Meningitis News and Research

Latest Meningitis News and Research

New rapid diagnostic tests for Neisseria meningitidis

Over a million people each year, most of them in the "meningitis belt" in Africa, contract bacterial meningitis, a potentially deadly infection of tissues that line the brain and spinal cord.

4 Sep 2006

British babies to get vaccine against meningitis

Babies in the UK will soon be given a vaccination against the pneumococcal disease meningitis as part and parcel of the standard infant immunisation package.

28 Aug 2006

Meningitis infects 87 who ate un-cooked snails

According to the Chinese media, 87 people are now infected with meningitis after eating undercooked snails at a Beijing restaurant.

24 Aug 2006

Chinese diners get meningitis from eating snails

As many as 50 people have been diagnosed with a form of meningitis after eating raw or half-cooked Amazonian snails in Beijing restaurants, and according to reports by the Chinese media five patients are in a serious condition at different hospitals in the capital.

21 Aug 2006

Long-term health effects from West Nile illnesses

More than a year after being diagnosed with a West Nile virus infection, half of the patients have ongoing health complaints including fatigue, memory problems, headaches, depression, and tremors, according to an article in the Sept. 15 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases.

16 Aug 2006

Genotoxic bacteria in the digestive tract

Escherichia coli is a commensal bacterium, which lives peacefully in our digestive tract. However, certain strains are pathogenic and are frequently incriminated in a broad spectrum of infections, affecting both farmed animals and humans (diarrhoea, urinary tract infections, food poisoning, septicaemia, neonatal meningitis, etc.).

16 Aug 2006

Effectiveness of Hib vaccine introduction into routine childhood immunization in Kenya

Three years after introduction, routine vaccination of infants in Kenya against H. influenzae Type b (Hib) significantly reduced invasive Hib disease rates by 88%.

8 Aug 2006

New group B strep test for newborn babies approved

The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday approved a new test studied at the University of Florida that could lead to better screening for the most common cause of infection in newborn babies.

27 Jul 2006

Using gamma radiation preserves T-cell responses in bacterial vaccine

Using gamma radiation to inactivate bacteria for the preparation of vaccines, instead of traditional heat or chemical methods of inactivation, appears to create a vaccine that is more effective than so-called "killed" vaccines against disease, and has the added advantage of a longer storage life than "live" vaccines.

26 Jul 2006

Irradiation preserves T-Cell responses in bacterial vaccine

Findings could result in more potent vaccines that are relatively inexpensive to produce, easy to store, and that can be transported without refrigeration.

25 Jul 2006

Conjugate vaccines for preventing meningococcal C meningitis and septicaemia

A new systematic review suggests that a certain kind of vaccine may help to protect babies and small children from a devastating killer: meningococcal meningitis.

19 Jul 2006

Children with chronic otitis media have biofilms in their middle ears

Direct evidence of bacterial biofilms has been found on the middle ear tissue of children who suffer from chronic ear infections

12 Jul 2006

Dog DNA provides clues to combating diseases such as diabetes and multiple sclerosis in humans

Melbourne researchers are examining the DNA of dogs in a research project aiming at determining the genetic causes of common pet diseases - and to provide a model for combating diseases such as diabetes and multiple sclerosis in humans.

5 Jul 2006

Organ-recipients' deaths prompt call for suppliers of pet rodents to screen for lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus

A case involving seven transplant recipients killed by a rodent-borne virus that they apparently acquired from donated and infected human organs has prompted a recommendation that regulatory authorities require suppliers of pet rodents to screen their colonies for the virus.

1 Jun 2006

Potential vaccine for visceral leishmaniasis developed

Development of a fundamentally new "candidate," or potential, vaccine for visceral leishmaniasis (LEASH-ma-NIGH-a-sis), a parasitic disease that kills about 60,000 people annually, is reported in the current issue of ACS Chemical Biology. Spread by the bite of infected female sand flies, visceral leishmaniasis infects about 500,000 people annually, with the majority of cases occurring in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sudan and Brazil.

26 Apr 2006

Fast tracking the healing process for common ear infections

The research will aim to understand why some eardrums heal by themselves (and why some do not heal at all) by identifying which genes are responsible for the wound-healing process of an infected human ear drum.

18 Apr 2006

Concern over spread of Mumps in the U.S.

Health officials in the United States have voiced concern about an outbreak of mumps in the Midwest and say they believe some people may have become infected on airline flights.

16 Apr 2006

Europe slow to implement infant pneumococcal vaccine programmes

Up to 90 per cent of cases of invasive pneumococcal diseases (IPD) - which includes serious infections like meningitis - occur in otherwise healthy young children, according to a study published in the April issue of IJCP, the International Journal of Clinical Practice.

13 Apr 2006

Swine disease in China caused toxic shock syndrome

A large and deadly outbreak of Streptococcus suis disease, in Sichuan province in China last year alarmed health officials worldwide and now scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and other Chinese institutions have published the first scientific details of the outbreak.

12 Apr 2006