Meningitis News and Research

Latest Meningitis News and Research

Measles cases on the rise in Europe

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there is a sharp rise in the number of measles cases across Europe in the first six months of this year. Measles has affected over 41,000 individuals and killed 37, says the WHO.

20 Aug 2018

Pharmacy-made pain creams flagged on fears of Medicare fraud and risk

Medicare pays hundreds of millions of dollars each year for prescription creams, gels and lotions made-to-order by pharmacies — mainly as pain treatments. But a new report finds that officials are concerned about possible fraud and patient safety risks from products made at nearly a quarter of the pharmacies that fill the bulk of those prescriptions.

9 Aug 2018

Research provides new insights about when booster meningitis vaccines are needed

Scientists are indicating that children in Burkina Faso who were vaccinated against group A meningococcal meningitis and septicemia between the ages of 1-4 years in 2010, could need a booster dose of the vaccine as early as this year to ensure they remain protected.

27 Jul 2018

Parents struggle with what to do when their child has headache, shows study

Parents sometimes struggle with what to do when their child has a headache: go to the ER, to the doctor, or wait it out at home, a new national poll suggests.

16 Jul 2018

Bacterial aggregates in blood vessels appear to facilitate progression of meningitis

The Inserm team led by Guillaume Duménil at the Institut Pasteur, in collaboration with several teams of physicists, has unraveled a key stage in infection by Neisseria meningitidis, a human pathogen responsible for meningitis in infants and young adults.

10 Jul 2018

Pneumococcal genes predict course of disease

Pneumococcus is an important cause of pneumonia, sepsis and meningitis. This bacterium commonly resides in the nasal cavity.

6 Jul 2018

Unlocked and loaded: Families confront dementia and guns

With a bullet in her gut, her voice choked with pain, Dee Hill pleaded with the 911 dispatcher for help.

25 Jun 2018

Researchers develop new approach to assess effectiveness of Men B vaccine

Researchers at the University of Leicester and Meningococcal Reference Unit have developed a new approach to assess the effectiveness of the Men B vaccine, Bexsero, against different strains that cause meningococcal meningitis and septicaemia.

18 Jun 2018

NCI cancer centers issue joint statement endorsing HPV vaccination and cancer screening

Calling human papillomavirus-related cancers a significant public health problem, the directors of the 70 National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers, including UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, have issued a joint statement endorsing gender-neutral HPV vaccination and evidence-based cancer screening.

8 Jun 2018

First genomic survey of gonorrhea maps antibiotic resistance across Europe

The first European-wide genomic survey of gonorrhea has mapped antibiotic resistance in this sexually transmitted disease throughout the continent.

16 May 2018

Abdominal pain should be seen as a warning sign for invasive meningococcal disease

Patients with meningococcal infection generally develop symptoms including a high temperature, vomiting and a stiff neck... but they might also just have a bad stomach ache. This can be so severe that they are sometimes wrongly operated for appendicitis.

26 Apr 2018

Why are Antibiotics Overprescribed for Meningitis Treatment?

Meningitis is a relatively rare disease, with our estimates for the incidence of meningitis in the UK being about 3.2 cases of meningitis per 100,000 adults. Crucially, bacterial meningitis is linked to significant morbidity and mortality - up to 30% mortality in pneumococcal meningitis cases.

25 Apr 2018

Meningitis in Newborns: What to Look Out For

Claire is Evidence & Policy Manager at the UK and international charity Meningitis Research Foundation (MRF). She discusses the signs and symptoms of meningitis in newborns, and the aims for the recent diagnostic eTool developed by the MRF.

24 Apr 2018

$2 million funding boosts progress of UAB biomedical startup

A $2 million investment is the latest step forward for the biomedical startup CNine Biosolutions LLC, which is headed by former University of Alabama at Birmingham postdoctoral fellow Theresa Schein, Ph.D., and retired UAB microbiology professor Scott Barnum, Ph.D. This funding comes from a Denver angel investor group.

20 Apr 2018

Middle ear infection can lead to deadly neurological complications

While antibiotics have greatly reduced the dangers of ear infections, serious neurological complications, including hearing loss, facial paralysis, meningitis and brain abscess still occur, according to an article in the journal Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports.

16 Apr 2018

Safety violations compound pain of painkiller shortages

Safety violations at a major compounding pharmacy are exacerbating hospital shortages of key painkillers, particularly in California where health officials have taken the "extraordinary" step of prohibiting sales from one of its plants.

16 Apr 2018

Research reveals how bacteria prepare sticky adhesion protein

Researchers at Harvard Medical School, the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of Georgia have described how the protein that allows strep and staph bacteria to stick to human cells is prepared and packaged.

6 Apr 2018

ACTA trial in AIDS patients with cryptococcal meningitis validates new therapeutic regimens

The results of the ACTA trial were presented at the 9th IAS Conference on HIV Science held in Paris from 23 to 26 July 2017. Professor Thomas Harrison and his colleagues at St George's University of London, the Institut Pasteur in Paris, Paris Descartes University (Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades), the ANRS site in Cameroon, and the MRC sites in Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia show in this trial that new therapeutic regimens are of benefit in HIV-infected patients with cryptococcal meningitis.

15 Mar 2018

Prevention and treatment of drug-induced hearing loss

A new special publication orchestrated by five of the nation's leading hearing experts compiles the latest research into hearing loss caused by drugs and solvents - how it occurs, how to treat it, and how to prevent it.

7 Mar 2018