Infectious Diseases News and Research

RSS

UM researchers receive $14 million from NIH for cutting-edge HIV research

The National Institutes of Health has awarded University of Miami researchers $14 million for an ambitious seven-year project that will keep the Miller School of Medicine at the forefront of cutting-edge HIV research.

30 Jul 2019

Researchers develop new method to accurately identify nontuberculous mycobacteria

The bacterial genus Mycobacterium has the dubious honor of including species responsible for two of the best-known chronic human infectious diseases: tuberculosis and leprosy.

30 Jul 2019

Many healthy women carry drug-resistant E. coli strains in their guts

A recent study of over 1,000 healthy women with no symptoms of urinary tract infections showed nearly 9 percent carried multi-drug resistant Escherichia coli strains in their guts.

26 Jul 2019

Scientists investigate how fungus interacts with bacteria to trigger Crohn's disease

Scientists have known that bacteria in the gut, along with environmental and genetic factors, contribute to the debilitating intestinal ailment of Crohn's disease.

26 Jul 2019

Sequencing data could be used to prevent lyme disease

Researchers have successfully sequenced the genome of the animal that could carry the bacteria causing Lyme disease.

25 Jul 2019

McMaster researchers develop new gel composed of bacteria-killing viruses

McMaster researchers have developed a novel new gel made entirely from bacteria-killing viruses.

25 Jul 2019

Study identifies new mechanism that impacts HIV infection

A team of scientists led by Texas Biomed's Assistant Professor Smita Kulkarni, Ph.D. and Mary Carrington, Ph.D., at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, published results of a study that pinpointed a long noncoding RNA molecule which influences a key receptor involved in HIV infection and progression of the disease.

25 Jul 2019

Johns Hopkins co-leads study on 'poliolike' condition affecting children

Johns Hopkins Medicine and University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers will lead a multicenter, multinational study of acute flaccid myelitis, the “poliolike” condition affecting children that causes loss of muscle control.

From Johns Hopkins Medicine 25 Jul 2019

Scientists develop 3D printed pill that samples bacteria found in the gut

The gut microbiome is made up of trillions of living microbes, and more than a thousand species of bacteria. It has been known that the gut plays major roles in the body’s health. A team of university engineers may have developed a way to study and collect samples of microbes living in the gut.

25 Jul 2019

Algorithm based on ‘first impressions’ of immune cells may help predict onset of diseases

First impressions are important – they can set the stage for the entire course of a relationship. The same is true for the impressions the cells of our immune system form when they first meet a new bacterium.

24 Jul 2019

Vaginal ring used by most women for HIV prevention in open-label study

In an open-label study of women in southern and eastern Africa, a vaginal ring that is inserted once a month and slowly releases an antiviral drug was estimated to reduce the risk of HIV by 39%, according to statistical modeling.

24 Jul 2019

Tailored adherence strategies needed to engage young African women in consistent PrEP use

In a study of open-label Truvada as daily pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent HIV among 427 young African women and adolescent girls, 95% initiated the HIV prevention strategy, and most used PrEP for the first three months.

24 Jul 2019

E. coli superbug can live in women’s gut without symptoms

Virulent and multi-drug resistant strains of Escherichia coli can thrive in women’s gut even without any symptoms, a new study found.

23 Jul 2019

NIH contract awarded to UAB for acute flaccid myelitis natural history study

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded the University of Alabama at Birmingham approximately $10 million over 5 years to study acute flaccid myelitis, a rare but serious condition which causes muscle weakness and paralysis.

23 Jul 2019

Early exposure to farm animals may lead to robust immune system development

Getting up close - and a little dirty - with farm animals just might help us fend off illness, say researchers who've further demonstrated the benefits of early exposure to a wide variety of environmental bacteria.

23 Jul 2019

Connection to HIV treatment services helps gay, bisexual population to achieve viral suppression

Gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men and transgender women with HIV, who are not in care, can be engaged in care when reached and connected with HIV treatment services, according to findings from a clinical trial supported by the National Institutes of Health.

23 Jul 2019

Research shows how freshwater prawns could reduce schistosomiasis transmission

Before bite-sized crustaceans like crayfish, shrimp and prawns land on our dinner plates, they first have to get fat themselves -- and it turns out they relish the freshwater snails that transmit the parasite that causes schistosomiasis, the second most devastating parasitic disease worldwide, after malaria.

23 Jul 2019

Continuation of community-wide HIV testing could lead to reductions in new HIV cases

Continuation of community-wide HIV testing and prompt initiation of treatment as delivered in the HPTN 071 study in South Africa and Zambia could lead to substantial reductions in new HIV cases, be cost-effective, and help to achieve the UNAIDS 2030 targets, according to projections from mathematical modeling and cost-effectiveness analyses presented today at the 10th International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Science in Mexico City.

23 Jul 2019

Researchers identify genes linked to death from sepsis in mice

Sepsis is a life-threatening condition that occurs when the body's immune response to infection spirals out of control.

23 Jul 2019

People successfully treated for visceral leishmaniasis can still infect others, study confirms

The results of an innovative "infectivity" study conducted by the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative and the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh confirm that people successfully treated for visceral leishmaniasis in South Asia can still infect others if they develop a skin condition known as post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis.

22 Jul 2019