With every breath you take, microbes have a chance of making it into your lungs. But what happens when they get there? And why do dangerous lung infections like pneumonia happen in some people, but not others? Researchers have started to answer these questions by studying the microbiome of the lungs.
Using a specially designed computational tool as a lure, scientists have netted the genomic sequences of almost 12,500 previously uncharacterized viruses from public databases.
Electronic reminders at clinics helped boost rates of Tdap booster that protects against tetanus, diptheria, and whooping cough.
Working as part of an international team in the United States and West Africa, a researcher at The Scripps Research Institute has published new findings showing the ancient roots of the deadly Lassa virus, a relative of Ebola virus, and how Lassa virus has changed over time.
When a mosquito decides to dine on your blood, you typically know it – there’s pain, itch, and annoyance. Ticks, on the other hand, take a stealthier approach.
Native North Americans have long adorned themselves and their homes with fragrant sweetgrass (Hierochloe odorata), a native plant used in traditional medicine, to repel biting insects, and mosquitoes in particular. Now, researchers report that they have identified the compounds in sweetgrass that keep these bugs at bay. The team will describe their approach at the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.
When a fever strikes in a developing area, the immediate concern may be: Is it the common flu or something much worse? To facilitate diagnosis in remote, low-resource settings, researchers have developed a paper-based device that changes color, depending on whether the patient has Ebola, yellow fever or dengue. It takes minutes and does not need electricity. The team will describe their approach at the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.
People infected with the hepatitis C virus are at risk for liver damage, but the results of a new Johns Hopkins study now show the infection may also spell heart trouble.
Researchers have discovered a way to trigger a preventive response to a flu infection without any help from the usual players – the virus itself or interferon, a powerful infection fighter. The finding suggests that manipulating a natural process could someday be an alternative way to not just reduce flu severity, but prevent infection.
Findings from a pair of new studies could speed up the development of a universally accurate diagnostic test for human herpes simplex viruses (HSV), according to researchers at Johns Hopkins and Harvard universities and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The work may also lead to the development of a vaccine that protects against the virus.
A Lab-on-a-Disc platform developed by a German and Irish team of researchers combines modern microfluidic techniques with fast optical diagnostics to dramatically cut the time to detect bacterial species that cause urinary tract infections—a major cause of sepsis—from 24 hours to within 70 minutes.
The study showed that patients with community-acquired pneumonia who received corticosteroids were discharged from hospital sooner, and results showed a reduction in the need for mechanical ventilation and the likelihood of life-threatening complications.
While a new Penn Medicine study in this week’s Annals of Internal Medicine points to several promising cleaning tactics of “high-touch surfaces,” there’s a lack of evidence as to which is the most effective at reducing healthcare-associated infections (HAIs).
Researchers who have revealed a highly efficient way that bacteria use toxins to interrupt the immune response say that until now, the trickery of these toxins has been underappreciated in science.
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers say they have developed a method that could make a nasal spray flu vaccine effective for those under two and over 49 – two groups for which the vaccine is not approved.
UF/IFAS researchers continue to study ways to nip the virus in the bud and monitor its spread. Researchers at the UF/IFAS Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory in Vero Beach track rainfall, groundwater levels, mosquito abundance, wild bird populations and virus transmission to animals including horses and sentinel chickens. Researchers use these data to track the virus transmission between mosquitoes and wild birds, noting when mosquito infection rates reach the levels that can infect humans. They document background on West Nile virus in Florida in a new article in the Journal of Medical Entomology.
A researcher at the University of Warwick has received international recognition for his contribution to AIDS research.
The compound that detectives spray at crime scenes to find trace amounts of blood may one day be used to kill the malaria parasite.
A web-based programme to encourage more frequent handwashing reduces the risk of catching and passing on respiratory tract infections to other household members, a randomised trial of more than 16,000 UK households published in The Lancet has found.
Lax state vaccination laws contribute to lower immunization rates and increased outbreaks of preventable diseases—like whooping cough and measles—according to a new study from the University of Georgia.
A study led by the University of Utah School of Medicine finds that every child puts a household at increased risk for viral infections. Childless households had infections during 3-4 weeks of the year, while families with six children were infected for 45 weeks. But only half who tested positive reported feeling ill. Published in Clinical Infectious Diseases, the results can help families and health care providers know when illness should be cause for concern.
Communication among health care facilities, public health agencies is critical in effort to avoid HAIs, CDC-led study finds
Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report that more than one in four female sex workers in two Mexican cities on the U.S. border entered the sex trade younger than age 18; one in eight before their 16th birthday. These women were more than three times more likely to become infected with HIV than those who started sex work as adults.
Children who sleep in unventilated rooms with cooking fires are at greater risk for severe trachoma, a leading cause of preventable blindness in developing countries, according to the findings of a recent study conducted in Tanzania. The study was supported by the National Eye Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health.
When the European Medicines Agency recommended to approve what could be the world’s first licensed vaccine against malaria, it reflected the life’s work of Ruth and Victor Nussenzweig, whose research over the past half-century against malaria has brought them international acclaim – and which contributed greatly to this latest breakthrough.
Researchers have devised an entirely new approach to vaccines – creating immunity without vaccination. They demonstrated that animals injected with synthetic DNA engineered to encode a specific neutralizing antibody against the dengue virus were capable of producing the exact antibodies necessary to protect against disease, without the need for standard antigen-based vaccination. This approach, was rapid, protecting animals within a week of administration.
Michael Niederweis of the University of Alabama at Birmingham describes the first known toxin of the pathogenic bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis. This necrotizing toxin is the founding member of a novel class of previously unrecognized toxins present in 246 bacterial and fungal species.
A vaccine containing virus-like nanoparticles, or microscopic, genetically engineered particles, is an effective treatment for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), according to researchers at Georgia State University.
To keep both animals and humans protected from Chagas disease, Texas A&M University System entities have been studying the parasite-host-vector interaction at sites in South Central Texas.
A device to mix liquids utilizing ultrasonics is the first and most difficult component in a miniaturized system for low-cost analysis of sputum from patients with pulmonary diseases such as tuberculosis and asthma.
Health experts have warned for years that the overuse of antibiotics is creating “superbugs” able to resist drugs treating infection. Now scientists at Indiana University and elsewhere are finding evidence that an invisible war between microorganisms may also be catching humans in the crossfire.
At the 2015 AACC Annual Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo, researchers will present findings that a first-of-its-kind smartphone test for chlamydia can detect the disease with high accuracy, which could reduce the prevalence of this sexually transmitted disease (STD) by making chlamydia screening easier and cheaper.
This week at the American Crystallographic Association (ACA) 2015 Meeting in Philadelphia, researchers from the National Cancer Institute will present three newly determined crystal structures, which collectively provide a starting point for structure-based drug design efforts to combat MERS. The work will be presented by George Lountos, a scientist in the lab of primary investigator David Waugh.
Research presented at the 2015 AACC Annual Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo will expand on the studies that led to a fingerprick Ebola test becoming the first and only rapid diagnostic for this disease to receive approval from the World Health Organization (WHO). This test could prove vital to breaking Ebola’s grip on West Africa by identifying suspected Ebola cases within minutes, and enabling healthcare workers to isolate and treat these patients much faster than is currently possible.
Scientists uncover a port of liver entry for malaria parasites, and if these results hold up in humans, drugs that target this entry protein might help prevent the spread of disease.
The World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ) is launching a new initiative to help journalists report on the staggering toll of Hepatitis C (HCV) as well as the scientific and political barriers to treating the disease. To be launched on World Hepatitis Day (July 28, 2015)
Under-vaccinated communities face heightened risk of measles outbreaks that can spread nationally within a year unless squelched quickly, but a vigorous vaccination response during a 2014 outbreak in North American Amish communities in Ohio prevented widespread transmission, according to a recent study published in the online version of Risk Analysis, a publication of the Society for Risk Analysis.
Like a collection of ragtag villagers fighting off an invading army, the mix of bacteria that live in our guts may band together to keep dangerous infections from taking hold, new research suggests. But some “villages” may succeed better than others at holding off the invasion, because of key differences in the kinds of bacteria that make up their feisty population.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed a diagnostic test to quickly detect enterovirus D68 (EV-D68), a respiratory virus that caused unusually severe illness in children last year. The outbreak caused infections at an unprecedented rate, with over 1,000 confirmed cases and 14 reported deaths nationwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The WFSJ will be holding infectious diseases and Ebola and pandemic influenza training workshops, as well as a viral hepatitis education package for health journalists in 2015.
A research review for the Cochrane Library, led by McMaster University researchers, has found that eliminating Helicobacter pylori bacterium— the main cause of stomach ulcers - with a short course of therapy of two commonly used medicines may help to reduce the risk of gastric cancer.
Researchers at the University of California, School of Medicine found a new combination that effectively treats hepatitis C (HCV) patients co-infected with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV).
Sandia National Laboratories researchers are studying a antibiotic-resistant pathogen to learn how to better fight it. They have identified several mechanisms bacteria use to share genes and expand their antibiotic resistance.
In a phase 2 trial that included nearly 1,000 adults, the AS03 and MF59 adjuvants (a component that improves immune response of inactivated influenza vaccines) increased the immune responses to two doses of an inactivated H7N9 influenza vaccine, with AS03-adjuvanted formulations inducing the highest amount of antibody response, according to a study in the July 21 issue of JAMA.
It’s a tale of two tests: one for early signs of cervical cancer, the other for the sexually transmitted disease chlamydia. But a change in the recommended schedule for one may have dramatically lowered the chances that young women would get the other, a new study finds.
A new drug acts as a roadblock for malaria, curing mice of established infection, according to researchers. Treatment was not associated with obvious side effects, suggesting that the drug may also be safe and effective in humans.
New Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health research finds new evidence that an extremely high number of people in southern India are exposed to two mosquito-borne viruses -- dengue and chikungunya.
The Ebola epidemic and resulting international public health emergency is referred to as a “Black Swan” event in medical circles because of its unpredictable and impactful nature. However, a paper in the June 30 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, a leading journal in the field of infectious diseases, suggests that the response of the Chicago Ebola Response Network (CERN) in 2014-2015 has laid a foundation and a roadmap for how a regional public health network can anticipate, manage and prevent the next Black Swan public health event.
An international team of scientists — led by researchers from the University of Washington and two other institutions — has announced that a new compound to fight malaria is ready for human trials.
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