Virginia Tech entomologists have developed a chromosome map for about half of the genome of the mosquito Aedes agypti, the major carrier of dengue fever and yellow fever. With the map, researchers can chart ways to prevent diseases.
Computer simulations that reveal a key mechanism in the replication process of influenza A may help defend against future deadly pandemics.
June 27 is National HIV Testing Day and Loyola University Health System will celebrate as they do every day – by offering free HIV testing to patients in the emergency department and at select immediate care centers. “We currently offer HIV testing at our Maywood emergency department and also at Loyola Burr Ridge immediate care” says Beatrice Probst, MD, medical director of the immediate care centers at Loyola University Health System. Expanding testing to the Loyola Park Ridge immediate care center starts Friday, June 27, which is National HIV Testing Day. “In 2014 alone, Loyola’s testing program identified three new HIV-infected patients. One was acute HIV, meaning the individual had recently acquired the infection and is at the most infectious stage,” says Probst
A new study of NYC deaths of people with HIV/AIDS shows the portion of AIDS deaths increased significantly in the Bronx and Brooklyn while tumbling in Manhattan from 2005 to 2012. This major change in death patterns occurred after the Bloomberg Administration "reallocated" almost 60% of federal AIDS funny for community-based outreach and support to Manhattan while de-funding some 60 local support programs in the Bronx and Brooklyn.
Pertussis (whooping cough) is on the increase in the United States and around the world—and nurses play an essential role in educating parents and patients about the safety and effectiveness of pertussis vaccination, according to a paper in the July-September issue of Journal of Christian Nursing, official journal of the Nurses Christian Fellowship. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
The use of disinfection caps is included in major new infection-control recommendations sponsored by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) and other top infection-control organizations.
A provocative study links prolonged episodes of sepsis — a life-threatening infection and leading cause of death in hospitals — to the reactivation of otherwise dormant viruses in the body.
Forgetful immune systems leave infants particularly prone to infections, according to a new Cornell University study. Upending the common theory that weak immune cells are to blame, the study has found that infants’ immune systems actually respond to infection with more speed and strength than adults, but the immunities they create fail to last.
An international team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, have identified the genes encoding a molecule that famously defines Group A Streptococcus (strep), a pathogenic bacterial species responsible for more than 700 million infections worldwide each year.
An international team of researchers has shown that circulating avian influenza viruses contain all the genetic ingredients necessary to underpin the emergence of a virus similar to the deadly 1918 influenza virus.
Experimenting with mice, infectious disease experts at NYU Langone Medical Center have found that immune system cells uninfected with the bacterium that causes tuberculosis trigger immune system T cells to fight the disease. The findings upend the long-held scientific belief that only cells, known specifically as dendritic cells, infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis could stimulate a broader, defensive immune system attack of the invading microorganism.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have identified the evolutionary origins of human herpes simplex virus (HSV) -1 and -2, reporting that the former infected hominids before their evolutionary split from chimpanzees 6 million years ago while the latter jumped from ancient chimpanzees to ancestors of modern humans – Homo erectus – approximately 1.6 million years ago.
“Remember that most diseases are transmitted by food, water and insects,” says John A. Sellick, Jr., DO, University at Buffalo associate professor of medicine. “So get vaccinated, keep insects off you as much as possible and be careful with what you put in your mouth.”
New insight into how malaria parasites perturb flow, turning infected cells into sticky capillary cloggers, may lead to new and better treatments.
Family and cultural pressures to conform to prescribed masculine behaviors create social isolation and distress that may drive young gay black men to seek approval and acceptance through perilous sexual behaviors, according to research led by investigators at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. This dangerous “compensatory” mechanism, the researchers say, may contribute to the disproportionately high HIV infection rate seen in this population.
Boston, MA – Researchers have found the first evidence of an intercellular bacterial infection in natural populations of two species of Anopheles mosquitoes, the major vectors of malaria in Africa. The infection, called Wolbachia, has been shown in labs to reduce the incidence of pathogen infections in mosquitoes and has the potential to be used in controlling malaria-transmitting mosquito populations.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have mapped the transmission network of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in San Diego. The mapping of HIV infections, which used genetic sequencing, allowed researchers to predictively model the likelihood of new HIV transmissions and identify persons at greatest risk for transmitting the virus.
Loyola University Medical Center achieved a 68 percent decrease in the overall number of central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) over a 12-month period. A two-year study compared the use of disinfection caps to an intense scrub-the-hub intervention to standard care. Scrub-the-hub refers to cleaning catheter connector hubs and injection ports with alcohol for the recommended 15 seconds before accessing the central line, a catheter placed in a large vein to deliver medicine and liquids during hospitalization.
In the battle against stubborn skin infections, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a new single-dose antibiotic is as effective as a twice-daily infusion given for up to 10 days, according to a large study led by Duke Medicine researchers.
Virologists and immunologists at The Scripps Research Institute have found a major clue to the mystery of “hemorrhagic fever” syndromes. The team showed that Interferon Type I immune proteins are key drivers of a viral syndrome in mice that closely mimics human hemorrhagic fevers.
A study by researchers at Columbia University School of Nursing found that unsterile living conditions and untrained caregivers contribute to infections in home health settings, with patients at greater risk when they have tubes to provide nutrition or help with urination.
Measles have reached a 20-year high in the United States and the cause lies squarely with those who deliberately refuse to be vaccinated. Eighty-five percent of the unvaccinated U.S. residents who contracted measles cited religious, philosophical or personal reasons for not getting immunized, according to the Center for Disease Control. “Religious, philosophical or personal reasons are not medical reasons for not getting vaccinated,” says Jorge Parada, MD, medical director, infectious disease at Loyola University Health System.
With measles cases in the U.S. at a 20-year high, it’s more important than ever to keep your hands clean. Soap and water or hand sanitizer are powerful weapons against the current measles outbreak, says Elaine Larson, PhD, RN, FAAN, associate dean for research at Columbia University School of Nursing.
Seattle BioMed researchers today announced they have developed a next generation genetically attenuated parasite (GAP) that might constitute the path to a highly protective malaria vaccine. The study was published online in the journal Molecular Therapy.
As new treatments for hepatitis C virus (HCV) are approved, biomedical scientists are exploring their mechanisms and what they reveal about the virus. An online publication this month in Hepatology is the first to report real-time tracking of viral decay in the liver and blood in 15 patients with HCV.
Physician and infectious disease researcher Nila Dharan of Rutgers New Jersey Medical School discusses the deadly virus MERS and what people can do to protect themselves.
Researchers have identified differences in the genetic code of pneumococcal bacteria that may explain why it poses such a risk to children with sickle cell disease and why current vaccines don’t provide better protection against the infection.
Researchers following almost 450 children enrolled in the Pediatric HIV/AIDS Cohort Study, one of the largest studies of HIV-positive children in the United States, found that 74 percent had developed resistance to at least one form of drug treatment.
A Kansas State University tick expert says you could be exposed to a tick a minute this summer. He gives advice on how to protect yourself from ticks.
Bacteria that naturally live in the soil have a vast collection of genes to fight off antibiotics, but they are much less likely to share these genes, a new study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has revealed
Accounting for immunity can strengthen disease identification and management.
Bacteria found in the nose may be a key indicator for future development of skin and soft-tissue infections in remote areas of the body.
Researchers at UNC Health Care have found that using a new method for identifying bacteria and fungi in patient specimens led to a 92 percent cost reduction in the reagents needed to run clinical microbiology tests.
In what is believed to be the largest and most detailed genetic analysis of its kind, researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center and elsewhere have concluded that 69 percent of healthy American adults are infected with one or more of 109 strains of human papillomavirus (HPV).
An international team of scientists, including researchers from the University of California, San Diego, report that the likely causative agent of Kawasaki disease (KD) in Japan is a windborne agent originating from a source in northeast China. KD is a mysterious childhood ailment that can permanently damage coronary arteries.
Women plagued by repeated urinary tract infections may be able to prevent the infections with help from over-the-counter painkillers, new research in mice shows. Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that inhibiting COX-2, an immune protein that causes inflammation, eliminated recurrent urinary tract infections in the mice.
Bacteria live in the bladders of healthy women, discrediting the common belief that normal urine is sterile. This finding was presented today by researchers from Loyola University Chicago at the 114th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Boston.
University of Utah researchers devised a way to watch newly forming AIDS virus particles “budding” from human cells without interfering with the process. The method shows a protein named ALIX gets involved during the final stages of virus replication, not earlier, as was believed previously.
People who inject drugs and are enrolled in a drug treatment program are receptive to education about, and treatment for, hepatitis C virus, according to a study by researchers at several institutions, including the University at Buffalo.
A vaccine or other therapy directed at a single site on a surface protein of HIV could in principle neutralize nearly all strains of the virus—thanks to the diversity of targets the site presents to the human immune system.
Even if treated, hypertension and high cholesterol are increasingly common for people with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), according to a new study from researchers at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s and Mount Sinai Roosevelt hospitals in New York and the University of California, Davis.
Johns Hopkins researchers have found evidence in mice that a tuberculosis (TB) infection in the lungs triggers immune system signaling to the gut that temporarily decreases the diversity of bacteria in that part of the digestive tract.
Men who have been incarcerated and released are more than twice as likely to die prematurely as those who haven't been imprisoned, according to a Georgia State University criminologist.
Dr. Kerry Clark, associate professor of public health at the University of North Florida, and his colleagues have found additional cases of Lyme disease in patients from several states in the southeastern U.S. These cases include two additional Lyme disease Borrelia species recently identified in patients in Florida and Georgia.
A new method for isolating and genome sequencing an individual malaria parasite cell has been developed by Texas Biomed researchers in San Antonio and their colleagues. This advance will allow scientists to improve their ability to identify the multiple types of malaria parasites infecting patients and lead to ways to best design drugs and vaccines to tackle this major global killer.
A new study released May 7 in the journal PLOS ONE suggests that people who survived the medieval mass-killing plague known as the Black Death lived significantly longer and were healthier than people who lived before the epidemic struck in 1347. University of South Carolina researcher Sharon DeWitte's findings have important implications for understanding emerging diseases and how they impact the health of individuals and populations of people.
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