Meningitis News and Research

Latest Meningitis News and Research

New treatment for brucellosis

Concepcion Lecaroz, a researcher from the University of Navarra, has developed a new therapy against brucellosis. This zoonosis - a disease or infection of animals which can be transmitted to humans under natural conditions - annually affects 500,000 people worldwide.

18 Jan 2006

Lives will be saved as early signs of meningitis now identified

Scientists in the UK say they have identified the early signs of meningitis and blood poisoning which should improve detection of the disease and save lives.

11 Jan 2006

Carbonic anhydrase and CO2 sensing during Cryptococcus neoformans growth, differentiation, and virulence

By using pathogenic fungi as model systems for understanding fungal diseases, two groups of researchers are reporting new work that offers insight into how carbon dioxide (CO2) governs the morphogenic changes that allow pathogenic fungi to survive in different environments and invade the human body

21 Nov 2005

Accurate and rapid method of diagnosing bacterial meningitis

Several hundred serious cases of bacterial meningitis are diagnosed in Australians every year. Bacterial meningitis is a medical emergency that requires immediate diagnosis and treatment, however doctors have always faced difficulty in diagnosis, both in children and adults.

21 Nov 2005

New findings on bacterial vaginosis

Despite being one of the most common infections among women, scientists and doctors know little about the causes of bacterial vaginosis (BV), a usually benign disease that is also linked to serious health problems including pelvic inflammatory disease

3 Nov 2005

New fungal defensin, plectasin, possesses as much power as penicillin

A peptide identified in a fungus found in northern European pine forests possesses as much power as penicillin as well as vancomycin, according to an international team of researchers.

12 Oct 2005

Possible vaccine to protect newborns from fatal bacteria Group B Streptococcus

Microbiologists from the University of Bradford believe they may be closer to developing a vaccine that can protect newborn babies from being infected by the common and potentially fatal bacteria Group B Streptococcus.

5 Oct 2005

Increasingly virulent Staph infections

In a "Brief Report" in the 22 September 2005 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers at the University of Chicago describe three cases of rapidly progressive and ultimately fatal Staphylococcus aureus infections in small children.

26 Sep 2005

Vaccine against group B streptococcus

Common bacteria that live harmlessly in the gastrointestinal tract and vagina of 25 percent of women can become lethal if a newborn gets exposed to them during birth.

20 Sep 2005

Safe, non-surgical method of identifying brain infections such as brain abscess

Researchers at Westmead Millennium Institute have discovered a safe, non-surgical method of identifying brain infections such as brain abscess, and an accurate and rapid way of diagnosing meningitis.

10 Sep 2005

Fewer antibiotic prescriptions leads to fewer superbugs

That's the take-home message behind a new study in the Oct. 15 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, now available online. The study found that reducing antibiotic use for pediatric respiratory tract infections resulted in lower rates of carriage of drug-resistant bacteria.

6 Sep 2005

Single molecular anchor holds the key to treating many types of bacterial meningitis

By blocking the molecule's anchoring ability, researchers may be able to find a way to stave off the most common serious infection of the central nervous system and a major cause of childhood death and disability. The researchers' findings appear in the September 2005 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

5 Sep 2005

GenoMed has announced that it successfully treated its thirteenth patient with presumed West Nile virus encephalitis

The patient is a previously healthy man from Aberdeen, South Dakota who developed fever and headache and was diagnosed by his physician as having West Nile virus on Monday of this week. South Dakota has about 50 times higher incidence of West Nile virus this summer than California.

1 Sep 2005

Carbohydrate-based vaccine against cancer?

Couldn't we be immunized against cancer? This sounds like a dream, but is in fact a thoroughly realistic research goal. American researchers have now taken an important step forward in the development of a cancer vaccine.

29 Aug 2005

$Propofol is a safe and effective drug to treat children with refractory status epilepticus$

Propofol is a safe and effective drug to treat children with refractory status epilepticus

...and it is recommended before thiopental, according to a study in the August 23, 2005 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Propofol and thiopental are widely used intravenous anesthetics which are also known to help control seizures.

22 Aug 2005

WHO team working with Chinese health authorities is reassured over swine flu outbreak

Greater co-operation by the Ministry of Health of China with the World Health Organisation (WHO), has seen a sharing of more details about the outbreak of swine flu in China.

22 Aug 2005

How some antibiotics kill bacteria

Researchers have uncovered how members of one family of antibiotics kill bacteria that make people sick.

11 Aug 2005

No link between multiple vaccinations and infections

Over the years many concerns have been raised about chilhood vacinations, and one concern has been that multiple vaccinations 'use up' the immune system, so children are unable to fight off other illnesses.

10 Aug 2005

Findings do not support the hypothesis of increased risk of nontargeted infectious disease hospitalization after childhood vaccination

New research does not support a belief that children receiving multiple vaccines increase their risk of hospitalization for a nontargeted infectious disease, according to a study in the August 10 issue of JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association.

9 Aug 2005

Significant step forward in the search for a vaccine against Group B meningococcal disease

For a long time, doctors and scientists have suspected that Neisseria lactamica, a harmless germ carried mostly by children under the age of five years, is the key to the development of natural immunity to meningococcal meningitis and septicaemia (blood poisoning).

2 Aug 2005