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Children more likely to pick up stomach infections from private water supplies

Children drinking from around half the UK's private water supplies are almost five times more likely to pick up stomach infections - according to research from the University of East Anglia (UEA).

26 Aug 2012

Sierra Leone cholera outbreak continues to spread

"Sierra Leone's health ministry said Thursday that deaths from a cholera outbreak had reached 220, affecting over 12,000 people in the west African nation, which is struggling to curb the disease," Agence France-Presse reports.

24 Aug 2012

Bushmeat blamed for Ebola outbreak in DRC

"Health officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo's north-eastern Orientale Province are urging the population to desist from activities that could put them at risk of contracting the Ebola virus, including contact with infected individuals and the consumption of bushmeat," IRIN reports.

24 Aug 2012

PathGEN signs Powered by Affymetrix Program agreement

Affymetrix, Inc. and PathGEN Dx Pte. Ltd., a spin-off molecular diagnostics company founded by researchers from the Genome Institute of Singapore, today announced they have signed a Powered by Affymetrix (PbA) Program agreement

24 Aug 2012

Novira secures $23M in Series A financing to support antiviral development for HBV, HIV

Novira Therapeutics Inc. today announced it has secured $23 million in Series A financing to support the development of its capsid-targeting antivirals for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B (HBV) and HIV infections.

24 Aug 2012

Dartmouth’s professor shares news of DAR-901 TB vaccine development

Tuberculosis (TB) is second only to HIV/AIDS as the greatest killer worldwide attributable to a single infectious agent, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). With 8.8 million cases in 2010 and 95 percent of TB deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries, the disease continues to be a major public health problem in the developing world. In a July address to the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, Dartmouth's C. Fordham (Ford) von Reyn shared news of a promising vaccine in the works.

24 Aug 2012

Pre-emptive therapy better than valacyclovir prophylaxis in treating CMV in transplant recipients

Waiting to treat the commonest viral infections in transplant recipients until they reach a certain threshold is better than prophylactically treating all recipients, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).

24 Aug 2012

Guidelines for parents to beat back-to-school bugs

School bells are beginning to sound again across the country, so it will only be a matter of time until every parent comes face-to-face with a child who wakes up with a cold, fever or upset stomach.

24 Aug 2012

Study highlights importance of using appropriately treated water for sinus irrigation

When water containing the Naegleria fowleri ameba, a single-celled organism, enters the nose, the organisms may migrate to the brain, causing primary amebic meningoencephalitis, a very rare-but usually fatal-disease. A new study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases describes the first reported cases in the United States implicating nasal irrigation using disinfected tap water in these infections.

24 Aug 2012

Researchers discover new way to disarm harmful bacteria

Rather than trying to kill bacteria outright with drugs, Université de Montréal researchers have discovered a way to disarm bacteria that may allow the body's own defense mechanisms to destroy them. "To understand this strategy one could imagine harmful bacteria being like Darth Vader, and the anti-virulence drug would take away his armor and lightsaber," explained Dr. Christian Baron, the study's lead author and Professor at the Department of Biochemistry.

24 Aug 2012

Researchers create super-sensor that can detect even single samples of viruses

By affixing nanoscale gold spheres onto a microscopic bead of glass, researchers have created a super-sensor that can detect even single samples of the smallest known viruses. The sensor uses a peculiar behavior of light known as "whispering gallery mode," named after the famous circular gallery in St. Paul's Cathedral in London, where a whisper near the wall can be heard around the gallery.

24 Aug 2012

Religion not a barrier to HIV testing, treatment, study finds

"Preachers who promise divine healing have often been blamed for turning desperate HIV-positive people against their life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) medication and risking their health, but recent research suggests that religious beliefs may not be a barrier to treatment after all," IRIN/Plus News reports.

24 Aug 2012

New disease causes AIDS-like symptoms but not spread through virus

"Researchers have identified a mysterious new disease that has left scores of people in Asia and some in the United States with AIDS-like symptoms even though they are not infected with HIV," the Associated Press reports.

24 Aug 2012

The Wistar Institute, MSKCC partner to publish first annotated atlas of Epstein-Barr virus genome

Researchers from The Wistar Institute and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) have teamed to publish the first annotated atlas of the Epstein-Barr virus genome, creating the most comprehensive study of how the viral genome interacts with its human host during a latent infection. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), which is thought to be responsible for one percent of all human cancers, establishes a latent infection in nearly 100 percent of infected adult humans.

24 Aug 2012

Scripps Research Institute scientist to uncover workings of the immune system

A team led by a scientist at The Scripps Research Institute has received a $22.5 million, five-year project renewal from the National Institutes of Health to uncover the workings of the immune system.

24 Aug 2012

Gates blog examines potential impact of improving access to contraceptives globally

In this post in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog, Max Kamin-Cross, a self-proclaimed political junky and youth activist, writes that by improving access to contraceptives, "we could lift millions of people of all races and both genders out of poverty throughout the world," "we could significantly decrease the number of premature deaths, as well as the number of lives claimed by deadly infections like HIV," and "the quality of life for millions more people would be drastically improved."

24 Aug 2012

Bristol-Myers Squibb terminates BMS-986094 Phase II development for treatment of hepatitis C

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company announced today that the Company has discontinued development of BMS-986094 (formerly known as INX-189), a nucleotide polymerase (NS5B) inhibitor that was in Phase II development for the treatment of hepatitis C.

24 Aug 2012

OUP, prestigious Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene journals announce partnership

The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene's two prestigious journals will join the Oxford University Press (OUP) collection in a new partnership announced between the organizations.

24 Aug 2012

Influenza virus can change microRNA expression to control immune responses in human lung cells

When you are hit with the flu, you know it immediately -- fever, chills, sore throat, aching muscles, fatigue. This is your body mounting an immune response to the invading virus. But less is known about what is happening on the molecular level.

24 Aug 2012

Researcher describes structure and function of tuberculosis efflux pump regulator

Edward Yu took note of the facts - nearly 2 million deaths each year, 9 million infected each year, developments of multidrug-resistant, extensively drug-resistant and now totally drug-resistant strains - and decided to shift his research focus to tuberculosis.

23 Aug 2012

Disease/Infection News

Children more likely to pick up stomach infections from private water supplies

Sierra Leone cholera outbreak continues to spread

Bushmeat blamed for Ebola outbreak in DRC

PathGEN signs Powered by Affymetrix Program agreement

Novira secures $23M in Series A financing to support antiviral development for HBV, HIV

Dartmouth’s professor shares news of DAR-901 TB vaccine development

Pre-emptive therapy better than valacyclovir prophylaxis in treating CMV in transplant recipients

Guidelines for parents to beat back-to-school bugs

Study highlights importance of using appropriately treated water for sinus irrigation

Researchers discover new way to disarm harmful bacteria

Researchers create super-sensor that can detect even single samples of viruses

Religion not a barrier to HIV testing, treatment, study finds

New disease causes AIDS-like symptoms but not spread through virus

The Wistar Institute, MSKCC partner to publish first annotated atlas of Epstein-Barr virus genome

Scripps Research Institute scientist to uncover workings of the immune system

Gates blog examines potential impact of improving access to contraceptives globally

Bristol-Myers Squibb terminates BMS-986094 Phase II development for treatment of hepatitis C

OUP, prestigious Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene journals announce partnership

Influenza virus can change microRNA expression to control immune responses in human lung cells

Researcher describes structure and function of tuberculosis efflux pump regulator

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

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