NIH launches clinical trial of mRNA Nipah virus vaccine
Nipah virus infection is spread between animals and people. (Source: National Institutes of Health (NIH) News Releases)
Source: National Institutes of Health (NIH) News Releases - July 11, 2022 Category: American Health Source Type: news
News at a glance: Debate over classifying research, giant water lilies, and new hummingbird feather colors
ECOLOGY
Scientists find new hummingbird colors
The plumage of hummingbirds has more color diversity than the feathers of all other birds combined, a recent study finds. Researchers from Yale University collected feathers from specimens of 114 hummingbird species and, using a spectrometer, documented the wavelengths of light they reflected. These wavelengths were then compared with those found in a previous study of 111 other bird species, including penguins and parrots. The researchers were surprised to find new colors in the hummers, which widened the known avian color gamut by 56% and included rare...
Source: ScienceNOW - July 6, 2022 Category: Science Source Type: news
Animals are Core to Pandemic Prevention – We Must Strengthen Their Defences
Granja Agas, S.A. poultry farm, Motilla del Palancar, Cuenca, Spain. Credit: Guilhem AlandryBy Carel du Marchie SarvaasBRUSSELS, Jul 5 2022 (IPS) The ongoing discussions at the World Health Organization (WHO) around a new, landmark ‘pandemic prevention treaty’ shows that the world is starting to act on the lessons it learned from the COVID-19 pandemic.
In fact, countries have already taken the first steps towards amending the International Health Regulations that govern the reporting and national responses to emerging pandemics, which were subsequently found to fall short during the initial outbreak of COVID-19.
Yet, ...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - July 5, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Carel du Marchie Sarvaas Tags: COVID-19 Economy & Trade Featured Global Headlines Health Humanitarian Emergencies TerraViva United Nations IPS UN Bureau Source Type: news
How Jennifer Doudna ’s Life Has Changed Since Discovering CRISPR 10 Years Ago
Jennifer Doudna was staring at a computer screen filled with a string of As, Cs, Ts, and Gs—the letters that make up human DNA—and witnessing a debilitating genetic disease being cured right before her eyes. Just a year earlier, in 2012, she and microbiologist Emmanuelle Charpentier had published a landmark paper describing CRISPR-Cas9, a molecular version of autocorrect for DNA, and she was seeing one the first demonstrations of CRISPR’s power to cure a human disease. She was in the lab of Dr. Kiran Musunuru, a Harvard researcher who was eager to show her the results from an experiment he had just finish...
Source: TIME: Health - July 1, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Alice Park Tags: Uncategorized feature Genetics healthscienceclimate Source Type: news
Denmark ’s Covid mass mink cull had no legal justification, says report
The extermination of 15 million animals and unnecessary shutdown of an entire industry has cost taxpayers billionsThe Danish government lacked legal justification and made “grossly misleading” statements when it ordered a mass mink extermination two years ago, according to an official inquiry into Europe’s first compulsory farm sector shutdown, which has cost taxpayers billions in compensation to farmers.In November 2020, Denmark, the world ’s largest mink producer, announced it wouldkill its entire farmed mink population of 15 million animals, because of fears that a Covid-19 mutation moving from mink to humans co...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - June 30, 2022 Category: Science Authors: Sophie Kevany, Tom Levitt and Tom Carstensen Tags: Denmark Coronavirus Farming Europe Environment Science Infectious diseases Source Type: news
U.S. Officials Announce More Steps Against Monkeypox Outbreak
Reacting to a surprising and growing monkeypox outbreak, U.S. health officials on Tuesday expanded the group of people recommended to get vaccinated against the monkeypox virus.
They also said they are providing more monkeypox vaccine, working to expand testing, and taking other steps to try to get ahead of the outbreak.
“We will continue to take aggressive action against this virus,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, White House COVID-19 response coordinator, who has also been playing a role in how the government deals with monkeypox.
The administration said it was expanding the pool of people who are advised to get vaccin...
Source: TIME: Health - June 28, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Mike Stobbe / AP Tags: Uncategorized Disease healthscienceclimate wire Source Type: news
Monkeypox Is Not a Global Emergency ‘At This Stage,’ WHO Says
(London) — The World Health Organization (WHO) said the escalating monkeypox outbreak in more than 50 countries should be closely monitored but does not warrant being declared a global health emergency.
In a statement Saturday, a WHO emergency committee said many aspects of the outbreak were “unusual” and acknowledged that monkeypox—which is endemic in some African countries—has been neglected for years.
“While a few members expressed differing views, the committee resolved by consensus to advise the WHO director-general that at this stage the outbreak should be determined to not constit...
Source: TIME: Health - June 27, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Maria Cheng / AP Tags: Uncategorized healthscienceclimate Public Health wire Source Type: news
WHO declines to label monkeypox a global emergency
After 2 days of deliberation, an advisory panel convened by the World Health Organization (WHO) has concluded the monkeypox outbreak that has spread to more than 50 countries does not yet warrant the declaration of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), its highest alert level. WHO currently has PHEIC declarations for polio and COVID-19, and many infectious disease scientists had expected one for monkeypox. Monkeypox is endemic in many African countries but has never before spread so widely on other continents; more than 4100 cases have been recorded so far.
“I am very surprised by the decision...
Source: ScienceNOW - June 25, 2022 Category: Science Source Type: news
Johnson & Johnson Opens First Satellite Center for Global Health Discovery in Asia Pacific at Duke-NUS to Advance Dengue Research
SINGAPORE, June 21, 2022 – Johnson & Johnson (the Company) today announced the launch of the new J&J Satellite Center for Global Health Discovery (Satellite Center) at Singapore’s Duke-NUS Medical School, jointly established by Duke University and the National University of Singapore (NUS) as a graduate-entry medical school and research powerhouse. As the first of the J&J Centers for Global Health Discovery (J&J Centers) in the Asia-Pacific region, the Satellite Center at Duke-NUS aims to help drive new solutions to address flaviviruses, which disproportionately impact communities across the region, by ...
Source: Johnson and Johnson - June 21, 2022 Category: Pharmaceuticals Source Type: news
Why the monkeypox outbreak is mostly affecting men who have sex with men
Ever since monkeypox started sickening thousands of people worldwide this spring, two big questions have loomed: Why is a virus that has never managed to spread beyond a few cases outside Africa suddenly causing such a big, global outbreak? And why are the overwhelming majority of those affected men who have sex with men (MSM)?
A long history of work on sexually transmitted infections and early studies of the current outbreak suggest the answers may be linked: The virus may have made its way into highly interconnected sexual networks within the MSM community, where it can spread in ways that it cannot in the ge...
Source: ScienceNOW - June 20, 2022 Category: Science Source Type: news
Monkeypox Testing Shows the U.S. Learned Little from the COVID-19 Pandemic
U.S. testing for monkeypox is insufficient to determine how widespread the virus is and where new cases are cropping up, according to infectious disease experts and advocates concerned about a sluggish response to the outbreak that’s already hit 32 countries.
While government labs have the capacity to test as many as 8,000 samples a week, they’re only using 2% of that capability, suggesting that about 23 monkeypox tests are being performed a day, said James Krellenstein, the cofounder of PrEP4All, an HIV advocacy group that widened its focus during the pandemic. Much more testing is needed to find out where the...
Source: TIME: Health - June 16, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Madison Muller / Bloomberg Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate News Desk wire Source Type: news
Nearly 15% of People Worldwide Have Had Lyme Disease, Study Says
Lyme disease was first named nearly 50 years ago in Lyme, Connecticut, but the tick-borne disease is now found around the world. A new study published in BMJ Global Health estimates that 14.5% of the world’s population has, at some point, been infected with Lyme disease, which can cause short-term symptoms including a skin rash, fever, headache, and fatigue—as well as long-term ones, including damage to the joints, heart, and nervous system.
The scourge also appears to be getting worse. Lyme prevalence has doubled from 2010 to 2021, compared to 2001 to 2010.
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The stu...
Source: TIME: Health - June 14, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Jeffrey Kluger Tags: Uncategorized Disease healthscienceclimate Source Type: news
New IMBRUVICA ® (ibrutinib) Data in Fixed-Duration Combination Regimen Presented at EHA 2022 Shows Deep, Durable Response at Three Years in Untreated Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia
June 10, 2022 (VIENNA) – The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson today announced new and updated results from the Phase 2 CAPTIVATE study evaluating IMBRUVICA® (ibrutinib) in combination with venetoclax (I+V) as a potential fixed-duration (FD) treatment in adult patients with previously untreated chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL). Updated data from the FD cohort with three years of follow-up shows that I+V continues to demonstrate deep and durable responses and clinically meaningful progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in the first-line tre...
Source: Johnson and Johnson - June 10, 2022 Category: Pharmaceuticals Tags: Innovation Source Type: news
India's first COVID-19 vaccine Anocovax for animals launched
"It is due to the untiring contributions of scientists that the country stands self-reliant in developing its own vaccines more rather than importing. This is really a big achievement," Tomar said after the virtual launch of the COVID-19 vaccine and diagnostic kits for animals developed by the ICAR-NRC. (Source: The Economic Times Healthcare and Biotech News)
Source: The Economic Times Healthcare and Biotech News - June 10, 2022 Category: Pharmaceuticals Source Type: news
Concern grows that human monkeypox outbreak will establish virus in animals outside Africa
Some content has been removed for formatting reasons. Please view the original article for the best reading experience.
Eleven days after being bitten by one of her pet prairie dogs, a 3-year-old girl in Wisconsin on 24 May 2003 became the first person outside of Africa to be diagnosed with monkeypox. Two months later, her parents and 69 other people in the United States had suspected or confirmed cases of this disease, which is caused by a relative of the much deadlier smallpox virus. The monkeypox virus is endemic in parts of Africa, and rodents imported from Ghana had apparently infected captive prairie dogs, Nort...
Source: ScienceNOW - June 8, 2022 Category: Science Source Type: news
