Infectious Diseases News and Research

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U.S. hospitals report infections increasing in frequency and cost

A new review of inpatient data from US hospitals shows that the number of infections caused by a common bacterium increased by over 7 percent each year from 1998 to 2003.

26 Sep 2007

Discovery of structure in malaria with potential for a vaccine target

Researchers at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet (KI) and the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control (SMI) have identified the biochemical mechanism behind the adhesive protein that give rise to particularly serious malaria in children.

25 Sep 2007

Space flight makes bacteria more infectious

Space flight has been shown to have a profound impact on human physiology as the body adapts to zero gravity environments.

25 Sep 2007

Need for better flu vaccines for seniors

Each year, seasonal flu kills approximately 36,000 people in the United States, most over age 70.

25 Sep 2007

New topical lotion safely treats nail fungus without side effects

A new topical lotion that penetrates the skin deeply enough to target and eliminate serious skin infections, but without being systemically absorbed, has shown a high degree of safety and tolerability in patients with onychomycosis, or toenail fungus, a new study has shown.

25 Sep 2007

International teams fighting deadly Ebola virus in DR Congo

Another four more cases of the Ebola virus have been confirmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, bringing the total in the country to nine to date.

24 Sep 2007

Trials of a new HIV vaccine come to an abrupt halt

Trials of a new HIV vaccine have come to an abrupt halt after it did not prevent volunteers from becoming infected.

24 Sep 2007

Clostridium difficile bacterium found on patients with no obvious signs or symptoms of disease

The bacterium that causes a highly contagious and sometimes deadly form of diarrhea is frequently carried by persons who do not have any of the disease symptoms, according to a study in the Oct. 15 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, now available online.

24 Sep 2007

Soap and warm water best for battling Clostridium difficile

Hospitals world-wide battle nosocomial infections on a daily basis.

21 Sep 2007

Brugia malayi's secrets revealed

An international team of researchers has revealed the genetic secrets of one of the world's most debilitating human parasites, Brugia malayi (B. malayi), which the World Health Organization estimates has seriously incapacitated and disfigured more than 40 million people around the globe.

21 Sep 2007

Scientists solve genetic code of parasitic worm that causes elephantiasis

More than 150 million people worldwide are infected with filarial parasites -- long, thread-like worms that can live for years inside the human body and cause severe, debilitating diseases such as elephantiasis.

21 Sep 2007

Flu virus migrates globally all year round

The influenza A virus does not lie dormant during summer but migrates globally and mixes with other viral strains before returning to the Northern Hemisphere as a genetically different virus, according to biologists who say the finding settles a key debate on what the virus does during the summer off season when it is not infecting people.

21 Sep 2007

Discovery of cause of Job's syndrome

The rare immunodeficiency disorder known as Job's syndrome is caused by a specific genetic mutation that both overstimulates and understimulates the human immune system, leading to harmful bacterial and fungal infections and the physical features characteristic of the syndrome, according to two independent groups of scientists, one from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the other from the Tokyo Medical and Dental University.

20 Sep 2007

Pregnancy may slow AIDS progression

A new study may help put to rest fears that pregnancy accelerates progression to full-blown AIDS in women with HIV receiving antiretroviral therapy.

20 Sep 2007

Drug resistance gene has spread from East Coast to Midwest

A resistance gene that allows bacteria to beat an important class of antibiotics has started to appear in microorganisms taken from Midwestern patients, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

20 Sep 2007

Gates Foundation digs down deep for TB

The fight against the global tuberculosis (TB) epidemic has received a huge boost in the form of a $280 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

20 Sep 2007

Public opinion about Alzheimer's disease among Blacks, Hispanics, and Whites

Alzheimer's disease is still a mystery to people of different races and a large percentage of people across the board are unaware that treatments are available to reduce symptoms.

18 Sep 2007

GlaxoSmithKline to pursue novel antibacterial research program for DOD

GlaxoSmithKline has announced that it has signed an agreement with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), to identify and develop a new class of antibacterials targeting both Gram negative biothreats and conventional Gram negative hospital pathogens.

18 Sep 2007

Chronic infection persists by targeting stromal cell network in lymphoid organs

One of the biggest challenges to treating infectious diseases and developing preventive vaccines is the ability of many chronic infections to suppress the immune T-cell response over time.

18 Sep 2007

What a dirty lot many American men are!

An observational study sponsored by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) and the Soap and Detergent Association (SDA), has found that almost a third of American men leave public restrooms without washing their hands.

18 Sep 2007