Disease/Infection News

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Access to mobile phone location data can help understand spread of vector-borne diseases

Researchers from EPFL and MIT have shown that human mobility is a major factor in the spread of vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue even over short intra-city distances. In a paper published in Scientific Reports, the team compares different mobility models and concludes that having access to mobile phone location data can prove crucial in understanding disease transmission dynamics - and, ultimately, in stopping an outbreak from evolving into an epidemic.

15 Nov 2019

HIV-exposed but uninfected individuals at risk of obesity and asthma-like symptoms

Adolescents and young adults who were born to mothers with HIV but remained uninfected themselves still face a greatly heightened risk of obesity and asthma-like symptoms, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital have found.

15 Nov 2019

Altering malarial parasite genes to prevent malaria

Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease caused by the parasitic organism called Plasmodium, of which there are several types that cause the different kinds of malarial fever. This age-old infection still kills over 400,000 people every year, all over the world. A new study published in the journal Cell on November 14, 2019, shows how a simple tweaking of the genes of this organism could quite conceivably lead to the elimination of this disease altogether.

14 Nov 2019

Study sheds light on how Zika virus causes microcephaly in newborns

A new study led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine revealed how in utero Zika virus infection can lead to microcephaly in newborns. The team discovered that the Zika virus protein NS4A disrupts brain growth by hijacking a pathway that regulates the generation of new neurons.

14 Nov 2019

Integral Molecular receives NIH contract for $5.5 million to advance vaccine discovery

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has awarded Integral Molecular a contract (75N93019C00073) which will provide up to $5.5M over the next five years to define antibody responses to pathogenic viruses including Zika, Marburg and equine encephalitis viruses, aiding the discovery of vaccines and therapeutics against these currently untreatable and often lethal viruses.

14 Nov 2019

Antibiotic Resistance Threats report highlights significant gaps and impact of federal investments

The Antibiotic Resistance Threats Report released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Prevention and Control today shows that while recent federal investments to combat antibiotic resistance have had meaningful impacts, the continued spread of infections that are not effectively treated by existing medicines pose deadly threats to patients and public health.

14 Nov 2019

Study sheds light on how HIV infection may increase risk for sudden cardiac death

The success of antiretroviral therapies has extended the lives of people living with HIV, long enough for other chronic health conditions to emerge, including a recently documented uptick in sudden death.

14 Nov 2019

Researchers develop, test new blood assay that predicts patients at risk of death from sepsis

After decades of little or no progress, biomedical researchers are finally making some headway at detecting and treating sepsis, a deadly medical complication that sends a surge of pathogenic infection through the body and remains a major public health problem.

14 Nov 2019

Limiting the spread of vaccine-related misinformation in social media

In a year that has seen the largest measles outbreak in the US in more than two decades, the role of social media in giving a platform to unscientific anti-vaccine messages and organizations has become a flashpoint.

14 Nov 2019

First Ebola vaccine prequalified by WHO for use in high-risk countries

The world's first Ebola vaccine has been prequalified by the World Health Organization (WHO).

14 Nov 2019

Caution: blood infections traced to probiotics

Probiotics aren’t harmless, says a new study published on November 7, 2019 in the journal Nature Medicine. In fact, some patients may be put at serious risk by the bacteria in probiotics. Doctors should weigh the risks of probiotics in severely ill or immunocompromised patients before prescribing them, as their benefits may be significantly smaller than the danger in such situations.

13 Nov 2019

Uncovering the secret weapon of rabies viruses

In a new study published in the journal Cell Reports, scientists have discovered the exact site at which the immune system is disabled by the rabies virus, opening the way for a new and highly effective means of rabies prevention. This is a long-awaited discovery and could transform the field of rabies immunization.

13 Nov 2019