Meningitis News and Research

Latest Meningitis News and Research

Invasive pneumococcal disease in Taiwan on the wane, but threats remain

The incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease in Taiwan has decreased significantly in recent years, study findings indicate.

17 Feb 2014

Drug used for treating breast cancer also kills fungal disease

Tamoxifen, a drug currently used to treat breast cancer, also kills a fungus that causes a deadly brain infection in immunocompromised patients. The findings, which could lead to new treatments for a disease that kills more HIV/AIDS patients than tuberculosis, appear in mBio-, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM.)

11 Feb 2014

Researchers shed new light on pain associated with bacterial infections

Components in the outer wall of bacteria directly activate pain sensors, triggering immediate pain and inflammatory responses. This finding by a multinational team of researchers led by Professor Karel Talavera (KU Leuven, Belgium) and Professor Félix Viana (Institute of Neuroscience, Spain) sheds new light on pain associated with bacterial infections and reveals a new target for drugs designed to treat them.

11 Feb 2014

Study reveals high prevalence of TB infection among young children

A small study by investigators from the Johns Hopkins Children's Center and Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Government Medical College in India reveals high prevalence of tuberculosis infection among young children, troubling rates of disseminated disease and alarming patterns of drug resistance.

15 Jan 2014

Longer reads: Hospice drains Medicare; false Obamacare 'horror stories;' growing up without vaccines

Hospice patients are expected to die: The treatment focuses on providing comfort to the terminally ill, not finding a cure. To enroll a patient, two doctors certify a life expectancy of six months or less. But over the past decade, the number of "hospice survivors" in the United States has risen dramatically, in part because hospice companies earn more by recruiting patients who aren't actually dying, a Washington Post investigation has found. Healthier patients are more profitable because they require fewer visits and stay enrolled longer (Peter Whoriskey and Dan Keating, 12/26).

9 Jan 2014

AHF opens new Men's Wellness Center in Brooklyn in partnership with GMAD

AIDS Healthcare Foundation will open its newest Men's Wellness Center in Brooklyn on Wednesday in partnership with local nonprofit Gay Men of African Descent.

8 Jan 2014

State highlights: N.C. officials detail Medicaid personal info mishap; comparing childbirth at Mass. hospitals; fixing Fla.'s pharmacy law 'glitch'

North Carolina health officials have clarified precisely when they first learned that cards with the personal information of nearly 49,000 children receiving Medicaid benefits had been mailed to the wrong addresses.

7 Jan 2014

State highlights: Mass. compounding pharmacy agrees to $100M victim settlement over meningitis outbreak; Texas grand jury clears late-term abortion provider

The Massachusetts pharmacy whose tainted steroid injections were blamed for a deadly outbreak of fungal meningitis has agreed to pay more than $100 million to victims and their families, according to lawyers involved in a tentative settlement.

26 Dec 2013

First Edition: December 24, 2013

Kaiser Health News staff writer Julie Appleby, working in collaboration with NBC News, reports: "If you buy one of the less expensive insurance plans sold through the health law's marketplaces, you may be in for a surprise. Some plans will not pay for a doctor visit before you meet your annual deductible, which could be thousands of dollars" (Appleby, 12/23).

24 Dec 2013

Rutgers New Jersey Medical School's David Perlin explains how fungal infections can become deadly

Ask someone what the term 'fungus' brings to mind, and chances are it will be an image of something that smells or looks disgusting. Ask David Perlin, executive director of the Public Health Research Institute at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, and the response will be far more somber - because he knows how deadly fungi can be.

24 Dec 2013

Doctors should consider underlying inflammatory conditions when selecting anti-epilepsy drugs, say researchers

Physicians at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) have been investigating if established anti-epilepsy drugs have anti-inflammatory or pro-inflammatory properties - an effect for which these pharmaceutical agents are not usually tested.

20 Dec 2013

Laser measurements show pollen has major influence on air quality

Leipzig, Germany. Pollen reflects more sunlight than previously known, and makes up to one third of the total amount of aerosol particles in the atmosphere. Aerosol particles influence optical depth which provides a measure of the opacity of the atmosphere.

19 Dec 2013

Scientists establish a goal of creating vaccine gene chip to speed up vaccine testing

Testing the efficacy of vaccines in clinical trials takes years, even decades. Yet challenging infections like HIV, malaria and dengue are striking today. To speed up vaccine testing, scientists at the Emory Vaccine Center have established a goal of creating a "vaccine gene chip."

17 Dec 2013

IBN and IBM discover new medical application for converted PET bottles

Researchers at Singapore's Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) and California's IBM Research - Almaden (IBM) have discovered a new, potentially life-saving application for polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is widely used to make plastic bottles.

10 Dec 2013

New material effective in destroying drug-resistant fungi

Researchers at Singapore’s Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) and California’s IBM Research – Almaden (IBM) have discovered a new, potentially life-saving application for polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is widely used to make plastic bottles.

9 Dec 2013

Prolonged febrile seizures can affect pediatric patients

A long-standing hypothesis holds that prolonged febrile (fever induced) seizures, the most common form of childhood convulsive status epilepticus, cause mesial temporal sclerosis. CSE is a single seizure, or two or more seizures between which consciousness is not regained, lasting for more than 30 minutes.

9 Dec 2013

Genocea commences GEN-004 Phase 1 study to prevent pneumococcus infections

Genocea Biosciences, Inc., a clinical-stage company pioneering novel T cell vaccines, announced today that it has initiated a Phase 1 study of GEN-004, an investigational vaccine candidate for pneumococcus (Streptococcus pneumoniae), a major cause of infectious disease-related death globally. GEN-004 is the first vaccine candidate designed to prevent infections caused by all strains of pneumococcus through a novel T cell-mediated mechanism of action.

5 Dec 2013

Viewpoints: Senate should reconsider treaty on protections for people with disabilities; HHS treading wrong way on payments for bone marrow donors

About a year ago the Senate fell five votes short of ratifying an international treaty that would improve protections for the disabled. It was an ignoble spectacle as the opponents rebuffed Bob Dole, a former colleague and disabled veteran, who came to the Senate floor to lobby for it.

26 Nov 2013

Garlic compounds can kill foodborne pathogen present in infant formula powder

Garlic may be bad for your breath, but it's good for your baby, according to a new study from the University of British Columbia.

26 Nov 2013

Staphylococcus Aureus Bacteria anticipates and turns immune defenses against the host

Around 20 percent of all humans are persistently colonized with Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, a leading cause of skin infections and one of the major sources of hospital-acquired infections, including the antibiotic-resistant strain MRSA.

20 Nov 2013

Meningitis News and Research

Latest Meningitis News and Research

Invasive pneumococcal disease in Taiwan on the wane, but threats remain

Drug used for treating breast cancer also kills fungal disease

Researchers shed new light on pain associated with bacterial infections

Study reveals high prevalence of TB infection among young children

Longer reads: Hospice drains Medicare; false Obamacare 'horror stories;' growing up without vaccines

AHF opens new Men's Wellness Center in Brooklyn in partnership with GMAD

State highlights: N.C. officials detail Medicaid personal info mishap; comparing childbirth at Mass. hospitals; fixing Fla.'s pharmacy law 'glitch'

State highlights: Mass. compounding pharmacy agrees to $100M victim settlement over meningitis outbreak; Texas grand jury clears late-term abortion provider

First Edition: December 24, 2013

Rutgers New Jersey Medical School's David Perlin explains how fungal infections can become deadly

Doctors should consider underlying inflammatory conditions when selecting anti-epilepsy drugs, say researchers

Laser measurements show pollen has major influence on air quality

Scientists establish a goal of creating vaccine gene chip to speed up vaccine testing

IBN and IBM discover new medical application for converted PET bottles

New material effective in destroying drug-resistant fungi

Prolonged febrile seizures can affect pediatric patients

Genocea commences GEN-004 Phase 1 study to prevent pneumococcus infections

Viewpoints: Senate should reconsider treaty on protections for people with disabilities; HHS treading wrong way on payments for bone marrow donors

Garlic compounds can kill foodborne pathogen present in infant formula powder

Staphylococcus Aureus Bacteria anticipates and turns immune defenses against the host

How the Vutara VXL simplifies single-molecule imaging

How cohesin mechanics and nanotracker tech are redefining DNA research

Todd Bauman and Chris Povich

Meningitis News and Research

Latest Meningitis News and Research

How the Vutara VXL simplifies single-molecule imaging

How cohesin mechanics and nanotracker tech are redefining DNA research

Todd Bauman and Chris Povich

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