Legionnaires' Disease News and Research

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Legionnaires’ disease is a microbial infection of the lungs that can be potentially life threatening. It is caused by the legionella bacteria.

MIT researchers devise new system to genetically engineer viruses to combat harmful bacteria

In the hunt for new ways to kill harmful bacteria, scientists have turned to a natural predator: viruses that infect bacteria. By tweaking the genomes of these viruses, known as bacteriophages, researchers hope to customize them to target any type of pathogenic bacteria.

23 Sep 2015

Legal-Bay reports that death toll from Legionnaires' disease outbreak in South Bronx rises to 7

Legal-Bay LLC, The Lawsuit Settlement Funding Company, reports that in the tragic Legionnaires' disease outbreak sweeping the South Bronx, 81 cases have been reported as of now, with a total of 7 people dead as a result. According to NYC health officials, 81 cases have been reported in total, with 64 of those requiring hospitalization, and the death roll has recently risen to 7.

10 Aug 2015

Second-generation antibiotic shows promise against common bacterial infections

Researchers led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists have developed a second-generation antibiotic that shows early effectiveness against common bacterial infections that pose a serious health threat to children and adults.

21 May 2015

Automated PoCyton cytometer effective for counting cancer cells

Biological and medical scientists have been using flow cytometry to count cancer cells for the past 40 years. But the large instruments are expensive and can only be operated by trained personnel. By contrast the PoCyton cytometer developed by Fraunhofer researchers is cheap to produce, no bigger than a shoebox, and automated.

6 May 2015

Challenges involved in tracing the source of Legionnaires’ disease outbreak

Genetic research helps to explain why tracing the source of an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease that claimed four lives has proven to be more complicated than scientists hoped.

10 Apr 2015

Study: Inactivating polymorphism may influence progression of ovarian and luminal breast cancer

A common polymorphism - a variation in a person's DNA sequence that is found with regularity in the general population - can lead to a chain of events that dictates how a tumor will progress in certain types of cancer, including a form of breast cancer as well as ovarian cancer, according to new research from The Wistar Institute that was published online by the journal Cancer Cell.

19 Dec 2014

Virginia Tech professor wins Paul L. Busch Award for outstanding work in water quality research

Amy Pruden, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech, is the 2014 recipient of the Paul L. Busch Award, including a $100,000 research grant.

1 Oct 2014

Findings reveal new way to identify non-antibiotic drugs that could help curb bacterial infections

About 100 drugs already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for other purposes can also prevent the growth of certain bacterial pathogens inside human cells, including those that cause Legionnaires' disease, brucellosis, and Mediterranean spotted fever.

29 Jul 2014

Showers and rivers may play role in the development of Crohn's disease

Humans may be exposed to bacteria linked with Crohn's disease through fine spray from showers and rivers according to research led by Lancaster University.

24 Jul 2014

Turmoil at VA continues as two more senior officials resign

Robert Jesse, acting undersecretary for health, and Will Gunn, the department's general counsel, will be leaving their positions at the troubled agency.

27 Jun 2014

Researchers adapt mathematical tool to help control malaria and other infectious diseases

A mathematical tool used by the Metropolitan Police and FBI has been adapted by researchers at Queen Mary University of London to help control outbreaks of malaria, and has the potential to target other infectious diseases.

20 Jun 2014

Legionnaires may be able to grow in windshield washer fluid

A form of bacteria responsible for respiratory illness, including the deadly pneumonia known as Legionnaire's disease, may be able to grow in windshield washer fluid and was isolated from nearly 75% of school buses tested in one district in Arizona, according to research presented today at the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.

19 May 2014

Scientists uncover bacterial secretion system that allows sharing of genetic material between bacteria

The system that allows the sharing of genetic material between bacteria - and therefore the spread of antibiotic resistance - has been uncovered by a team of scientists at Birkbeck, University of London and UCL.

10 Mar 2014

New technique detects bacterium that causes Legionnaires’ disease

The bacterium that causes Legionnaires’ disease remains difficult to track. French researchers have now developed a new technique that should allow living representatives of this dangerous pathogen to be detected much more quickly than with conventional methods. As they report in the journal Angewandte Chemie, samples are exposed to an azide-modified compound that the pathogen specifically incorporates into its shell, which is made of saccharide units. A fluorescent marker attached to the azide groups is used to identify the pathogen.

24 Jan 2014

Protein responsible for excretion of copper in body cells utilizes unique transport mechanism

We are fundamentally dependent on the presence of copper in the cells of the body. Copper is actually part of the body's energy conversion and protective mechanisms against oxygen radicals, as well as part of the immune system, and it also has great importance for the formation of e.g. hormones and neurotransmitters.

28 Dec 2013

New AquaLyse ionization technology prevents legionella and related disease outbreaks

With growing reports of Legionella and related Legionnaires' disease outbreaks in the USA, Canada and around the world, ProCare Water Treatment Inc. today announces its newest "AquaLyse® ICR-820" medical and commercial grade copper-silver ionization chamber cells.

11 Dec 2013

Probiotics may help keep bad germs at bay

Microbes are everywhere - thousands of species are in your mouth, and thousands are in a glass of tap water. The ones in your mouth are mostly harmless - as long as you brush and floss so they don't form a biofilm that allows gum disease a path into the blood stream.

4 Nov 2013

Researchers discover how Yersinia immobilizes immune system to spread within organs

Researchers at Tufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts have identified how one type of bacteria, Yersinia, immobilizes the immune system in order to grow in the organs of mice. To do so, the researchers extended the use of a technique and suggest that it could be used to study other bacteria that use the same or similar means of infection.

17 Sep 2013

Pre-doctoral students receive International Student Research Fellowships from HHMI

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute has awarded two doctoral students from the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts University with 2013 International Student Research Fellowships. Seblewongel Asrat, from Ethiopia, studies the bacterium that causes Legionnaires' disease while Jennifer Nwankwo, from Nigeria, studies red blood cell dehydration in sickle cell disease.

17 Aug 2013

AOAC international certification validates Biótica's Legipid Legionella Fast Detection Test

The AOAC international certification has validated Biótica's MP4-Hunter. The system developed by the company settled at the Science Park in the Universitat Jaume I de Castellón (Spain) enables to perform up to 40 Legionella tests per analyst in an hour.

18 May 2013