Infectious Diseases News and Research

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Umbilical cord proteins may explain lifelong health effects of low birth weight

Researchers have long sought to discover why babies who weigh less than expected at birth, a condition known as small for gestational age, or SGA, are at higher risk for heart, lung and metabolic diseases as adults.

2 Jul 2026

COVID-19 vaccine boosters may protect against future animal coronavirus outbreaks

COVID-19 vaccine boosters not only protect against SARS‑CoV‑2 – the virus behind the most recent pandemic – but may also help protect against some future coronaviruses that risk spreading from animals to humans, Cambridge researchers have shown.

1 Jul 2026

New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in primate studies

A groundbreaking new HIV vaccine has shown unprecedented success in primates-and data published in Nature suggest the vaccine has the potential to protect humans from developing HIV infection and AIDS.

30 Jun 2026

Review highlights strong safety and effectiveness of mRNA vaccines

A comprehensive new review published in The Lancet affirms that currently approved mRNA vaccines are safe and highly effective at preventing infectious diseases, including COVID-19.

30 Jun 2026

New anti-lipid antibodies could improve diagnosis of Lyme disease

Lyme disease can be easiest to treat in its earliest stages, but current tests often miss infections during that critical window and cannot tell whether bacteria are still present or were cleared years ago.

30 Jun 2026

COVID-19 vaccine boosters may help protect against future animal coronaviruses

30 Jun 2026

New schistosomiasis vaccine induces robust immune memory responses

For a vaccine to be effective, it must do two things. First, it must trigger an immune response. Second, the vaccine must train the body to remember the response so it can fight that same disease in the future.

29 Jun 2026

New discovery sheds light on how the human body controls Salmonella infections

Salmonella, an infection that causes diarrhea, fever, and abdominal pain, is the most common form of bacterial food poisoning in the U.S., sickening more than a million people each year.

26 Jun 2026

Rare Ebola strain may spread beyond Congo, study warns

A rare strain of Ebola that began spreading undetected in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in early April 2026 has now confirmed transmission in Uganda and is potentially on course to reach South Sudan, according to a new modelling study from the World Health Organization (WHO) published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal.

25 Jun 2026

European project receives €15 million to study phage-based therapies

Bacteria are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics. One alternative is treatment with viruses that exclusively infect bacteria, known as phages.

25 Jun 2026

Study reveals early immune clues to predict active tuberculosis risk

An early view of the immune response to bacteria in the lungs provides clues as to why some people keep TB in check, while others develop disease, suggesting new ways to intervene earlier and stop TB.

24 Jun 2026

Scientists discover how fat tissue drives the spread of triple-negative breast cancer

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is aggressive and hard to treat. But the role of fat tissue in how the cancer spreads may help point toward new understanding and treatments, according to a new paper from scientists at the Hackensack Meridian Center for Discovery and Innovation (CDI) and colleagues at Georgetown University's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.

23 Jun 2026

MSU researchers develop tool to observe complex molecular choreography in real time

A lot of things need to go right on a molecular level for immune cells to launch an adaptive response to an infection.

23 Jun 2026

NIH funding supports development of AI tools to prevent HIV, hepatitis C and overdose

Natasha Martin, DPhil, professor and vice chief of Global Public Health in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health at UC San Diego School of Medicine, has been awarded a five-year, $5.6 million Avant-Garde Award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), one of the most prestigious and competitive NIH research awards.

23 Jun 2026

New vaccines successfully boost frontline immune cells against HIV

T-cells are the immune system's frontline defenders with a crucial role in controlling HIV. In a milestone clinical trial published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers with the UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases (IGHID) at the UNC School of Medicine have demonstrated that new vaccines can significantly boost T cells targeting the most vulnerable, conserved regions of HIV-areas considered key to effective immune control.

22 Jun 2026

How clinicians can identify and manage Ebola, hantavirus

Two deadly infectious diseases, Ebola https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.260834 and hantavirus https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.260789, have made headlines in recent weeks as they pose serious threats to public health.

22 Jun 2026

Plague emerged earlier than thought and hit hunter-gatherers hard

Ancient DNA from 46 Lake Baikal hunter-gatherers revealed two early plague outbreak phases about 5,500 years ago, with Yersinia pestis detected in 18 individuals. The findings suggest these basal plague strains caused lethal, child-heavy outbreaks long before dense farming societies, cities, or classical flea-borne bubonic plague emerged.

21 Jun 2026

Scientists find mechanism behind bird flu infections in dairy cattle

When H5N1 bird flu first began infecting U.S. cattle in early 2024, diagnosis was elusive, because in cows, the disease looked completely different.

19 Jun 2026

New diagnostic tools aim to bridge long Covid knowledge gap

Five years after the first cases, patients with long Covid continue to go through months or years before receiving a diagnosis.

18 Jun 2026

Emergency departments could help boost annual flu vaccination rates

A University of California, Riverside-led study of more than 3,200 emergency department (ED) patients across the United States found that while awareness of influenza vaccination is widespread, most adults seen in EDs are not up to date on their annual flu vaccine.

17 Jun 2026