EurekAlert! InContext Modules

Public Release: 20-Sep-2011

Lancet
Countries worldwide are saving mothers' and children's lives at a faster pace
With four years left for countries to achieve international targets for saving the lives of mothers and children, more than half the countries around the world are lowering maternal mortality and child mortality at an accelerated rate, according to a new analysis by IHME. In 125 countries, maternal mortality has declined faster since 2000, and the progress has been particularly strong in the past five years. Over the same period, in 106 countries, child mortality rates have declined faster.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Public Release: 20-Sep-2011

PLOS Medicine
Early HIV treatment cost-effective in resource-limited settings
In a cost-effectiveness study, Bruce R Schackman of Weill Cornell Medical College, USA and colleagues compare early versus standard antiretroviral treatment (ART) for HIV, based on randomized clinical trial data from Haiti.

Public Release: 19-Sep-2011
UBC journalism project documents global pain crisis
In advance of a United Nations conference today on the global challenges of treating cancer and other diseases, the UBC Graduate School of Journalism has launched an ambitious multimedia site, the Pain Project, which documents one of the greatest challenges to treating chronic illnesses: severely constrained access to morphine.

Mindset Social Innovation Foundation

Public Release: 19-Sep-2011

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Biodiversity helps dilute infectious disease, reduce its severity
Researchers at Oregon State University have shown for the first time that loss of biodiversity may be contributing to a fungal infection that is killing amphibians around the world, and provides more evidence for why biodiversity is important to many ecosystems.

Public Release: 19-Sep-2011

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Shark compound proves potential as drug to treat human viruses, says GUMC researcher
A compound initially isolated from sharks shows potential as a unique broad-spectrum human antiviral agent. The compound, squalamine, has been in human clinical trials for the treatment of cancer and several eye disorders, and so has a well-known safety profile, suggesting it can be quickly tested as a new class of drugs to treat infections caused by viruses ranging from dengue and yellow fever to hepatitis B, C, and D.

Public Release: 16-Sep-2011
OU environmental science graduate student receives EPA's STAR Fellowship Award
A University of Oklahoma environmental science graduate student is the recipient of the 2011 EPA Science to Achieve Results Fellowship for research on safe drinking water with a focus on the Rift Valley area of Ethiopia.

Environmental Protection Agency

Public Release: 15-Sep-2011

International Scientific Council for Trypanosomiasis Research and Control
First field-based molecular diagnostic test for African sleeping sickness in sight
The Geneva-based not-for-profit foundation FIND and Japanese diagnostics company Eiken announced today that a next-generation molecular test designed specifically for sleeping sickness -- a deadly parasitic disease also known as human African trypanosomiasis -- is ready to enter accelerated field trials in sites across the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.

Public Release: 15-Sep-2011

Journal of American Society of Nephrology
Common invasive test not necessary for kidney disease patients
Equations that estimate a patient's kidney function work as well as direct, invasive measurements, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN). This means that many patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) do not need to undergo the painful and cumbersome procedures that are performed to monitor kidneys' health.

Public Release: 15-Sep-2011

Nature
Of mice and men
Scientists have sequenced the genomes (genetic codes) of 17 strains of common lab mice -- an achievement that lays the groundwork for the identification of genes responsible for important traits, including diseases that afflict both mice and humans.

National Science Foundation

Public Release: 15-Sep-2011

Cell
Avoiding fatal responses to flu infection
Most of the time, being ill with the flu is little more than a nuisance. Other times, it can spark an exaggerated immune response and turn deadly. Researchers reporting in the Sept. 16 issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, have now traced the origins of this severe immune response -- called a cytokine storm -- to its source.

Public Release: 14-Sep-2011
Investigating the spread of infectious diseases with NSF, NIH, UK funding
New research aimed at controlling the transmission of diseases among humans, other animals and the environment is being made possible by grants from a collaboration among US and UK funding agencies.

National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Disease Program, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council

Public Release: 14-Sep-2011

New England Journal of Medicine
Shorter treatment with hepatitis C drug combination may be more beneficial, study shows
University of Cincinnati research published in the Sept. 14, 2011, advance online edition of the New England Journal of Medicine shows that patients with hepatitis C who took a combination medication -- a telaprevir-based regimen that is commonly used to treat the illness -- for 24 weeks were cured.

Vertex, Tibotec Pharmaceuticals

Public Release: 14-Sep-2011

EmCon 2011
New research will help combat antibiotic resistance problems in Africa
A University of Copenhagen Ph.D. student has developed a new chemical analysis technique that will help combat antibiotic resistance.

Public Release: 14-Sep-2011

Lancet
More women dying from breast and cervical cancer at a younger age in developing countries
The number of cases and deaths from breast and cervical cancer are rising in most countries, especially in the developing world where more women are dying at younger ages, according to a new global analysis by IHME. Breast cancer cases more than doubled around the world in just three decades, from 641,000 cases in 1980 to 1.6 million cases in 2010. During that same period, deaths from breast cancer rose from 250,000 to 425,000 in 2010.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Susan G. Komen for the Cure

Public Release: 13-Sep-2011
World Alzheimer's Report 2011: The benefits of early diagnosis and intervention
The World Alzheimer's Report 2011, "The Benefits of Early Diagnosis and Intervention," released today by Alzheimer's Disease International, shows that there are interventions that are effective in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, some of which may be more effective when started earlier, and that there is a strong economic argument in favor of earlier diagnosis and timely intervention.

Public Release: 12-Sep-2011

Lancet
Innovating to improve women and children's health
For less than $100, poor, pregnant women in India can now give birth in a private hospital focusing on low-income families, with comparable quality to expensive, private ones. This is an alternative to overcrowded, poorly staffed government-funded hospitals. Lifespring is a rapidly growing chain of hospitals in India that provides maternity and delivery care. For one low price, as little as $90, it provides complete delivery services. This is one-third to one-half of the fees charged at other hospitals.

Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health, UN Foundation

Public Release: 9-Sep-2011

Science
Whole-parasite malaria vaccine shows promise in University of Maryland School of Medicine clinical trial
For the first time, a malaria vaccine that uses the entire parasite has proven safe and shown promise to produce a strong immune response in a clinical trial, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. The vaccine is unique in that it employs the entire malaria parasite. Researchers found that the vaccine could provide unprecedented immune responses when administered intravenously.

Public Release: 8-Sep-2011

New England Journal of Medicine
Genomic analysis of superbug provides clues to antibiotic resistance
An analysis of the genome of a superbug has yielded crucial, novel information that could aid efforts to counteract the bacterium's resistance to an antibiotic of last resort. The results of the research led by scientists from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston are published in the Sept. 8 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Public Release: 8-Sep-2011

BMC Public Health
Sexual coercion common among students in Uganda
Almost one-third of students at a university in Uganda say that they have been subject to sexual coercion, an experience which was often linked to risky sexual behavior. This is shown in a study from Lund University in Sweden. The study's findings could lead to a new approach in the work to combat HIV in Uganda.

Public Release: 7-Sep-2011

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Evolution's past is modern human's present
That seems to be the takeaway from new research that concludes "archaic" humans, somewhere in Africa during the last 20-60 thousand years, interbred with anatomically modern humans and transferred small amounts of genetic material to their offspring who are alive today. University of Arizona geneticist Michael Hammer and a team of evolutionary biologists, geneticists and mathematicians report the finding in today's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

National Science Foundation

Public Release: 7-Sep-2011

New England Journal of Medicine
Global fight against non-communicable diseases should take lessons from HIV-AIDS
Valuable lessons from the global commitment to fight HIV/AIDS over the past three decades should inspire a new worldwide effort to confront the epidemic of non-communicable diseases, say Emory public health leaders. A UN summit will offer a rare opportunity to generate momentum and resources for global solutions against these diseases.

Public Release: 6-Sep-2011
Danforth Center Collaborative Research Program receives funding to improve crop yield in Africa
The additional funding came from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Monsanto Fund and the Howard Buffett Foundation. VIRCA is also supported by USAID from the American people.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Monsanto Fund, Howard Buffett Foundation

Public Release: 6-Sep-2011

Lancet
Malaria prevention strategies could substantially cut killer bacterial infections, study suggests
Interventions targeting malaria, such as insecticide-treated bed nets, antimalarial drugs and mosquito control, could substantially reduce cases of bacteraemia, which kill hundreds of thousands of children each year in Africa and worldwide. This is the conclusion of research published today in the Lancet and funded by the Wellcome Trust.

Wellcome Trust

Public Release: 6-Sep-2011

Cell Metabolism
In next-gen DNA sequence, new answers to a rare and devastating disease
In Leigh syndrome, infants are born apparently healthy only to develop movement and breathing disorders that worsen over time, often leading to death by the age of 3. The problem is that the mitochondria responsible for powering their cells can't keep up with the demand for energy in their developing brains. Now, researchers reporting in the September issue of Cell Metabolism, a Cell Press publication, have discovered a new genetic defect that can lead to the disease.

Public Release: 6-Sep-2011

PLOS Medicine
Owning insecticide-treated bed nets lowers child mortality by 23 percent
Children who live in households that own at least one insecticide-treated bed net are less likely to be infected with malaria and less likely to die from the disease, according to a new study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington.


			HOME DISCLAIMER PRIVACY POLICY TERMS & CONDITIONS CONTACT US TOP Copyright ©2013 by AAAS, the science society.