

New maps guide African truckers to AIDS clinics

Thursday, 11 March 2010 14:00

African trucking routes, long known as pathways for spreading HIV across borders, have been drawn in new maps that also direct drivers to clinics that treat AIDS, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Tags: Trucker - HIV/AIDS - Catherine Larkin - North Star Alliance - Paul Matthew - Royal Dutch Shell - Maplecroft - TNT - UN World Food Programme - Jason McGeown - George Wandera - Africa

New HIV/AIDS research agenda to better respond to women and children

Tuesday, 09 March 2010 16:42

About 30 years into the HIV/AIDS epidemic, a new strategy is being launched to better respond to the needs of women and children.

Tags: HIV/AIDS - Asking the Right Questions - International AIDS Society - UNICEF - Robin GOrna - G8 Summit Gleneagles - Africa

Mobile phones latest tool to beat HIV-AIDS in Africa

Monday, 08 March 2010 15:23

Mobile phones may become a key weapon in the war against HIV and AIDS in Africa, allowing counsellors to reach greater numbers of people, says the chief of the United Nation's AIDS agency.

(1 Vote)

Tags: UNAIDS - Michel Sidibe - mobile phone - Kaduna State - Ondo State - Nigeria

New drive to fight polio in Africa

Monday, 08 March 2010 13:55

A massive campaign to eradicate a year-long polio epidemic in West and Central Africa kicked off on 6 March, global health bodies announced recently.

Boosting treatment 'could halt HIV in five years'

Tuesday, 23 February 2010 18:07

Clinical trials of a universal 'test and treat' strategy that could see the HIV pandemic halted within 5-10 years are soon to begin, the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in San Diego heard yesterday.

(1 Vote)

Tags: ARV - HIV - AIDS - test - treatment - South Africa - American Association for the Advancement of Science - Africa

Africa plans leap into drug R&D

Friday, 19 February 2010 14:24

African ministers, health researchers and pharmaceutical industry representatives began meeting today to discuss how to boost drug innovation and production on the continent.

(2 Votes)

Tags: health - research - pharmaceutical - industry - drug - innovation - research - development - African Expert Meeting on Pharmaceutical Innovation in Africa - Pretoria - South Africa - Africa

HIV drugs prevent infection in African study

Thursday, 18 February 2010 15:19

People across Africa who took AIDS drugs were far less likely to infect their partners with the virus, researchers said on Wednesday.

(1 Vote)

Tags: AIDS - Deborah Donnell - Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center - Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections

African gene trawl may provide secrets to long life

Thursday, 18 February 2010 15:08

A genetic peek deep into the heart of Africa confirms that Africans have more genetic diversity than Europeans or Asians and provides insights into how to live a long life despite disease and famine.

(2 Votes)

Tags: genetics - health - diversity - Europe - Africa - Desmond Tutu - bushmen - Vanessa Hayes - University of New South Wales

Sugar technology keeps vaccines stable in the heat

Thursday, 18 February 2010 14:57

British scientists have found a cheap and simple way of keeping vaccines stable, even at tropical temperatures, which they say could transform immunisation campaigns in the developing world.

(2 Votes)

Tags: Oxford University - vaccines - HydRIS - Nova - World Health Organization - polio - diphtheria - tuberculosis - whooping cough - measles and tetanus - Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - Wellcome Trust - Adrian Hill - Africa

Stamping out the Guinea worm 'dragons' of Sudan

Wednesday, 17 February 2010 15:25

Scars on Severion Wayet's arms reveal where the flesh-burrowing Guinea worms burst through her skin. But experts believe the worm, found in Ghana, Mali, Ethiopia and Sudan, could be eradicated within a few years.

(1 Vote)

Tags: Guinea worms - dracunculiasis - The Carter Centre - Jimmy Carter - World Health Organisation - Ghana - Mali - Ethiopia - Josehp Manytuil Wejang - Sudan

High hopes as new TB vaccine proves effective

Friday, 12 February 2010 14:00

Hope of an effective tuberculosis (TB) vaccine has been boosted by findings from the Tanzanian trial of a new TB vaccine showing that TB infection in HIV-positive patients was reduced by 39 percent.

(2 Votes)

Tags: TB - tuberculosis - trials - HIV - AIDS - vaccine - Richard Waddell - WHO - Tanzania - Africa

In Kenya, UN partners with MTV to dramatize stories of love - and HIV infection

Wednesday, 10 February 2010 15:39

The United Nations and MTV are reaching out to young Kenyans to highlight that HIV is not a death sentence though a new three-part television series exploring the lives and love of a group of friends in Nairobi.

(1 Vote)

Tags: United Nations - MTV - HIV - Lupita Nyong'o - Shuga - UNICEF - Susan Kasedde - Kenya

New malaria vaccine shows promise in children

Thursday, 04 February 2010 15:51

A new vaccine showed promise at protecting young children from malaria, offering a potential new weapon against a disease that kills at least 1 million people each year, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

(2 Votes)

Tags: vaccine - young - children - malaria - West Africa - study - GlaxoSmithKline - immune - Africa

Breakthrough could create better ARVs

Tuesday, 02 February 2010 13:45

Scientists have finally discovered the structure of a key enzyme found in HIV and similar viruses, a breakthrough that has crucial implications for HIV treatment.

(1 Vote)

Tags: science - HIV - Aids - treatment - virus - ARVs - Imperial College - Harvard University - Peter Cherepanov - Matilu Mwau - Kenya Medical Research Institute - Africa

Vaccine highly effective in preventing severe rotavirus in African study

Friday, 29 January 2010 16:41

A new study of a vaccine against rotavirus infection among African newborns shows the drug is highly effective against the disease, which can cause major gastrointestinal distress and death in babies and young children.

(2 Votes)

Tags: vaccine - rotavirus - newborns - drug - disease - health - WHO - PATH - Africa

Gates says malaria vaccine may be ready in three years

Wednesday, 27 January 2010 16:57

Microsoft founder Bill Gates has told the BBC that a vaccine for malaria could be just three years away. Mr Gates is a key campaigner against the disease which kills a million people a year, most of them children.

(3 Votes)

Tags: Bill Gates - BBC - vaccine - malaria - disease - health - Africa

S.African vaccine maker boosting continental reach

Tuesday, 26 January 2010 16:18

South African vaccine maker Biovac Institute, in partnership with major pharmaceutical firms, is on track to boost annual capacity sevenfold to 35 million doses by 2013, its deputy chief executive said.

(3 Votes)

Tags: Biovac Institute - pharmaceutical - annual - Morena Makhona - Africa - vaccine - TB - cholera - South Africa

SA surgeon appointed head of international society

Monday, 25 January 2010 13:52

Professor Ken Boffard, a trauma surgeon at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, has been elected world President of the International Society of Surgery.

Tags: Ken Boffard - Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital - International Society of Surgery - Quedani Mahlangu - Surgery - South Africa

Kenya may buy Ugandan ARVs

Thursday, 21 January 2010 17:39

Kenyans could soon access affordable anti-retroviral drugs made in Uganda. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has invited Kenya to buy shares in the company that manufactures the ARV drugs.

(1 Vote)

Tags: anti-retroviral - drugs - Yoweri Museveni - HIV - AIDS - Quality Chemicals - Uganda - Kenya

Circumcising babies could help Africa AIDS fight

Thursday, 21 January 2010 17:30

Circumcising newborn boys to stop them becoming infected with the AIDS virus in later life is more cost-effective than circumcising adult men, Rwandan health experts said on Tuesday.

(2 Votes)

Tags: circumcision - AIDS - HIV - cost-effective - Agnes Binagwaho - Public Library of Science - Rwanda

Glaxo offers free malaria research, vaccine nears

Wednesday, 20 January 2010 13:21

GlaxoSmithKline Plc hopes to seek approval by 2012 for its experimental malaria vaccine and said on Wednesday it would seek only a small profit and ensure it is widely available in hard-hit countries.