Antibiotic News and Research

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Antibiotics are drugs used to treat infections caused by bacteria and other microorganisms.

Boy diagnosed with meningococcal in far north Queensland

The boy, aged three and a half years developed a high fever on Monday and then developed a telltale rash and was diagnosed with meningococcal disease.

25 Mar 2008

The focus on HIV/AIDS has helped forget the threat of tuberculosis

A leading Australian expert has warned that the international attention devoted to HIV/AIDS has dwarfed the threat of tuberculosis (TB).

25 Mar 2008

Baby boys have higher mortality rate than girls in their first year of life

Researchers in the United States have revealed that baby boys are much more likely to die in the first year of life than baby girls.

25 Mar 2008

How Staphylococcus aureus resists our natural defenses

Researchers at the University of Washington have uncovered how the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, including the notorious MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staph aureus) "superbug" strains, resists our body's natural defenses against infection.

25 Mar 2008

Typhoid no longer an enemy of the past as study highlights risk for travellers to indian sub-continent

UK travellers visiting friends and relatives on the Indian sub-continent are carrying an unnecessary burden of typhoid and paratyphoid (also called enteric fevers), according to researchers at the Health Protection Agency.

24 Mar 2008

Fewer TB cases recorded but numbers still too high

A small decrease in UK Tuberculosis (TB) cases in 2007, compared with 2006, was reported by the Health Protection Agency today when provisional UK figures were released for World TB Day, but experts warn the number is still too high.

24 Mar 2008

A national Clostridium difficile prevalence study

The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) has announced a detailed strategy to combat Clostridium difficile-associated disease (CDAD).

24 Mar 2008

Single dose of doxycycline protects from Lyme disease

Lyme disease is the blight of countryside users but it may be prevented with a single injection, according to research published in the Journal of Medical Microbiology.

20 Mar 2008

Community-acquired staph pneumonia appears more common, including MRSA

Preliminary research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests that community acquired pneumonia (CAP) caused by the Staphylococcus aureus bacterium may be more common than originally suspected, including that caused by antibiotic resistant strains.

20 Mar 2008

Research leads to innovative therapies against cystic fibrosis

New U of T research holds promise for developing innovative therapies against cystic fibrosis and may also serve as a model for future therapies against the HIV virus.

19 Mar 2008

Study outlines risk of treatment-resistant infection following facelift surgery

About one-half percent of patients undergoing facelift surgery at one outpatient surgical center between 2001 and 2007 developed methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections, according to a report in the March/April issue of Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

18 Mar 2008

New chemical can kill latent tuberculosis bacteria

Success in the laboratory suggests that a new compound can point the way to preventing active tuberculosis in people infected with the latent form of the bacterium, says a team led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City.

17 Mar 2008

Study confirms link between colds and ear infections

A new five-year study at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston confirms the suspected close link between the two most common diseases of young children: colds and ear infections.

14 Mar 2008

Prescribing costs increase dramatically when people reach 65

Prescribing costs increase dramatically when people reach 65, according to a detailed analysis of more than five million patients published in the March issue of the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.

14 Mar 2008

Research could put penicillin back in battle against antibiotic resistant bugs

Research led by the University of Warwick has uncovered exactly how the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae has become resistant to the antibiotic penicillin.

13 Mar 2008

Caspase-12: MUHC researcher finds new defense mechanism against intestinal inflammation

The body's first line of defence against pathogenic bacteria that we ingest may not be the immune system but rather the cells that line the intestine.

13 Mar 2008

Combined therapeutic approach of stenting and photodynamic therapy improves survival in late stage liver cancer patients

A combined therapeutic approach of stenting and photodynamic therapy may improve survival rates for patients suffering from advanced liver bile duct cancer, according to a study published this month in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology , the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute.

12 Mar 2008

Pharmaceuticals in water supplies - Drinking Water Association response

Pharmaceutical residues found in our water supplies are a concern that metropolitan drinking water utilities take very seriously. While the scientific community does not yet know of any human health effects from trace amounts of these chemicals, the water sector is committed to finding out.

11 Mar 2008

JAMA MRSA article provides false support for CDC's 'do-nothing' status quo

A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) purports to show that screening for MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococus aureus), a simple skin or nasal swab, is not effective in reducing MRSA hospital infections ("Universal Screening for Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus at Hospital Admission and Nosocomial Infection in Surgical Patients," JAMA vol. 299, no. 10, March 12, 2008).

11 Mar 2008

Tackling antimicrobial resistance

Drug resistance is making many diseases increasingly difficult and sometimes impossible to treat, according to Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.

11 Mar 2008