Infectious Diseases News and Research

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New whooping cough vaccine for adolescents and adults

In the first study of its kind, researchers at Saint Louis University have demonstrated that immunization with a new vaccine could potentially prevent more than a million cases of pertussis (whooping cough) each year in adolescents and adults.

24 Oct 2005

Hepatitis C linked to illegal blood donation in China

Research in a rural province of central China has documented that illegal blood donation practices led to high hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection rates in blood and plasma donors during the 1980s and early 1990s, and that failure to screen for HCV in transfusion recipients increased their risk of infection as well

20 Oct 2005

Survival rate of HIV-infected patients in India has risen in response to a 20-fold drop in the price of antiretroviral therapy

Many of the more than 5 million HIV-infected people living in India have been unable to obtain treatment due to the high cost. With the introduction of generic ART into India in 2000, the price of HIV drugs fell from $778 per month to $100 per month, and eventually declined even further to just $33 per month in 2003.

19 Oct 2005

How hurricanes impact public health long term

A Johns Hopkins emergency physician who spent the past five weeks working on public health issues in the Gulf Coast region following hurricane Katrina warns that the disaster's potential for wreaking havoc and damage to people's health may continue for months after the hurricane has passed.

19 Oct 2005

South Korea opens controversial international stem cell bank

South Korea has opened a bank in Seoul that will create and supply new lines of embryonic stem cells for research around the world.

19 Oct 2005

HIV drug combo Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole highly effective at preventing malaria

A drug combination used to prevent pneumonia and opportunistic bacterial infection in persons with HIV/AIDS has unexpectedly been found to be highly effective at preventing malaria, according to a study published in the November 15 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online.

18 Oct 2005

Controlling antibiotic-prescribing practices in hospitals

Plenty of promising strategies exist to control antibiotic-prescribing practices, but no single method emerges as the best for hospital patients, according to a new review of studies.

18 Oct 2005

Significant step forward in the genome era

In what promises to be a significant step forward in the genome era, the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) today announced plans to devote a portion of its large-scale sequencing capacity to efforts aimed at identifying the genetic roots of specific diseases that have long eluded gene hunters.

17 Oct 2005

Researchers shed light on a key molecular switch in T helper cells

Defects in immune system cells called T helper cells may lead to diseases characterized by a faulty inflammatory response such as autoimmunity and asthma. Understanding the molecular steps involved in how T helper cells mature may help researchers develop treatments for these diseases.

17 Oct 2005

Antibiotic moxifloxacin as a new treatment for tuberculosis

Moxifloxacin is currently approved in more than 100 countries, including the United States, as a treatment for bacterial respiratory infections, such as bronchitis, sinusitis and pneumonia.

17 Oct 2005

dnaJP1 - novel drug for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine have announced successful completion of Phase II clinical trials of a novel drug for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), one that works without suppressing the patient's immune system.

16 Oct 2005

Whooping cough vaccine 90 percent effective

A vaccine to protect adults and adolescents against illness due to Bordetella pertussis infection--or whooping cough--has proved more than 90 percent effective in a national, large-scale clinical study, according to research results published in this week's issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

12 Oct 2005

Study on childhood asthma shows home-based interventions are cost-effective

New data suggest that a home-based environmental intervention program is a cost-effective way to improve the health of inner-city children who have moderate to severe asthma.

12 Oct 2005

Tropical diseases such as sleeping sickness, schistosomiasis, river blindness, hookworm, elephantiasis, and blinding trachoma are being ignored

"The big three" infections AIDS, TB and malaria have caught the world's attention but other disabling and fatal infectious diseases in Africa are being ignored, say three eminent tropical disease researchers in the international health journal PLoS Medicine.

11 Oct 2005

Experimental HIV vaccine progresses in trials

A novel vaccine targeted to multiple HIV subtypes found worldwide has moved into the second phase of clinical testing, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) announced today.

11 Oct 2005

Bats carry SARS like virus

An international consortium headed by CAS researchers has identified that the Chinese horseshoe bat is healthy carriers of a virus that is very closely related to those causing SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome).

10 Oct 2005

Top 12 health issues facing Australian children

Alarming levels of poorer health within indigenous children and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds tops a new list of 12 major issues threatening the future health of Australia.

10 Oct 2005

New report identifies over 40 infectious agents that pose significant human health problems in the United States or abroad

Vaccines have helped eradicate and tame some of history's worst infectious diseases, but there are many more diseases out there that vaccines can help overcome. The challenges society needs to confront to unlock the future promise of vaccines against the plagues of the 21st century are the focus of a new report by the American Academy of Microbiology.

9 Oct 2005

Specific gene on chromosome 15 regulates inflammation

A team of international researchers has discovered that a specific gene on chromosome 15 regulates inflammation, a finding with implications for a wide range of disorders, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, Alzheimer's, and infections. The findings are published in the October 9 online issue of Nature Genetics.

9 Oct 2005

Avian influenza and the U.S

If a virulent strain of avian influenza ever struck the U.S. poultry industry, this country probably would fare better than many other nations due to careful biosecurity procedures in force.

9 Oct 2005