West Africa Doctors Network News Portal

(Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions) Giving children preventive antibiotics within one hour before they undergo spinal surgery greatly reduces the risk for serious infections after the surgery, suggests a Johns Hopkins study to be published in the August issue of Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.

(Duke University Medical Center) New research into the earliest events occurring immediately upon infection with HIV-I shows that the virus deals a stunning blow to the immune system earlier than was previously understood. According to scientists at Duke University Medical Center, this suggests the window of opportunity for successful intervention may be only a matter of days -- not weeks -- after transmission, as researchers had previously believed.

(AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC)) AVAC today urged Dr. Anthony Fauci and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to act swiftly to clarify the path ahead suggested by the announcement that the proposed PAVE 100 AIDS vaccine trial would not go forward but that a smaller trial of the same candidate would be considered. AVAC calls on field leaders to make clear commitments of financing, leadership and scientific exploration to further the search for an AIDS vaccine.

(International AIDS Vaccine Initiative) Today, the U.S. National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases announced that it will not go ahead with the proposed Phase IIb AIDS vaccine trial known as PAVE 100. The announcement followed the failure last September of an AIDS vaccine candidate with some similarities to the PAVE 100 candidate in a Phase IIb trial known as STEP.

(New York- Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center/Weill Cornell Medical College) Weill Cornell Science Briefs is an electronic newsletter published by the Office of Public Affairs that focuses on innovative medical research and patient care at Weill Cornell Medical College and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

(Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore) Singapore scientists found that certain substances from bacteria living in the human intestine cause the normally harmless Candida albicans fungus to become highly infectious.

(University College London) A genetic variation which evolved to protect people of African descent against malaria has now been shown to increase their susceptibility to HIV infection by up to 40 percent, according to new research. Conversely, the same variation also appears to prolong survival of those infected with HIV by approximately two years.

(Infectious Diseases Society of America) New evidence suggests that a booster vaccination against H5N1 avian influenza given years after initial vaccination with a different strain may prove useful in controlling a potential future pandemic. The study is published in the Aug. 1 issue of the Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online.

(Indiana University) National summit will be held in Indianapolis July 14-15 to prioritize concerns for medical triage, treatment and safety during influenza pandemic. It will focus on ethical and policy issues faced by public health officials and the medical community while preparing for a large-scale epidemic.

(University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston) Human immunodeficiency virus researchers at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston believe they have uncovered the Achilles heel in the armor of the virus that continues to kill millions.

(Imperial College London) A new £4.2 million consortium to tackle healthcare associated infections, such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile, is announced today. Led by researchers from Imperial College London, the new London consortium will look at healthcare associated infections from a wide range of angles, from exploring the molecular makeup of bacteria to addressing how best to bring about changes in practice across health care.

(NYU Langone Medical Center / New York University School of Medicine) A long-time microbial inhabitant of the human stomach may protect children from developing asthma, according to a new study among more than 7,000 subjects led by NYU Langone Medical Center researchers. Helicobacter pylori, a bacterium that has co-existed with humans for at least 50,000 years, may lead to peptic ulcers and stomach cancer. Yet, kids between the ages of 3 and 13 are nearly 59 percent less likely to have asthma if they carry the bug, the researchers report.