Infectious Diseases News and Research

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Blood cells linked to long-lasting vaccine immunity

When children receive their second measles-mumps-rubella vaccine, around the time they start kindergarten, they gain protection against all three viruses for all or most of their lives.

2 Jan 2025

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Francis Collins on supporting NIH and finding common ground

This week, KFF Health News' "What the Health?" presents a conversation with Francis Collins, former National Institutes of Health director and White House science adviser.

2 Jan 2025

Public health experts outline critical steps in handling HPAI H5N1 spread

Highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza A virus (HPAI H5N1) remains a low risk to the general public, and public health experts in the United States believe that available treatments and vaccines, as well as those in development, are sufficient to prevent severe disease.

2 Jan 2025

AI-driven surveillance system to combat emerging infectious diseases

Researchers have come up with a new way to identify more infectious variants of viruses or bacteria that start spreading in humans - including those causing flu, COVID, whooping cough and tuberculosis.

2 Jan 2025

Skin explants reveal how Ebola virus moves through the body

Ebola is a deadly hemorrhagic disease caused by a virus that is endemic in parts of East-Central and West Africa. Most people are aware that a primary route for person-to-person transmission is through contact with bodily fluids from an infected person.

1 Jan 2025

Immunocompromised adults show weaker response to RSV vaccines

Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers have shown that people 60 years or older with weakened immunity - primarily organ transplant recipients who take immunosuppressive medications to reduce the risk of rejection and others with immune system disorders - do not respond as strongly to vaccines against the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) as people in the same age group with normal immune function.

30 Dec 2024

Emergence of FC428 clone and the global spread of ceftriaxone-resistant gonorrhea

Neisseria gonorrhoeae, responsible for the sexually transmitted infection gonorrhea, is becoming increasingly difficult to treat as the pathogen has developed resistance to multiple antibiotics.

30 Dec 2024

Digital consultations not reliable for tonsillitis assessment

Digital healthcare consultations are not enough for a safe assessment of tonsillitis, according to a study from the University of Gothenburg.

27 Dec 2024

Fruit flies steal bacterial defense to survive parasitic wasps

In the continual arms race between parasites and their hosts, innovation was thought to be the key to a successful attack or defense that one-ups the competition.

24 Dec 2024

New research project aims to uncover molecular factors behind malaria’s deadliest strain

Nearly half the world's population lives in regions where malaria is endemic, with the parasite Plasmodium falciparum accounting for approximately 95% of malaria-related deaths globally.

20 Dec 2024

Solving a decades-long puzzle in leishmaniasis drug development

A breakthrough in understanding how a single-cell parasite makes ergosterol (its version of cholesterol) could lead to more effective drugs for human leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease that afflicts about 1 million people and kills about 30,000 people around the world every year.

20 Dec 2024

Reducing hand hygiene monitoring could save hospitals time and money

Hand hygiene (HH) monitoring in hospitals could be reduced significantly, allowing infection preventionists to redirect efforts toward quality improvement and patient safety initiatives, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Infection Control.

20 Dec 2024

Pregnant women must be prioritized in pandemic vaccination programs

The vast majority of women who contract bird flu during pregnancy and their unborn baby will die from the virus, according to a new study. And the findings stress the importance of early inclusion of pregnant women in public health vaccination programs during pandemics.

19 Dec 2024

Global study reports significant decline in diarrheal disease mortality

New global study reports a 60% drop in global mortality from diarrheal diseases, but children and the elderly still have the highest death rates, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

19 Dec 2024

Scientists detect rare H5N1 avian flu strain in Australian child after travel to India

A 2.5-year-old returning to Australia from India was infected with a reassortant H5N1 virus, revealing genetic mixing between avian influenza clades and gaps in South Asian surveillance.

18 Dec 2024

Researchers discover weakness in bacterial machinery that drives antibiotic resistance

Superbugs, bacteria that are immune to multiple antibiotics, pose a great challenge to modern medicine. Researchers from the B CUBE - Center for Molecular Bioengineering at TUD Dresden University of Technology and Institut Pasteur in Paris identified a weakness in the bacterial machinery that drives antibiotic resistance adaptation.

17 Dec 2024