Infectious Diseases News and Research

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NIH awards $2.3 million for pilot project to develop opioid vaccine

The NIH has awarded $2.3M for a pilot project, led by Boston Children's Hospital, to develop a vaccine that would protect people with opioid use disorder against an accidental fentanyl overdose.

8 Aug 2019

Federal experts’ advice on HPV vaccine could leave adults confused

Vaccination decisions are usually pretty straightforward. People either meet the criteria for the vaccine based on their age or other factors or they don't. But when a federal panel recently recommended an update to the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine guidelines, it left a lot of uncertainty.

8 Aug 2019

Leptospirosis is far more widespread in Puerto Rico than previously believed

The bacterial disease Leptospirosis poses a serious health threat to the residents of Puerto Rico, as new research, conducted in part at Texas State University, suggests that the disease is far more widespread on the island than previously believed.

8 Aug 2019

Lung mucosa plays big role in elderly's susceptibility to tuberculosis

Old lungs are not as capable as young lungs of fighting off an infection of the bacteria that causes tuberculosis, placing seniors at a greater risk of developing TB.

8 Aug 2019

New 'liquid biopsy' blood test for breast cancer could help avoid unnecessary surgeries

A new type of blood test for breast cancer could help avoid thousands of unnecessary surgeries and otherwise precisely monitor disease progression, according to a study led by the Translational Genomics Research Institute and Mayo Clinic in Arizona.

7 Aug 2019

New CMS rule will raise reimbursements for novel antibiotics

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Inpatient Prospective Payment System rule for the coming fiscal year will raise reimbursements for novel antibiotics, a meaningful step in confronting the threat of infections resistant to older medicines.

7 Aug 2019

Exposure to C. Difficile in infancy produces immunity against gastrointestinal infection

Exposure to C. difficile in infancy produces an immune response that might protect against this gastrointestinal infection later in childhood, according to a study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases journal

7 Aug 2019

Developing safe imaging tools to better identify the risk of preterm birth

Dr. Helen Feltovich is a high-risk obstetrician, also known as a maternal-fetal doctor, and she sees women when they are at risk of a preterm birth. Preterm birth recently surpassed infectious diseases as the leading cause of death in children under five years old. It's a critical global problem, with no easy fix.

7 Aug 2019

Blocking key mineral uptake could prevent gonorrhea infection

A team of researchers may have found a way to block gonorrhea infection by blocking bacterial pathogen from using zinc, an essential mineral found in many food sources.

6 Aug 2019

Major step toward creation of vaccine that could neutralize ‘superbug’

Researchers from the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute have taken a major step toward the creation of vaccine that could neutralize the culprit behind a growing public health crisis.

6 Aug 2019

Primary DENV or ZIKV infection has no effect on course of secondary infection in macaques

Previous infection with either Zika virus or dengue virus has no apparent effect on the clinical course of subsequent infection with the other virus, according to a study published August 1 in the open-access journal PLOS Pathogens by David O'Connor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and colleagues.

5 Aug 2019

Study could open a new era in transplantation medicine

For decades, immunologists have been trying to train the transplant recipient's immune system to accept transplanted cells and organs without the long-term use of anti-rejection drugs. New University of Minnesota preclinical research shows that this is now possible.

5 Aug 2019

Study estimates global prevalence of latent tuberculosis

A new study from Aarhus University Hospital and Aarhus University, Denmark, has shown that probably 1 in 4 people in the world carry the tuberculosis bacterium in the body.

3 Aug 2019

Rare immune cells may serve as 'periscopes' to monitor the body's immune status, study finds

A rare, short-lived population of immune cells in the bloodstream may serve as 'periscopes' to monitor immune status via lymph nodes deep inside the body, according to researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

2 Aug 2019

Research reveals potential target for therapies to prevent severe allergic reactions

Allergies can be life-threatening when they cause anaphylaxis, an extreme reaction with constriction of the airways and a sudden drop in blood pressure.

2 Aug 2019

New study launched to evaluate experimental treatment for food allergy

Though food allergy affects more than 4.8 million children in the United States, no approved preventative treatments currently exist.

2 Aug 2019

Combination of vaccine and medicated cream can reduce recurrence of genital herpes

Yale investigators have shown that the combination of a vaccine and a medicated cream is a promising strategy to dramatically reduce the recurrence of genital herpes.

2 Aug 2019

Prion disease in mice treated successfully with antisense oligonucleotides

Prion proteins are known to cause scrapie – a neurodegenerative condition. It is capable of debilitating damage to the nervous system. Researchers have successfully devised a treatment for this condition which prolonged the lives of the lab mice infected with the prions.

1 Aug 2019

Selective antibiotics could make precision treatment possible

With multi-resistant germs becoming more and more of a threat, we are in need of new antibiotics now more than ever.

31 Jul 2019

Single test can predict progression of untreated precancerous cervical disease

A single test for women has been shown to aid in predicting which cases of precancerous cervical disease will become more serious, helping with decisions on whether or not surgery is needed, according to a study led by Queen Mary University of London.

31 Jul 2019