News Brief: Global Health Law News Updates

 

Google has pledged $15m to fund six projects that aim to identify and prevent infectious diseases that have the potential to become global pandemics. One of the major projects funded by the internet giant will work on spotting dangerous pathogens that leap from animals to humans (zoonoses ). Guardian UK

A new HIV vaccine trial is set to commence within the next few months in South Africa and the United States. Scientists will test a new vaccine formula produced in South Africa. It will be the first time a HIV vaccine manufactured in a developing country will be trialed in the developed world. The new products, SAAVI MVA and SAAVI DNA, will be tested on a small group of 48 participants – 36 people from Johannesburg and Cape Town and twelve from Boston. IPSNEWS

UK’s lower house of parliament approved legislation (Wednesday 22 October 2008) allowing scientists to create animal-human embryos for medical research, in the biggest shake-up of embryology laws in two decades. Despite opposition from religious and pro-life groups, MPs in the House of Commons backed the human embryology and fertilisation bill by 355 votes to 129. It will now go to a vote in the House of Lords, and could be law by November. AFP

At a recent Africa regional conference held in Nairobi, Kenya on Strengthening Linkages between Sexual and Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS Services, participants called upon countries to enact laws that recognise and specifically address sexual violence — particularly within marriage — in order to win the war against HIV/AIDS. ISPNEWS

UK tobacco control  groups have warned about tobacco companies increasingly targeting teenage girls, using cynical marketing ploys that tap into young women’s fears about their weight, and introducing “female-friendly” packaging warned. Next month Silk Cut will launch a range of “Superslims”, sold in “perfume-shaped” boxes designed to appeal to appeal to image-conscious women. Independent UK