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Entomologist to study how immune system responds to rickettsial infection

Summer for most people means time spent outdoors, which could also mean increased exposure to bugs and, possibly, arthropod-borne diseases, such as "rickettsial diseases" - infectious diseases spread by bacteria, which, generally, are transmitted by lice, fleas, ticks and mites.

5 Aug 2011

CDC: HIV infection rates hold steady except among young black males

New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that while the overall number of people who are infected each year is relatively steady, but there was a 48 percent increase in the number of young HIV-infected African American men who have sex with men from 2006 to 2009.

5 Aug 2011

Novel DNA sensing pathway linked to increased susceptibility to malaria

Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School have uncovered a novel DNA-sensing pathway important to the triggering of an innate immune response for malaria. Activation of this pathway appears to stimulate production of an overabundance of type-1 interferon by the immune system that may contribute to inflammation and fever in malaria patients and could play a part in susceptibility for the most common and lethal form of malaria known as plasmodium falciparum.

5 Aug 2011

Viewpoints: 'Real' Medicare cuts?; HIV/AIDS prevention push; contraceptive coverage

Well, not really. A primer on the debt deal's health-care bookkeeping. All politicians—but these days especially Democrats—like to pretend they'll pay providers somewhat less in the future, despite knowing that is unlikely to happen in practice. Medicare's prospective payments are low enough that further reductions may jeopardize access to care and in many cases threaten the viability of hospitals and physician practices.

5 Aug 2011

Daily text messages to health workers improve proper malaria treatment administration, study shows

"Sending daily text message reminders to health workers can mean nearly 25 percent more children are properly treated for malaria, according to the results of a six-month trial conducted in Kenya" published Thursday in the Lancet, Reuters reports.

5 Aug 2011

Scientists say antibiotic-resistant salmonella strain may spread worldwide

"Scientists have identified an emerging 'superbug' strain of salmonella that is highly resistant to the antibiotic Ciprofloxacin, or Cipro, often used for severe salmonella infections, and say they fear it may spread around the world," according to a study published online Tuesday in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, Reuters reports.

4 Aug 2011

World must scale up AIDS fight, even as donors scale back

UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe writes in a Los Angeles Times opinion piece that "amid all the good news" about HIV prevention recently presented at the 6th International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention, "one stubborn fact was hard to ignore: AIDS remains a metaphor for inequality."

4 Aug 2011

Tips to minimize risk of bug bites and related illnesses

While the image of a bug crawling on your arm or a creepy crawler snuggling up in your bed is enough to make you flinch, most bug bites are harmless and disappear on their own in a matter of days. Other insects, however, can spread disease and cause severe reactions that require medical attention.

4 Aug 2011

Gold nanoparticles for rapid, accurate diagnosis of flu

Arriving at a rapid and accurate diagnosis is critical during flu outbreaks, but until now, physicians and public health officials have had to choose between a highly accurate yet time-consuming test or a rapid but error-prone test.

4 Aug 2011

Aggressive medication leads to growth of drug-resistant pathogens

New research raises troubling concerns about the use of aggressive drug therapies to treat a wide range of diseases such as MRSA, C. difficile, malaria, and even cancer.

4 Aug 2011

USDA NIFA awards NC State $25M grant to study human noroviruses

North Carolina State University will use a $25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to strengthen food safety by studying human noroviruses across the food supply chain in an effort to design effective control measures and reduce the number of virus-caused food-borne illnesses.

4 Aug 2011

European Respiratory Journal publishes updated WHO guidelines on drug-resistant TB

The European Respiratory Journal is today publishing the updated guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO) that aim to help manage drug-resistant tuberculosis.

4 Aug 2011

Concentrated HIV epidemics emerging among MSM in Middle East, North Africa, study shows

Concentrated HIV epidemics are emerging among men who have sex with men in the Middle East and North Africa, "and high levels of risky sexual behavior threaten to spread the AIDS virus further in the region, researchers said Tuesday" in a study published in PLoS Medicine, Reuters reports.

4 Aug 2011

Researchers discover new tick-borne bacterium that causes ehrlichiosis in Wis., Minn.

A new tick-borne bacterium infecting humans with ehrlichiosis has been discovered in Wisconsin and Minnesota. It was identified as a new strain of bacteria through DNA testing conducted at Mayo Clinic.

4 Aug 2011

Scientists to develop fast, portable and inexpensive urine test for TB

Scientists are reporting an advance toward a fast, inexpensive urine test to detect and monitor the effectiveness of treatment for tuberculosis (TB), which is on a rampage in the developing world.

4 Aug 2011

NIH, NanoBio sign licensing agreement to develop vaccine against RSV infections

NanoBio Corporation today announced a licensing agreement with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that represents a significant step forward in developing the first vaccine to protect against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections.

4 Aug 2011

Antibiotic-resistant Salmonella worries experts

According to an international team of researchers a strain of Salmonella that is resistant to important antibiotics has spread from Africa to Europe in recent years and has been spotted in a few samples of imported spices in the United States.

4 Aug 2011

Study finds HIV epidemics emerging in the Middle East and North Africa among gays

HIV epidemics are emerging in several countries in the Middle East and North Africa among men who have sex with men, a term that encompasses gay, non-gay identified homosexual men, and transgendered and bisexual men.

3 Aug 2011

Illumina and University of Oxford collaborate to sequence whole genomes

Illumina, Inc. today announced it will collaborate with the University of Oxford to sequence the whole genomes of 500 individuals afflicted with a range of life-threatening diseases that pose major challenges in diagnosis, treatment, and care. Illumina HiSeq™ 2000 systems will be used to generate sequence data for the 500 genomes.

From Illumina, Inc. 3 Aug 2011

Neglected tropical diseases becoming more common in Europe, study shows

"Worm infestations, food parasites, Chagas disease, sand fly-transmitted infections and other neglected tropical diseases usually found in Africa and Asia are turning up more often in Europe, according to a new study" published recently in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases by researchers from the Sabin Vaccine Institute, the New York Times reports.

3 Aug 2011