Antibiotic News and Research

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

Antioxidants may protect against Rocky Mountain spotted fever and other tick-borne illness

For hikers, campers and others who enjoy the outdoors, summer can bring concerns about tick bites and related illnesses such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

9 Aug 2006

Probiotic drinks - not all brands live up to claims

According to experts as many as half of all probiotic health drinks do not contain the healthy bacteria they claim on the label.

8 Aug 2006

Oragenics issued new patent for novel antibiotic peptide

Oragenics has announced that the US Patent office has issued a fourth patent (No. 7,067,125), that further describes the composition and uses of the company's exclusively licensed novel antibiotic peptide, MU1140.

8 Aug 2006

Chinese antibiotic suspected of being a killer jab

An antibiotic which is suspected to be responsible for three deaths has been banned in China and all stocks have been recalled.

6 Aug 2006

Reappraisal of Pseudomonas aeruginosa hospital-acquired pneumonia mortality

Patients suffering from hospital-acquired pneumonia caused by a type of bacteria that is highly resistant to virtually all antibiotics are twice as likely to die as patients infected with other, less resistant bacteria.

6 Aug 2006

New rules for hospital visitors in the UK

A major hospital group in the UK has banned visitors from sitting on patients' beds in hospital in an attempt to curb the spread of the superbug MRSA.

2 Aug 2006

New, shorter tuberculosis treatments could advance control

The introduction of new, shorter treatments for tuberculosis could have a dramatic effect on global efforts to reduce the number of cases and deaths from tuberculosis, according to a new study published in PLoS Medicine.

2 Aug 2006

HHS to stockpile Anthrax immune globulin

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced it will purchase 10,000 therapeutic courses of treatment of Anthrax Immune Globulin (AIG) from Cangene Corporation of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada for a total of $143,833,719.

30 Jul 2006

New group B strep test for newborn babies approved

The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday approved a new test studied at the University of Florida that could lead to better screening for the most common cause of infection in newborn babies.

27 Jul 2006

Honey more effective than antibiotics

A household remedy millennia old is being reinstated: honey helps the treatment of some wounds better than the most modern antibiotics.

27 Jul 2006

Research findings may speed the development of vaccines for Chlamydia and other STDs

Using a novel mouse model that allows scientists to study how the immune system’s fighter cells respond to invaders in the genital tract during the initial stage of infection, researchers have found a way to track immunity against Chlamydia trachomatis.

26 Jul 2006

Antibiotics should not used to treat a runny nose

Antibiotics should not be given to patients with acute purulent rhinitis (a runny nose with coloured discharge), a familiar feature of the common cold, concludes a study published on the British Medical Journal website.

21 Jul 2006

Conjugate vaccines for preventing meningococcal C meningitis and septicaemia

A new systematic review suggests that a certain kind of vaccine may help to protect babies and small children from a devastating killer: meningococcal meningitis.

19 Jul 2006

Dieting may not help cancer patients

One study, a meta-analysis of 59 trials, found little evidence that diet is associated with survival or prognosis.

19 Jul 2006

Crohn's disease - possible genetic cause found

Patients with Crohn's disease of the colon have one copy less than healthy persons of the beta-defensin 2 gene, a gene coding for an important defense molecule of the body.

17 Jul 2006

Children with chronic otitis media have biofilms in their middle ears

Direct evidence of bacterial biofilms has been found on the middle ear tissue of children who suffer from chronic ear infections

12 Jul 2006

Focussing on performance measures may lead to inappropriate antibiotic use

Patients with suspected pneumonia may receive antibiotics unnecessarily as a result of hospital and physician efforts to meet certain performance measures.

10 Jul 2006

A honey of a cure

A cancer hospital in Manchester is importing Manuka honey from New Zealand to treat patients following surgery for mouth and throat cancers.

10 Jul 2006

Insecurity fans spread of pneumonic plague in Congo

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) urged its international partners to help contain an outbreak of the highly contagious pneumonic plague in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

27 Jun 2006

Staphylococcus-killing substances from fish slime

How would you feel about taking medicine made from fish slime? Researchers have found that the slime that covers the flat-fish plaice contains a substance that kills staphylococcus.

26 Jun 2006