Pneumonia News and Research

Latest Pneumonia News and Research

Pilot pneumonia-prevention program reduces postoperative pneumonia in hospital surgical ward: Research

The results of new research results published in the April issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons show that a pilot pneumonia-prevention program significantly reduced postoperative pneumonia in a hospital surgical ward.

4 May 2010

NIH awards $3.4M grant for preclinical development of novel Staphylococcus aureus vaccine

GlycoVaxyn AG, a leader in the development of innovative bioconjugate vaccines, and Professor Jean Lee, principal investigator at the Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, announced today that they have received a USD 3.4 million NIH grant to finance preclinical development of a novel Staphylococcus aureus vaccine. S. aureus is a major cause of hospital-based infections.

4 May 2010

First of 5 Grand Challenges: Create point-of-care tools to diagnose range of illnesses

The Hon. James Flaherty, Minister of Finance for Canada, today announced the launch of Grand Challenges Canada, an innovative initiative that will help redefine Canada's role in the developing world by bringing together Canadian scientists, developing world scientific researchers, and the private sector to solve some of the most persistent health challenges facing poor countries.

4 May 2010

Older children hospitalized with pandemic H1N1 influenza in 2009: Study

Children hospitalized with pandemic H1N1 influenza in 2009 were older and more likely to have underlying medical conditions than children hospitalized with seasonal influenza during prior flu seasons, according to a study to be presented Tuesday, May 4 at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

4 May 2010

WHO, UNICEF issue guide, call for more research into medicines for children

Along with the release of a WHO-UNICEF guide on medicines for children, the U.N. agencies on Friday said the guide "exposed dangerous shortfalls" in medicines designed for children and called for more research into treating children, Reuters reports. "While effective medicines exist to fight disease and treat life-threatening conditions like malnutrition, formulations suitable for children are often difficult to source," Francisco Blanco, UNICEF's chief of medicines and nutrition, said, according to the news service.

3 May 2010

New health law will penalize hospitals for poor quality

The new health law puts the nation's hospitals on strict notice. Either they improve the safety and quality of care for patients or the government will hit them where it hurts the most -- their revenue.

30 Apr 2010

CBC, Scarab Genomics form agreement to increase manufacturing yield of Solinex rhu-pGSN

Critical Biologics Corporation (CBC) and Scarab Genomics announced today a strategic agreement to substantially increase the manufacturing yield of CBC's lead therapeutic protein candidate, Solinex™, an intravenous formulation of recombinant human plasma gelsolin (rhu-pGSN).

30 Apr 2010

UNICEF, WHO release new publication on medicines formulated for children

A new publication that lists medicines formulated for children is being made available online by UNICEF and the World Health Organization, to help doctors and organizations obtain some of the 240 essential medicines that can save the lives of children.

30 Apr 2010

OMT beneficial as adjunctive treatment in elderly people with pneumonia

A clinical trial of 406 subjects 50 years of age and older who were hospitalized with pneumonia showed a one-day reduction in the length of hospital stay in those patients who received osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) in addition to conventional medical care when compared to patients who received only conventional medical care. A per protocol analysis also showed a significant reduction in the duration of intravenous antibiotics and in respiratory failure or death in the group that received OMT when compare to the conventional care only group.

29 Apr 2010

New study reinforces urgent need for life-saving vaccines in Africa

A new study released this week in The Lancet Infectious Diseases finds that African children who contract pneumococcus - a bacterial infection that causes pneumonia, meningitis and sepsis - are 36 times as likely to have sickle-cell disease, a blood disorder prevalent in African children that increases the risk for infectious diseases and early death.

29 Apr 2010

Fever in kids underestimated by Doctors: new study

In a new study researchers have found that some physicians may be missing the seriousness of an infection in a child presenting with fever. The study published in the British Medical Journal involved 16,000 children from 2004 to 2006 with fever and found that doctors could not diagnose up to one third of the potentially life-threatening illnesses in these children.

27 Apr 2010

Long-term monitoring of young leukaemia survivors necessary to identify declining lung health: Researchers

Children who have survived leukaemia may need to have regular monitoring to ensure their lungs remain healthy if they had a bone marrow transplantation during their treatment, US scientists have said.

23 Apr 2010

Deadly fungus on the move

Researchers revealed this Thursday that a deadly fungus that is usually found only in the tropics is making its way to the Pacific Coast of British Columbia and south into Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

23 Apr 2010

BUSM professor receives Individual Biomedical Research Award

Richard Goldstein, PhD, a professor of pediatrics, division of pediatric infectious diseases, at Boston University School of Medicine, has been awarded an Individual Biomedical Research Award by The Hartwell Foundation and will receive $300,000 over three years as a Hartwell Investigator for his project titled, "A Vaccine Against Streptococcus Pneumoniae Based on Bacterial Surface Proteins Phylogenically Certified as Highly Conserved."

23 Apr 2010