Feature Channels: Infectious Diseases

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To investigate specific causes of childhood CAP, University of Utah Health Sciences and other institutions collaborated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the largest study of its kind, the Etiology of Pneumonia in the Community (EPIC). Among children under age 18, 73 percent of those with pneumonia had viral infections and 15 percent had bacterial infections. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) was the most commonly detected pathogen. The results were published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

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Respiratory viruses, not bacterial infections, are the most commonly detected causes of community-acquired pneumonia in children, according to new research released Feb. 26 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Chronic wasting disease (CWD) affects North American elk and deer, but has not been observed in humans. Using a mouse model that expresses an altered form of the normal human prion protein, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have determined why the human proteins aren’t corrupted when exposed to the elk prions. Their study identifies a small loop in the human prion protein that confers resistance to chronic wasting disease.

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A doctor’s recommendation and a patient’s race may influence flu vaccination rates, according to researchers at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. Researchers found that 90 percent of patients received vaccination if their physician advocated for it compared to 58 percent of patients whose physician did not.

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A pivotal international phase 2/3 clinical trial involving Moffitt Cancer Center faculty demonstrated that vaccination with Gardasil 9 protects against nine HPV types, seven of which cause most cases of cervical, vulvar, and vaginal disease. The trial data indicate that if populations are vaccinated with Gardasil 9 approximately 90 percent of all cervical cancers worldwide can be prevented.

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By staying up for two days straight, researchers have figured out for the first time exactly how Clostridium difficile wreaks havoc on the guts of animals in such a short time. The findings could help prevent or treat severe diarrhea and life-threatening disease in humans.

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Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine used algae as a mini-factory to produce a malaria parasite protein. The algae-produced protein, paired with an immune-boosting cocktail suitable for use in humans, generated antibodies in mice that nearly eliminated mosquito infection by the malaria parasite. The method is the newest attempt to develop a vaccine that prevents transmission of the malaria parasite from host to mosquito.

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In a remarkable new advance against the virus that causes AIDS, scientists from The Scripps Research Institute have announced the creation of a novel drug candidate so potent and universally effective, it might work as part of an unconventional vaccine.

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Antibodies that protect against H7N9 avian flu, which emerged in China in 2013 and sparked fears of a global pandemic, have been isolated in individuals who received seasonal flu vaccinations and appear to broadly neutralize H7 viruses.

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New research from UAB suggests that Fusobacterium necrophorum more often causes severe sore throats in young adults than streptococcus — the cause of the much better known strep throat. The findings, suggest physicians should consider F. necrophorum when treating severe sore throat in young adults and adolescents that worsens.

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Researchers discover that the accepted theory of how Yersinia pestis microbes travel from fleabite to lymph node is off base. Most bacteria get trapped in a bottleneck and never make it to the lymph node, where infection takes root. Finding out why could lead to new ways to stop the pathogen.

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Experience with the Ebola outbreak highlights local health departments' essential role in responding to global health threats posed by infectious diseases, according to a special article in the March/April issue of the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

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Each year nearly 600,000 people—mostly children under age five and pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa—die from malaria, caused by single-celled parasites that grow inside red blood cells. The most deadly malarial species—Plasmodium falciparum—has proven notoriously resistant to treatment efforts. But thanks to a novel approach developed by scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and described in the January 20 online edition of ACS Chemical Biology, researchers can readily screen thousands of drugs to find those potentially able to kill P. falciparum.

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A Georgia State University expert is available to discuss the measles outbreak in the United States.

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NIBIB-funded researchers have developed a novel 3D vaccine that could provide a more effective way to harness the immune system to fight cancer as well as infectious diseases. The vaccine spontaneously assembles into a scaffold once injected under the skin and is capable of recruiting, housing, and manipulating immune cells to generate a powerful immune response. The vaccine was recently found to be effective in delaying tumor growth in mice.

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Reporting in a new study published online this week in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, researchers under the Botswana-UPenn Partnership at the University of Pennsylvania, including Shruthi Ravimohan, PhD, a research associate in the division of Infectious Diseases at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, and Gregory P. Bisson, MD, MSCE, an assistant professor in the division of Infectious Diseases, have identified immune biomarkers in HIV/TB patients before they begin ART that could help distinguish who goes on to develop IRIS or die after treatment.

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Not unlike an urban restaurant, the success of a bacterial cell depends on three things: localization, localization and localization. But the complete set of controls by which bacteria control the movement of proteins and other essential biological materials globally within the confines of their membrane walls has been something of a mystery. Now, researchers have parsed out the localization mechanisms that E. coli use to sort through and organize their subcellular components.

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A Rutgers University infectious diseases expert discusses the myths and facts of the measles outbreak and the “vaccine gap” that has put certain adults at risk.

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New research from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health suggests that a prolonged illness associated with Lyme disease is more widespread and serious in some patients than previously understood.

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Columbia Engineering Professor Samuel Sia has developed a low-cost smartphone accessory that can perform a point-of-care test that simultaneously detects three infectious disease markers—HIV and syphilis—from a finger prick of blood in just 15 minutes. The device replicates, for the first time, all mechanical, optical, and electronic functions of a lab-based blood test without requiring any stored energy: all necessary power is drawn from the smartphone. February 4, Science Translational Medicine.

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Head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC) ranks among the top ten most prevalent cancers in the United States. Despite its prevalence, little is known about how this cancer develops and spreads. However, in a paper published in the January 29, 2015 edition of Nature, researchers offer critical new information about head and neck cancers.

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New findings, published today by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, open the door to the development of new therapies to block or decrease cognitive decline due to HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND), estimated to affect 10 to 50 percent of aging HIV sufferers to some degree.

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One of the global regions highly affected by hepatitis C is West Africa. In developed countries, hepatitis C, a blood-borne disease, is transmitted through intravenous (IV) drug use. “In West Africa, we believe that there are many transmission modes and they are not through IV drug use, but through cultural and every day practices,” says Jennifer Layden, MD, PhD principal investigator on a study recently published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

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Children under age 5 living in sub-Saharan Africa were 54 percent less likely to develop malaria if they had been given a single large dose of vitamin A, new research led by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health suggests.

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Scientists at the University of Utah and the University of Georgia have uncovered a pharmacological target that could enable development of novel drugs against antibiotic-resistant pathogens, including Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) and other infectious Gram-positive organisms such as Listeria and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The target was revealed upon discovery of a Gram-positive bacteria-specific pathway for making heme, an essential iron-carrying molecule. The findings were reported in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

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Measles are becoming more commonplace, due to lack of vaccination, says Jorge Parada, MD, medical director of infectious disease at Loyola University Health System.

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As flu season continues, Virginia Tech professor Linsey Marr is studying how the disease is transmitted through the air, in hopes that her results will lead to new strategies to fight the flu.

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Having a team in the Super Bowl correlated to an average 18 percent increase in flu deaths among those over 65 years old, according to a study of health data covering 35 years of championship games.

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Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the use of antiviral drugs to help treat influenza, in a year when the available vaccine is not a good match for the current strain.

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A mosquito-borne virus that has spread to the Caribbean and Central and South America and has caused isolated infections in Florida often causes joint pain and swelling similar to that seen in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

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New research from Kansas State University finds that despite receiving food safety messaging, a majority of home chefs still contaminate their food because of poor food-handling techniques.

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UC San Diego researchers say they can predict the spread of flu a week into the future with as much accuracy as Google Flu Trends can display levels of infection right now.

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People’s perceptions of the cost of a drug may affect how much they benefit from the drug, even when they are receiving only a placebo, according to a new study of people with Parkinson’s disease published in the January 28, 2015 online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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The recent measles outbreak linked to Disney amusement parks in southern California should not be a concern for anyone who has had measles in the past or who has received two doses of the measles vaccine.

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UAB’s David Kimberlin, M.D., who also is president of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, urges parents to speak with their child’s doctor about immunizations.

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A new study shows that more than half the people in some developing countries could become newly at risk for malnutrition if crop-pollinating animals — like bees — continue to decline.

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Saint Louis University's Mee-Ngan F. Yap, Ph.D., discovered new information about how antibiotics like azithromycin stop staph infections, and why staph sometimes becomes resistant to drugs.

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Inflammatory bowel diseases are associated with a decrease in the diversity of bacteria in the gut, but a new study led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has linked the same illnesses to an increase in the diversity of viruses.

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Nükhet Varlik, a Rutgers historian, has studied the Black Death – the medieval plague that may have wiped out more than half of the population in vast parts of the world – and found echoes from centuries past in issues such as the spread of deadly diseases including Ebola, human interactions with the environment, climate change and other dilemmas that affect human health today as much as they did in the Middle Ages. There is much we may be able to learn about modern times from what Professor Varlik has found.

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Researchers at SUNY Downstate Medical Center have found an apparent link between human population density and vegetation cover in Africa and the spread of the Ebola virus from animal hosts to humans.

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Combining insecticide-treated bed nets with vaccines and other control measures may provide the best chance at eliminating malaria, which killed nearly 600,000 people worldwide in 2013, most of them African children.

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A key to victory in battle, according to Chinese general and military strategist Sun Tzu, is to know your enemy. In the current fight against whooping cough resurgence, perhaps the biggest obstacle is an incomplete understanding of its underlying causes, according to a University of Michigan population ecologist.

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Salmonella Lubbock will provide new avenues for research into the bacteria’s prevention.

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An international team of researchers says climate change, the loss of biosphere integrity, land-system change, and altered biogeochemical cycles like phosphorus and nitrogen runoff have all passed beyond levels that put humanity in a “safe operating space.” Civilization has crossed four of nine so-called planetary boundaries as the result of human activity, according to a report published today in Science by the 18-member research team.

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The antibody response from an HIV vaccine trial in Thailand was made possible by a genetic trait carried over in humans from an ancient ancestry with monkeys and apes, according to a study led by Duke Medicine researchers.