Disease/Infection News

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'Bad' hospitals may treat larger proportion of poor patients, study finds

The nation's worst hospitals treat twice the proportion of elderly black patients and poor patients than the best hospitals, and their patients are more likely to die of heart attacks and pneumonia, new research shows. Now, these hospitals, mostly in the South, may be at higher risk of financial failure, too. That's because the nation's new health care law punishes bad care by withholding some money, says the lead author of the study published Wednesday in the journal Health Affairs.

7 Oct 2011

Indoor spraying with alternative insecticide reduces malaria transmission in Benin, study says

"Indoor spraying with the insecticide bendiocarb has dramatically decreased malaria transmission in many parts of Benin, new evidence that insecticides remain a potent weapon for fighting malaria in Africa despite the rapid rise of resistance to an entire class of mosquito-killing compounds," researchers from Benin's Entomologic Research Center in Cotonou report in a study published Wednesday in the October edition of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (AJTMH), according to an AJTMH press release.

7 Oct 2011

New method employs Doppler ultrasound sensor to diagnose sinusitis

A new method of diagnosing sinusitis is presented in a new thesis from Lund University. The results offer the potential to reduce the use of antibiotics and the costs of the disease to society.

7 Oct 2011

Virginia Bioinformatics Institute releases upgraded ENISI software

Researchers with the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech have released an upgrade to the institute's ENteric Immunity SImulator (ENISI) software, which models immune responses to beneficial and harmful bacteria that enter the gastrointestinal tract of mice, pigs, and humans.

7 Oct 2011

Measurable changes in brain function may be a consequence of early HIV infection

Measurable changes in brain function and communication between brain regions may be a consequence of virus-induced injury during the early stages of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.

7 Oct 2011

Belfast Health, Social Care Trust license new meningitis test to HiberGene

Belfast Health and Social Care Trust has licensed its novel rapid meningitis diagnostic test to HiberGene Diagnostics Ltd, an Irish start-up client company of NovaUCD, the Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre at University College Dublin.

7 Oct 2011

Jimmy Carter calls upon donors to help eradicate Guinea worm disease

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is appealing to countries and donors to eradicate guinea worm disease from the world once and for all. The U.K. pledged $31 million over four years for the effort and has called upon other countries to match them.

6 Oct 2011

New malaria study in Africa offers evidence of method to bypass, or delay, insecticide resistance

Indoor spraying with the insecticide bendiocarb has dramatically decreased malaria transmission in many parts of Benin, new evidence that insecticides remain a potent weapon for fighting malaria in Africa despite the rapid rise of resistance to an entire class of mosquito-killing compounds, according to a study published today in the October edition of The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

5 Oct 2011

Hormonal contraceptive shots and risk of HIV in African women

A new study from Africa reveals that using a hormone shot given every three months - the most popular contraceptive for women in eastern and southern Africa, may make it easier for HIV to spread between heterosexual sex partners.

5 Oct 2011

Parents choosing alternative vaccine schedules for their kids: Survey

According to a new study some parents choose alternative schedules for vaccinating their children and yet others decide their own vaccine timelines.

4 Oct 2011

Pakistan facing dengue outbreak, humanitarian aid shortages for flood victims

"More than 12,000 have been infected and 125 people have died over the past two months in Pakistan after coming down with dengue fever, a health department spokesman said Friday," CNN reports.

4 Oct 2011

Dramatic rise in U.S. incidence of oropharyngeal cancer can be attributed to HPV infection

A new study of oropharyngeal cancer suggests that dramatic increases in U.S. incidence of the cancer and survival since 1984 can be attributed to infection with the human papillomavirus.

4 Oct 2011

Life Technologies, CHEO researcher partner to co-develop microbial detection tests

The Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) Research Institute is pleased to announce that one of its principal investigators in infectious disease has signed a contract with Life Technologies, an internationally renowned biotech tools company headquartered in Carlsbad, California, to share information that will help to develop tests that uniquely amplify and detect the DNA coding for infectious diseases.

4 Oct 2011

Lipomannan on TB bacterium's outer cell surface can block TNF production

The bacterium that causes tuberculosis has a unique molecule on its outer cell surface that blocks a key part of the body's defense. New research suggests this represents a novel mechanism in the microbe's evolving efforts to remain hidden from the human immune system.

4 Oct 2011

DNA primer vaccine enhances immune response to H5N1 avian influenza vaccine

The immune response to an H5N1 avian influenza vaccine was greatly enhanced in healthy adults if they were first primed with a DNA vaccine expressing a gene for a key H5N1 protein, researchers say.

4 Oct 2011

Lung immune cells orchestrate the body's repair response following flu infection

There's more than one way to mop up after a flu infection. Now, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania report in Nature Immunology that a previously unrecognized population of lung immune cells orchestrate the body's repair response following flu infection.

4 Oct 2011

Kenya national AIDS program considering mandatory HIV testing

VOA News examines how Kenya's National Aids Control Council and STI Control Program (NASCOP) is considering proposing mandatory HIV testing for adults and children who seek medical care for other conditions, noting that some AIDS organizations are expressing ethical concerns because of continuing stigma and discrimination. For now, "fears of mandatory testing in Kenya are premature, as Kenyan law currently bans such practices," the news service writes.

4 Oct 2011

Despite increase in health care spending in Angola, quality of care remains low

"Angola has tripled its spending on health care since 2006, but for the vast majority of Angolans who can't afford sparkling new private clinics -- or better yet, care abroad -- a trip to the hospital is still a nightmare," Agence France-Presse reports.

4 Oct 2011

Addressing high-risk groups, couples counseling in HIV prevention

In this post in the Center for Global Development's "Global Health Policy" blog, Mead Over, a senior fellow at the center, follows up on a post last week in which he wrote that a panel of senior economists commissioned by the Rush Foundation was to address the question of how to spend an additional, but hypothetical, $10 billion on HIV/AIDS programs in Africa over the next five years.

4 Oct 2011

CNRS researcher wins 2011 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for immunology work

The 2011 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine has been awarded to Jules Hoffmann, a French citizen native of Luxembourg, CNRS senior researcher emeritus and professor at the university of Strasbourg, jointly with Bruce A. Beutler for their discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity.

4 Oct 2011