EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases
Sun Apr 24 04:23:13 EDT 2011
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UGA compound offers new hope for treatment of painful adult shingles - (University of Georgia) Researchers at the University of Georgia and Yale University have discovered a compound with the potential to be more effective than existing agents in treating the very painful blisters known as shingles -- a condition that affects up to 30 percent of Americans, mostly elderly, and for which no specific treatment exists.

Parasite strategy offers insight to help tackle sleeping sickness - (University of Edinburgh) Fresh insight into the survival strategy of the parasite that causes sleeping sickness could help inform new treatments for the disease.

Salmonella utilize multiple modes of infection - (Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres) Scientists from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Braunschweig, Germany, have discovered a new, hitherto unknown mechanism of Salmonella invasion into gut cells: In this entry mode, the bacteria exploit the muscle power of cells to be pulled into the host cell cytoplasm. Thus, the strategies Salmonella use to infect cells are more complex than previously thought.

EPO doping helps combat cerebral malaria - (University of Copenhagen) Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have now discovered that EPO, the doping drug known from professional cycling, can significantly reduce cerebral malaria related deaths.

Researchers identify genes causing antimalarial drug resistance - (Harvard School of Public Health) Using a pair of powerful genome-search techniques, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), Harvard University, and the Broad Institute have identified several genes that may be implicated in the malaria parasite's notorious ability to rapidly evade drug treatments.

Adaptive trial designs could accelerate HIV vaccine development - (NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) In the past 12 years, four large-scale efficacy trials of HIV vaccines have been conducted in various populations. Results from the most recent trial have given scientists reason for cautious optimism. Yet building on these findings could take years, given that traditional HIV vaccine clinical trials are lengthy, and that it is still not known which immune system responses a vaccine needs to trigger to protect an individual from HIV infection.

Immigrant screening misses majority of imported latent TB, finds study - (Imperial College London) Current UK procedures to screen new immigrants for tuberculosis fail to detect more than 70 percent of cases of latent infection, according to a new study published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases.

C. difficile increases risk of death 6-fold in patients with inflammatory bowel disease - (Imperial College London) Patients admitted to hospital with inflammatory bowel disease face a sixfold greater risk of death if they become infected with Clostridium difficile, a new study has found.

Can the International Health Regulations apply to antimicrobial resistance? - (Public Library of Science) In this week's PLoS Medicine, Stephan Harbarth from the University of Geneva, Switzerland and colleagues argue that the International Health Regulations should be applied to the global health threat of antimicrobial resistance.

Routine rotavirus vaccination in Brazil has reduced diarrhea deaths in children - (Public Library of Science) Rotavirus vaccination in all areas of Brazil is associated with reduced diarrhea-related deaths and hospital admissions in children aged under five years, reports a study in this week's PLoS Medicine.

Tuberculosis strain in indigenous communities linked to Canadian fur trade - (Queen's University) Researchers have found that a strain of tuberculosis responsible for devastating some isolated Aboriginal populations in Canada was first introduced to these communities by French Canadian fur traders between 1710 and 1870.

Study: Common virus + low sunlight exposure may increase risk of MS - (American Academy of Neurology) New research suggests that people who are exposed to low levels of sunlight coupled with a history of having a common virus known as mononucleosis may be at greater odds of developing multiple sclerosis than those without the virus. The research is published in the April 19, 2011, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Embargoed news from Annals of Internal Medicine - (American College of Physicians) Below is information about articles being published in the April 19 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The information is not intended to substitute for the full articles as sources of information. Annals of Internal Medicine attribution is required for all coverage.

Nationwide study finds US meat and poultry is widely contaminated - (The Translational Genomics Research Institute) Drug-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus, a bacteria linked to a wide range of human diseases, are present in meat and poultry from US grocery stores at unexpectedly high rates, according to a nationwide study by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen).

Study examines new treatment for recurrent urinary tract infections - (Infectious Diseases Society of America) Urinary tract infections are common in women, costing an estimated $2.5 billion per year to treat in 2000 in the United States alone. These infections frequently recur, affecting 2 to 3 percent of all women. A depletion of vaginal lactobacilli, a type of bacteria, is associated with urinary tract infection risk, which suggests that replenishing these bacteria may be beneficial. Researchers conducted a double-blind placebo-controlled trial to investigate this theory. Their results are published in Clinical Infectious Diseases and now available online.

Genital herpes more virulent in Africa than in US - (Harvard Medical School) Strains of genital herpes in Africa are far more virulent than those in the United States, researchers at Harvard Medical School report, a striking insight into a common disease with important implications for preventing HIV transmission in a region staggered by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Duke Human Vaccine Institute signs research agreement to develop pandemic virus vaccines - (Duke University Medical Center) The Duke Human Vaccine Institute today announced a collaboration and strategic agreement with Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics to enable the rapid development of a vaccine and accelerate preparedness in case of a pandemic virus threat such as pandemic influenza.

Increased prevention efforts may not reduce spread of hospital-based bacteria - (NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) Expanded use of active surveillance for bacteria and of barrier precautions -- specifically, gloves and gowns -- did not reduce the transmission of two important antibiotic-resistant bacteria in hospital-based settings, according to a clinical trial conducted in 18 intensive care units in the United States. Incomplete compliance by health care providers with recommended hand hygiene procedures and the use of gloves and gowns, along with time lags in confirming the presence of bacteria in patients, may have contributed to the findings.

AGU journal highlights -- April 13, 2011 - (American Geophysical Union) Featured in this release are research papers on the following topics: "Little Ice Age resulted from more than just solar calm," "Glacial dust carries iron to the Gulf of Alaska," "Model suggests how to end Haitian cholera epidemic," "Deadly 2010 Russian heat wave: Not from climate change," and "Cause of 2010 Russian heat wave was largely predictable."

Search for weapons of mass destruction expands to East Africa - (American Chemical Society) The United States government is expanding a 20-year-old program to secure and help destroy Cold War-era nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction to an unlikely area of the world -- East Africa, according to an article in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News, ACS's weekly newsmagazine.

HIV rate in SF could be cut sharply with expanded treatment, study predicts - (University of California - San Francisco) In addition, the study found that adding annual HIV testing for men who have sex with men in the city to universal treatment could bring the reduction in new infections down by 75 percent, the researchers report. "Our findings show that we can obtain even greater reductions in new HIV infections if we do a better job of encouraging people to get tested, continue to improve our linkages to care and offer treatment to all HIV patients."

An advance for a newborn vaccine approach - (Children's Hospital Boston) Infectious disease is a huge cause of death globally, and is a particular threat to newborns whose immune systems respond poorly to most vaccines. A new approach developed at Children's Hospital Boston, using an adjuvant (an agent to stimulate the immune system) along with the vaccine, shows promise in a study of blood from Gambian infants. Results will appear in the open-access journal PLoS ONE on April 13.

Honey can reverse antibiotic resistance - (Society for General Microbiology) Manuka honey could be an efficient way to clear chronically infected wounds and could even help reverse bacterial resistance to antibiotics, according to research presented at the Society for General Microbiology's Spring Conference in Harrogate.

Potential new strategy to reduce catheter blockage - (Society for General Microbiology) Bacterial genes that make urine less acidic could be good targets to prevent catheter blockage, according to research presented at the Society for General Microbiology's Spring Conference in Harrogate. The findings could lead to new strategies to prevent serious infections, particularly in long-term catheterization patients.

Pediatric-specific research needed to reduce health care-associated infections among children - (JAMA and Archives Journals) There are differences between adult and pediatric patients regarding the appropriate treatment and prevention efforts for health-care associated infections, highlighting a need for pediatric-specific quality measures to guide infection prevention and treatment practices, according to a commentary in the April 13 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on infectious disease and immunology.