Infectious Diseases News and Research

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PAHO outlines health challenges ahead

Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Director Dr. Mirta Roses today presented a report summarizing PAHO's work over the past year in the Americas, during a special session of a meeting of the region's ministers of health taking place at PAHO headquarters this week.

28 Sep 2004

Contrary to popular belief, epidemics do not occur spontaneously after a natural disaster

The belief that dead bodies pose a serious health threat often leads authorities to take misguided action, such as mass burials, which can add to the burden of suffering already experienced by survivors. This theme arose Thursday following reports that the death count in Haiti due to flooding from Tropical Storm Jeanne has now climbed above 1,013.

26 Sep 2004

Vietnam veterans had higher death rates in the first five years after discharge

Vietnam veterans had higher death rates in the first five years after discharge than veterans who did not serve in Vietnam, according to a 30-year follow-up study published in the September 27 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

26 Sep 2004

Research may lead to alternatives to antibiotic drugs for treating bacterial diseases

UCLA microbiologists report the discovery of a new class of genetic elements, similar to retroviruses, that operate in bacteria, allowing them to diversify their proteins to bind to a large variety of receptors.

23 Sep 2004

American Lung Association launches online flu shot locator

As the flu season is about to begin, the American Lung Association today launched its online "flu shot locator" to help more people find and obtain flu vaccinations in their neighborhoods.

23 Sep 2004

Potential new way to control drug-resistant bacteria

The researchers, who encountered this genetic property while working on an unrelated project, believe that this discovery could lead to the use of genetically engineered phages to treat bacterial infections that have become resistant to antibiotics.

23 Sep 2004

Amyloid growth can occur independently of oligomers

Improperly folded proteins are normally destroyed. But in a wide range of diseases, including prion (from proteinaceous and infectious) diseases and neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson disease and Alzheimer disease, amyloid fibrils, or plaques--misshapen proteins that aggregate into characteristic ropelike configurations--accumulate in tissue.

22 Sep 2004

Streptococcus bacteria uses sword and shield to fight white blood cells

A single gene called cylE within the important bacterial pathogen Group B Streptococcus (GBS), controls two factors that act together as a “sword” and “shield” to protect the bacteria from the killing effects of the immune system’s white blood cells

21 Sep 2004

Imperative that strategies to control tuberculosis include measures to treat individuals with MDR disease

Challenging the notion that multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) poses a low threat to populations, epidemiologists at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) have constructed a mathematical model of the disease variant's potential course

20 Sep 2004

New computer program helps health departments halt outbreaks

Imagine that a terrorist has just released the smallpox virus in Atlanta, and suddenly there’s a race against time to vaccinate and treat every last man, woman and child in metro Atlanta before the deadly virus can spread.

20 Sep 2004

Scientists decipher genetic code of ancient pathogen that causes the horse disease

More than 2,400 years after Hippocrates, the Greek physician born in 460 BC first described the symptoms of glanders, scientists have deciphered the genetic code of the ancient pathogen that causes the horse disease: Burkholderia mallei.

20 Sep 2004

Non-human primates should never be considered as source animals for any future clinical trials of animal-to-human transplantation

Australia’s leading health advisory body, the National Health and Medical Research Council, says there should be a five-year moratorium on any clinical research into animal-to-human whole organ transplants in Australia.

20 Sep 2004

Global health is recurrently being threatened by new and re-emerging infectious diseases

Global health is recurrently being threatened by new and re-emerging infectious diseases. Examples of new and re-emerging infectious diseases include SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), new variant CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease), avian flu and Ebola.

20 Sep 2004

Genome researchers to look at 1918 Spanish flu

University of Washington researchers will be taking part in a multi-site project examining a portion of the genome of the strain of influenza responsible for the "Spanish Flu" outbreak in 1918.

20 Sep 2004

29 percent of California women mistakenly believe a cold or flu should be treated with an antibiotic

Illustrating the extent of Americans’ lack of knowledge about antibiotics, 29 percent of California women queried mistakenly believe a cold or flu should be treated with an antibiotic, according to results of a survey being presented at the 41st Annual Meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA).

20 Sep 2004

Crucell and AIDS Vaccine Initiative have signed an exclusive license agreement to develop an AIDS vaccine

Dutch biotechnology company Crucell and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) have signed an exclusive license agreement to develop an AIDS vaccine based on Crucell’s AdVac® technology.

20 Sep 2004

Inflammation could have important implications for modern-day health care

Starting in the mid-1850s, humans began living longer due, researchers believe, to improvements in living conditions, nutrition, income levels and medicine.

18 Sep 2004

Study hints at antioxidants being able to prevent and restore hearing loss

In a preliminary study, researchers find that vitamin E may be effective in restoring sudden onset hearing loss of unknown origin (idiopathic sudden hearing loss). These findings suggest that further research may reveal the role of antioxidants in the prevention and restoration of hearing loss.

18 Sep 2004

Maggots may help decrease the risk of post-operative infections

Maggots aren’t high on most people’s favorite-animals list. But maggots - specifically, the larvae of the green blowfly, Phaenicia sericata - can be helpful for the very reason they horrify.

16 Sep 2004

Current methods of delivering health care to kids are woefully unable to cope with a pediatric disease pendulum

"There's a growing gap between where child health is moving and how we're attempting to deliver health care to kids," said pediatrician and health policy researcher Paul Wise, MD, MPH.

15 Sep 2004

Infectious Diseases News and Research

PAHO outlines health challenges ahead

Contrary to popular belief, epidemics do not occur spontaneously after a natural disaster

Vietnam veterans had higher death rates in the first five years after discharge

Research may lead to alternatives to antibiotic drugs for treating bacterial diseases

American Lung Association launches online flu shot locator

Potential new way to control drug-resistant bacteria

Amyloid growth can occur independently of oligomers

Streptococcus bacteria uses sword and shield to fight white blood cells

Imperative that strategies to control tuberculosis include measures to treat individuals with MDR disease

New computer program helps health departments halt outbreaks

Scientists decipher genetic code of ancient pathogen that causes the horse disease

Non-human primates should never be considered as source animals for any future clinical trials of animal-to-human transplantation

Global health is recurrently being threatened by new and re-emerging infectious diseases

Genome researchers to look at 1918 Spanish flu

29 percent of California women mistakenly believe a cold or flu should be treated with an antibiotic

Crucell and AIDS Vaccine Initiative have signed an exclusive license agreement to develop an AIDS vaccine

Inflammation could have important implications for modern-day health care

Study hints at antioxidants being able to prevent and restore hearing loss

Maggots may help decrease the risk of post-operative infections

Current methods of delivering health care to kids are woefully unable to cope with a pediatric disease pendulum

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