Infectious Diseases News and Research

RSS

Kennedy’s HHS sent Congress ‘junk science’ to defend vaccine changes, experts say

A document the Department of Health and Human Services sent to lawmakers to support Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s decision to change U.S. policy on covid vaccines cites scientific studies that are unpublished or under dispute and mischaracterizes others.

13 Jun 2025

Yellow pigment linked to protection against severe malaria

New research suggests that a pigment that causes yellowing of the skin, or jaundice, may help protect people from the most severe consequences of malaria.

13 Jun 2025

Unexpected protein production in immune cells may fuel gut inflammation

Scientists have discovered that certain immune cells — called neutrophils — can start making a protein called DUOX2 that they usually do not produce.

11 Jun 2025

Mental recovery after COVID lags behind physical recovery

New research finds that people with COVID-like symptoms returned to optimal physical well-being an average of three months after infection, but took up to nine months to return to top mental well-being.

10 Jun 2025

What happened when 13,768 people started eating more mindfully?

Higher mindful eating scores are linked to healthier plant-based diets and less meat and dairy consumption among French adults. The study identifies specific psychological traits that help drive positive dietary choices.

9 Jun 2025

UC Davis researchers call for global action on antifungal resistance

UC Davis infectious diseases experts George Thompson and Angel Desai are raising the alarm about the role new pesticides can play in building resistance to antifungal medical treatments.

9 Jun 2025

Measles poses serious risks for pregnant people amid rising cases in Canada

Measles is on the rise in Canada and poses serious risks to pregnant people and their newborns, yet discussion about how to protect this vulnerable group is notably lacking.

9 Jun 2025

‘We dissent’: NIH workers protest Trump policies that ‘harm the health of Americans’

Hundreds of workers at the National Institutes of Health on Monday openly protested the Trump administration’s cuts to the agency and consequences for human lives, writing in a sharply worded letter that its actions are causing "a dramatic reduction in life-saving research."

9 Jun 2025

Late-life mood disorders may signal neurodegenerative diseases

Depression and bipolar disorder of late onset may represent more than just mental health conditions. Growing evidence suggests these late-life mood disorders (LLMDs) could be not merely risk factors, but rather early warning signs of neurodegenerative diseases like dementia, even when they appear years before memory loss or other cognitive symptoms become apparent.

9 Jun 2025

Scientists unlock potential of cytokine adjuvants in mRNA vaccines

In the quest to design vaccines that better help the body's immune system fight disease, scientists are always looking for more tools for their arsenal.

6 Jun 2025

New AI tool revolutionizes forecasting of disease outbreaks

A new AI tool to predict the spread of infectious disease outperforms existing state-of-the-art forecasting methods.

6 Jun 2025

Compact diagnostic platform enables rapid COVID-19 antibody testing from fingertip blood

Researchers from the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (SIAT), Chinese Academy of Sciences, along with multiple collaborators, have developed a compact diagnostic platform that can evaluate antibody protection against COVID-19 using only a single microliter of fingertip blood.

5 Jun 2025

Norovirus GII.17 overtakes GII.4 as the dominant strain in US outbreaks

Norovirus GII.17 has rapidly overtaken GII.4 as the leading cause of norovirus outbreaks in the United States between 2022 and 2025. This unprecedented shift signals an urgent need for continued genomic surveillance and preparedness for future outbreak trends.

4 Jun 2025

Mass treatment with the antibiotic azithromycin may lead to increased drug resistance

Efforts to reduce child mortality in Africa via mass treatment with the antibiotic azithromycin (AZM) may lead to increased drug resistance in bacteria that frequently cause pneumonia and meningitis, highlighting the need for careful monitoring, finds a new study led by UCL.

4 Jun 2025

Individual immune variation shapes the evolution of influenza strains

A new study has shown that person-to-person variation in antibody immunity plays a key role in shaping which influenza (flu) strains dominate in a population.

3 Jun 2025

Real world data confirms effectiveness of nirsevimab in young infants with bronchiolitis

A single dose of the long-acting antibody nirsevimab developed to prevent respiratory syncytial virus infections (The drug has been approved at the European level to protect infants in their first season of exposure to the virus) to infants can halve hospitalizations for bronchiolitis.

3 Jun 2025

Study: New mRNA vaccine is more scalable and adaptable to continuously evolving viruses

A new type of mRNA vaccine is more scalable and adaptable to continuously evolving viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 and H5N1, according to a study by researchers at University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health and the Pennsylvania State University.

3 Jun 2025

Study uncovers how HSV-1 disables the brain's antiviral defense

Infections caused by herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) can lead to HSV-1 encephalitis-a rare but deadly condition that inflames the brain.

3 Jun 2025

Portable paper chip enables multiplex testing of infectious diseases

A team of scientists at NYU Abu Dhabi has developed a breakthrough paper-based diagnostic device that can detect COVID-19 and other infectious diseases in under 10 minutes, without the need for sophisticated lab equipment or trained personnel.

2 Jun 2025

New compound infuzide shows promise against resistant bacterial infections

Antimicrobial resistance directly causes more than 1 million deaths every year and contributes to more than 35 million more, according to the World Health Organization. Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus sp., 2 gram-positive pathogens highly likely to develop resistance to known treatments, can cause dangerous hospital-acquired and community-acquired infections.

2 Jun 2025