Categories
Cardiovascular
Diagnostics
Endocrinology
Health Insurance
Medical Devices
Mental Health
Nutrition
Oncology
Public Health
Sexual Health
Popular Articles

Organizations Partner For HIV Testing Initiative In Staten Island, N.Y.
As part of an effort to encourage Staten Island, N.Y., residents to be tested for HIV, the CARE Network, the Black Leadership Commission on AIDS and the City Council"s Communities of Color Faith Initiative, have partnered to launch the "Staten Island HIV Status Check Campaign," the Staten Island Advance reports. "Status Check" postcards that include information on free local HIV testing locations, HIV educational literature and condoms will be distributed by local organizations and businesses as part of the initiative. The goal is to reach the 56 percent of local residents who have never been tested for HIV, Karina Ryan, CARE Network coordinator, said (Slepian, Staten Island Advance, 6/18).
generic viagra online
Needle Exchange Programs Could Save Texas 'Millions Of Dollars,' Opinion Piece Says
Needle exchange programs (NEPs) "are an inexpensive public health intervention, especially when compared with the social costs of treating individuals with HIV or hepatitis-related chronic liver disease," Maureen Trotter, a pathologist and president of the Taylor-Jones-Haskell County Medical Society, writes in the Abilene Reporter News. She adds that legislation introduced this year in the Texas Legislature "to allow public health departments and organizations to establish disease control programs that provide for the anonymous exchange of used hypodermic needles and syringes for sterile ones, offer education and substance abuse treatment and blood-borne disease testing" failed to come to a floor vote. Trotter further discusses NEPs, citing data on outcomes of NEPs, and writes, "The costs of preventing one case of HIV is estimated between $4,000 and $12,000 via NEPs. The medical cost of treating a person infected with HIV is about $200,000," adding, "These programs, if implemented, could save Texas millions of dollars" (7/12).
News of the day
WORLD'S First Robotic Assisted Kidney Transplant Performed At Saint Barnabas Medical Center
Transplant surgeon, Stuart R. Geffner, M.D., Director of Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Surgery, Saint Barnabas Health Care System Renal and Pancreas Transplant Division, is the first in the world to use the Intuitive Surgical"s da Vinci(TM) Surgical System to successfully implant a kidney into a living recipient. This procedure revolutionizes kidney transplant surgery, taking an open procedure to an advanced form of laparoscopic surgery.
Sexual Health

UCD Researchers Reveal Six New Genome Sequences And Fundamental Insights To The Candida Fungus Family

An international research collaboration coordinated by UCD researchers and involving scientists at 21 institutes including the genome sequencing centres in the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, UK and the Broad Institute at MIT and Harvard, USA have defined six new genome sequences in the Candida fungus family and identified genetic differences in species that cause disease. The research, published yesterday in Nature, describes how Candida strains have evolved and ensured their survival by adapting their genetic makeup to respond to changes in their environment. Candida species are the most common cause of opportunistic fungal infection worldwide. The incidence of Candida parapsilosis in particular poses the greatest threat to transplant patients and premature babies as it forms a film that coats the inside of medical devices such as implants, catheters or feeding tubes. The fungus is drug resistant and the only effective treatment involves the removal of the medical device. Prior to this work, very little was known about this species. The UCD research team led by Professor Geraldine Butler from UCD Conway Institute & School of Biomolecular & Biomedical Science looked at key components of mating and cell division in Candida species, shedding new light on how the fungi reproduce and survive. Professor Butler, scientific coordinator on this project, began working to identify the sequence of genes of C. parapsilosis in 2003 through funding from Science Foundation Ireland. She said, "We started by sequencing small parts of the C. parapsilosis genome, which led to our collaboration with the Sanger Institute to sequence the entire genome, and finally to combining this genome with others sequenced by the Broad Institute" Commenting on their findings, Professor Butler says, "Candida species were originally believed to be incapable of mating, and so may have difficulties in adapting to new environments or new hosts. As a result of our analysis, we now know a great deal more about the evolution of mating, and how some species recombine their genes. Interestingly, C. parapsilosis is probably the only species that cannot mate" By comparing the genetic sequences in disease and non-disease causing fungi, the team found that in general, the disease causing Candida species have many more copies of genes involved in adhesion, and in the cell wall. The stickiness of the proteins in the cell wall makes it easier for the fungi to adhere to the human host.. Further research on the regulation of these proteins may lead to developing treatment methods for infections caused by fungi in the future. UCD Conway Institute of Biomolecular & Biomedical Research


Add your comment:
Name:
Site address: http://
Your message:
Enter today\\\\'s date, 2 digits
(spam protection):

© Copyright 2009