An Australian professor has predicted that climate change will worsen diseases particularly in low-income countries. So health care strategies to deal with the problem should be developed, the professor says.

In his article published in the British Medical Journal on Jan. 19, Tony McMichael, director of the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health of the Australian National University in Canberra made those points. He said contamination of air, water, soil and food due to heat waves, floods and wildfires would alter the incidence, range and seasonality of diseases

A new anti-HIV drug produced by Johnson & Johnson received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The approval has given permission for a unit of J&J to begin selling the drug to patients.

Marketed under the name Intelence, the drug was reportedly effective in increasing the amount of white blood cells in the patient's blood, thereby upping the chances of fighting infections. Intelence was said to benefit patients who have been unresponsive to other anti-HIV drugs

While other countries are reducing deaths preventable through timely medical intervention, the United States placed last in a ranking of 19 industrialized countries, according to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

If the U.S. had performed as well as the top three countries identified in the study, there would have been 101,000 fewer deaths in the U.S. per year by the end of the study period, according to a the new study published in the January/February issue of the journal Health Affairs

While other countries are reducing deaths preventable through timely medical intervention, the United States placed last in a ranking of 19 industrialized countries, according to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

If the U.S. had performed as well as the top three countries identified in the study, there would have been 101,000 fewer deaths in the U.S. per year by the end of the study period, according to a the new study published in the January/February issue of the journal Health Affairs

A new drug developed by scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College has proven effective in blocking the infection of live virus in animal cells, pointing the way to a drug that could be stockpiled to help stop an outbreak in humans.

The drug is effective against two deadly and highly infectious viruses - Hendra and Nipah, both potential bioterror threats