Disease/Infection News

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Ultra-sensitive test can diagnose diseases in their earliest stages

Scientists have developed an ultra-sensitive test that should enable them to detect signs of a disease in its earliest stages, in research published today in the journal Nature Materials.

28 May 2012

Overgrowth of bacteria in the gut linked to IBS

An overgrowth of bacteria in the gut has been definitively linked to Irritable Bowel Syndrome in the results of a new Cedars-Sinai study which used cultures from the small intestine. This is the first study to use this "gold standard" method of connecting bacteria to the cause of the disease that affects an estimated 30 million people in the United States.

28 May 2012

ABL receives CE-IVD approval for DeepChek and ViroScore Suite clinical genotyping solutions

Advanced Biological Laboratories (ABL) announced today that DeepChek and ViroScore Suite clinical genotyping solutions are now CE-IVD (In Vitro Diagnostics) approved for commercial use in Europe and other countries that recognise CE certification.

28 May 2012

World Health Assembly endorses Global Vaccine Action Plan

Ministers of Health from 194 countries at the Sixty-fifth World Health Assembly today endorsed a landmark Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP), a roadmap to prevent millions of deaths by 2020 through more equitable access to existing vaccines for people in all communities.

28 May 2012

Bone age necessary to correctly interpret growth status in pediatric Crohn's disease

Measuring bone age should be a standard practice of care for pediatric patients with Crohn's disease, in order to properly interpret growth status and improve treatment, according to a new study from the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital.

25 May 2012

'Killer silk' can kill anthrax in minutes

The latest episode in the American Chemical Society's (ACS') award-winning Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions podcast series describes a simple, inexpensive dip-and-dry treatment can convert ordinary silk into a fabric that kills disease-causing bacteria - even the armor-coated spores of microbes like anthrax - in minutes.

25 May 2012

Capitol Hill briefing addresses research agenda to end AIDS epidemic

In a guest blog post on the Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks," Chris Collins, vice president and director of public policy at amfAR: The Foundation for AIDS Research, and Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC: Global Advocacy for HIV Prevention, summarize a Capitol Hill briefing "on the research agenda for beginning to end the AIDS epidemic" that took place Wednesday.

25 May 2012

Merck welcomes launch of ROTATEQ in Rwanda of Africa’s rotavirus vaccination program

Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, welcomes today's launch in Rwanda of Africa's first national rotavirus vaccination program with ROTATEQ (rotavirus vaccine, live, oral, pentavalent), Merck's vaccine for the prevention of rotavirus disease.

25 May 2012

Fever during pregnancy associated with autism or developmental delay

A team of UC Davis researchers has found that mothers who had fevers during their pregnancies were more than twice as likely to have a child with autism or developmental delay than were mothers of typically developing children, and that taking medication to treat fever countered its effect.

25 May 2012

New diagnostic approach for Lyme disease

George Mason University researchers can find out if a tick bite means Lyme disease well before the bite victim begins to show symptoms.

25 May 2012

Global Polio Eradication initiative launches 'emergency action plan'

"A global initiative to rid the world of polio launched an emergency action plan on Thursday because gaps in funding and vaccination coverage threaten to derail a final push towards stamping out the paralyzing disease," AlertNet reports.

25 May 2012

Scientists identify new reason why some curry dishes might be good for you

Scientists have just identified a new reason why some curry dishes, made with spices humans have used for thousands of years, might be good for you.

25 May 2012

Study reveals why people develop life-threatening drug allergies

A research team led by the University of Melbourne and Monash University, Australia, has discovered why people can develop life-threatening allergies after receiving treatment for conditions such as epilepsy and AIDS.

25 May 2012

ITM in Antwerp receives Gates Foundation grant for malaria research

The Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine has received a $3m grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for malaria research. They will use it to attack malaria mosquitoes from a new angle.

25 May 2012

Ministers meet to discuss Global Plan to eliminate new HIV infections among children

UNAIDS and PEPFAR recently brought together the ministers of health and representatives of the 22 countries with the most new HIV cases among children to discuss progress on the Global Plan towards the Elimination of New HIV Infections among Children by 2015 and Keeping Their Mothers Alive, agreed to at the 2011 U.N. High-Level Meeting on AIDS, according to a UNAIDS press release.

25 May 2012

Peritonitis commonly arises in the weeks before many dialysis patients die

An infection called peritonitis commonly arises in the weeks before many dialysis patients die, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

25 May 2012

New method can screen for bacterial genes that are expressed during meningitis

Bacterial meningitis is an infection of the meninges, the protective membrane that covers the spinal cord and brain. Children, elderly patients and immunocompromised patients are at a higher risk for the development of severe bacterial meningitis. Recently, researchers at the University of Adelaide in Australia sought to identify new vaccine targets in Streptococcus pneumoniae, which is the most common cause of bacterial meningitis in the world.

25 May 2012

ICS may prevent parapneumonic effusion in patients with CAP

Prior treatment with inhaled corticosteroids in patients with respiratory disorders who develop community acquired pneumonia (CAP) is associated with a lower incidence and severity of parapneumonic effusion, according to a new study from researchers in Spain.

24 May 2012

Cepheid’s Xpert CT/NG system receives European CE marking

Cepheid today announced that both Xpert CT/NG and Xpert CT have received CE marking, with shipments expected to begin immediately.

24 May 2012

Experts, advocates urge continued funding for research into HIV, TB vaccines

"[P]articipants at a symposium held last week by the U.K. Consortium on AIDS and International Development warned that progress on HIV and tuberculosis (TB) vaccines could be jeopardized by the recent downturn in global health funding," BMJ reports.

24 May 2012