FIAVI Announces Funding for Taiwan HIV/AIDS Research

The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative has awarded a $612,923, three-year grant to an HIV/AIDS research team in Taiwan, the Central News Agency reports. The research team is led by Academia Sinica President Chi-Huey Wong and was awarded the grant for its work to develop a defense against HIV/AIDS, according to the Central News Agency. Wong and colleagues developed a new compound, called glycodendron, that has proven effective at stopping HIV from infecting rodents by preventing the virus from attaching to dendritic cells and prompting the immune system to produce antibodies to attack HIV. According to the Central News Agency, the researchers hope the compound can be used in new HIV/AIDS treatments and to develop a safe and effective vaccine. Wong said that the IAVI grant will help foster increased attention to and engagement in the development of an HIV/AIDS vaccine (Wu, Central News Agency, 10/20).

Source: http://kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=55130

Scientists map more malaria strains

An international team of scientists have mapped the genes of two species of malaria, opening the way to more research into one of the world's most deadly ...
Malaria genomes: and then there were three Nature.com (subscription)
Genome Of Parasite That Causes Relapsing Malaria Decoded Science Daily (press release)
Decoding of malaria parasite's genome could lead to vaccine USA Today
The Press Association - CBC.ca
all 83 news articles

Researchers in malaria breakthrough

Euro Weekly News, Spain -
... dedicated to the development of small-molecule drugs to combat inflammation-related diseases, have revealed a new strategy to prevent malaria infection. ...Read more

MSF launches new research information site

Jean-Marc Jacobs, Communications officer, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) - Brussels

Brussels/London, 15 May 2008. The international medical humanitarian organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) today launched a website on which it makes available, for free, published research based on its medical work. This research has frequently demonstrated pioneering approaches for tackling a broad range of diseases in many countries and, often, has influenced clinical practice. Well-known examples are MSF's pioneering work in treating populations with HIV using antiretroviral medications and malaria with artemisinin-containing treatment. MSF hopes that health professionals, policy makers and researchers, especially those in developing countries, will now have easier access to the results of MSF's field research.

MSF is archiving all its peer-reviewed research and commentary articles on the site. At its launch, there are over 350 articles on HIV care, malaria, tuberculosis, leishmaniasis and other diseases, as well as more general topics such as medical care in emergencies, refugee health and health politics. As new articles are published, they will be archived on the site.

The articles have been published in journals such as BMJ, New England Journal of Medicine, PloS Medicine, The Lancet, and Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. The publishers of these, and many other peer-reviewed journals, have responded positively to MSF's request to make their articles available free of charge; as a rule, articles from many of these publications are available only for a fee.

"We were concerned that health professionals in developing countries would not be able to pay for access to our medical research and would miss information that could be highly relevant to their work," says Tony Reid, medical editor at the office of MSF in Brussels. "The vast majority of our medical activities, and by extension our research initiatives, take place in poorer countries. We therefore applaud the willingness of medical publishers to allow us to archive the articles free of charge for the global medical community.

The new website, at www.fieldresearch.msf.org, requires no password or sign-up and full-text articles are available for free. The articles are easily accessed through the site's search function, and also through search engines such as Google or Yahoo. And through an RSS feed users can choose to be notified of new publications on the site.

www.fieldresearch.msf.org

Articles on Health and Medical Journalism

Visit website and download articles on Health reporting

1. Criteria for excellence in health journalism
2. Commercialism in TV health news
3. Statement of principles for health care journalists
4. Beyond cures, breakthroughs and news releases
5. Ten Troublesome Trends in TV Health News
6. Time to put miracle on ice
7. 7 Words You Shouldn't Use in Medical News
8. Meteorology & Medical Reporting
9. Doctoring the News

Report: AIDS Psudeo-Science in the Media

What ethical obligations do editors have when reporting claims that are contrary to well established scientific knowledge? Essay examines media's responsibility and impact.
Nathan Geffen, 2007
Download pdf file (206kbs)

Mass Media activities for polio communication [presentation]

This presentation gave an overview of mass media activities for polio communication in India at a national level. The rationale and approach behind the current media strategy centres on calls to action and date notification, which are directed toward the general public. Research surrounding the effectiveness of the mass media campaign has focused on 10 districts in Uttar Pradesh and all districts in Delhi. An active campaign to engage proactively with the media has yielded higher reach, booth compliance, and message recall, despite a persistence of negative media stories. Future considerations for India's mass media campaign include development of a quarterly plan of action and linking more closely with advocacy initiatives. Summary: http://www.comminit.com/evaluations/evaltagindia2007/evaluations-439.html

Full presentation [PDF]: http://www.comminit.com/pdf/PolioTAG_Delhi_Mar2007_MassMedia.pdf

Contact Gitanjali Chaturvedi, UNICEF India, gchaturvedi@unicef.org

Communication in Malaria Control [paper]

Why Does It Matter? by Alison Dunn

This paper explores how community-level communication can engage the most vulnerable people - such as children under 5 years of age and women in the economically poorest communities in Africa - in strategies to prevent and treat malaria. It is based on the premise that current malaria control strategies rely predominantly on individuals and communities to take action to protect and treat themselves, such as by hanging insecticide-treated bed nets and (as is sometimes the case) impregnating them at timely intervals, often at the user's expense. Such strategies will only succeed, the author argues, if there is effective, contextual communication and genuine understanding around the causes, symptoms, and means of preventing and treating malaria. Communication approaches to malaria control that engage with local communities in participatory ways go beyond message delivery and social marketing and move toward a genuine exchange of understanding between agencies and local people as to what will work best in the local context. Dunn stresses that communication needs to be included in the process of malaria control from the initiation of activities, not as an afterthought or add-on. This means thinking strategically about communication from the planning stages through to implementation and evaluation.http://www.comminit.com/strategicthinking/st2006/thinking-1898.html