HIV-Positive Children On HAART May Need Revaccination HIV-positive children on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) “may need to be revaccinated to maintain their immunity against preventable childhood diseases,” according to researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, HealthDay/BusinessWeek reports. After reviewing 38 studies, researchers found that children…

U.N. Now Estimates 500 Raped In Congo “Approximately 500 women were raped in eastern Congo in July and August,” U.N. officials said Tuesday, revising an earlier report of 242 victims, according to the New York Times. Atul Khare, deputy head of peacekeeping who was sent to the region to investigate,…

“Eradicating malaria is not a vague, unrealistic aspiration but a tough, ambitious goal that can be reached within the next few decades,” Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said on Tuesday at the international Malaria Forum in Seattle, Reuters reports. “Gates said a renewed focus and substantial increases in funding for malaria … was steadily ‘shrinking the malaria map’ and would continue to do so,” and he “pointed to Madagascar, Papua New Guinea and Ethiopia as ‘likely early candidates’ for being able to eliminate the disease from within their borders in the near future,” according to the news service (Kelland, 10/19).

With the RTS,S malaria vaccine trial results showing “moderate” success, helping to reignite “optimism about eradicating malaria entirely,” “there are other big hurdles still to surmount,” a New York Times editorial states. “There are hints that the protection may wane over time and results from administering a booster shot won’t be known until 2014,” and side effects could be a concern, the editorial writes.

Writing in KPLU’s “Humanosphere” blog, Tom Paulson responds to last week’s announcement of results from an ongoing clinical trial of an experimental malaria vaccine, saying, “Despite the hype and fanfare, many experts at the Seattle meeting said this experimental vaccine (known as RTS,S) actually so far represents only incremental progress –…

In this Huffington Post opinion piece, Orin Levine, executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center at Johns Hopkins University, notes some of the parallels between the development of RTS,S, the experimental malaria vaccine currently being tested in Africa, and the polio vaccine, but he says “there are also some particularly disappointing ways in which the polio and malaria efforts could differ.”

In a post in the Center for Strategic & International Studies’ “Smart Global Health” blog, Julia Nagel, web and social media assistant at the Global Health Policy Center, examines “the obstacles that global malaria control efforts face,” writing that “eradicating malaria is complex and difficult” because “there are four species…

The 16th International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa (ICASA) ended on Thursday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where “the final plenary session … left the audience with a notion of hope and urgency that despite the Global Fund’s cancellation of Round 11 disbursements, the organization will continue to campaign, raise funds and place pressure on governments in both the donor and recipient arenas,” an ICASA news article reports (12/8). Speaking at the session, “Global Fund Deputy Executive Director Debrework Zewdie felt compelled to reassure those benefiting from the fund,” saying, “‘Everyone who is on treatment funded by the Global Fund will stay on treatment,'” according to Deutsche Presse-Agentur/M&C (Frentzen/Waswa, 12/8).

People with malaria are more prone to developing bacterial infections, particularly from salmonella, and “researchers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine [LSHTM] have discovered that the increased vulnerability to salmonella infections is a side effect of the body’s attempts to protect itself from the damaging effects of…

“Philippine authorities are warning of the spread of diseases in cramped evacuation centers, days after flash floods hit the southern Philippines and claimed more than a thousand lives,” ABC/Asia Pacific News reports, noting that flooding also has affected the country’s northern provinces, displacing at least 50,000 people (Escalante, 12/20). Tropical Storm Washi “hit the main southern island of Mindanao over the weekend, bringing heavy rains, flash floods and overflowing rivers that swept whole coastal villages away,” forcing 44,000 people to evacuate the area, Agence France-Presse/Inquirer News writes (Celis, 12/21). Officials say hundreds of thousands of people are in need of humanitarian assistance, and the U.N. has stepped up its efforts in the area, the U.N. News Centre reports (12/20).