Infectious Diseases News and Research

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House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health gains 7 new members

"The subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee that oversees international health issues, including infectious disease, maternal and child health and global health programs, and population programs, as well as human rights issues and agencies, has seven new members," the Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" reports and "profiles the four new Republicans to join the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations."

30 Jan 2013

HIV-positive patients have higher incidence of non-melanoma skin cancers

HIV-positive patients have a higher incidence of non-melanoma skin cancers, according to a Kaiser Permanente study that appears in the current online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Specifically, basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas occur more than twice as often among HIV-positive individuals compared to those who are HIV-negative.

30 Jan 2013

Phenformin decreases size of lung tumors and increases survival in mice

Ever since discovering a decade ago that a gene altered in lung cancer regulated an enzyme used in therapies against diabetes, Reuben Shaw has wondered if drugs originally designed to treat metabolic diseases could also work against cancer.

30 Jan 2013

High-frequency oscillatory ventilation put on hold

Findings from two trials suggest that high-frequency oscillatory ventilation does not help, and may even harm patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome.

29 Jan 2013

New tweet-screening method effectively tracks flu cases

Sifting through social media messages has become a popular way to track when and where flu cases occur, but a key hurdle hampers the process: how to identify flu-infection tweets. Some tweets are posted by people who have been sick with the virus, while others come from folks who are merely talking about the illness. If you are tracking actual flu cases, such conversations about the flu in general can skew the results.

29 Jan 2013

Common myths about flu from Mayo Clinic

It seems you can't go anywhere these days without hearing "the flu this" or "the flu that." Unfortunately, this season's influenza outbreak is one of the worst in years. And it's not just the flu virus that's causing problems; there are also many myths about the flu that are keeping people from doing more to prevent it.

29 Jan 2013

Scientists discover four processes by which gastric cancer is formed

Scientists at A*STAR's Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) headed a study that discovered four processes by which gastric cancer is formed. This is extremely important since gastric cancer is the second most common cause of cancer deaths worldwide, claiming almost 750,000 lives annually, 60% of which are Asians.

29 Jan 2013

Janssen, Medivir and Idenix partner for clinical development of HCV combination therapy

Medivir AB today announced a non-exclusive collaboration between Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Janssen) and Idenix Pharmaceuticals for the clinical development of an all-oral (interferon-free) direct-acting antiviral (DAA) hepatitis C (HCV) combination therapy.

29 Jan 2013

Breathprints identify lung infections in mice

Researchers working with a mouse model have developed a technique for creating “breathprints” that flag up whether or not the animals have a lung infection.

28 Jan 2013

Germany commits to providing 1B euros to Global Fund through 2016

"Germany will give one billion euros $1.3 billion to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the country's minister for economic cooperation and development Dirk Niebel said Thursday" during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, CNN reports.

28 Jan 2013

Evidence links HPV16 to focal cortical dysplasia type IIB

Researchers at Shriner's Hospital Pediatric Research Center at the Temple University School of Medicine, and the University of Pennsylvania have evidence linking the human papillomavirus 16 (HPV16) - the most common cause of cervical cancer - to a common form of childhood epilepsy.

28 Jan 2013

Daily antibacterial baths can safely reduce risk of bloodstream infections in critically ill children

Daily baths with an ordinary antibacterial cleanser can safely reduce the risk of dangerous bloodstream infections in critically ill children, according to a trial conducted in five pediatric hospitals and led by investigators at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center.

28 Jan 2013

New evidence supports thrombolysis in presence of contraindications

A Norwegian study offers further evidence to support the use of intravenous thrombolysis to treat stroke even in patients with contraindications to the drug.

25 Jan 2013

Antibiotic use common at the end of life

More than one-quarter of hospice patients receive antibiotics in their last week of life, despite the absence of documented infection in most cases, US researchers report.

25 Jan 2013

Breathprints identify lung infections in mice

Researchers working with a mouse model have developed a technique for creating “breathprints” that flag up whether or not the animals have a lung infection.

25 Jan 2013

Tailored treatments and PSA screenings required to improve health outcomes in Ghana

Infectious diseases in Ghana tend to capture the most attention, but a quiet crisis may soon take over as the country's most threatening epidemic: cancer.

25 Jan 2013

Pediatric rotavirus vaccination indirectly protects unvaccinated adults

Pediatric rotavirus vaccination also indirectly protects unvaccinated adults from the highly contagious cause of severe diarrhea and vomiting, suggests a new study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases and available online.

25 Jan 2013

Voluntary moratorium on H5N1 research ends; fate of U.S.-funded research unknown

"Almost a year after they announced it, leading influenza researchers are ending a voluntary moratorium on certain types of controversial experiments involving the H5N1 avian influenza virus."

25 Jan 2013

CDC recognizes Mayo Clinic as Regional TB Training and Medical Consultation Center

Mayo Clinic has been designated a Regional Tuberculosis Training and Medical Consultation Center by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). As such, it will be responsible for developing new and enhanced training and technical support for medical and public health professionals in an 11-state area.

25 Jan 2013

Study highlights the need for more targeted antibiotic therapy in cancer patients

What cancerous conditions lead to what kinds of bacterial infections? If doctors knew, they could predict which patients would likely benefit from pre-treatment with certain kinds of antibiotics.

25 Jan 2013