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Study: 15% of U.S. nursing homes receive infection control deficiency citation per year

Fifteen percent of U.S. nursing homes receive deficiency citations for infection control per year, according to a new study published in the May issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of APIC - the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.

4 May 2011

Immunetics receives NIH grant for new confirmatory test trial in Chagas' disease

Immunetics, Inc. today announced it has been awarded a $2.4 million, 3-year Phase II SBIR grant by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a division of the National Institutes of Health, to support clinical trials of the company's new confirmatory test for Chagas' disease, a serious and potentially fatal parasitic infection.

4 May 2011

SBS explores ‘superbugs’ on Insight Tuesday 10th May

Since the discovery of penicillin in the early twentieth century, antibiotics have fought infections and diseases that were once life threatening. But over time, many bacteria have become resistant to these drugs and patients are increasingly at risk.

3 May 2011

Leeds hospitals fined over levels of superbug related cases

According to latest figures the Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) superbug cases are again above allowed levels at Leeds hospitals and the hospitals are now facing a fine of £500,000 over failure to tackle the bug. As reported by the Yorkshire Evening Post earlier this year, every month that the number of MRSA cases exceeds a target agreed by health bosses, a fine of £100,000 is levied. Between April last year and the end of January, the target was breached four times.

3 May 2011

Adverse changes in sleep duration may impair cognitive function in middle-aged adults

A study in the May 1 issue of the journal Sleep describes how changes in sleep that occur over a five-year period in late middle age affect cognitive function in later life. The findings suggest that women and men who begin sleeping more or less than 6 to 8 hours per night are subject to an accelerated cognitive decline that is equivalent to four to seven years of aging.

2 May 2011

Penn State launches unique oral hygiene approach for dementia patients

Nurses who care for patients with dementia now have a tailored approach to dental hygiene for their charges, thanks to a pilot study by a team of nurses.

2 May 2011

Recent releases in Global Health

African Nations Rightly Proceed With DDT Plans: "Environmental activists inside and outside UNEP love to hate DDT and will seemingly stop at nothing to ensure it is never produced or used. But there is a macabre irony in their anti-DDT campaigns. With all the technological advancement of the 21st century that now ensures the average person born today will live longer than at any time in human history, SADC will be producing a chemical first synthesized in the 1800s.

30 Apr 2011

Boston Business Journal recognizes eClinicalWorks for continued growth

eClinicalWorks, a market leader in ambulatory clinical systems, today announced that it has been ranked number 13 as a 2011 Pacesetters honoree by the Boston Business Journal. The annual Boston Business Journal Pacesetters list honors the fastest-growing private companies in Massachusetts, ranked by revenue growth.

30 Apr 2011

Antibiotics may serve as effective treatment for appendicitis than surgery

Antibiotics rather than surgery may be the better treatment for cases of appendicitis in which the appendix hasn't burst, according to a new study.

29 Apr 2011

Positive results from Shire's Vyvanse clinical trial in schizophrenia

Shire plc, the global specialty biopharmaceutical company, today announced positive results from a signal-finding study of Vyvanse(R) Capsules assessing its effect in a prospective examination of adults with negative symptom predominant schizophrenia.

28 Apr 2011

U.N. agencies begin deploying humanitarian aid in western region of Libya

U.N. agencies have begun providing humanitarian assistance in the western region of Libya for the first time since civil unrest began in February, following an April 17 agreement between the organization and the Libyan government to allow a "humanitarian corridor," Bloomberg reports (Varner, 4/19).

21 Apr 2011

WHO team assesses medical situation in Cote d'Ivoire; EU doubles aid pledge

A WHO team has visited the western region of Cote d'Ivoire to assess damage to the medical system and identify ways to improve access to care, following months of violence after the country's presidential election last year, U.N. News Centre reports.

21 Apr 2011

IBD patients at greater risk of death if infected with Clostridium difficile

Patients admitted to hospital with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) face a sixfold greater risk of death if they become infected with Clostridium difficile, a new study has found. The researchers say IBD patients should be screened on admission to protect them from serious illness.

20 Apr 2011

Dental diagnosis and treatment for snoring and sleep apnoea

Over seven million people in Spain are at risk of developing sleep apnoea (SA), a health problem caused by obstructed air intake during sleep.

20 Apr 2011

Commonly used strategy has no effect in reducing MRSA, VRE in hospital ICUs

A new research study of the effect of a commonly used strategy to reduce the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in hospital intensive care units shows that the strategy had no significant effect. That's the surprising finding of a multisite study led by Mayo Clinic investigators.

19 Apr 2011

Study: Borna disease virus does not contain exact copies of genomic RNAs

Like bacteria, viruses have their own genome. The ends or termini of a viral RNA are especially interesting for virologists because they play an important role in reproduction and in the reaction of the innate immune system to the virus.

18 Apr 2011

Drug resistant bug plaguing the meat industry: Study

It has been found that nearly half of the meat and poultry (47 percent) sold in U.S. grocery stores is contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus (“Staph”), a bacteria linked to a wide range of human diseases, and this bacteria is resistant to at least three classes of antibiotics in more than half (52 percent) of contaminated samples. This comes from a nationwide study by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) published this week in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

17 Apr 2011

Bowel cancer surgery survival rates “worrying” experts

In a new study that looked into post-operative death rates for one of the most common cancers, trends look worrying. On average 6.7% of patients died within a month of undergoing surgery for bowel cancer in England between 1998 and 2006. Patients face a seven-fold higher risk of dying after surgery in some NHS trusts than others, the study shows.

11 Apr 2011

Bike Fed, Kimberly-Clark to offer biking challenge for adult Wisconsin residents

Kimberly-Clark's Scott Brand and the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin have teamed up to offer a free, four-month biking challenge to all adult Wisconsin residents. The goal of the first ever Scott Brand Get Up and Ride Wisconsin Challenge is to promote bicycling and provide a fun and environmentally friendly way for Wisconsin adults to improve health and wellness.

11 Apr 2011

Lonza, Roche sign agreement to commercialize MycoTOOL PCR-test

Roche and Lonza announced today that they have entered into a co-exclusive distribution agreement for the commercialization of Roche's MycoTOOL mycoplasma PCR assays.

11 Apr 2011