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National HIV Prevention Conference To Convene In Atlanta
August 24th, 2009
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The National HIV Prevention Conference will take place Aug. 23 to Aug. 26 in Atlanta and will feature discussions, a town hall, seminars and speeches that address HIV prevention including some focused on the gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual community, Southern Voice’s blog, “The Latest” reports. Earvin “Magic” Johnson, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, CDC Director Thomas Frieden, and Jeff Crowley, director of National AIDS Policy are among the speakers set to address the conference. Crowley will host a “town hall meeting in Atlanta to discuss a national HIV/AIDS strategy … the first of many town hall meetings Obama’s administration has promised to hold across the country” (8/20).
This information was reprinted from dailyreports.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily U.S. HIV/AIDS Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at dailyreports.kff.org.
© Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
WHO Recommends Against Using Homeopathic Treatments For HIV, TB, Malaria, Influenza, Infant Diarrhea
August 24th, 2009
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The WHO has warned that people with conditions such as HIV, tuberculosis and malaria should not rely on homeopathic treatments, the BBC reports. The agency was responding to a June letter (full text available here), in which researchers from the Voice of Young Science Network called on the agency “to condemn the promotion of homeopathy for treating TB, infant diarrhoea, influenza, malaria and HIV.” The group, which is part of the Sense About Science organization that advocates for “evidence-based” care, has conveyed the WHO’s views in a letter to health ministers, according to the BBC (8/20).
According to a Sense About Science release, the organizations received comments from five WHO officials, which “clearly express WHO’s position” (8/21). Mario Raviglione, director of the Stop TB department at the WHO, said, “Our evidence-based WHO TB treatment/management guidelines, as well as the International Standards of Tuberculosis Care do not recommend use of homeopathy.” In addition, a spokesman for the WHO department of child and adolescent health and development said of treating diarrhea in children: “We have found no evidence to date that homeopathy would bring any benefit,” the BBC writes (8/20). The release includes additional comments from the associate director of WHO’s global malaria program, the HIV/AIDS department interim director and others (8/21).
Robert Hagan, a researcher in biomolecular science at the University of St. Andrews and a member of Voice of Young Science Network, said, “We need governments around the world to recognise the dangers of promoting homeopathy for life-threatening illnesses. We hope that by raising awareness of the WHO’s position on homeopathy we will be supporting those people who are taking a stand against these potentially disastrous practices,” BBC writes (8/20).
This information was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at globalhealth.kff.org.
© Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
10th Functional Genomics: Chemical Biology 2009
August 24th, 2009
A cure for cystic fibrosis, HIV-fighting ‘Trojan horses’, new pharmaceuticals from the ocean. Chemical biologists use new and innovative approaches to discover medications of the future. On 24 August, some of the field’s most prominent researchers will attend an international conference in Gothenburg, Sweden.
In the field of chemical biology, chemists and biologists cooperate to investigate, and eventually control, the behavior of cells. The scientists use small molecules that activate certain proteins to study how cells communicate, and ultimately they want to be able to prevent disease-causing interactions and understand how medicines and environmental toxins work on a cellular level.
The potential applications of research in chemical biology are unlimited. A number of serious diseases that lack effective treatments are currently being studied. Many of them will be discussed on 24-25 August when the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology host the Functional Genomics/Chemical Biology conference in Gothenburg, Sweden:
- Professor Carsten Schultz from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg is developing new tools that will help us better understand cystic fibrosis. By visualising how cell signaling goes awry, Schultz hopes to come closer to finding a treatment for the incurable disease.
- Ronald Raines from the University of Wisconsin has designed a ‘Trojan horse’ - an enzyme that infiltrates and then attacks the viruses that cause HIV and the lung disease SARS.
- Guri Giaever from the University of Toronto uses yeast to investigate the action mechanism of medicines. Giaver is working together with pharmaceutical companies to explore and eliminate side effects of medicines.
- Henrik Pavia is a University of Gothenburg marine ecologist and an expert in how marine organisms produce and utilise chemical substances. At the conference, Pavia will share the latest knowledge on how these marine bioactive substances can be used to create medicines for humans.
The conference, held at the Chalmers Conference Centre, will also present new findings about environmental toxins and the research currently carried out to identify how molecules in the cell are affected by the toxins.
Source:
Per Sunnerhagen
University of Gothenburg