Malaria may raise mother-child HIV infection rate
Women who are HIV positive may be more likely to pass the virus to their children during pregnancy if they are also infected with malaria, scientists in Cameroon said on Friday.
Tests carried out in Yaounde showed that malaria, which kills a child in Africa every 30 seconds, boosts production of a substance that could increase HIV replication in the placenta and prevent it fully protecting the fetus from infections.
No evidence Tamiflu caused deaths: FDA
U.S. regulators so far have found no evidence Roche AG’s antiflu drug Tamiflu caused the deaths of children in Japan, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman said on Friday.
The FDA has been studying reports of the deaths of 12 children in Japan as well as other cases of possible side effects in children who had taken Roche’s flu-fighting drug, which is in high demand as a defense against a possible avian flu pandemic in people.
National Flu Expert Available
Dr. Brian Currie, Senior Medical Director at Montefiore Medical Center and Professor of Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, is a specialist in epidemiology and infectious diseases, and is an exceptionally informed and articulate spokesperson on all aspects of flu viruses and can speak with you about H5N1. He has been quoted frequently by national print and electronic media over the past few months.
Aside from memberships in most of the important national and state infectious disease professional societies, he is a Sentinel (one of 900 worldwide) in the Emerging Infections Network, sponsored by the Infectious Diseases Society of America and a fellow and consultant for domestic and international field operations for the Wildlife Conservation Society.
Thyroid Dysfunction Linked to Heart Failure in New Research Study
A new study in rats is giving researchers hope that more aggressive treatment of hypothyroidism and borderline hypothyroidism will result in a reduction of heart disease in human beings. Because roughly 10 percent of the U.S. population suffers from hypothyroidism or borderline hypothyroidism, the insufficient production of thyroid hormones, the team’s discovery could potentially lead to improvement in patients with heart disease.
While further research is needed, results from a recent study entitled, “Low Thyroid Function Leads to Cardiac Atrophy with Chamber Dilation, Impaired Myocardial Blood Flow, Loss of Arterioles, and Severe Systolic Dysfunction,” suggest that low thyroid function has the potential to cause heart failure. The study was conducted by the Cardiovascular Research Institute-South Dakota Health Research Foundation, Sioux Valley Health System and The University of South Dakota School of Medicine.
