Burnet researchers and public health professionals provide interviews and comments on a wide range of infectious diseases and public health issues. This page lists stories covered by the media during 2007.
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Visiting expert speaks about global progress in child health' - (April)
You're most likely to find Michael J. Toole, MD, working with fathers in a small village in Laos, mothers and children in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, or healthcare providers in Tibet. But in March, Dr. Toole, who is head of the Centre for International Health of the Burnet Institute in Melbourne, Australia, was on the MUSC campus to make a special presentation at the Charles P. Darby Children's Research Institute. In town on a family visit, Dr. Toole spoke on March 13 about his and the institute's work with the international development community to reduce child mortality. MORE.
The Sydney Morning Herald - 'We fill our tanks while they can't fill their stomachs' - (19 April 2008)The push to biofuels has forced up the price of food, left millions hungry and undermined governments, writes Jo Chandler.
Nigel Tricks has spent 15 years conjuring more from less - mostly in Africa, these days in Asia. His task, as an international aid worker, is to stretch scarce rations of food and funds to sustain the neediest of people, and to help them grow a future. He is familiar with the cycles of need. The hunger that will inevitably follow conflict, or drought, or flood. There is a cause, there is an effect, and eventually there is resolution, however unsatisfactory, he observes. With luck, there may then be the mercy of some respite before the next blight. MORE.BMJ - 'Long term efficacy of DOTS regimens for tuberculosis: systematic review - (04 Feb 2008)
Helen S Cox, PhD scholar1, Martha Morrow, research coordinator1, Peter W Deutschmann, executive director1
1 Australian International Health Institute, University of Melbourne, Carlton, VIC 3010, Melbourne, Australia. Correspondence to: H S Cox, Macfarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health, Melbourne, VIC 3004, Australia hcox@burnet.edu.au
Objective To identify published studies assessing tuberculosis recurrence after successful treatment with standard short course regimens for six months to determine the strength and sufficiency of evidence to support current guidelines. MORE
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Reuters - 'Congo war-driven crisis kills 45,000 a month-study' - (22 Jan 2008)
War, disease and malnutrition are killing 45,000 Congolese every month in a conflict-driven humanitarian crisis that has claimed 5.4 million victims in nearly a decade, a survey released on Tuesday said. The International Rescue Committee (IRC), which carried out the study with Australia's Burnet Institute, said Democratic Republic of Congo's 1998-2003 war and its aftermath had caused more deaths than any other conflict since World War Two. MORE
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Australian Life Scientist - 'Burnet lures Crabb from WEHI - Malaria specialist Brendan Crabbe appointed new director of Burnet Institute' - (10 Dec 2007)
Melbourne's Burnet Institute has appointed Professor Brendan Crabb as its next director and CEO. Crabb is currently head of the malaria research laboratory within the infection and immunity division at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research.
He is an NH&MRC senior principal research fellow and an international research scholar of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (USA). His laboratory's research interests have included the study of malaria and a number of viruses, focusing on molecular, immunological and epidemiological aspects of these pathogens. MORE
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The Herald Sun - 'Thousands to romp around city’ - (14 Oct 2007)
THE test is to uncover Melbourne's secrets in the inaugural Go For Your Life/Yarra Trams Melbourne City Romp today. More than 15,000 competitors will zigzag across the city as they track down hidden clues, devised with the help of high-IQ society Mensa, in a quest to solve the riddles. http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/
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The Age - 'Melbourne doctor awarded for TB research' - (04 June 2007)
Melbourne epidemiologist Helen Cox has won the 2007 Premier's Award for Medical Research for her research into drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB). Victorian Health Minister Bronwyn Pike, who presented Dr Cox with $16,000 and a trophy at Government House, said she won the award primarily for her work in the Aral Sea region of Uzbekistan which has a high rate of TB, fuelled by worsening poverty.
www.theage.com.au/news/National/Melbourne-doctor-awarded-for-TB-research/2007/06/04/1180809394539.html
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ABC Radio; Connect Asia - 'New GM mosquito could reduce malaria risk' - (23 Mar 2007)
US scientists have successfully engineered a mosquito that is resistant to malaria, which kills almost three million people a year. The genetically modified mosquito does not transmit the disease and the hope is that releasing millions of the GM species into malaria-affected areas will eventually reduce cases of the disease. Presenter - Sen Lam, Speaker - Professor John Reeder, Director of the International Health Research Group, Burnet Institute, Australia's largest communicable diseases research institute.
www.abc.net.au/ra/connectasia/stories/m1368613.asx -
The Age - 'Cancer drug trial exceeds expectations' - (14 Mar 2007)
Biotech company Prima BioMed says a trial of its experimental ovarian cancer treatment has "exceeded expectations", paving the way for further testing. Prima BioMed said the phase IIa trial of 21 patients with late stage ovarian cancer showed four had a positive clinical response or stabilisation of the disease, meeting its target of a 15 per cent success rate. The company is now planning the next stage of trials of the CVac treatment, involving 100 to 200 patients, due to begin over the next 12 months. Prima BioMed chief scientific officer Associate Professor Bruce Loveland, from Melbourne's Burnet Institute was also pleased by the results.
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Imperial College, London - 'A project developing a quick and cheap test to analyse the immune system of people living with HIV/AIDS today announces new partners. Five international organisations will be working collaboratively, as part of Imperial College London's CD4 Initiative, to make this test a reality within the next four years.' - (07 Mar 2007)
The CD4 Initiative aims to develop an easy to use device which can measure the number of T cells possessing CD4 protein (CD4+ T-lymphocytes) in a patient's blood. These cells play a central role in orchestrating the immune system, and HIV infection leads to a progressive reduction in their numbers. Healthcare workers rely on a CD4+ T-cell count to make decisions about how patients should be treated and when they should begin antiretroviral therapy. The CD4 Initiative is housed at Imperial College and is funded by an $8.6m grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The aim is that working together will enable the new partners and Imperial to create the much-needed device in the shortest possible time. The Initiative has awarded grants to Beckman Coulter, Inc (USA), Macfarlane Burnet Institute (Australia), Cornell University (USA), PATH (USA) and Zyomyx, Inc (USA).
www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_7-3-2007-14-53-44?newsid=6993 -
Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News - 'AVANT Immunotherapeutics and Select Vaccines Announce Partnership to Develop Improved Viral Vaccines' - (22 Feb 2007)
AVANT Immunotherapeutics, Inc. and Select Vaccines Limited; established by the Burnet Institute, today announced a research and development (R&D) partnership focused on the use of Select Vaccines' virus-like particles (VLPs) as a platform technology for the development of viral vaccines. The R&D efforts will initially target the development of vaccines against influenza including both epidemic and pandemic forms of vaccine, with the opportunity to expand the collaboration to other disease targets. In preclinical studies, Select Vaccines has demonstrated proof-of-principle for expressing vaccine antigens on Select VLPs with approximately 10 different antigens. Completion of the partnership agreement is subject to the approval of Select's shareholders.
www.genengnews.com/news/bnitem.aspx?name=12700623 -
The 7:30pm Report; - 'Australia helps Burma tackle health problems' - (22 Jan 2007)
Burma has one of the worst health records in the world. By some accounts, 40 per cent of the population has tuberculosis and almost half of all malaria cases in Asia occur in the isolated nation. Around 360,000 people are also said to have HIV/AIDS. Armed with such grim statistics, aid groups are warning of a humanitarian crisis in the country, which has been run by a military junta for more than four decades. Previous attempts to fight these three diseases have been abandoned because of restrictions by the regime, and corruption. In a country where 1.3 per cent of all adults are HIV positive, safe sex education could mean the difference between life and death. When they're older, some boys are likely to join the large numbers of people in this nation of 50 million who are forced away from home to seek work. In such circumstances, risky behaviour like cheap sex and drugs go hand in hand with the grinding poverty. This senior monk is telling the boys that having sex with a drug addict is dangerous. Four hundred to 500 boys have been through this program, which is run with the assistance of Joanna Hayter from the Australian disease research agency the Burnet Institute.
www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2007/s1831456.htm -
The Australian; - 'Teaching aid a shot in the arm' - (17 Jan 2007)
A simulated arm designed for practice in giving intravenous jabs promises to deliver a much less painful learning experience for medical students. The unit was designed, manufactured and marketed by a group of students from the University of Melbourne, three PhD students from the Burnet Institute/Austin Research Institute, and Ms Ivey, who works in vascular biology at the Baker Heart Research Institute attached to the Alfred Hospital.
www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21070772-12332,00.html