Antibiotic News and Research

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Antibiotics are drugs used to treat infections caused by bacteria and other microorganisms.

Lyme disease - a tough nut to crack!

The bacteria that cause Lyme disease, the most common tick-borne illness in the United States, can linger in mouse tissues long after a full round of antibiotic treatment is completed, report researchers from the University of California, Davis.

2 Apr 2008

New breakthrough discovery on TB

Medical scientists from the University of Leicester, together with colleagues from St Georges, University of London, funded principally by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and The Wellcome Trust, have published details of a new breakthrough discovery on TB.

1 Apr 2008

Community-acquired MRSA spreads

Drug resistant hospital superbugs like MRSA have been kept under control in Denmark for more than 30 years.

1 Apr 2008

Superbugs resistant to everything - Doctors running out of treatments

Doctors are running out of treatments for today's trauma victims and critically ill patients because of infections due to drug resistant microbes even after resorting to using medicines thrown out 20 years ago because of severe side effects, scientists heard at the Society for General Microbiology's 162nd meeting being held this week at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.

1 Apr 2008

Green tea can help beat superbugs

Green tea can help beat superbugs according to Egyptian scientists speaking at the Society for General Microbiology's 162nd meeting being held this week at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.

31 Mar 2008

Mysterious fevers of unknown origin: Could surgery be a cure?

A child spikes a high fever, sometimes as high as 104 or 105 degrees, and sometimes causing seizures.

31 Mar 2008

MRSA in hospital intensive care -- what's growing where?

Researchers are finding out which bugs grow in intensive care units to develop a novel sampling regime that would indicate the threat of MRSA and other superbugs in the environment, scientists heard (Monday 31 March 2008) at the Society for General Microbiology's 162nd meeting being held this week at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.

31 Mar 2008

A biosensing nanodevice to revolutionize health screenings

One day soon a biosensing nanodevice developed by Arizona State University researcher Wayne Frasch may eliminate long lines at airport security checkpoints and revolutionize health screenings for diseases like anthrax, cancer and antibiotic resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

26 Mar 2008

Microbes in the guts of carpenter ants could lead to better drugs

Scientists have discovered two key proteins that guide one of the two groups of pathogenic bacteria to make their hardy outer shells -- their defense against the world.

26 Mar 2008

Update on Cairns meningococcal case

As of 3.30 this afternoon the news on the little boy with suspected meningococcal is slightly more optimistic.

26 Mar 2008

Boy diagnosed with meningococcal in far north Queensland

The boy, aged three and a half years developed a high fever on Monday and then developed a telltale rash and was diagnosed with meningococcal disease.

25 Mar 2008

The focus on HIV/AIDS has helped forget the threat of tuberculosis

A leading Australian expert has warned that the international attention devoted to HIV/AIDS has dwarfed the threat of tuberculosis (TB).

25 Mar 2008

Baby boys have higher mortality rate than girls in their first year of life

Researchers in the United States have revealed that baby boys are much more likely to die in the first year of life than baby girls.

25 Mar 2008

How Staphylococcus aureus resists our natural defenses

Researchers at the University of Washington have uncovered how the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, including the notorious MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staph aureus) "superbug" strains, resists our body's natural defenses against infection.

25 Mar 2008

Typhoid no longer an enemy of the past as study highlights risk for travellers to indian sub-continent

UK travellers visiting friends and relatives on the Indian sub-continent are carrying an unnecessary burden of typhoid and paratyphoid (also called enteric fevers), according to researchers at the Health Protection Agency.

24 Mar 2008

Fewer TB cases recorded but numbers still too high

A small decrease in UK Tuberculosis (TB) cases in 2007, compared with 2006, was reported by the Health Protection Agency today when provisional UK figures were released for World TB Day, but experts warn the number is still too high.

24 Mar 2008

A national Clostridium difficile prevalence study

The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) has announced a detailed strategy to combat Clostridium difficile-associated disease (CDAD).

24 Mar 2008

Single dose of doxycycline protects from Lyme disease

Lyme disease is the blight of countryside users but it may be prevented with a single injection, according to research published in the Journal of Medical Microbiology.

20 Mar 2008

Community-acquired staph pneumonia appears more common, including MRSA

Preliminary research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests that community acquired pneumonia (CAP) caused by the Staphylococcus aureus bacterium may be more common than originally suspected, including that caused by antibiotic resistant strains.

20 Mar 2008

Research leads to innovative therapies against cystic fibrosis

New U of T research holds promise for developing innovative therapies against cystic fibrosis and may also serve as a model for future therapies against the HIV virus.

19 Mar 2008