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Scientists at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have shown that rapid diagnostic tests (RDT) for malaria infection can provide valuable support for healthcare in low and mid-income countries in the fight against the disease. The RDT procedure is based on a simple blood test and, according to the results, helps to ensure that a greater number of patients receive the right treatment at no extra cost for the healthcare services.

The Lost World, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's account of an isolated community of dinosaurs that survived the catastrophic extinction event 65 million years ago, has no less appeal now than it did when it was written a century ago. Various Hollywood versions have tried to recreate the lost world of dinosaurs, but today the fiction seems just a little closer to reality.

Mortality rates of people starting HIV treatment in four African countries approach those of the general population over time, provided that treatment is started before the immune system has been severely damaged, according to research published this week in the open-access journal PLoS Medicine.

In this week's PLoS Medicine magazine, Yibeltal Assefa, from the National HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office in Addis Ababa, and colleagues describe the successes and challenges of the scale-up of antiretroviral treatment (ART) across Ethiopia. They report remarkable achievements in expansion of access to ART and to HIV counseling and testing (HCT), while managing to maintain the performance of other health programs such as tuberculosis and maternal and child health services.

Some DNA repair enzymes can become double-edged swords – If they work too slowly, they can block necessary cell maintenance and contribute to cell death. This could explain the somewhat mysterious success of the widely used cancer drug 5-Fluorouracil (5FU) and help clinicians to predict patient's response to chemotherapy, according to new findings from the University of Basel, Switzerland. The work, published in this week's issue of PLoS Biology, reports that 5FU keeps the DNA-repair enzyme TDG too busy to perform properly in cancer cells, thereby promoting tumor death.

The mimivirus is the largest virus known to scientists, about half of a micrometre (0.0005 millimeter) in diameter. It is more than 10 times larger than the virus that causes the common cold and – unlike other viruses – is large enough to be seen with a light microscope. In this week's issue of PLoS Biology, an international team of researchers have determined key structural features of the mimivirus, findings that could help scientists study how the simplest life forms evolved and whether this unusual virus causes any human diseases.

A new vaginal cream containing a reawakened protein could someday prevent the transmission of HIV.

Scientists at the University of Central Florida in Orlando have revived a dormant gene found in humans and coaxed it to produce retrocyclin, a protein that resists HIV.

Lead scientist Alexander Cole used aminoglycosides, drugs commonly used to fight bacterial infections, to trigger the production of the sleeping protein expressed by the retrocyclin gene.

Flu vaccine delivered through skin patches containing microneedles has proven just as effective at preventing influenza in mice as intramuscular, hypodermic flu immunization. A team of researchers at Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology believes the new microneedle skin patch method of delivering flu vaccine could improve overall seasonal vaccination coverage in people because of decreased pain, increased convenience, lower cost and simpler logistics over conventional hypodermic immunization.

ST. LOUIS -- An influenza vaccine that protects against death and serious complications from different strains of flu is a little closer to reality, Saint Louis University vaccine researchers have found.

"This is a significant first step in developing a universal vaccine to help protect against pandemic influenza," said Robert Belshe, M.D., director of the Saint Louis University Center for Vaccine Development.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – New guidelines developed by the American Academy of Neurology and the American Epilepsy Society show it's relatively safe for women with epilepsy to become pregnant, but caution must be taken, including avoiding one particular epilepsy drug that can cause birth defects. The guidelines are published in the April 27, 2009, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, and will be presented April 27, 2009, at the Academy's Annual Meeting in Seattle.

Key Largo, Fla. – April 27, 2009 – A new study appearing in Restoration Ecology describes a novel technique for reattaching large sponges that have been dislodged from coral reefs. The findings could be generally applied to the restoration of other large sponge species removed by human activities or storm events.

Twenty percent of American deaths each year are caused by heart attack or angina, sometimes without any warning.

But thanks to new research from Dr. Sharon Zlochiver of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Tel Aviv University, there's new hope for potential heart attack victims. By looking at the electrical activity coupling two types of heart muscle cells, Dr. Zlochiver has discovered a new way of identifying an impending attack.

Sometimes cardiologists and cardiac surgeons can agree! There is often disagreement between the professions of cardiology and cardiac surgery about the proper therapy for coronary artery disease (CAD)—and this can harm the patient. In the current edition of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International, an interdisciplinary team of authors consisting of cardiologists and cardiac surgeons provides answers to the question of when a bypass operation (ACB) and when percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is effective (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2009; 106(15): 253-61).

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — For decades, microbiologists assumed that macrophages, immune cells that can engulf and poison bacteria and other pathogens, killed microbes by damaging their DNA. A new study from the University of Illinois disproves that.

The study, published in the journal PLoS ONE, shows that macrophages focus their most potent poisons, known as reactive oxygen species (ROS), on targets outside the cytoplasm.

San Juan Capistrano, CA and Chantilly, VA –Three reports describing advances in cystic fibrosis genetic testing appear in the May 2009 issue of The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics.

Cystic fibrosis is a hereditary disease that affects mucus secretions in the lungs, liver, pancreas, and intestines. Approximately 1 in 4000 children born in the United States is affected with cystic fibrosis. Cystic fibrosis is an autosomal recessive disease caused by mutations in the CFTR gene; cystic fibrosis patients must inherit a mutated gene from each parent.