Feature Channels: Infectious Diseases

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Baumgarth is known for efforts to understand host responses to Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease via the bite of infected blacklegged ticks.

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Whitney and Bullen, together with colleagues at Imperial College London and the University of Manitoba, have studied this toxin for nearly three years to understand exactly how it functions at a molecular level. The breakthrough, to be published in Molecular Cell, was achieved by Bullen following rigorous experimentation on common targets of toxins, such as protein and DNA molecules, before eventually testing the toxin against RNA. This discovery breaks well-established precedents set by protein-targeting toxins secreted by other bacteria, such as those that cause cholera and diphtheria.

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Millions of people have died of coronavirus infection since 2020 because influential institutions took too long to recognize that it is primarily airborne, and a new University of Colorado Boulder-led historical analysis sheds light on the delay.

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Men with low testosterone levels are more likely to require hospitalization after COVID-19 infection than men with normal levels or those on testosterone therapy, according to Saint Louis University School of Medicine and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis researchers.

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Men with low testosterone who develop COVID-19 are at elevated risk of becoming seriously ill and ending up in the hospital, according to a study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Saint Louis University School of Medicine.

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SEATTLE — Sept. 1, 2022 — Below are summaries of recent Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center research findings and other news.Please note: On April 1, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center merged with our care partner, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. Our new name is Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center (Fred Hutch on subsequent references).

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A new study that looked at health data from the UK found people with a folic acid prescription were 1.5 times as likely to get COVID-19 and were more than 2.6 times as likely to die from COVID-19 compared to the control group.

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Kidney transplant recipients experience immune-insufficiency during acute COVID-19.

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A recent case of polio in the U.S. sounds the alarm for more vaccination.

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Infectious Disease experts at Ochsner Health in New Orleans reveal the top 10 myths about the flu and flu vaccines in 2022.

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When the Biden administration announced COVID-19 vaccine mandates on Nov. 4 for businesses with 100 or more employees, protests erupted in cities across the U.S.

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UC Davis Health has published one of the earliest studies assessing the use of tecovirimat to treat monkeypox (MPX) symptoms and skin lesions. The antiviral drug approved for smallpox treatment appeared to be safe and effective in 25 patients with monkeypox.

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Monkeypox cases are on the rise in the U.S., stoking fear and confusion about the way the virus is spread, who is at risk and where to seek treatment.

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A new universal flu vaccine protects against diverse variants of both influenza A and B viruses in mice, according to a new study by researchers in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University.

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The remarkable effectiveness of mRNA vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 has generated much interest in synthetic mRNA therapeutics for treating and preventing disease. But some basic science questions have remained about whether the modified nucleotides used in the vaccines faithfully produce the protein products that they are designed to make.

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With COVID-19 vaccines pushing down costs of mRNA technology, a study in mice from Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine experts sparks hope for next generation treatments and potential applications to developing world and veterinary diseases

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Using publicly available data on COVID variant rates, researchers from the University of Hawai'i are investigating how mutations in the virus' genome impact its ability to spread and weaken immune responses.

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Newly compiled data evaluated by researchers in the Department of Neurology and the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai shows that COVID-19 vaccines do not raise stroke risk--but that severe COVID-19 infection does. Physician-scientists hope this growing body of evidence, highlighted today in an editorial in the peer-reviewed journal Neurology, will ease the minds of individuals still hesitant to be vaccinated.

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Research has consistently shown that positive psychological factors are linked to better physical health, including increased resistance to infectious illnesses such as the flu and the common cold. A new study from the University of California, Irvine, examines the role that race plays in this connection, comparing the results of African American and European American participants in a series of landmark experimental studies from the Common Cold Project, conducted between 1993 and 2011.

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Public health researchers from the University of California, Irvine identified several social media messaging strategies to educate young adults and their parents about evidence-based interventions around the human papillomaviruses (HPV). Their findings could help inform future health information social media campaigns, beyond the HPV vaccine, on the benefits of lifesaving interventions.

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Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center researcher Emmanuel Thomas, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.A.S.L.D., has been appointed to the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Coinfections and HIV Associated Cancers (HCAC) study section.

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The World Health Organization and the White House have declared the growing monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommending that people seek medical care immediately if they develop a new, unexplained skin rash or lesion on any part of their body that they think could be monkeypox.

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“For too long, we've falsely assumed that polio has been eradicated in the U.S.,” says Katherine Foss, a professor and associate director of the School of Journalism & Strategic Media at Middle Tennessee State University. However, no cases doesn’t mean the virus has been eradicated, especially with polio still existing in the world.

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The latest research and expert commentary on the monkeypox outbreak.

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A warming planet doesn’t just mean more people may find it harder to get quality sleep: There is also evidence suggesting that sleep disturbance could make it harder for the body to fend off infection, a UCLA professor writes.

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Patients with prior COVID may be twice as likely to have unhealthy endothelial cells that line the inside of the heart and blood vessels, according to newly published research from Houston Methodist. This finding offers a new clue in understanding COVID-19’s impact on cardiovascular health.

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The majority of people who were likely infected with the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, didn’t know they had the virus, according to a new study from Cedars-Sinai investigators. The findings are published in JAMA Network Open.

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When expensive medicines that are proven to prevent HIV acquisition are available through employer-sponsored health insurance (ESI), annual earnings for men in same-sex couples decline and part-time employment increases. The labor market effects are largest for young white men, who are among those most likely to be taking HIV prevention drugs.