Scientists have determined how a normal protein can be converted into a prion, an infectious agent that causes fatal brain diseases in humans and mammals.
A new study suggests that improvements in air quality over the past decade have resulted in fewer cases of ear infections in children.
A preeminent travel-medicine doctor and researcher, David O. Freedman, M.D., has been appointed to WHO’s International Health Regulations (IHR) Roster of Experts. The four-year term could mean crisis-related service in Geneva on emergency committees reporting directly to the director-general. Freedman, head of UAB’s Traveler’s Clinic, also co-directs the GeoSentinal global network of travel- and tropical-medicine clinics.
Researchers from NIST and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have completed the first of a series of tests to determine best practices for properly storing and monitoring the temperature of refrigerated vaccines.
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Israel's Weizman Institute of Science have found that two antibiotics working together might be more effective in fighting pathogenic bacteria than either drug on its own.
C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health finds H1N1 immunization rates are more than twice the national average if health care providers strongly recommend H1N1 vaccine
A new genome study has provided the first precise explanation of the biological events contributing to deadly epidemics of severe infection. This method can be used to track and help prevent devastating epidemics in the future.
Surprisingly, hepatitis B and C together infect three to five times more Americans than the AIDS virus does. In the next 10 years, these two liver-damaging infections will kill about 150,000 people in the US alone, says a new Institute of Medicine report.
HIV infection or the treatments used to control it are prematurely aging the brain, researchers at have found. Blood flow in the brains of HIV patients is reduced to levels normally seen in uninfected patients 15 to 20 years older.
A viral infection is like an uninvited, tenacious houseguest in the cell, using a range of tricks to prevent its eviction. Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have identified one of the key proteins allowing herpes simplex virus (HSV) DNA to fly under the radar of their hosts' involuntary hospitality.
Systemic pre-exposure administration of antiretroviral drugs provides protection against intravenous and rectal transmission of HIV in mice with human immune systems, according to a new study published January 21, 2010 in the online journal PLoS ONE. “These results provide evidence that a universal approach to prevent all forms of HIV transmission in all settings might be possible,” said J. Victor Garcia-Martinez, Ph.D., professor in the department of medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and senior author of the study.
For people who haven't had chickenpox and are exposed to an ill family member, getting vaccinated within five days can reduce the risk of developing chickenpox—or at least reduce the severity of disease, reports a study in the January issue of The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.
New research suggests a family of widely used cholesterol-lowering drugs might help protect individuals from serious illness following bacterial infection, including the pneumococcal infections that pose a deadly threat to those with sickle cell disease.
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center evaluated data over a 36-year period from the National Hospital Discharge Survey and concluded in a paper appearing in the January issue of Archives of Surgery that appendicitis may be caused by undetermined viral infection or infections, said Dr. Edward Livingston, chief of GI/endocrine surgery at UT Southwestern and senior author of the report.
Scientists at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research (SFBR) in San Antonio have for the first time developed a highly sensitive means of detecting the seven types of botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) simultaneously. The finding may lead to improved techniques for testing water and food supplies should BoNTs be used as a bioterrorism weapon.
Expert at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center provide insight to parents based on what we've learned about about the HPV vaccine in the past four years.
"Immunization is the best defense we have to prevent the spread of H1N1 influenza in the months ahead," says Richard Whitley, the director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and current president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). The reminder comes during National Influenza Vaccination Week, Jan. 10-16.
New schedule includes formal recommendations that children older than 6 months get the H1N1 influenza vaccine to guard against swine flu, and that combination vaccines are generally preferred over separate injections, says UAB's David Kimberlin, a member of the AAP's infectious disease committee.
It is not too late for those who have not been immunized against the novel H1N1 influenza A virus or seasonal influenza to protect themselves from a potentially serious and possibly fatal illness. “Flu is very unpredictable,” said Dr. Peter Wenger, an associate professor in the departments of Preventive Medicine & Community Health and Pediatrics at the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School. Another wave of widespread flu illness could occur as the winter progresses, possibly even into March or April, he added. “The prudent course is to protect yourself and those around you, and the best way to do that is through vaccination,” he said. National Influenza Vaccination Week , which runs Jan. 10-16, 2010, is a great time to take action.
Lessons learned from the first 13 children at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center to become critically ill from the H1N1 virus show that although all patients survived, serious complications developed quickly, unpredictably, with great variations from patient to patient and with serious need for vigilant monitoring and quick treatment adjustments.
High antiretroviral therapy adherence, which is shown to be a major predictor of HIV disease progression and survival, is now associated with lower health care costs, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Researchers examined the effect of antiretroviral therapy adherence on direct health care costs and found that antiretroviral therapy improves health outcomes for people infected with HIV, saving a net overall median monthly health care cost of $85 per patient.
Researchers have identified two cellular proteins that are important factors in hepatitis C virus infection, a finding that may result in the approval of new and less toxic treatments for the disease, which can lead to liver cancer and cirrhosis.
Closing schools for less than two weeks during an influenza epidemic has no effect on infection rates, according to a study by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, RTI International and the Allegheny County Health Department.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have discovered that a single atom – a calcium, in fact – can control how bacteria walk. The finding identifies a key step in the process by which bacteria infect their hosts, and could one day lead to new drug targets to prevent infection.
Scientists recently discovered a simple gene mutation that decreases the chance people will get a flesh-eating disease called necrotizing fasciitis. Further, they proved that inactivating this section of the gene lessens the devastating disease in humans.
Cleaning hands with either soap and water or alcohol-based hand sanitizers can effectively prevent the spread of bacterial or viral infections.
Just like teenagers at a prom, proteins are tended by chaperones whose job it is to prevent unwanted interactions among immature clients. And at the molecular level, just as at the high school gym level, it's a job that usually requires a lot of energy.
Researchers are investigating whether viruses that have adapted to higher temperatures – similar to increases due to global warming – can jump species more easily. Their results could shed light on the characteristics of H1N1-like viruses in a world of increasing temperatures.
Brazilian researchers have performed the first-ever autopsy study to examine the precise causes of death in victims of the H1N1 swine flu.
Older adults with long-term exposure to higher levels of pollution are at higher risk for hospitalization for pneumonia, according to researchers in Canada.
A study suggests that a new compound, one on the threshold of final testing in humans, may be more potent and safer for treating “bird flu” than the antiviral drug best known by the trade name Tamiflu.
A new study is casting doubt on a provocative theory that explains why tuberculosis can lie dormant in some patients for years.
Investigators have identified 295 human cell factors that influenza A strains must harness to infect a cell, including the currently circulating swine-origin H1N1.
Investigators have identified host factors that help multiple influenza strains thrive and which could be targeted for new antivirals.
One dose of vaccine may be effective to protect infants and children and reduce transmission of the H1N1 virus, according to a study in JAMA, published online today because of its public health implications. The study will appear in the January 6 print edition of the journal.
Scientists have identified a strain of antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis that thrives in the presence of rifampin, a front-line drug in the treatment of tuberculosis. The researchers determined that the bacteria grew poorly in the absence of the antibiotic rifampin and better with it.
Researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York, have identified three key regulators required for the formation and development of biofilms. The discovery could lead to new ways of treating chronic infections.
The NJ Poison Control Center's Hotline is telling callers there is no danger if their children received the H1N1 vaccine that was recalled by Sanofi Pasteur, according to Bruce Ruck, Pharm.D., UMDNJ Director of Drug Information and Professional Education.
At a time when an infectious disease makes international headlines, sending Americans to wait in line for hours for a standard dose of H1N1 vaccine, the Organization for the Study of Sex Differences (OSSD), the scientific partner of the Society for Women’s Health Research announces the release of Sex Hormones and Immunity to Infection, a reference resource for researchers, clinicians, teachers, and PhD students in endocrinology and immunology.
Researchers from the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology will take aim at several of the world’s most dangerous infectious diseases – tuberculosis, malaria and dengue virus -- in a five-year, $18.8 million federally-funded set of projects seeking to make new inroads toward vaccines against the disorders.
Despite a 100-fold increase in H1N1 influenza cases in the Seattle area during spring 2009, an aggressive infection control program to protect immunocompromised cancer patients and thorough screening measures resulted in no corresponding increase in H1N1 cases among the total patient population at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, according to a new study by researchers and physicians at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the SCCA.
An international team of Canadian and Spanish scientists have found the first potential immunological clue of why some people develop severe pneumonia when infected by the pandemic H1N1 virus.
A renowned Alabama researcher on antiviral therapies designed to fight infections in children and adults is the new president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). UAB’s Richard Whitley, M.D., is a distinguished professor of pediatrics, microbiology, medicine and neurosurgery who also serves on the working group providing recommendations to President Barack Obama on federal responses to H1N1 and pandemic flu.
John L. Johnson, M.D., Professor of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and pulmonologist at University Hospitals Case Medical Center has been awarded a 10 year, $19.7M contract from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as an international clinical trials site for the Tuberculosis Trials Consortium (TBTC).
Researchers have discovered how the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, which causes Chagas’ disease, prolongs its survival in infected cells. A protein on the parasite activates the enzyme Akt, which blocks cell death signals, preventing cell destruction and parasite elimination. Chagas’ disease affects some 8 to 11 million people throughout Latin America and even the United States.
An independent lab report demonstrated that BIOGUARD™ barrier gauze dressings exhibit greater than 99.9% inactivation rates against swine flu virus after exposure for 24 hours.
Infection with the H1N1 virus, or swine flu, causes more life-threatening complications than seasonal flu in children with sickle cell disease, according to research from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. The findings, to be presented on Dec. 7 at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology, warn parents and caregivers that such children are more likely to need emergency treatment and stays in an intensive-care unit.
Two studies published this month in the Journal of Clinical Investigation provide a significant advance in understanding how some species of monkeys such as sooty mangabeys and African green monkeys avoid AIDS when infected with SIV, the simian equivalent of HIV.
Although there is high awareness of the need for seasonal influenza vaccines, a new study of Hispanics in one California county shows low rates of actual vaccination, especially among men.
Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have discovered a possible strategy against an invasive parasite that infects more than a quarter of the world’s population, including 50 million Americans.
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