Disease/Infection News

RSS

National High Magnetic Field Lab receives $2 million to tackle tuberculosis

About 5,000 people around the world die from tuberculosis every day, but no effective new drugs have been developed to combat it in 40 years.

18 Jan 2008

School attendance linked to lower risk of HIV among young people in rural South Africa

The study, a collaboration between the School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), examined sexual behaviour and HIV prevalence among 916 young men and 1003 young women aged 14 to 25 in rural South Africa.

17 Jan 2008

Monkey malaria more widespread in Malaysian people than previously thought

A potentially fatal species of malaria is being commonly misdiagnosed as a more benign form of the disease, thereby putting lives at risk, according to research funded by the Wellcome Trust and the University Malaysia Sarawak.

16 Jan 2008

HIV infections concentrating among the least educated people in Africa

HIV infections appear to be concentrating among the least educated people in Africa, reversing previous patterns which saw higher levels of infection among the most educated, according to a study published today in the journal AIDS.

16 Jan 2008

Latest U.S. food scare E. coli and 188,000 pounds of ground beef

In the latest food scare in the United States fears of contamination with the Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria has prompted the recall of more than 188,000 pounds of ground beef products.

16 Jan 2008

Internet and IT increase physician disease reporting

With emerging diseases like the West Nile Virus, and re-emerging diseases such as the pandemic flu and drug-resistant tuberculosis, it's increasingly important to promptly detect a potential infectious outbreak within a community.

15 Jan 2008

New multi-drug resistant microbe bad news for gay men

Sexually active gay men are many times more likely than others to acquire a new, highly antibiotic-resistant strain of the so-called MRSA bacteria widely know as the "superbug," a UCSF-led study shows.

15 Jan 2008

Columbus brought syphilis to Europe

Did Columbus and his men introduce the syphilis pathogen into Renaissance Europe after contracting it during their voyage to the New World?

15 Jan 2008

Mouse model shows potential efficacy of HIV prevention strategy

A new kind of laboratory mouse can be used to test the efficacy of much-needed methods to prevent transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, according to research by J. Victor Garcia and colleagues at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

15 Jan 2008

Anti-retrovirals given daily before and after exposure to HIV prevent vaginal transmission AIDS virus

Prescription drugs now used to treat human immunodeficiency virus infection in adults may prevent the vaginal transmission of HIV, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.

15 Jan 2008

MRSA spike among gay men: More effective prevention needed for MRSA, HIV and other STDs

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), today expressed concern over a recent study first reported publicly today in an 'Annals of Internal Medicine' article which found that sexually active gay men in San Francisco were 13 times as likely to contract methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a drug-resistant strain of bacteria, than their heterosexual counterparts.

15 Jan 2008

Bird flu death toll in Indonesia reaches 95

The death toll in Indonesia from bird flu has risen to 95 following the death of a woman in West Java.

15 Jan 2008

New superbug puts gay men at risk

New research from the U.S. has found that a potentially deadly bacteria, a type of drug-resistant staph infection, is being transferred between gay men by way of sexual activity.

15 Jan 2008

Top expert says bird flu risk overestimated

According to a top animal health expert the H5N1 bird flu virus has now stabilised but the risk that it could mutate into a new dangerous form remains.

14 Jan 2008

Bird flu strikes again in Bangladesh and India

According to officials in Bangladesh bird flu has killed nearly 500 chickens at a poultry farm in the northeast of the country and as a result another 20,000 chickens have been culled.

14 Jan 2008

Seasonal flu levels trigger use of antiviral drugs

The Health Protection Agency has confirmed that the rate at which influenza viruses are now circulating in England has reached the point which triggers the use of antiviral drugs.

11 Jan 2008

Lymphangioleiomyomatosis - potential clues into the treatment and diagnosis

Studies published in the Jan. 10 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) are providing clues into the treatment and diagnosis of LAM, or lymphangioleiomyomatosis, a progressive and deadly lung disease that affects women in their childbearing years.

11 Jan 2008