Infectious Diseases News and Research

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BMA(NI) response to RPA announcement

Commenting on the Ministerial announcement today, 4 February 2008, on the Review of Public Administration, Dr Ailbe Beirne, Deputy Chairman of BMA(NI) said: "We are pleased to see the Minister continues to be committed to reform of the NHS here and we will be responding in full to the consultation, once it is in the public domain."

4 Feb 2008

Researchers seek trial participants for experimental HIV vaccine called PENNVAX-B

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researchers are recruiting healthy, HIV-negative adults to participate in a phase I clinical trial of an experimental HIV vaccine called PENNVAX-B, a DNA-based vaccine which is made using synthetic DNA-based HIV genes.

4 Feb 2008

U.S. mental health survey of people with schizophrenia and providers

Mental Health America has released results of the first national online survey to examine overall healthcare in mental health settings from the perspective of both people with schizophrenia and psychiatrists.

31 Jan 2008

Texas officials studying needle-exchange program

Health officials in Bexar County, Texas, are considering if they should launch the state's first needle-exchange program in an effort to reduce the spread of HIV and other bloodborne diseases, but Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed has said that she will not hesitate to prosecute anyone who distributes needles before the program is approved, the Los Angeles Times reports (Bustillo, Los Angeles Times, 1/28).

30 Jan 2008

New nanomedicine research for prostate cancer

The Prostate Cancer Foundation, largely through the generosity of David H. Koch, has given $5 million to four institutions, including Weill Cornell Medical College, to support novel research in prostate cancer. The gift is one of the largest-ever individual donations for prostate cancer research.

29 Jan 2008

New target found for asthma

An enzyme released by mast cells in the lungs appears to play a key role in the tightening of airways that is a hallmark of asthma -- pointing to a potential new target for treatment against the illness.

29 Jan 2008

Smaller pancreatic tumors greatly increase survival odds

The odds of surviving cancer of the pancreas increase dramatically for patients whose tumors are smallest, according to a new study by researchers at Saint Louis University and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston - the first study to specifically evaluate the link between tumor size and survival rates for one of the most common and deadly cancers.

28 Jan 2008

Improved diagnosis of cutaneous leishmaniasis thanks to new techniques

Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a non-lethal disease but can have grave consequences for the patient.

25 Jan 2008

Evolutionary 'battle scars' identify enhanced antiviral activity

Rapid evolution of a protein produced by an immunity gene is associated with increased antiviral activity in humans, a finding that suggests evolutionary biology and virology together can accelerate the discovery of viral-defense mechanisms, according to researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

25 Jan 2008

Climate change will have a huge impact on human health

Climate change will have a huge impact on human health and bold environmental policy decisions are needed now to protect the world's population, according to the author of an article published in the BMJ today.

25 Jan 2008

Candidate malaria vaccine shows promise

A small clinical trial conducted by an international team of researchers in Mali has found that a candidate malaria vaccine was safe and elicited strong immune responses in the 40 Malian adults who received it.

24 Jan 2008

Most dangerous form of staph infection comes from single strain

Researchers have discovered that the most dangerous form of staph infection now occurring in the United States originates from a single strain of bacteria, not multiple strains as previously believed.

23 Jan 2008

New compounds for treating tuberculosis and malaria

University of Navarra PhD in chemistry researcher, Esther Vicente, has discovered new compounds active for treating tuberculosis and malaria.

23 Jan 2008

Studies highlight MRSA evolution and resilience

Community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) infections are caused primarily by a single strain USA300 of an evolving bacterium that has spread with "extraordinary transmissibility" throughout the United States during the past five years, according to a new study led by National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists.

22 Jan 2008

Common variations in human DNA signal lupus risk

Scientists have pinpointed a set of common variations in human DNA that signal a higher risk for lupus in women who carry them.

21 Jan 2008

Can hantavirus infection spread among humans?

In connection with last year's epidemic, a research team at Umea University in Sweden has managed for the first time to show that hantavirus exists in human saliva; this raises the question of whether this contagion can spread among humans

21 Jan 2008

How anti-TNF compounds work

Powerful drugs used to treat patients with rheumatoid arthritis have a profound, previously unrecognized effect on the immune system, breaking up molecular "training camps" for rogue cells that play an increasingly recognized role in autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.

21 Jan 2008