Infectious Diseases News and Research

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Resistance to anti-HIV drugs in Uganda developed due to drug supply problems

Some HIV-infected patients in Uganda who self-paid for their antiretroviral medications experienced interruptions in drug supply due to either financial demands or supply logistical disruptions.

24 Apr 2007

Enigma Diagnostics appoints Dr Lynn Busteed as CEO

Enigma Diagnostics has announced the appointment of Dr Lynn Busteed as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and a member of the Board of Directors.

24 Apr 2007

Discovery of new virus

Scientists in the Greene Infectious Disease Laboratory of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and colleagues in the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory in Melbourne, Australia and 454 Life Sciences have discovered a new virus that was responsible for the deaths of three transplant recipients who received organs from a single donor in Victoria, Australia.

24 Apr 2007

Developing world can expect a 'pandemic of cancer' by 2020

The developing world is expected to account for more than half of all cancer cases in the world by 2020 say medical experts.

23 Apr 2007

M. D. Anderson wins $8.3-million to research environmental causes of major diseases

An $8.3-million federal grant to The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Science Park - Research Division addresses the complex interplay between such varied factors as genetics, diet, and environmental exposure to toxins that cause cancer, asthma, diabetes, cardiovascular and other diseases.

21 Apr 2007

Fewer heart patients need antibiotics before dental procedures to prevent infective endocarditis

Based on a review of new and existing scientific evidence, most dental patients with heart disease do not need antibiotics before dental procedures to prevent infective endocarditis (IE), a rare, but life-threatening heart infection.

20 Apr 2007

Steroids for acute sinusitis

Every year, nearly 37 million Americans suffer from the sinus pressure, nasal congestion, cough and postnasal drip that accompany sinusitis.

19 Apr 2007

New risk maps identify geographic areas predicting spread of avian flu

The 2003 epidemic of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in the Netherlands is the only recent epidemic of HPAI in the developed world.

19 Apr 2007

Staph infections among hospitalized patients are on the rise

The study, conducted by Gary Noskin, MD, infectious disease specialist and associate chief medical officer at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, also revealed that the increase in staph infections is resulting in millions of dollars of excess healthcare costs due to longer hospitalizations.

17 Apr 2007

Silver Award for advances in the prevention of HIV perinatal transmission

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia presented J. Brooks Jackson, M.D., MBA, of Johns Hopkins University with the Herman and Gertrude Silver Award for his internationally prominent work in preventing the transmission of HIV from infected mothers to their newborn babies.

17 Apr 2007

Most-at-risk nursing home residents to be tested for superbugs

A Johns Hopkins study of adult patients admitted to The Johns Hopkins Hospital showed that patients who resided in nursing homes or other kinds of long-term care facilities at any time within the last six months were far more likely than other adult patients to carry or be infected with a drug-resistant superbug.

17 Apr 2007

Johns Hopkins to test all children for 'superbugs'

Infection control and critical care experts at The Johns Hopkins Hospital have ordered testing for the two most common hospital superbugs for every child admitted to its pediatric intensive care unit.

17 Apr 2007

H5N1 western genomes sequenced

In a paper in the May issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases , an international team of researchers report the first ever large-scale sequencing of western genomes of the deadly avian influenza virus, H5N1.

17 Apr 2007

New tumor antigen found with new cloning technique

In recent years, researchers have worked to develop a number of vaccines to help the immune system fight tumors.

16 Apr 2007

USAID provides assistance to Burkina Faso for outbreak of meningitis

The United States Government, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), will provide $450,000 through the U.S. Embassy in Ouagadougou to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) for vaccines urgently needed to maintain control of an outbreak of meningitis.

15 Apr 2007

Mapping rhesus macaque genome helps illuminate what makes us human

Researchers have sequenced the genome of the relatively ancient rhesus macaque ( Macaca mulatta ), providing perspective into how humans are genetically different from our primate relatives.

15 Apr 2007

Coley Pharmaceutical licenses VaxImmune to Merck

Coley Pharmaceutical Group has announced that Merck & Co has licensed Coley's VaxImmune vaccine adjuvant for incorporation into vaccines being developed by Merck for certain infectious diseases and Alzheimer's disease.

15 Apr 2007

New vaccine to prevent type-1 polio three times as effective as standard vaccine

The study found that each dose of the new monovalent oral poliovirus vaccine, known as mOPV1, protected 30% of susceptible children in northern India against paralytic poliomyelitis. The standard trivalent vaccine in the same setting protected just 11% of children per dose.

12 Apr 2007

Analysis of Rhesus monkey genome provides new clues to primate biology

An international consortium of researchers has published the genome sequence of the rhesus macaque monkey and aligned it with the chimpanzee and human genomes.

12 Apr 2007

HPV scientists to be honored

The potential for a new vaccine to eliminate cervical cancer caused by the human papillomavirus, or HPV, will be celebrated during the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center's eighth annual Discovery Ball on Saturday, April 28, at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center.

11 Apr 2007