Twenty million Americans get sick from norovirus each year according to data released last week by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Often called vomiting illness, it can spread rapidly on cruise ships, and in dormitories and hospitals. Recent data from the CDC shows deaths from gastrointestinal infections have more than doubled and have become a particular threat to the elderly. The virus is she... (read more)
An emerging class of long-lasting flu vaccines could do more than just save people the trouble of an annual flu shot. Princeton University-based researchers have found that the "universal" vaccine could for the first time allow for the effective, wide-scale prevention of flu by limiting the influenza virus' ability to spread and mutate. Universal, or cross-protective, vaccines... (read more)
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has published new guidelines for the use of the human papillomavirus vaccine and, for the first time, has specifically recommended use of the vaccine in adolescent boys as well as girls. The recommendations were published online February 27 and in the March print issue of Pediatrics. The vaccine was recommended for girls in 2006, but even though at that tim... (read more)
Livestock in the United States may be building resistance to deadly bacterial infections, and those superbugs may be easily transferrable to humans, according to a new study published in the journal, mBio. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, is a strain of staph bacteria that does not respond to antibiotics used to treat staph infections. About two out of every 100 people carry... (read more)
A protein called SAMHD1 has been found to starve HIV in cells so that it cannot do anything, thus making the cell resistant to HIV infection, researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center reported in Nature Immunology. The authors explained that their discovery could pave the way for new therapeutic research at halting or slowing the HIV's progression to AIDS. Research co-leader, Nathaniel R. Landau, PhD., said: ... (read more)
Some 15,000 AIDS victims in Congo likely will die waiting for lifesaving drugs in the next three years, Doctors Without Borders warned Wednesday in a report describing “horrific” health care access. About 85 percent of AIDS patients in need of anti-retroviral medication are not getting any, according to the organization known by its French acronym, MSF. Medical... (read more)
The risk for sexual transmission of HIV-1 increases significantly as plasma viral levels of the infected individual rise, according James P. Hughes, PhD, professor of biostatistics at the University of Washington in Seattle, and colleagues, who studied HIV-1 infectivity among more than 3200 heterosexual couples in sub-Saharan Africa. Each log10 increase in copies per milliliter of plasma HIV-1 RNA was associat... (read more)
Fecal contamination of public beaches caused by sewage overflow is both dangerous for swimmers and costly for state and local economies. Current methods to detect Escherichia coli, a bacterium highly indicative of the presence of fecal matter in water, typically require 24-48 hours to produce a result. A new, accurate, and economical sensor-based device capable of measuring E. coli levels in water samples in... (read more)
A team of scientists and clinicians, led by researchers at King's College London and St George's, University of London, are calling for a review of penicillin dosing guidelines for children, that have remained unchanged for nearly 50 years. The call comes as a study published in the British Medical Journal indicates some children may not be receiving effective doses, which could potentially lea... (read more)
New DNA tests looking for the virus responsible for most cases of cervical cancer make sense for all women aged 30 or over, since they can prevent more cases of cancer than smear tests alone, Dutch researchers said on Thursday. Results of a five-year study involving 45,000 women provided the strongest evidence yet in favor of using human papillomavirus (HPV) testing, Chris Meijer and colleagues from the VU... (read more)
The use of statin therapy was associated with a reduced risk for mortality among patients hospitalized with influenza during the 2007-2008 influenza season, according to new findings published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases. Seventy-six percent of patients reported use of statins before and during hospitalization; were more likely to be older white males; have CV, metabolic, ... (read more)
In research on the never-ending war between pathogen and host, scientists at the Pasteur Institute in Paris have discovered a novel defensive weapon, a cytoskeletal protein called septin, that humans cells deploy to cage the invading Shigella bacteria that cause potentially fatal human diarrhea, according to a presentation on Dec. 5, at the American Society for Cell Biology Annual Meeting in Denver. ... (read more)
The investigation of a 2009 multistate outbreak of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC), an important cause of bacterial gastrointestinal illness, led to a new culprit: ready-to-bake commercial prepackaged cookie dough. Published in Clinical Infectious Diseases and available online a new report describing the outbreak offers recommendations for prevention, including a strong... (read more)
A study involving 84 volunteers showed that an experimental norovirus vaccine provided considerable protection against infection and symptoms of gastroenteritis, researchers from Baylor College of Medicine reported in NEJM (New England Journal of Medicine). The authors added that theirs is the first study to show protection from norovirus illness due to a vaccine. To date, the only treatment for norovirus il... (read more)
A woman from Cameroon has been found to be infected with an AIDS-like virus that came from gorillas, French researchers reported Sunday. The woman, who has no symptoms of HIV infection, is well and was likely infected by another person, not an animal, the researchers said. Their findings suggest this newly discovered gorilla virus is circulating among people, they reported in the journal Nature Medicine. To continue reading, click the link below.
Growing evidence for the effectiveness of fecal microbiota transplants as a treatment for patients with recurrent bouts of Clostridium difficile (C.difficile) associated diarrhea is presented in three studies -- including a long-term follow-up of colonoscopic fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) for recurrent C. difficile Infection that included 77 patients from f... (read more)
Over the past year, researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and around the world, have been studying a group of potent antibodies that have the ability to neutralize HIV in the lab; their hope is that they may learn how to create a vaccine that makes antibodies with similar properties. Now, biologists at Caltech led by Nobel Laureate David Baltimor... (read more)
Europe's health is suffering, with around 80,000 cases of tuberculosis infection a year and serious problems with measles, HIV and threats from "superbug" infections, an annual health report on the region said Thursday. The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), which monitors disease in EU, said its 2011 report sends "worrying signals" on epidemics of measles, and... (read more)
The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine offered excellent protection against the precursors (CIN2 and CIN3) of invasive cervical cancer, plus partial protection against four other nonvaccine oncogenic HPV types, according to two studies. An important finding of the first study was the high efficacy of the bivalent HPV vaccine (Cervarix) particularly among adolescent girls not yet sexually active. The... (read more)
Scientists have moved a step closer to understanding how one of our body's own proteins helps stop the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) in its tracks. The study, carried out by researchers at The University of Manchester and the Medical Research Council's National Institute for Medical Research and published in Nature, provides a blueprint for the design of new drugs to treat HIV infection, say the ... (read more)
A new study illustrates how influenza can quickly turn deadly — even among healthy kids. About one-third of children hospitalized in pediatric intensive-care units for H1N1 influenza during the first year of the pandemic were previously healthy, according to a new study in Pediatrics. Nearly one in 10 of all children sent to intensive care for the flu that year died, according to the study, which analyzes ... (read more)
About 500,000 people in the U.S. become infected with the potentially fatal diarrhea bug Clostridium difficile(C. diff.) each year. Now a new study sheds light on who is most at risk -- and why. Some people show evidence of C. diff in their gut but never have any symptoms. Others develop a range of symptoms from mild diarrhea to severe diarrhea, abdominal pain, bleeding, and fever. C. diff is typically ... (read more)
Genetically modified mosquitoes could prove effective in tackling dengue fever and other insect-borne diseases, a UK-based scientific team has shown. The male mosquitoes are modified so their offspring die before reproducing. In a dengue-affected part of the Cayman Islands, researchers found the GM males mated successfully with wild females. In Nature Biotechnology journal, they say such mating has not before been p... (read more)
New research suggests that some patients develop a potentially deadly blood infection from their implanted cardiac devices because bacterial cells in their bodies have gene mutations that allow them to stick to the devices. Patients with implants can develop infections because of a biofilm of persistent bacterial bugs on the surfaces of their devices. Researchers found that s... (read more)
About one in six cellphones tested in the U.K. had traces of E. coli bacteria from fecal matter, a new study released for Global Handwashing Day suggests. Researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Queen Mary, University of London travelled to 12 cities in Britain, took 390 samples from cellphones and hands and then analyzed the samples in the lab to record the type and number of germs. To continue reading, click the link below.
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