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Viruses More Virulent In A Connected World
That"s one conclusion from a new study that looked at how virulence evolves in parasites. The research examined whether parasites evolve to be more or less aggressive depending on whether they are closely connected to their hosts or scattered among more isolated clusters of hosts.
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Advance Toward New Drugs That Turn Genes On And Off
Scientists in Michigan and California are reporting an advance toward development of a new generation of drugs that treat disease by orchestrating how genes in the body produce proteins involved in arthritis, cancer and a range of other disorders. Acting like an "on-off switch," the medications might ratchet up the production of proteins in genes working at abnormally low levels or shut off genes producing an abnormal protein linked to disease. Their report is in the current issue of ACS Chemical Biology, a monthly journal.
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Study Of Pulmonary Hypertension Treatment In Sickle Cell Patients Halted By NHLBI
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health has stopped a clinical trial testing a drug treatment for pulmonary hypertension in adults with sickle cell disease nearly one year early due to safety concerns. In an interim review of safety data from 33 participants who completed 16 weeks of treatment, researchers found that, compared to participants on placebo (dummy pill), participants taking sildenafil (Revatio) were significantly more likely to have serious medical problems. The most common problem was episodes of severe pain called sickle cell crises, which resulted in hospitalization. No deaths have been associated with the drug in the clinical trial.
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Also In Global Health: Text Messages For Health; Chagas Disease; Infant, Maternal Mortality In Botswana; Community Health Progs In Africa; Swaziland

UN Launches Pilot Study In Uganda That Uses Text Messages To Promote Public Health The U.N. has launched a ten-day pilot project in Jinja, Uganda, that uses mobile phones to educate the public about health, the Monitor reports. As part of the Texting4Health initiative, an estimated 10,000 people will receive "a short health quiz using text messages," according to the Monitor (Luggya, Monitor, 6/11). CNN Examines Chagas Disease In Latin America CNN examines Chagas disease, a "parasitic illness carried by a particular Latin American bug," which affects about 16 to 18 million people each year and kills 50,000 people annually. The vinchuca bug carries the infection, which is transmitted when they bite or are "unknowingly eaten in uncooked food, or rubbed in the eye," according to CNN. Although it is treatable in its early stages, people often do not know when they have been infected and the disease can cause fatal heart problems years later. The article examines other challenges related to the disease, including effective testing and a lack of high-quality drugs (CNN, 6/10). Progress On Infant Mortality Rates, Maternal Mortality Still High In Botswana Although Botswana has made progress in infant health care, maternal mortality rates remain high and could prevent the country from achieving U.N. Millennium Development Goal targets, Sheenaz El- Halabi, the country"s director of public health, said on Tuesday, Mmegi reports. She said the health ministry has a strategy "to deliver high impact interventions at large scale in order to reduce the deaths of children and mothers" (Baputaki, Mmegi, 6/10). Nigerian Minister Calls For Expanded Community Health Program Nigerian Minister of State for Health Aliyu Idi Hong called for expansion of the Community-Directed Interventions (CDI) program in health worker training programs at a "three-day meeting of health experts and senior academics from 12 African countries," in Abuja, Nigeria, Afrique en ligne reports. The CDI approach is currently used in more than 120,000 communities throughout Africa for the treatment for river blindness (Afrique en ligne, 6/10). Economic Downturn Compromises Health Programs In Swaziland Inter Press Service News Agency examines the impact that the global economic downturn is having on Swaziland"s health system. One-third of Swaziland"s "national health budget which comes directly from donor agencies is abruptly drying up," even as inflation in the region has increased, according to IPS. The impacts are forcing changes to tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/AIDS programs (Phakathi, IPS, 6/9). 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.


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