Solutions

Voice of America - August 17, 2011

A Bahrain woman looks at pictures of victims of the February 14 uprising, displayed at an exhibition during a gathering held by the Al Fateh Youth Union in Isa Town, south of Manama, Bahrain, July 28, 2011

It has been six months since anti-government protests inspired by the successful uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt first erupted in Bahrain. And as in Egypt, many Bahrainis used social media Internet sites such as Facebook to help organize the protests. The Bahraini government is now using Facebook, too - apparently to track down and arrest the protesters.

It is questionable whether the Arab Spring ever would have amounted to much without social media on the Internet. In most cases, as more and more frustrated youths turned to their computers to express their discontent, an increasing number of people left their homes to publicly demand change.

The term “Facebook Revolution” was coined after the successful ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. And in Bahrain, the social networking site also played a role in encouraging people to participate in the nation’s “Day of Rage” protests on February 14, and in the pro-democracy demonstrations that followed.

submitted by Albert Gomez

pharmalive.com - July 2011

Steady Growth Anticipated

The global market for anti-infective drugs is anticipated to exceed $100 billion by 2015, driven by significant unmet needs, growing patient populations, better diagnostics, and innovative new drugs. Because viruses mutate rapidly and acquire drug resistance, the antiviral pipeline needs to be continuously replenished with better treatments. 

Six infectious diseases account for half of all premature deaths worldwide: pneumonia, tuberculosis, diarrheal diseases, malaria, measles, and HIV/AIDS. Antimicrobials have been the standard for treating infectious diseases for more than 70 years and have greatly reduced illness and death from such diseases.