Disease/Infection News

RSS

Educating pediatricians on appropriate antibiotic usage can improve outcomes in children’s infections

As disease-causing microbes continue their worrisome trend of developing resistance to commonly used antibiotics, public health experts have called for more selective use of those medicines. A new study suggests that educating pediatricians in their offices, and auditing their prescription patterns, encourages them to choose more appropriate antibiotics for children with common respiratory infections.

14 Jun 2013

New research finding raises questions about common mutant forms of JC polyomavirus

The JC polyomavirus is clearly opportunistic. It infects half the population but lethally destroys brain tissue only in immunocompromised patients - and it may be outright sneaky, too. Even as a new research paper allays fears that common mutant forms of the virus are the ones directly responsible for the disease's main attack, that same finding raises new questions about what the mutants are doing instead.

14 Jun 2013

Study: Shiga toxin-producing E. coli survive longer in recreational water, can prove dangerous to humans

A toxin dangerous to humans may help E. coli fend off aquatic predators, enabling strains of E. coli that produce the toxin to survive longer in lake water than benign counterparts, a new study finds.

14 Jun 2013

Emergency department doctors are not identifying pelvic inflammatory disease in adolescent girls

Despite government efforts to expand diagnostic criteria for pelvic inflammatory disease, emergency department doctors are not identifying the condition any more often in adolescent girls, finds a new study in Journal of Adolescent Health.

14 Jun 2013

Experts raise awareness about the importance of flu vaccine

The last flu season arrived four weeks early, was more intense than expected and resulted in the deaths of more than 110 children in the United States. In an effort to get ahead of the upcoming flu season, experts at Montefiore Medical Center are raising awareness about the importance of the flu vaccine, which remains the best option to reduce a person's risk of contracting the virus. The flu season can start as early as late September and usually runs for about 12 to 15 weeks.

14 Jun 2013

Researchers create guidelines to reduce staph infections after surgery

Staph infections in hospitals are a serious concern, so much so that the term Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is as commonly known as MRI. Far less known is that in many of these cases, patients are infecting themselves.

13 Jun 2013

Microbiologist uses new Geographic Information System to track deadly outbreaks of drug-resistant TB

TORONTO, ON - Professor Frances Jamieson at the University of Toronto's Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology (LMP), and Medical Microbiologist, Public Health Ontario, is leading the way in tracking potentially deadly outbreaks of tuberculosis (TB) with a powerful new Geographic Information System (GIS) application, known as Ontario Universal Typing - Tuberculosis (OUT-TB) Web.

13 Jun 2013

Value of vaccinating children, young adults for influenza underestimated, experts say

The huge value of vaccinating more children and young adults for influenza is being seriously underestimated, experts say in a new report, while conventional wisdom and historic vaccine programs have concentrated on the elderly and those at higher risk of death and serious complications.

13 Jun 2013

Glycoproteins in saliva of older people are more efficient in binding to influenza

Spit. Drool. Dribble. Saliva is not normally a topic of polite conversation, but it may be the key to explaining the age and sex bias exhibited by influenza and other diseases, according to a new study.

13 Jun 2013

WHO issues interim policy guidance on inclusion of bedaquiline to treat adults with MDR-TB

WHO estimates that up to half a million new cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis occur worldwide, each year. Current treatment regimens for MDR-TB present many challenges: treatment lasts 20 months or more, requiring daily administration of drugs that are more toxic, less effective, and far more expensive than those used to treat drug-susceptible TB.

13 Jun 2013

Solution-based circuit chip for rapid, multiplexed detection of pathogens

Life-threatening bacterial infections cause tens of thousands of deaths every year in North America. Increasingly, many infections are resistant to first-line antibiotics. Unfortunately, current methods of culturing bacteria in the lab can take days to report the specific source of the infection, and even longer to pinpoint the right antibiotic that will clear the infection.

13 Jun 2013

NTU develops social media-based system that can predict dengue outbreaks

When it comes to stopping dengue, social media posts, tweets and a web system may be just what the doctor ordered.

12 Jun 2013

Scientists use mathematical tools to identify animal species that transmit diseases to humans

Spanish and US scientists have successfully identified animal species that can transmit more diseases to humans by using mathematical tools similar to those applied to the study of social networks like Facebook or Twitter.

12 Jun 2013

Bacterium that causes gum disease delivers one-two punch by triggering protective proteins in oral cavity

The newly discovered bacterium that causes gum disease delivers a one-two punch by also triggering normally protective proteins in the mouth to actually destroy more bone, a University of Michigan study found.

12 Jun 2013

Background mortality rates can be used to communicate vaccine safety risks

In a study using the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD), investigators analyzed four years of data and determined that background mortality rates (rates of death irrespective of cause) are crucial in interpreting the numbers of deaths following vaccination.

12 Jun 2013

Study shows iron-uptake receptor plays a role in HCV infection

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infects more than 170 million people worldwide. Approximately 80 percent of infections lead to chronic illness including fibrosis, cirrhosis, cancer and also hepatic iron overload.

11 Jun 2013

Medicago gets Health Canada clearance to initiate Phase II clinical trial for H5N1 vaccine

Medicago Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing highly effective and competitive vaccines based on proprietary manufacturing technologies and Virus-Like Particles, today announced it has received clearance by Health Canada to initiate its Phase II dose-sparing clinical trial for an H5N1 Avian Influenza VLP vaccine candidate ("H5N1 vaccine").

11 Jun 2013

Study finds only 5% of US wash hands long enough to kill germs

A new study by Michigan State University researchers found that only 5 percent of people who used the bathroom washed their hands long enough to kill the germs that can cause infections.

11 Jun 2013

Drug targeting of phages could offer a potential new path to mitigate antibiotic resistance

Bacteria in the gut that are under attack by antibiotics have allies no one had anticipated, a team of Wyss Institute scientists has found. Gut viruses that usually commandeer the bacteria, it turns out, enable them to survive the antibiotic onslaught, most likely by handing them genes that help them withstand the drug.

11 Jun 2013

Study explores various strategies, suggests cost-effective options for HIV testing in India

In India most people who are HIV positive don't know it, yet testing and treatment are relatively cheap and available. It would therefore meet international standards of cost-effectiveness - and save millions of lives for decades - to test every person in the billion-plus population every five years according to a new study published in the journal PLoS One.

11 Jun 2013

Disease/Infection News

Educating pediatricians on appropriate antibiotic usage can improve outcomes in children’s infections

New research finding raises questions about common mutant forms of JC polyomavirus

Study: Shiga toxin-producing E. coli survive longer in recreational water, can prove dangerous to humans

Emergency department doctors are not identifying pelvic inflammatory disease in adolescent girls

Experts raise awareness about the importance of flu vaccine

Researchers create guidelines to reduce staph infections after surgery

Microbiologist uses new Geographic Information System to track deadly outbreaks of drug-resistant TB

Value of vaccinating children, young adults for influenza underestimated, experts say

Glycoproteins in saliva of older people are more efficient in binding to influenza

WHO issues interim policy guidance on inclusion of bedaquiline to treat adults with MDR-TB

Solution-based circuit chip for rapid, multiplexed detection of pathogens

NTU develops social media-based system that can predict dengue outbreaks

Scientists use mathematical tools to identify animal species that transmit diseases to humans

Bacterium that causes gum disease delivers one-two punch by triggering protective proteins in oral cavity

Background mortality rates can be used to communicate vaccine safety risks

Study shows iron-uptake receptor plays a role in HCV infection

Medicago gets Health Canada clearance to initiate Phase II clinical trial for H5N1 vaccine

Study finds only 5% of US wash hands long enough to kill germs

Drug targeting of phages could offer a potential new path to mitigate antibiotic resistance

Study explores various strategies, suggests cost-effective options for HIV testing in India

Synthetic Biology and the Pursuit of Living Diagnostics

Modular, Scalable, Intelligent: How n6 Is Rethinking NGS Library Prep

Shaping the future of lab automation through AI and robotics

Latest News