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Guidelines Stress Caution When Combining Anti-Epileptic, HIV Drugs

By Guest PostJanuary 7, 2012Healthaeds, aids drugs, aids medication, american academy of neurology, anti hiv drugs, antiretrovirals, arvs, carbamazepine, cerebral malaria, drug interactions, drug resistant hiv, epilepsia, epilepsy, gretchen birbeck, guidelines, hiv, medical guideline, michigan state university, mood disorders, nation, neurological ailments, phenobarbital, phenytoin, seizure drugs, strain, sub sahara africa, toxic, world health organization, zambia

EAST LANSING, Mich. — New guidelines from the American Academy of Neurology will help physicians better choose seizure drugs for people on HIV/AIDS medication, avoiding deadly drug interactions and preventing critical anti-HIV drugs from becoming less effective, possibly leading to a more virulent strain of the disease.

Michigan State University’s Gretchen Birbeck – who spends several months each year in the sub-Sahara African nation of Zambia researching epilepsy, HIV /AIDS and cerebral malaria – is the lead author of the medical guideline, which was co-developed with the World Health Organization through the International League Against Epilepsy. (more…)

Jeopardy! Winnings Spur IBM and Scripps Research Institute Collaboration to Fight Against Malaria

By Guest PostNovember 18, 2011Science, Technologyafrica, alex l perryman, asia, clean water techniques, critical to human health, drug resistant strains, economic distress, go fight against malaria, hiv, human competitors, ibm, jeopardy game, malaria, mike pique, multi drug resistant aids, plasmodium falciparum, renewable energy materials, ruth huey, sargis dallakyan, scripps research institute, south america, stefano forli, subhash sinha, supercomputer of the people, watson computing system, world community grid, world health organization

*Project to use 2 million PCs to crunch numbers, compress 100 years of research into just one*

LA JOLLA, CA and ARMONK, NY – IBM’s Watson computing system broke new ground earlier this year when it defeated two celebrated human competitors on the Jeopardy! game show. Now, The Scripps Research Institute is hoping to do something equally novel but more critical to human health with part of the prize money from that tournament: Find a cure for drug-resistant malaria. And it’s asking for the public’s help.

To that end, Scripps Research and IBM are encouraging anyone in the world with a personal computer to join World Community Grid, a sort of “supercomputer of the people” that will crunch numbers and perform simulations for “GO Fight Against Malaria”—the project that Scripps Research and IBM have launched at https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org. (more…)

Modified Vaccine Shows Promise in Preventing Malaria

By Guest PostSeptember 29, 2011Health, Scienceandrea amalfitano, barnett rosenberg, circumsporozoite protein, csp, deadly disease, eat 2, gene, gene adjuvants, global effort to prevent malaria infections, hiv, immune response, immune system stimulating gene, key role, malaria parasite, malaria vaccine, michigan state university, nathaniel j schuldt, protein, rea, us army, vaccine, virus, yasser a aldhamen

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Continuing a global effort to prevent malaria infections, Michigan State University researchers have created a new malaria vaccine – one that combines the use of a disabled cold virus with an immune system-stimulating gene – that appears to increase the immune response against the parasite that causes the deadly disease.

At the same time, the group led by Andrea Amalfitano of the College of Osteopathic Medicine also discovered another immune-system stimulating agent – created at MSU and which has been successful in improving immune responses in vaccines for diseases such as HIV – paradoxically made for a less effective malaria vaccine. (more…)

Smokers with Mental Disorders, Drug and Alcohol Problems Need Doctors’ Help to Quit

By Guest PostAugust 31, 2011Healthalcohol, alcohol use, cigarette smoking, drug, habit, health burden of tobacco, hiv, human immunodeficiency virus, illegal drug use, mental disorders, michael ong, motor vehicle injuries, nicotine, patients, smokers, suicides and murders, tobacco related health care costs, toolbox, united states

Smokers who also have alcohol, drug and mental disorders would benefit greatly from smoking-cessation counseling from their primary care physicians and would be five times more successful at kicking the habit, a study by researchers at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center has found.

Smokers with these co-morbid conditions make up about 40 percent of the smoking population, have a more difficult time quitting and represent a significant burden on the health care system. If their primary care physicians could help them to quit smoking, it would not only improve their health of patients but would reduce tobacco-related health care costs, said Dr. Michael Ong, an assistant professor of general internal medicine and health services research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a researcher with UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. (more…)

Study of HIV Increase in Pakistan Could Benefit Other Research

By Guest PostAugust 26, 2011General, Healthafghanistan, aga khan university, behavioral data, blood samples, disease, dna sequences, dow university of health sciences, genetic evidence, hiv, hiv epidemic in pakistan, hiv positive groups, hiv strains, karachi, marco salemi, middle east, north africa, Pakistan, virus, willi mcfarland

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Rates of HIV have increased in Pakistan’s general population, as the virus has spread beyond at-risk groups to women and their children, according to an international team of researchers, including a University of Florida scientist.

The researchers raise concern that the transmission across subgroups into Pakistan’s general population may serve as indication that the virus may be spreading into populations within neighboring Afghanistan. The team’s epidemiological findings were published in July in the journal PLoS One. (more…)

Older Lesbians, Gays Have Higher Rates of Chronic Disease, Mental Distress, Isolation

By Guest PostMarch 30, 2011Healthaids, bisexual, california, california lesbians, chronic conditions, chronic health conditions, cycles of data, diabetes, epidemiology, gay, good health, heterosexual population, heterosexual women, hiv, hypertension, lesbian, lgb, life threatening health conditions, physical disability, poor mental health, steven wallace, susan cochran, ucla

*California’s aging LGB population is set to double in next 20 years*

Members of California’s aging lesbian, gay and bisexual population are more likely to suffer from certain chronic conditions, even as they wrestle with the challenges of living alone in far higher numbers than the heterosexual population, according to new policy brief from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

Half of all gay and bisexual adult men in California between the ages of 50 and 70 are living alone, compared with 13.4 percent of heterosexual men in the same age group. And although older California lesbians and bisexual women are more likely to live with a partner or a family member than their male counterparts, more than one in four live alone, compared with one in five heterosexual women. (more…)

Computerizing Critical Information: GTRI Supports Health Resources Information Systems in Kenya and Zimbabwe

By Guest PostFebruary 13, 20111 commentHealth, Technologyafrican nations, aids, automate, christopher skeels, computer database, emory university, george bush, gtri, health care, health planning, hiv, human resource information systems, human resource management, judith wold, Kenya, kenya health work force project, khwfp, lillian carter center, malaria, martha rogers, nursing council, robert delano, software, software evaluation protocol, tuberculosis, zimbabwe

Researchers from the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) are helping to automate human resource information systems for health care professionals in two African nations, Kenya and Zimbabwe.

In collaboration with Emory University’s Lillian Carter Center for International Nursing and the Task Force for Global Health, GTRI is evaluating and advising on computer systems developed to provide information for better human resource management, policy development and health planning. (more…)

Research Suggests HIV Causes Rapid Aging in Key Infection-fighting Cells

By Guest PostJanuary 29, 20111 commentHealthhiv, hiv positive people, infected adults, infection, rapid aging

In the early years of the AIDS epidemic, being infected with the virus that causes the disease was considered a virtual death sentence. But with the development of antiretroviral therapy, many with HIV are now living much longer. In fact, it is estimated that by 2015, about half of all HIV-positive individuals will be older than 50. (more…)

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