LifeBridge Health has experts available to address: 1) Infections and the immune system; 2) Emerging research; 3) Bacteria and viruses e.g. Bird flu, SARS, HIV, the common cold; 4) Detection/diagnosis methods; 5) Outbreaks/epidemics/pandemics; 6) Emerging diseases; 7) Ethics of disease control.
A new study finds the cross-talk between "˜killer T-cells' and "˜helper T-cells' can only happen in the presence of interleukin-21, a powerful immune-system protein. Researchers said if interleukin-21, or IL-21, is missing, then the body's own anti-viral efforts fail. The study mice were treated for lymphocytic choriomeningitis.
Loyola among first hospitals in nation to limit blood transfusions.
With the World Health Organization raising the H1N1 flu to the highest pandemic level (Level 6), faculty members of The University of Texas Health Science Center say the world economy could be affected but the illness has run its course in the United States "“ for now.
A team of researchers led by Amy G. Hise, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor at the Center for Global Health and Diseases, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, is the first to discover how the body fights off oral yeast infections caused by the most common human fungal pathogen, Candida.
Strategies to mitigate disease epidemics in cities will not be so effective in rural areas, according to computer engineers, because in cities, people have a lot of informal contact with one another but looser ties. Rural residents also report being more likely to visit and interact with others during an epidemic.
Informing men that a new vaccine to prevent human papillomavirus (HPV) would also help protect their female partners against developing cervical cancer from the sexually transmitted infection did not increase their interest in getting the vaccine, according to a new Florida State University study.
Immunology researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered how two biochemical signals play unique roles in promoting the development of a group of immune cells employed as tactical assassins.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health has awarded Virginia Commonwealth University the first year of a planned, four-year $11.5 million project to study how microorganisms found in the vagina influence health and disease in women.
New findings by researchers UT Southwestern Medical Center are accelerating efforts to eradicate worm infections that afflict a third of the world's population.
A new study of nearly 14,000 U.S. women reveals that those who are in physically abusive relationships are at higher risk for HIV infection.
Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) have identified a critical molecular mechanism that allows the influenza virus to evade the body's immune response system.
Understanding stigma as it relates to coping strategies and sexual risk-taking among people with HIV/AIDS living in rural communities drives the work of UVM psychology professors, recently awarded a $3.2 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health.
A protein from algae may have what it takes to stop Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) infections, according to new research. A recent study has found that mice treated with the protein, Griffithsin (GRFT), had a 100 percent survival rate after exposure to the SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV), as compared to a 30 percent survival for untreated mice.
Promising new research announced by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute could provide an entirely new tool to combat the flu. The discovery is a one-two punch against the illness that targets the illness on two fronts, going one critical step further than any currently available flu drug.
More Americans are developing drug-resistant staph infections, known as MRSA, from common, relatively minor foot problems such as cuts, cracks in the skin, athlete's foot and ingrown toenails, according to the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons (ACFAS).
Approximately 350 million to 500 million cases of malaria are diagnosed each year mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. While medications to prevent and treat malaria do exist, the demand for new treatments is on the rise, in part, because malaria parasites have developed a resistance to existing medications. Now, researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered one way to stop malaria parasite growth, and this new finding could guide the development of new malaria treatments.
A research team may have broken the stubborn impasse that has frustrated the invention of an effective HIV vaccine, by using an approach that bypasses the usual path followed by vaccine developers. By using gene transfer technology that produces molecules that block infection, the scientists protected monkeys from infection by the simian immunodeficiency virus, a virus closely related to HIV.
The recent H1N1 influenza epidemic raises questions about how animal viruses move to human populations. While there is no evidence veterinarians had a direct role in the H1N1 epidemic, a new report finds veterinarians at markedly increased risk of infection with viruses and bacteria that can infect both animals and humans.
A study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center suggests for the first time that cytomegalovirus (CMV), a common viral infection affecting between 60 and 99 percent of adults worldwide, is a cause of high blood pressure, a leading risk factor for heart disease, stroke and kidney disease.
Scientists at Baylor Institute for Immunology Research (BIIR) in Dallas, part of Baylor Research Institute (BRI) and the Baylor Health Care System, announced today that they received a renewal of a multi-million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to design new vaccines to prevent influenza"”including swine flu (H1N1).
Published studies back use of latex gloves in swine flu kits. Latex is also the only environmentally friendly glove option, since it's made from a renewable resource (natural rubber) and is biodegradable.
Bacteria in the gut of the Anopheles gambiae mosquito inhibit infection of the insect with Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes malaria in humans, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Scientists with the Bloomberg School's Malaria Research Institute found that removing these bacteria, or microbial flora, with antibiotics made the mosquitoes more susceptible to Plasmodium infection because of a lack of immune stimulation.
A scientist at UMDNJ has developed a new diagnostic test for TB that will provide results quickly and efficiently. The test that can simultaneously identify Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) and resistance to the common first-line drug for treating TB and a reliable surrogate marker of strains that are multidrug-resistant (MDR-TB). Test results that used to take weeks can now be available within hours.
The Wistar Institute today obtained a U.S. patent for a novel synthetic vaccine technology with the potential for further development into a universal flu vaccine which could eliminate the need for annual flu shots and protect against future flu pandemics.
The last decade has seen a sharp drop in HIV infections in the Dominican Republic, resulting largely from reductions in risky sexual behavior, according to a paper in a supplement to the May 1 issue of JAIDS: Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.
Universal AIDS testing can be achieved with a simple blood draw, a finger prick or a cheek swab, but the benefits are mighty. HIV detected early means infection treatments are less expensive, more effective and help lower the probability of spreading the disease to others.
In 1918 a human influenza virus known as the Spanish flu spread through the central United States while a swine respiratory disease occurred concurrently. A Kansas State University researcher has found that the virus causing the pandemic was able to infect and replicate in pigs, but did not kill them, unlike in other mammalian hosts like monkeys, mice and ferrets where the infection has been lethal.
A new study by University of Maryland researchers suggests that the potential for an avian influenza virus to cause a human flu pandemic is greater than previously thought. Results also illustrate how the current swine flu outbreak likely came about.
For infants and children under age three, one dose of nasal influenza vaccine reduces the risk of getting sick with the flu, but two doses offer better protection, reports a study in the May issue of The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.
A virologist currently investigating transmission of swine viruses between species and a virologist who has developed a novel vaccine technology, which has broad applicability to almost all viruses, are available to respond to media queries related to Swine flu and related issues.
A Saint Louis University researcher will present findings on the potential of a vaccine to protect against death and serious illness from influenza at an infectious diseases conference Monday.
Flu vaccine delivered through skin patches containing microneedles has proven just as effective at preventing influenza in mice as intramuscular, hypodermic flu immunization. The microneedle patches could improve seasonal vaccination coverage.
Iowa State University has swine flu experts available, including the current president of the American Association of Swine Veterinarians, which includes veterinarians from Mexico.
With more outbreaks of the new strain of swine flu come outbreaks of misinformation and rumor. Below are 20 questions answered by infectious disease expert Charles Ericsson, M.D., professor of internal medicine and director of Travel Medicine at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston.
The Swine Flu has infected 40 people in the United States and hundreds more in Mexico. Temple University has specialists who can comment on a number of areas related to the outbreak, including: understanding the disease, preparedness and prevention of outbreak, spread of the virus, development and production of vaccinations, and the media's role in disseminating information.
Concerns about a Swine flu outbreak lowered retail stocks on Monday. According to food safety expert Nancy Childs, Ph.D., pandemic reactions create consumer distrust in the safety of the retail environment. "Any potential for further slowdown in global economic activity is a concern," she says.
Georgia Tech professors have developed models that show how a flu outbreak would spread in the state of Georgia and what the best intervention strategies are.
Jon Stone, safety and health specialist at Michigan Technological University and safety officer on the University's Incident Command Team, can talk knowledgably about handling a potential epidemic or pandemic on a university campus.
Richard P. Wenzel, M.D., internationally known expert on infectious disease, is available for comment on swine flu and can talk to the implications for the nation of a potential epidemic, a global pandemic and how epidemics have been handled historically.
Two infectious disease experts at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill "“ Dr. David Weber and Dr. Myron Cohen -- are available to discuss swine flu.
The University of Texas at San Antonio and The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio Collaborate with Merck & Co., Inc., to Develop a Vaccine for Chlamydia.
The current swine flu outbreak recalls the 1976 swine flu cluster in NJ that led to mass immunizations in America. An epidemiologist at UMDNJ says the current and past outbreaks point out what can go right - and wrong - in the face of a possible epidemic when potential life and death decisions must be made without the luxury of weeks or months to gather and analyze evidence.
Special Issue of Pediatric Research presents updates in the science of infectious diseases in children.
The bacteria responsible for chronic infections in cystic fibrosis patients use one of the sugars on the germs' surface to start building a structure that helps the microbes resist efforts to kill them, new research shows.
World Malaria Day is Saturday, April 25. If you're looking for experts to speak about malaria control efforts in Africa, Dr. John Chimumbwa is available.
An Auburn University professor has received a $424,000 National Science Foundation grant for research in the fight against infectious diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and anthrax, as well as staph infections. Evert Duin, an assistant professor of biochemistry in the College of Sciences and Mathematics, is focusing his research on the different steps that biological cells use in making a group of lipids, called isoprenoids. These are fatty substances that are essential for the survival of all organisms including humans.
A Department of Homeland Security-sponsored environmental health scientist has given some of his best years to spittle.
For years, microbiologist Stephen Beverley, Ph.D., has tried to get the disease-causing parasite Leishmania in the mood for love. In this week's Science, he and colleagues at the National Institutes of Health report that they may have finally found the answer: Cram enough Leishmania into the gut of an insect known as the sand fly, and the parasite will have sex.
Lack of the phosphate can turn Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a common bacterium, into a killer, according to new research. The findings could lead to new drugs that would disarm the increasingly antibiotic-resistant pathogen rather than attempting to kill it. P. aeruginosa is a serious hospital-acquired pathogen. Why it suddenly turns on its host has eluded researchers"”until now.
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