Meningitis News and Research

Latest Meningitis News and Research

Vaccine reduces race-based pneumococcal disease disparities

In a major public health success, the introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine PCV13, or Prevnar 13, in 2010 in the United States is associated with reduction in socioeconomic disparities and the near elimination of Black-white-based racial disparities for invasive pneumococcal disease.

31 Aug 2020

Artificial intelligence could help identify infants with low risk of bacterial infection

Artificial intelligence, or "supervised machine learning," could help identify which well-appearing infants with fever, who are 60 days old or younger, are at low risk for a serious bacterial infection, according to a study published in Pediatrics.

27 Aug 2020

New approach involves "antivitamins" to develop new classes of antibiotics

Antibiotics are among the most important discoveries of modern medicine and have saved millions of lives since the discovery of penicillin almost 100 years ago.

25 Aug 2020

Drug resistance may be reversed using hydrogen sulphide

Antibiotic resistance in some kinds of bacteria may be reversed using hydrogen sulphide (H2S), according to a new study.

24 Aug 2020

VUMC receives $34 million grant for nationwide convalescent plasma study

Vanderbilt University Medical Center has been awarded a one-year, $34-million grant by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health, to conduct a nationwide study of "convalescent plasma" as a treatment for COVID-19.

21 Aug 2020

California’s data failures stymie efforts to curb the virus

The failure of California's infectious disease monitoring system for a stretch of at least 20 days in July and August triggered potentially deadly fallout that continues to reverberate across the state.

21 Aug 2020

Study shows how picornaviruses infect the host cell

Picornaviruses is a family of viruses that can cause a number of different diseases, including polio, meningitis, and in rare cases myocarditis, encephalitis, and paralysis.

13 Aug 2020

Computer scientists release new digital contact-tracing technique based on Wi-Fi

Researchers at the Center for Smart and Connected Society at the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently released a new digital contact-tracing technique that is based on widely-deployed Wi-Fi technology.

7 Aug 2020

Meningitis case at Children's National Hospital raises concerns about antibiotic resistance

A recent meningitis case at Children's National Hospital raises serious concerns about antibiotic resistance in the common bacterium that caused it, researchers from the hospital write in a case report.

3 Aug 2020

Meta-analysis shows 57% mortality reduction with convalescent plasma in COVID-19

Now, a new study published on the preprint server medRxiv in July 2020 reports that an older treatment modality, namely, the use of convalescent antibody-rich plasma, brings down the mortality rate in hospitalized COVID-19 patients by an astonishing 57%. This adds evidence for the use of convalescent plasma in the treatment of high-risk patients.

1 Aug 2020

Analysis: When is a coronavirus test not a coronavirus test?

Desperate to continue the tradition of a family beach week, I hatched a plan that would allow some mask- and sanitizer-enhanced semblance of normality.

29 Jul 2020

Oxford University and AstraZeneca vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 safe and induces immune response

Promising early stage results from a phase 1/2 clinical trial of the UK's vaccine candidate against SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) are published today in The Lancet.

20 Jul 2020

Benefits of routine childhood immunizations far outweigh the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission

The health benefits of maintaining routine childhood vaccination programmes in Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic far outweigh the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission that might be associated with clinic visits, according to a modelling study published in The Lancet Global Health journal.

19 Jul 2020

Analysis: How a COVID-19 vaccine could cost Americans dearly

Yes, of course, Americans' health is priceless, and reining in a deadly virus that has trashed the economy would be invaluable.

8 Jul 2020

Mongolia warns of suspected bubonic plague

Mongolia has issued a warning to residents in the western Khovd region after two people are suspected of having the bubonic plague. The National Center for Zoonotic Diseases (NCZD) states that the disease is linked to the consumption of marmots, a relatively large ground squirrel.

6 Jul 2020

Old antibiotic may be a powerful new tool against deadly superbug

USC researchers have discovered that an old antibiotic may be a powerful new tool against a deadly superbug, thanks to an innovative screening method that better mimics conditions inside the human body.

8 Jun 2020

Small protein has a large impact on bacterial gene regulation

Meningococci are bacteria that can cause life-threatening meningitis and sepsis. These pathogens use a small protein with a large impact: The RNA-binding protein ProQ is involved in the activation of more than 250 bacterial genes.

4 Jun 2020

Study highlights the importance of child vaccine against infections

In the U.S., our children rarely fall ill to grave infections because they are protected by vaccines.

2 Jun 2020

Researchers develop vaccine for virus associated with type 1 diabetes

According to many observations, certain virus infections may play a part in the autoimmune attack that leads to type 1 diabetes. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and at the universities of Jyväskylä and Tampere have now produced a vaccine for these viruses in the hope that it could provide protection against the disease. The study is published 6 May 2020 in the scientific journal Science Advances.

8 May 2020

Study finds new infection route for bacterium that spreads from horses to humans

The researchers' work has made it possible to detail for the first time the spreading of the bacterium through lymph vessels and not just blood vessels, thus being able to invade the digestive system of infected animals through this new route.

30 Apr 2020