Order of the Supreme Court of India in the matter of Network of People Living With HIV/AIDS & Others Vs Union of India & Others dated 24/02/2025. The Supreme Court (SC), February 24, 2025 has directed all states to file their affidavits addressing concerns raised about antiretroviral therapy (ART) drugs …
Vaccine trials under way as experts fear disease could become endemic in worst-hit areas of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia Experimental drugs are to be fast-tracked into west Africa so that they can be tested and, if they work, save lives in the Ebola epidemic, which, experts say, is spiralling …
The pharmaceutical market in India is unique in that it is dominated by "branded" generics which enjoy a price premium though they are not superior to "unbranded" generics in either pharmacopoeia or therapeutic value. Aggressive marketing of branded generics has led to higher prices, irrational fixed dose combinations and concentration …
An outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) has jolted West Africa, claiming more than 1000 lives since the virus emerged in Guinea in early 2014. The rapidly increasing numbers of cases in the African countries of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone have had public health authorities on high alert throughout …
While small molecule inhibitors of the bacterial ribosome have been instrumental in understanding protein translation, no such probes exist to study ribosome biogenesis. We screened a diverse chemical collection that included previously approved drugs for compounds that induced cold sensitive growth inhibition in the model bacterium Escherichia coli. Among the …
A trial of an experimental vaccine against the Ebola virus is to begin in Oxford. The first of 60 healthy volunteers will be injected with the vaccine. It contains only a small portion of genetic material from the virus, so it cannot cause the disease. Normally it would take years …
Kathleen Holloway and David Henry evaluate whether countries that report having implemented WHO essential medicines policies have higher quality use of medicines.
“Microorganisms are the best chemists on the planet,” declared Michael A. Fischbach, a chemist at the University of California, San Francisco. For evidence, Fischbach points to the many lifesaving drugs that microorganisms produce. In 1928, for example, Alexander Fleming discovered that mould wafting into his lab produced a bacteria-killing chemical …
Measurement of blood pressure is an iconic part of modern medicine. Over the past century, life insurers, public health organisations, and prospective studies, including the Framingham Heart Study, have established the relation between increased blood pressure and long term morbidity and mortality. About 40% of adults have hypertension globally; the …
Diabetes is a huge burden in China, where about 100 million people have been diagnosed with the disease. Treatments are needed that are optimal for treating Chinese patients with diabetes. Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes are characterised by having relatively low bodyweight and significant β-cell deterioration. β-cell failure results …
This review scopes the evidence on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of interventions to improve sub optimal use of medicines in order to determine the evidence gaps and help inform research priorities.
SCIENTISTS searching for new drugs to fight malaria have identified a number of compounds — some of which are currently in clinical trials to treat cancer – that could add to the anti-malarial arsenal. Duke University assistant professor Emily Derbyshire and colleagues identified more than 30 enzyme-blocking molecules, called protein …
Scientists will fast-track tests on another Ebola vaccine, this time from Johnson & Johnson, in another sign that the world's worst outbreak of the virus is mobilising research into the deadly disease. J&J; said on Thursday that clinical trials of its new vaccine, which includes technology from Danish biotech firm …
It comes back to the basics: the quality of your healthcare system determines your health. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine last week has indicated that keeping a healthy heart may have as much to do with the quality of healthcare as avoiding risk factors. The …
In a significant move, the government has decided to waive off local clinical trials in case of new drugs indicated for serious, life-threatening diseases and diseases of special relevance to Indian health scenario like cancer, AIDS etc., where the likelihood of death is high. Observing that in cases of life-threatening …
The emergence of cholera in Haiti highlighted the difficulties in containing cholera outbreaks with only safe water, sanitation, hygiene, and appropriate case management. In less developed settings where cholera occurs, these basic needs are often not met or are rapidly overwhelmed during man-made or natural disasters. Prior to the Haitian …
Community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) was recognized in Europe and worldwide in the late 1990s. Within a decade, several genetically and geographically distinct CA-MRSA lineages carrying the small SCCmec type IV and V genetic elements and the Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) emerged around the world. In Europe, the predominant CA-MRSA strain …
Diabetes triples the risk for active tuberculosis, thus the increasing burden of type 2 diabetes will help to sustain the present tuberculosis epidemic. Recommendations have been made for bidirectional screening, but evidence is scarce about the performance of specific tuberculosis tests in individuals with diabetes, specific diabetes tests in patients …
U.S. health officials will announce on Thursday that a human study of an Ebola vaccine made by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) will begin within a couple of weeks and not later this year as the company estimated originally, according to people familiar with the plans. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious …
More than half of the vulture species is on the brink of extinction, with the most dramatic declines observed recently in the Indian subcontinent. While numerous factors have threatened vultures, persecution and poisoning have contributed to their decline. In India, Gyps vultures have declined by 99% due to unintentional poisoning …
Dietary supplements, including vitamins and herbal products, are often used to treat self-diagnosed conditions and/or to promote health. We conducted a community-based survey in a rural population to assess consumers’ knowledge, practices, and attitudes regarding the use of dietary supplements. A total of 526 adults (≥ 18 years) completed the …
