Pneumonia News and Research

Latest Pneumonia News and Research

Grand Challenges Canada, Gates Foundation announce grants for innovative Global Health projects

"Grand Challenges Canada on Thursday announced 15 grants valued in total at more than $1.5 million awarded to some of Canada's most creative innovators from across the country in support of their work to improve global health conditions," according to a press release from the Sandra Rotman Centre for Global Health, which hosts Grand Challenges.

13 Feb 2012

Grand Challenges Canada announces 15 grants to support rising stars in global health

Grand Challenges Canada today announced 15 grants valued in total at more than $1.5 million awarded to some of Canada's most creative innovators from across the country in support of their work to improve global health conditions.

10 Feb 2012

Asian bird flu update for Ferbruary 2012

Health workers in Nepal are to cull thousands of chickens following the discovery of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in the southeastern part of the Himalayan country.

6 Feb 2012

New MRSA ‘superbug’ worries experts

A deadly mutant bug could be spreading among the public warn experts. The deadly strain of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) called USA300 passes easily through skin-to-skin contact. It can also survive on surfaces and so has the potential to be picked up on crowded buses and tubes. The first cases were seen in the US but cases are now being reported in the community and not just hospitals in Britain.

3 Feb 2012

Potential way to block second wave of death from pneumonia treatment

An international research team may have found a way to block a second wave of death that can result from pneumonia treatment.

1 Feb 2012

Certain strains of P. aeruginosa cause WBCs to produce high levels of histamine

Could some cases of asthma actually be caused by an allergic reaction to a common environmental bacteria? New research findings published in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology suggests that this idea may not be as far-fetched as it seems. In a research report appearing in the February 2012 print issue, researchers show a link between common environmental bacteria and airway inflammation.

1 Feb 2012

Study investigates how bacteria change their disguise to evade vaccines

Genetics has provided surprising insights into why vaccines used in both the UK and US to combat serious childhood infections can eventually fail. The study, published today in Nature Genetics, which investigates how bacteria change their disguise to evade the vaccines, has implications for how future vaccines can be made more effective.

30 Jan 2012

New study aims to prevent bacterial infections in sub-Saharan African kids

Bacteria infections - most of which are preventable via vaccines readily available in the developed world - and not malaria are the leading cause of death for children in sub-Saharan Africa. A new Michigan State University project based in Nigeria and funded by a $5.8 million grant aims to help prevent these diseases by collecting local data on the ailments, spurring vaccine use and development. Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the research led by Stephen Obaro focuses on diseases such as pneumonia, sepsis and meningitis.

25 Jan 2012

EMA CHMP issues positive opinion to MSD's REMICADE for treatment of pediatric UC

MSD today announced that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) adopted a positive opinion recommending the use of REMICADE (infliximab) in the treatment of severely active ulcerative colitis (UC) in pediatric patients ages 6 to 17 years, who have had an inadequate response to conventional therapy, including corticosteroids and 6-mercaptopurine or azathioprine, or who are intolerant to or have medical contraindications for such therapies.

21 Jan 2012

Shortages of anti-infective drugs can put patients at risk and alter clinical care

Shortages of key drugs used to fight infections represent a public health emergency and can put patients at risk, according to a review published in Clinical Infectious Diseases and available online.

20 Jan 2012

Alpha-hemolysin may play an unexpected role in UTIs

Researchers from the University of Utah have identified a process by which the most common types of urinary tract infection-causing bacteria are able to trigger bladder cell shedding and disable immune responses. According to this new study, published in the Jan. 19, 2012, issue of Cell Host & Microbe, α-hemolysin, a toxin secreted by many strains of Escherichia coli (E. coli), may play an important, unexpected role during both the establishment and persistence of urinary tract infections.

19 Jan 2012

New Yorker mistakenly billed for $44.8 million from hospital

Unemployed doorman Alexis Rodriguez says he almost became ill when he received a $44.8 million bill from the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center. Rodriguez was hospitalized last spring with pneumonia and was afraid the bill was legitimate. His actual bill stood at $300.

17 Jan 2012

Man gets new windpipe with stem cell therapy

Christopher Lyles, 30, of Abingdon, Md, became the first American to undergo an experimental procedure, involving stem cells to treat his trachea cancer. A trachea or windpipe connects the nose and mouth to the lungs, serving a crucial function for life.

16 Jan 2012

Non-toxin vaccine shows promise against lethal anthrax infection

Vaccination with the anthrax capsule-a naturally occurring component of the bacterium that causes the disease-protected monkeys from lethal anthrax infection, according to U.S. Army scientists. The study, which appears in the Jan. 20th print edition of the journal VACCINE, represents the first successful use of a non-toxin vaccine to protect monkeys from the disease.

13 Jan 2012

$Patients with hip fractures should be operated on within 48 hours of admission$

Patients with hip fractures should be operated on within 48 hours of admission

All patients with hip fractures should be fast-tracked through hospital emergency departments and operated on within 48 hours of admission, according to new consensus guidelines developed by UK experts in anaesthesia, orthopaedics, geriatrics and emergency medicine and published in the January issue of Anaesthesia.

12 Jan 2012

Investing in Frontline Health Workers effective in saving lives of mothers, children

In the Huffington Post's "Impact" blog, Carolyn Miles, president and CEO of Save the Children, writes about the Frontline Health Workers Coalition's call on the U.S. government to train 250,000 new frontline health workers in developing countries, stating, "At a time when every dollar counts more than ever, the new Frontline Health Workers Coalition believes this focus is the most cost-effective way to save mothers' and children's lives around the world, address global health threats, and help advance strategic U.S. interests in a secure and prosperous world."

12 Jan 2012

Intestinal worm infections may not be bad

Intestinal worm infections may not be all bad, according to a new study by William C. Gause, PhD, and colleagues at UMDNJ- New Jersey Medical School. The researchers have found cytokines that help oust intestinal worm infections in mice also soothe associated lung injury and inflammation.

11 Jan 2012

Decorative fountain in hospital linked to 2010 Wisconsin outbreak of Legionnaires' disease

A 2010 outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in Wisconsin has been linked to a decorative fountain in a hospital lobby, according to a study published in the February issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.

11 Jan 2012

Anthrax defenses need to be strengthened say experts

It has been a decade since the anthrax attacks brought home the reality of bioterrorism and the nation has a stockpile of some basic tools to fight back against a few of the threats that worry defense experts the most.

8 Jan 2012

AVMA warns against further restrictions on cephalosporin usage in food animals that are not backed by science

The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) announced today that the FDA's order prohibiting certain uses of cephalosporins in food animals appears consistent with the current AVMA position on the limited prohibition on extra-label drug use, but warned against further restrictions not backed by science.

7 Jan 2012