Road networks and geographic factors affecting "spatial accessibility" have a major impact on the spread of HIV across sub-Saharan Africa, according to a study published online by the journal AIDS, official journal of the International AIDS Society. AIDS is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
A Kansas State University research team has resolved a 40-year-old debate on the role of iron acquisition in bacterial invasion of animal tissues. The findings suggest new approaches against bacterial disease and new strategies for antibiotic development.
College football and basketball games may provide more than a way for students to show school spirit – they could help prevent the flu. According to a new study by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, colleges and universities should implement new or improved influenza vaccine strategies, such as giving flu shots at sporting events or during campus-wide, day-long campaigns, to increase the number of their students who get the annual flu vaccine.
Electrically spun cloth with nanometer-sized fibers show promise as a cheap, versatile platform to simultaneously offer contraception and prevent HIV. New funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will further test the system's versatility and feasibility.
Virginia Tech researchers have discovered how a common diarrhea-causing bacterium sends the body’s natural defenses into overdrive, actually intensifying illness while fighting infection.
Turkey releases non-native guineafowl to eat ticks that carry deadly Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever. Yet research suggests guineafowl eat few ticks, but carry the parasites on their feathers, possibly spreading the disease they were meant to stop, says a Turkish biologist working at the University of Utah.
Vanderbilt biologists have discovered mosquitoes possess a previously unknown mechanism for destroying pathogens that takes advantage of the peculiarities of the insect’s circulatory system to increase its effectiveness.
In the case of such pathogens as hepatitis C, HIV, and malaria, the body and the pathogen essentially fight to a prolonged stalemate, neither able to gain an advantage. Over time, however, the cells become “exhausted” and the immune system can collapse, giving the pathogen the edge. A new study is showing how that happens, suggesting a novel approach that might shift the balance of power in chronic infections.
Saint Louis University's Center for Vaccine Development is conducting a clinical trial that could help identify the most promising tuberculosis vaccines for future study.
Scientists have developed a new system that adapts techniques used in weather prediction to generate local forecasts of seasonal influenza outbreaks. By predicting the timing and severity of the outbreaks as far as seven weeks in advance, the system can eventually help society better prepare for them.
University at Buffalo microbiologists studying bacterial colonization in mice have discovered how the very rapid and efficient spread of antibiotic resistance works in the respiratory pathogen, Streptococcus pneumoniae (also known as the pneumococcus). The UB team found that resistance stems from the transfer of DNA between bacterial strains in biofilms in the nasopharynx, the area just behind the nose.
The Ebola, Marburg and Lassa viruses are commonly referred to as emerging diseases, but leading scientists say these life-threatening viruses have been around for centuries.
Clinicians should take caution when diagnosing a child who has a high fever and whose tests show evidence of adenovirus, and not assume the virus is responsible for Kawasaki-like symptoms. According to a new study from Nationwide Children’s Hospital appearing in Clinical Infectious Diseases, adenovirus detection is not uncommon among children with Kawasaki disease.
A SLU study reveals that more than 25 percent of St. Louis area EMTs do not get vaccinated against the flu.
Weill Cornell Medical College researchers report that mass spectrometry, a tool currently used to detect and measure proteins and lipids, can also now allow biologists to "see" for the first time exactly how drugs work inside living cells to kill infectious microbes. As a result, scientists may be able to improve existing antibiotics and design new, smarter ones to fight deadly infections, such as tuberculosis. The new study was published in today's early online edition of Science.
Using satellite imaging data from 2000 to the present, Michael Wimberly, senior scientist at the Geographic Information Science Center of Excellence at South Dakota State University, is testing an early warning system for West Nile virus risk in South Dakota. He predicted a high risk of West Nile virus for 2012, even though the state experienced a drought. And he was right.
Eliminating bacteria’s DNA and boosting antimicrobial proteins that already exist may help prevent middle ear infections from reoccurring. These are the findings from a Nationwide Children’s Hospital study that examined how an immune defense protein common in the middle ear interacts with a structure meant to protect a colony of bacteria.
Lyme disease is a bacterial illness that affects tens of thousands. It can lead to abnormalities in the nervous system, heart and joints. New research into the bacterium’s genetic makeup could advance the diagnosis, treatment or prevention of the disease. A preclinical study by scientists at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) appears in the journal The Public Library of Science ONE.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have figured out the three-dimensional shape of the protein responsible for creating unique bonds within the cell wall of the bacteria that cause tuberculosis. The bonds make the bacteria resistant to currently available drug therapies, contributing to the alarming rise of these super-bacteria throughout the world.
Columbia University Medical Center researchers have created the first true mouse model of typhoid infection. The development promises to advance the study of typhoid and the creation of new vaccines against the infection, which remains a major health threat in developing countries. The paper was published today in the online edition of the journal Cell.
Powerful antibiotics that scientists and physicians thought stop the growth of harmful bacteria by completely blocking their ability to make proteins actually allow the germs to continue producing certain proteins -- which may help do them in.
More than 80 percent of pigs that tested positive for influenza A virus at Ohio county fairs between 2009 and 2011 showed no signs of illness in a new study. A second study showed a 99+ percent genetic similarity among human and pig flu viruses from 2012, indicating interspecies transmission.
As the number of fungal meningitis cases continues to rise, physicians across the country are faced with how best to provide the early treatment that can save lives. A University of Michigan Health System infectious disease expert is the lead author of a New England Journal of Medicine report detailing how the outbreak evolved and the complexities of providing anti-fungal treatments.
A team of researchers at UMDNJ-School of Health Related Professions publish a study in the British Journal of Nutrition that finds probiotic supplementation can reduce the severity and duration of colds and upper-respiratory infections in college students.
Researchers from North Carolina State University have increased the potency of a compound that reactivates antibiotics against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
A stay in the hospital may not be the only way to acquire Clostridium difficile diarrhea – but the potentially life-threatening infection may be associated with a number of health complications in hospitalized children, according to the findings from two studies unveiled today at the American College of Gastroenterology’s (ACG) 77th Annual Scientific meeting in Las Vegas. In a separate case report also presented today, fecal microbiota transplantation in a 20-month old with recurrent Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) suggests the therapeutic potential fecal bacteriotherapy in pediatric patients who fail standard therapy for CDI.
Clostridium difficile infections are becoming more common and more severe in hospitalized children and the elderly, in large part due to greater use of antibiotics, Mayo Clinic researchers report in studies being presented at the American College of Gastroenterology annual meeting.
A novel therapy that uses donated human stool to treat the deadly and contagious C.diff infection is safe and highly effective, according to a Henry Ford Hospital study. Researchers found that 43 of 49 patients recovered swiftly after treatment and had no adverse complications from C.diff three months later. Treatment is performed either through a nasogastric tube or colonscopy on an outpatient or inpatient basis.
The national practice guideline for treating MRSA-related pneumonia is seven to 21 days. A Henry Ford Hospital study found that effective treatment can be done in half the time. Researchers found that 40 percent of patients were treated for eight to 13 days on a therapy of the antibiotics vancomycin or linezolid, and had the highest survival rate.
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have determined a new mechanism by which the mosquitoes’ immune system can respond with specificity to infections with various pathogens, including the parasite that causes malaria in humans, using one single gene. Unlike humans and other animals, insects do not make antibodies to target specific infections.
The American Thoracic Society welcomes the news from the World Health Organization (WHO)’s Global Tuberculosis Report 2012 that progress is being made towards halting the global tuberculosis (TB) pandemic.
Cognitive training exercises can help improve mental processing speed and ability to complete daily tasks in middle-age and older adults with HIV, a population that is experiencing cognitive impairments at a higher rate than those without the disease.
Screening practices for multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) in intensive care units (ICUs) vary widely from hospital to hospital, according to a new study by researchers at Columbia University School of Nursing and published in the October 2012 issue of the American Journal of Infection Control.
Findings may point researchers to development of single vaccine to protect against members of an entire family of bacteria.
As a result of concerns about antibiotic resistance, doctors in the United States are increasingly prescribing newer, more costly and more powerful antibiotics to treat urinary tract infections, one of the most common illnesses in women. Often they are not necessary.
Boise State University researcher Juliette Tinker, associate professor of biological sciences, was named the winner of an Idaho Innovation Award for her research on a vaccine for the prevention of staph and MRSA infection in humans and dairy cows.
New study finds regional density of livestock is an important risk factor for nasal carriage of livestock-associated MRSA for persons with and without direct contact with livestock.
There are now more than 100 confirmed cases and eight deaths from a national outbreak of fungal meningitis linked to steroid injections, according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. The steroid manufacturer, the New England Compounding Center, has issued a recall while health officials determine how many people may have received the injections for back pain. Nine states have reported cases and 23 received the recalled product.
With cold and flu season upon us, many companies have geared up for what is predicted to be a busy flu season producing 150 million doses of the influenza vaccine, up 17 million from last year.Dr. Dennis Cunningham, infectious disease specialist, said that part of the problem with consumers and the flu vaccine is many people buy into the long-held myths about the flu vaccine and miss opportunities to avoid getting sick. Hear what he has to say about the common myths.
Methadone reduces the risk of HIV transmission in people who inject drugs (PWID), as reported by an international team of researchers in a paper published today in the online edition of the British Medical Journal
As flu season approaches, people who get sick may not realize they can pass the flu not only to other humans, but possibly to other animals, including pets such as cats, dogs and ferrets. This concept, called “reverse zoonosis,” is still poorly understood but has raised concern among some scientists and veterinarians.
Although some data have suggested a possible inverse association between serum vitamin D levels and the incidence of upper respiratory tract infections (colds), participants in a randomized controlled trial who received a monthly dose of 100,000 IUs of vitamin D3 did not have a significantly reduced incidence or severity of colds.
Research published in the journal GENETICS may lead to more protective flu vaccines by helping developers more accurately predict strains most likely to strike the population in the coming season.
Researchers at The Ohio State University have discovered a new class of treatment against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) as well as evidence of a growing need to quickly genotype individual strains of the organism most commonly referred to as the “superbug.”
An isolated outbreak of a deadly disease known as acute hemorrhagic fever, which killed two people and left one gravely ill in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the summer of 2009, was probably caused by a novel virus scientists have never seen before.
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