Disease/Infection News

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Artificial CSP proteins reduce S. pneumoniae competence y more than 90%

The bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae - which can cause pneumonia, meningitis, bacteremia and sepsis - likes to share its antibiotic-defeating weaponry with its neighbors. Individual cells can pass resistance genes to one another through a process called horizontal gene transfer, or by "transformation," the uptake of DNA from the environment.

26 Oct 2012

Population Health Management discusses latest information on shingles and PHN

Shingles, a reactivation of the herpes zoster (chickenpox) virus affects nearly 1 in 3 Americans. About 1 million cases are diagnosed each year, with some patients suffering excruciating pain and itching due to post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN), a complication of the viral infection that can last for years despite treatment.

26 Oct 2012

Simple approach results in low rates of MRSA infections

High compliance with hand hygiene and focusing on other simple infection control measures on medical, surgical and neuroscience intensive care units resulted in reduced rates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection by 95 percent in a nine-year study, according to research findings by Virginia Commonwealth University physicians presented during IDWeek 2012.

26 Oct 2012

Guidelines to help protect vulnerable populations from flu

While it is important to get vaccinated against the flu virus as early as possible, it is never too late to reap the benefits of this vaccine. According to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the peak months for the spread of the flu virus are January and February and the season can last into mid-May.

26 Oct 2012

USPTO issues patent to Tobira’s cenicriviroc for treatment of HIV-1 infection

Tobira Therapeutics, Inc., developer of innovative antiretroviral therapies for HIV, today announced the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued patent 8,183,273, claiming compositions of matter of a broad family of compounds with activity against chemokine receptors CCR5 and CCR2.

26 Oct 2012

Durata completes target enrollment in dalbavancin Phase 3 trial for ABSSSI

Durata Therapeutics today announced that it has completed its target enrollment for DISCOVER 2 ("Dalbavancin for Infections of the Skin COmpared to Vancomycin at an Early Response"), the second global, Phase 3 clinical trial of Durata's lead product candidate, dalbavancin, under investigation for the treatment of acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (ABSSSI) caused by susceptible gram-positive bacteria.

26 Oct 2012

UC Riverside entomologists reconstruct the evolutionary history of assassin bugs

Assassin bugs, so named because these insects lie in ambush for prey that they attack with speed and precision, are found all over the world. Nearly 140 species of these bugs are blood-sucking; because they can bite humans around the mouth, they are also called kissing bugs. All kissing bugs can spread Chagas disease, a neglected tropical disease that imposes an economic burden on society.

26 Oct 2012

Winter safety tips for older adults

Winter is a special time for celebration. It should also be a time for added caution if you or someone in your family is an older adult. It is the season for falls, slips on icy streets and other dangers that can be especially harmful for older adults.

25 Oct 2012

New York Times blog features interview with Indian polio expert

To mark World Polio Day, the New York Times' "India Ink" blog features an interview with Naveen Thacker, a member of the team that led India's polio eradication efforts. The country has not recorded a new case of polio since January 2011 and is in line to be declared polio-free in January 2014 if no new cases occur, according to the blog.

25 Oct 2012

Global Health Service Partnership 'could be the start of something big'

Writing in GlobalPost's "Global Pulse" blog, Claire Panosian Dunavan, a professor of medicine and infectious diseases at the University of California, Los Angeles, reflects on the Global Health Service Partnership, a new public-private partnership launched by Vanessa Kerry, daughter of Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) "to boost the education of doctors and nurses in sub-Saharan Africa."

25 Oct 2012

Meningitis outbreak spreads; Mass. revokes Compounding Center's license

The Massachusetts Board of Pharmacy has permanently revoked the license of the New England Compounding Center, the facility implicated in a nationwide outbreak of fungal meningitis, Gov. Deval Patrick announced Tuesday. ... State Director of Healthcare Safety Madeleine Biondolillo said ... investigators witnessed "black particulate matter" in some vials of medicine returned amid the nationwide recall of NECC's products.

25 Oct 2012

Indonesia plans to include HIV treatment in universal health care coverage

During a meeting with UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe on Tuesday, Indonesia Minister of Health Nafsiah Mboi "pledged to scale up HIV testing and treatment programs" with a "focus on 141 districts where key affected populations are the highest," a UNAIDS feature story reports.

25 Oct 2012

Examining the need for TB indicators, activities in global AIDS response blueprint

In a post in the Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog, Lucica Ditiu, executive secretary of the Stop TB Partnership, examines the need to include tuberculosis (TB) in the global AIDS response blueprint that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced at the XIX International AIDS Conference.

25 Oct 2012

Communicable diseases responsible for majority of deaths in Africa, WHO official says

Speaking on Monday in Luanda, Angola, at the opening session of the inaugural meeting on Medical Education, sponsored by the Faculty of Medicine of Agostinho Neto University, WHO Regional Director for Africa Luis Gomes Sambo said communicable diseases account for 63 percent of deaths in Africa, with HIV and tuberculosis (TB) responsible for the majority of those, the Angola Press reports.

25 Oct 2012

Special issue of Global Polio Eradication Initiative news bulletin recognizes World Polio Day

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative has published a special issue of its "Polio News" bulletin in recognition of World Polio Day on October 24.

25 Oct 2012

Oxfam says 'no evidence' AMFm has saved lives; Global Fund says claims are 'untrue,' Guardian reports

Noting "the U.K. government has contributed £70 million [$112 million] to the Affordable Medicines Facility for malaria (AMFm)," the Guardian reports, "The charity Oxfam has cast doubt on the international scheme that aims to boost the provision of the most effective treatment for malaria."

25 Oct 2012

Scientists unravel physical properties of lung mucus

Mucus coats our airways' internal surfaces. The viscous gel humidifies the lungs and prevents viruses and other small particles like diesel soot from entering the body unchecked. Previously unclear was the extent to which such nanoparticles are able to move through the lungs' mucus. Here, the research evidence was contradictory. Scientists could not explain why, in inhaled medication development, drug nanoparticles often simply got stuck in the mucus never making it to their target destination inside the lung cells.

25 Oct 2012