Antibiotic News and Research

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

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

No wonder Brits worry more about MRSA than waiting lists

Scientists say they believe as many as 53 million people may carry the superbug MRSA.

21 Jun 2006

Surveillance could cut number of blood stream infections

A study from Imperial College London and Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust shows how a surveillance programme designed to monitor blood stream infections in dialysis units could cut the number of infections among patients.

19 Jun 2006

Chlorhexidine decreases risk of acquiring hospital-related ventilator-associated pneumonia

Researchers found that administering the topical antiseptic chlorhexidine to critically ill patients on mechanical ventilation greatly decreased their daily risk of acquiring deadly hospital-related ventilator-associated pneumonia.

18 Jun 2006

Safe for cystic fibrosis patients to stop using inhaled corticosteroids

In comparison to cystic fibrosis (CF) patients who regularly use inhaled corticosteroid, those who did not use these drugs for six months exhibited no positive or negative effects in terms of major disease factors.

18 Jun 2006

2006 yet 100 die in the Congo from the plague

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), as many as a hundred people have died in a suspected outbreak of pneumonic plague in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

18 Jun 2006

Hospitals, dirty hands and the risk of disease

Thousands of patients in hospitals each year are at risk of potentially fatal infections because health care workers do not wash their hands on enough occasions.

13 Jun 2006

Hysterectomy at the time of abdominal sacral colpopexy is associated with increased risk of mesh erosion in women on estrogen therapy

The surgical treatment of apical vaginal prolapse by abdominal sacral colpopexy is known to be effective.

13 Jun 2006

Are we over-dosing on antibiotics?

Dutch researchers say that a three day course of antibiotics is just as effective as the usual seven to 10 days course when it comes to treating common pneumonia.

12 Jun 2006