Infectious Diseases News and Research

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Tuberculosis research

It is estimated that two billion people--or one-third of the world's population--are chronically infected without active symptoms. Nine million new cases of active disease are diagnosed annually, resulting in two million deaths.

26 Nov 2005

Passenger and crew lists on demand will protect America from disease say US health officials

U.S. health officials, using the excuse that they need to protect Americans from bird flu and other diseases, are proposing regulations that will require airlines and shipping firms to hand over passenger and crew lists on demand and expand how they report serious illnesses.

24 Nov 2005

Who gets bird flu vaccine first when there's not enough to go round?

According to the top health official in the U.S., it will be three to five years before the United States can produce enough bird flu vaccine to inoculate its population against a potentially deadly outbreak in humans.

21 Nov 2005

Possible viral cause of Kawasaki disease identified

In an important discovery in infectious disease research, a team of scientists from Northwestern University has identified a possible viral cause of Kawasaki disease, the most common cause of acquired heart disease in children in developed nations.

20 Nov 2005

People taking highly active antiretroviral therapy for HIV infection remain susceptible to tuberculosis

...though the risk is lower than for HIV-infected patients not on HAART, according to an article in the Dec. 15 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, now available online.

13 Nov 2005

Nine percent of children allergic to almonds, pecans, cashews and other tree nuts outgrow their allergy over time

Their study, reported in the November issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, also found that clinicians can use blood levels of tree nut antibody (TN-IgE) as an accurate guideline in estimating the likelihood that a child has outgrown the allergy.

10 Nov 2005

Flu expert calls for mandatory vaccination of health care workers

Johns Hopkins' senior hospital epidemiologist and flu expert is calling for mandatory vaccination of all health care workers as the best means of protecting patients and hospital staff from widespread outbreaks of the viral illness.

10 Nov 2005

Specific bacterial markers for bacterial vaginosis discovered

Findings reported in this week's New England Journal of Medicine (November 3 issue) highlight promising findings from two Seattle-based researchers on the origins of bacterial vaginosis (BV).

7 Nov 2005

New Flu Chip can determine the genetic make-up of types of flu virus in 11 hours

A novel "Flu Chip" developed at the University of Colorado at Boulder that can determine the genetic signatures of specific influenza strains from patient samples within hours may help world health officials combat coming epidemics and pandemics.

7 Nov 2005

HIV antiretroviral therapy does help those in third world

With preliminary results from a study in Botswana, Harvard School of Public Health researchers have found that people with HIV-1 subtype C in resource-poor settings, who receive antiretroviral (ARV) therapy, can achieve comparable results to those in the developed world.

7 Nov 2005

Study proves the effectiveness of Vfend for the treatment of candidemia

Using Vfend (voriconazole) for the treatment of nonneutropenic patients with candidemia, an often-fatal hospital-acquired bloodstream infection, is as effective as a regimen of two older antifungals and carries fewer serious side effects than that regimen.

7 Nov 2005

Fundamental insight about protein evolution

While searching for new targets for malaria drugs and vaccines, a team including a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) medical student fellow reached a fundamental insight about evolution: different species make use of similar sets of proteins in different ways.

3 Nov 2005

New findings on bacterial vaginosis

Despite being one of the most common infections among women, scientists and doctors know little about the causes of bacterial vaginosis (BV), a usually benign disease that is also linked to serious health problems including pelvic inflammatory disease

3 Nov 2005

Vaginal gel shown to protect female monkeys against an HIV-like virus

Research with female monkeys at the Tulane National Primate Research Center has for the first time shown that three different anti-viral agents in a vaginal gel protect the animals against an HIV-like virus.

1 Nov 2005

Breastfeeding does not raise the risk of mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis C virus

One study found that infant girls are twice as likely to be infected as infant boys. Both studies provide new information with which to counsel pregnant women infected with HCV. Taken together, the two new studies expand upon preliminary data from smaller studies of mother-to-child transmission of HCV.

1 Nov 2005

Alternative health protection measures against MRSA

Doctors might be better off washing their hands with yoghurt instead of relying on antiseptic soap-scrubbing, according to a new discussion paper by a UCL (University College London) researcher.

1 Nov 2005

New vaccine that targets avian flu

Vanderbilt University Medical Center is enrolling volunteers in a study to test a new vaccine that targets avian flu, the first such vaccine against the virus.

30 Oct 2005

$107.6 million grant for malaria vaccine candidate

In an important step toward developing an effective malaria vaccine, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced a $107.6 million grant to the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) to extend the public-private partnership between MVI and GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals (GSK Bio) to develop GSK Bio's malaria vaccine for children in Africa.

30 Oct 2005

Vaccination against measles could prevent many more cases of SSPE, than previously thought

A new study has found wild-type measles virus in tissues from patients who died of a fatal brain infection, providing evidence against the notion that the strain of virus in the measles vaccine caused the infection.

30 Oct 2005

National target for reducing the rate of MRSA infection impossible to assess reliably

Chance makes it impossible to assess reliably whether hospitals are meeting government targets to reduce MRSA infections, argues a statistics expert in this week's British Medical Journal.

30 Oct 2005