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.
In a dramatic finding, a new drug for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections that targets liver cells produced a substantial drop in blood levels of the virus in animals and continued to work up to several months after treatment, say scientists at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research (SFBR) in San Antonio.
Drug-resistant hospital bacteria could be inactivated at their outset.
Biodiversity loss can increase infectious diseases in humans, University of Vermont, EPA, and other scientists show in a first-of-its-kind global study.
Sepsis is a serious infection that is a major cause of death in very premature infants. But sepsis is also a threat in "late preterm" infants born just a few weeks prematurely, according to a study in the December issue of The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.
Vaccination to prevent chickenpox (varicella) appears to have an added benefit for children—a reduced risk of shingles (herpes zoster) according to a study in The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.
An international study that examined the extent of infections in nearly 1,300 intensive care units (ICUs) in 75 countries found that about 50 percent of the patients were considered infected, with infection associated with an increased risk of death in the hospital, according to a study in the December 2 issue of JAMA.
New analysis from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) suggests that physicians need to re-think their diagnosis and treatment of sore throat, or pharyngitis, in adolescents and young adults to consider a more newly identified and potentially dangerous culprit as the source of that infection.
Publishing in PLoS Pathogens, researchers at from the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson have found a novel mechanism by which drugs block HIV-1 from entering host cells.
Clinical trials in Rwanda find that maternal HAART while breastfeeding could be a Promising alternative strategy in resource-limited countries.
Whitehead researchers have developed a new approach for genetics in human cells and used this technique to identify specific genes and proteins required for pathogens. With the ability to generate knockout cells for most human genes, the authors were able to find genes used by pathogens to enter and kill human cells. The identification of such factors could aid the future development of new therapeutics to combat infectious disease.
With cold and flu season upon us, it’s more important than ever to employ good practices to control the spread of infections and avoid illness. Hospital for Special Surgery employs a combination of infection-control measures. Some are highly sophisticated and others are basic good practices that can be adapted for use at home and in everyday life.
Research into Alzheimer's disease seems an unlikely approach to yield a better way to fight urinary tract infections (UTIs), but that's what scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and elsewhere recently reported.
The immune systems of HIV patients who are obese don't respond to antiretroviral therapy as well as do those of people of normal weight.
Michael Pichichero MD/Rochester General Health System studies the need for booster vaccines related to disease progression.
When people have malaria, they are infected with Plasmodium parasites, which enter the body from the saliva of a mosquito, infect cells in the liver, and then spread to red blood cells. Inside the blood cells, the parasites replicate and also begin to expose adhesive proteins on the cell surface that change the physical nature of the cells in the bloodstream.
Since the discovery in 2007 that a component of human semen called SEVI boosts infectivity of the virus that causes AIDS, researchers have been trying to learn more about SEVI and how it works, in hopes of thwarting its infection-promoting activity.
Flipping a coin may be more effective in diagnosing flu infections, says Loyola researcher, studies.
Researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology have found that previous influenza infections may provide at least some level of immunity to the H1N1 “swine” flu. “The question we asked was, “Is the swine flu more like the seasonal flu or like a totally new strain of influenza where there would be no immunity?,” said Alessandro Sette, Ph.D., an internationally recognized vaccine expert and director of the La Jolla Institute’s Center for Infectious Disease.
As the number of deaths related to the pandemic H1N1 virus, commonly known as “swine flu,” continues to rise, researchers have been scrambling to decipher its inner workings and explain why the incidence is lower than expected in older adults.
University of Michigan researchers say that implementing and sustaining infection-limiting measures will be a challenge during pandemics.
New methods of studying avian influenza strains and visually mapping their movement around the world will help scientists more quickly learn the behavior of the pandemic H1N1 flu virus, researchers say.
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