Antibiotic News and Research

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Antibiotics are drugs used to treat infections caused by bacteria and other microorganisms.

Infectious Diseases Society of America strongly supports the STAAR Act

With extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, life-threatening drug-resistant respiratory and skin infections, and other "bad bugs" routinely making headlines, infectious diseases physicians are applauding Rep. Jim Matheson (D-UT) and Rep. Michael Ferguson (R-NJ) for introducing H.R. 3697, the Strategies To Address Antimicrobial Resistance (STAAR) Act.

29 Sep 2007

New breast cancer screening guidelines

New guidelines from the American Cancer Society (ACS) recommend that women at very high risk for breast cancer receive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) along with annual mammography, reports the October 2007 issue of Harvard Women's Health Watch .

27 Sep 2007

U.S. hospitals report infections increasing in frequency and cost

A new review of inpatient data from US hospitals shows that the number of infections caused by a common bacterium increased by over 7 percent each year from 1998 to 2003.

26 Sep 2007

Ebola outbreak in Congo.. 8 more cases of the deadly disease

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) another 8 cases of Ebola have been confirmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

25 Sep 2007

Space flight makes bacteria more infectious

Space flight has been shown to have a profound impact on human physiology as the body adapts to zero gravity environments.

25 Sep 2007

Social cheating in bacterial communication

Baseball had its steroids and Black Sox. Politics lived through Watergate. Wall Street has been riddled with insider trading scandals. And before we cast the first stone, who among us has never tried to get through an intersection on a yellow light?

25 Sep 2007

Infections caused by ESBL-producing E. coli

In light of increased media and public interest in ESBL-producing E. coli, the UK's Health Protection Agency felt it would be helpful to provide some background about these infections and the work that is being carried out in this area.

24 Sep 2007

Clostridium difficile bacterium found on patients with no obvious signs or symptoms of disease

The bacterium that causes a highly contagious and sometimes deadly form of diarrhea is frequently carried by persons who do not have any of the disease symptoms, according to a study in the Oct. 15 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, now available online.

24 Sep 2007

Scientists decipher mechanism behind antimicrobial 'hole punchers'

In the battle against bacteria, researchers have scored a direct hit.

21 Sep 2007

Process of necrosis redefined in landmark study

A new study led by investigators from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine demonstrates that the process of necrosis, long thought to be a chaotic, irreversible pathway to cell death, may actually be triggered as part of a regulated response to stress by a powerful protein, SRP-6, that can potentially halt necrosis in its path.

21 Sep 2007

Discovery of cause of Job's syndrome

The rare immunodeficiency disorder known as Job's syndrome is caused by a specific genetic mutation that both overstimulates and understimulates the human immune system, leading to harmful bacterial and fungal infections and the physical features characteristic of the syndrome, according to two independent groups of scientists, one from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the other from the Tokyo Medical and Dental University.

20 Sep 2007

DNA microarray chips improved therapy in some patients with incurable cancer

Like many oncologists, Eric P. Lester, M.D., was faced with a dilemma: seven patients with advanced, incurable cancer, an arsenal of drugs that may or may not help them, and not enough solid proof about treatment efficacy to guide him.

20 Sep 2007

Drug resistance gene has spread from East Coast to Midwest

A resistance gene that allows bacteria to beat an important class of antibiotics has started to appear in microorganisms taken from Midwestern patients, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

20 Sep 2007

Cat scratch disease management in children

Cat scratch disease (CSD) is a bacterial infection that typically causes swelling of the lymph nodes.

20 Sep 2007

GPs overprescribing antibiotics for respiratory tract infections

GPs are unnecessarily giving patients antibiotics for respiratory tract (RT) infections which would clear up on their own.

20 Sep 2007

Gates Foundation digs down deep for TB

The fight against the global tuberculosis (TB) epidemic has received a huge boost in the form of a $280 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

20 Sep 2007

Review of antimicrobials for acute rhinosinusitis

Acute bacterial rhinosinusitis in adults is a common malady, with between 30 to 35 million cases a year.

18 Sep 2007

Moxifloxacin drug combo speeds up treatment of tuberculosis

A team of tuberculosis (TB) experts at Johns Hopkins and in Brazil have evidence that substituting the antibiotic moxifloxacin in the regimen of drugs used to treat the highly contagious form of lung disease could dramatically shorten the time needed to cure the illness from six months to four.

18 Sep 2007

GlaxoSmithKline to pursue novel antibacterial research program for DOD

GlaxoSmithKline has announced that it has signed an agreement with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), to identify and develop a new class of antibacterials targeting both Gram negative biothreats and conventional Gram negative hospital pathogens.

18 Sep 2007

Alternative methods proposed to detect pesticides and antibiotics in water and natural food

Water or food of natural origins (from plants or animals) that we consume on a daily basis can contain unwanted ‘supplies' for our organism, such as pesticides or antibiotics.

18 Sep 2007