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Study highlights the need for more targeted antibiotic therapy in cancer patients

What cancerous conditions lead to what kinds of bacterial infections? If doctors knew, they could predict which patients would likely benefit from pre-treatment with certain kinds of antibiotics.

25 Jan 2013

New handheld device performs rapid HIV tests

Samuel K. Sia, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia Engineering, has taken his innovative lab-on-a-chip and developed a way to not only check a patient's HIV status anywhere in the world with just a finger prick, but also synchronize the results automatically and instantaneously with central health-care records-10 times faster, the researchers say, than the benchtop ELISA, a broadly used diagnostic technique.

25 Jan 2013

New hope for lupus patients

A clinical trial with 149 patients suffering from the very disabling autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus, has shown the effectiveness of a synthetic peptide developed by a team of researchers led by CNRS biologist Slyviane Muller at the Institut de Biologie Moleculaire (IBMC) in Strasbourg, France.

25 Jan 2013

Bloodstream infections in newborns reduce significantly

Central line associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) in newborns were reduced by 58 percent in less than a year in hospital neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) participating in an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality patient safety program.

25 Jan 2013

Researchers to develop new diagnostic tools and treatments for people with rare diseases

A multi-million Euro initiative is bringing together researchers from across the world to develop new diagnostic tools and new treatments for people with rare diseases and to connect research data in this area on a global scale.

25 Jan 2013

Researchers initiate first gene therapy clinical trial for Fabry disease

Researchers in Calgary have launched the first gene therapy clinical trial in the world for Fabry disease, a rare inherited enzyme deficiency that can shorten the lifespan of people who have it by as much as 40 years.

24 Jan 2013

'Big Push' campaign revived at World Economic summit

"Last September the Huffington Post, together with the Global Fund [to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria], launched 'The Big Push' campaign, seeking to build on the great progress that has been made in recent years fighting AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria."

24 Jan 2013

Reports examine progress in global NTD response

Writing in the ONE Blog, Neeraj Mistry, managing director of the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases, highlights two reports released last week that examine global efforts against neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) one year after the London Declaration, as well as a report by the Hudson Institute, also released last week, which "highlight[s] the crucial links between NTDs and broader economic and societal consequences."

24 Jan 2013

Madagascar faces challenges in vaccinating children

"In Madagascar, pneumonia is responsible for 21 percent of deaths among children under five years old -- making it the leading cause of death for this age group," but "[t]he recent introduction of a vaccine to protect against pneumococcal disease, the leading cause of severe childhood pneumonia, is attempting to reduce the thousands of child deaths that occur every year in" the country, IRIN reports.

24 Jan 2013

Experts meet to discuss U.S., global TB drug shortages

The Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog reports on a meeting held last week "to discuss the problem of U.S. and global tuberculosis [TB] drug shortages."

24 Jan 2013

Indian company plans to make lower-cost injectable polio vaccine

Serum Institute of India Ltd., the world's largest vaccine manufacturer, plans to "slash the price of polio immunization and introduce shots for diarrhea and pneumonia, undercutting Pfizer Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline Plc.," Bloomberg Businessweek reports.

24 Jan 2013

Brazilian city declares health emergency due to dengue fever outbreak

"Municipal authorities in Campo Grande, the capital of the southwestern Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, on Monday declared a health emergency due to a serious outbreak of dengue fever," Fox News Latino reports.

24 Jan 2013

Increased resources needed to continue progress lowering child mortality rates

"The last decade has seen extraordinary progress with child mortality rates coming down significantly all over the world. Yet 6.9 million children still die each year, most from preventable causes," Raymond Chambers, founder and co-chair of Malaria No More and the U.N. secretary-general's special envoy for malaria, writes in a Forbes opinion piece, published in conjunction with the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship.

24 Jan 2013

Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, IBM reveal new antimicrobial hydrogel

Researchers from IBM and the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology revealed today an antimicrobial hydrogel that can break through diseased biofilms and completely eradicate drug-resistant bacteria upon contact.

24 Jan 2013

Normalizing p62 protein levels in immune system cells could reduce infection in CF patients

New research suggests that lowering excessive levels of a protein in immune system cells could be a strategy to clear an infection that is deadly to patients with cystic fibrosis (CF).

23 Jan 2013

NIH's candidate vaccine safe in treating dengue

A candidate dengue vaccine developed by scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has been found to be safe and to stimulate a strong immune response in most vaccine recipients, according to results from an early-stage clinical trial sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the NIH. The trial results were published online on January 17 in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

23 Jan 2013

Sex rated as highly arousing and pleasurable whether or not condoms and lubricants are used

A new study published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine reveals that within a nationally representative study of American men and women, sex was rated as highly arousing and pleasurable whether or not condoms and/or lubricants were used. Condoms and lubricants are commonly used by both women and men when they have sex.

23 Jan 2013

Tall, thin women face increased risk of infection with nontuberculous mycobacteria

Tall, thin women face a greater risk of infection with nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), cousins of the organism that causes tuberculosis, according to researchers at National Jewish Health. Women with NTM infections also showed a weakened immune response associated with their fat cells, in a paper published in the Jan. 15, 2013, issue of The American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care.

23 Jan 2013

Enterococcal cytolysin synthetase helps form distinctly different, 3-D protein ring structures

While working out the structure of a cell-killing protein produced by some strains of the bacterium Enterococcus faecalis, researchers stumbled on a bit of unusual biochemistry. They found that a single enzyme helps form distinctly different, three-dimensional ring structures in the protein, one of which had never been observed before.

23 Jan 2013

$30 for a flu shot: An outrage or a bargain?

The Los Angeles Times looks at the economics of producing a successful flu vaccine each year. And Reuters explores what may be on the horizon to improve those immunizations.

23 Jan 2013

Disease/Infection News

Study highlights the need for more targeted antibiotic therapy in cancer patients

New handheld device performs rapid HIV tests

New hope for lupus patients

Bloodstream infections in newborns reduce significantly

Researchers to develop new diagnostic tools and treatments for people with rare diseases

Researchers initiate first gene therapy clinical trial for Fabry disease

'Big Push' campaign revived at World Economic summit

Reports examine progress in global NTD response

Madagascar faces challenges in vaccinating children

Experts meet to discuss U.S., global TB drug shortages

Indian company plans to make lower-cost injectable polio vaccine

Brazilian city declares health emergency due to dengue fever outbreak

Increased resources needed to continue progress lowering child mortality rates

Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, IBM reveal new antimicrobial hydrogel

Normalizing p62 protein levels in immune system cells could reduce infection in CF patients

NIH's candidate vaccine safe in treating dengue

Sex rated as highly arousing and pleasurable whether or not condoms and lubricants are used

Tall, thin women face increased risk of infection with nontuberculous mycobacteria

Enterococcal cytolysin synthetase helps form distinctly different, 3-D protein ring structures

$30 for a flu shot: An outrage or a bargain?

Redefining control and consistency in anaerobic microbiome workflows

AI in Healthcare: How generative tools are transforming clinical practice

The future of automation: Machine learning–driven hepatocyte and organoid counting

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