Plague News and Research

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Researchers discover connection between CB1 receptors and PTSD

In a first-of-its-kind effort to illuminate the biochemical impact of trauma, researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center have discovered a connection between the quantity of cannabinoid receptors in the human brain, known as CB1 receptors, and post-traumatic stress disorder, the chronic, disabling condition that can plague trauma victims with flashbacks, nightmares and emotional instability.

14 May 2013

Ancient DNA study provides information about origin of Justinianic Plague

From the several pandemics generally called 'pestilences' three are historically recognized as due to plague, but only for the third pandemic of the 19th to 21st centuries AD there were microbiological evidences that the causing agent was the bacterium Yersinia pestis.

13 May 2013

Experts report new outbreaks and increased spread of Cassava Brown Streak Disease

Cassava experts are reporting new outbreaks and the increased spread of Cassava Brown Streak Disease or CBSD, warning that the rapidly proliferating plant virus could cause a 50 percent drop in production of a crop that provides a significant source of food and income for 300 million Africans.

6 May 2013

UAB expert offers simple strategies to tackle summer allergy season

Sneezing, wheezing and coughing are just some of the symptoms that seasonal allergies can stir up. One sinus expert at the University of Alabama at Birmingham said despite a late spring, the summer allergy season will be strong.

29 Apr 2013

Sanovas introduces new surgical imaging technology, MicroCam

Sanovas Inc., a life science technology company developing and commercializing the next-generation of micro-invasive diagnostics, devices and drug delivery technologies, announced today the launch of MicroCam™, its OEM "Plug & Play" micro imaging platform for endoscopic device applications.

22 Apr 2013

AIM suppression could help prevent obesity-associated diseases

Obesity is linked to the widespread epidemics of diabetes and heart disease that plague society, but a lesser-known fact is that the weight can also lead to autoimmune disease.

5 Apr 2013

Historical review provides lessons for control of plague

Today archaeologists unearthed a 'Black Death' grave in London, containing more than a dozen skeletons of people suspected to have died from the plague. The victims are thought to have died during the 14th century and archaeologists anticipate finding many more as they excavate the site.

16 Mar 2013

APIC offers tips to stay infection-free

Beyond the obvious—steering clear of runny noses and hacking coughs—the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) presents some other practical ways of staying infection-free.

8 Mar 2013

Tobacco use poses major health and human development threat

If the word's nations are going to prevent tobacco smoking from causing one projected billion deaths by the end of this century, they must: Make tobacco control part of the agendas of United Nation's and other development agencies worldwide; Assure every sector of a nation including health, trade and finance officials work collectively to protect not only health but the harm tobacco places on their economy by passing laws to reduce use; Place health as the centerpiece of any decision on a trade treaty that includes tobacco; Diligently work toward a goal of reducing the prevalence rate of smoking to less than five percent world-wide by 2048, basically ending its use.

5 Mar 2013

Inviragen to initiate second stage of DENVax Phase 2 study in dengue

Inviragen, Inc. today announced the initiation of the second stage of an ongoing Phase 2, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of DENVax, the Company's investigational dengue vaccine.

27 Feb 2013

Princeton metabolic model can predict how parasites would fare in altered climates

Knowing the temperatures that viruses, bacteria, worms and all other parasites need to grow and survive could help determine the future range of infectious diseases under climate change, according to new research.

27 Feb 2013

Conference aims to end tobacco epidemic in developing nations

Imagine, for a moment, that a plague has ravaged the Developed World, but has not yet established its grip on the Developing Nations. If the world's leaders in public health came together for two days at Harvard to map out a campaign to prevent the plague's spread, wouldn't you want to cover that meeting?

26 Feb 2013

BCHE gene variant predicts extent of plaque deposits in Alzheimer's

A study combining genetic data with brain imaging, designed to identify genes associated with the amyloid plaque deposits found in Alzheimer's disease patients, has not only identified the APOE gene -- long associated with development of Alzheimer's -- but has uncovered an association with a second gene, called BCHE.

21 Feb 2013

Environmental factors may explain plague re-emergence in northern Africa

Two recent outbreaks of plague in Libya and Algeria are likely due to re-emergence or re-activation of ancient Yersinia pestis from the local area, rather than recent importation from the same distant source, suggest study findings.

17 Jan 2013

Wall Street Journal looks at European efforts to fight TB

The Wall Street Journal examines efforts to fight tuberculosis (TB) in Europe, writing, "All along the edges of Western Europe, new and hard-to-defeat strains of tuberculosis are gaining a foothold, often moving beyond traditional victims -- alcoholics, drug users, HIV patients -- and into the wider population."

3 Jan 2013

Scientists discover how Yersinia pestis avoids setting off immune system's early infection-alarm

The plague-causing bacteria Yersinia pestis evades detection and establishes a stronghold without setting off the body's early alarms.

14 Dec 2012

Researchers describe role of calcium in ability of Yersinias to cause disease

A more than 50-year-old question has now been answered. Chemists and microbiologists at the Biological Chemistry Center at Umeå University in Sweden are now able to describe in detail the role of calcium in the ability of the plague bacterium Yersinias to cause disease.

4 Dec 2012

Broad range of human activities affects spread of vector-borne zoonotic diseases, experts say

West Nile virus, Lyme disease, dengue fever, and plague are examples of "vector-borne zoonotic diseases," caused by pathogens that naturally infect wildlife and are transmitted to humans by vectors such as mosquitoes or ticks.

30 Nov 2012

Aradigm’s Lipoquin provides full protection in murine models of pneumonic plague

Scientists from the UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) report, in a preliminary study, that they have demonstrated that a single dose of Aradigm Corporation's liposomal ciprofloxacin formulation Lipoquin administered 24 hours after exposure to a lethal dose of the bacterium Yersinia pestis provided full protection in a murine model of pneumonic plague.

20 Nov 2012

Injury prevention – research and practice: an interview with Dr Dale Hanson

Every twenty seconds someone somewhere in Australia presents to an Emergency Department seeking treatment for an injury. Every minute someone is admitted to hospital. Every hour someone dies.

13 Nov 2012