Feature Channels: Infectious Diseases

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UC San Diego researchers provide first insights into the fundamental cellular pathologies that drive interstitial lung disease in patients post-COVID.

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Hospitals and homes are havens for germs and disease – but a well-regulated hot water system can prevent the spread of waterborne pathogens, including an emerging infectious disease problem from ‘superbugs’ which can be resistant to most antibiotics.  

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An anti-inflammatory compound may have the potential to treat systemic inflammation and brain injury in patients with severe COVID-19 and significantly reduce their chances of death, according to a new study from UTHealth Houston and other institutions.

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Paramyxoviruses have the potential to trigger a devastating pandemic. This family of viruses includes measles, Nipah virus, mumps, Newcastle disease and canine distemper. An international team of collaborators has published the first-ever look at a key stage in the life cycles of measles and Nipah viruses. It reveals how future therapies might stop these viruses in their tracks.

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A new study involving hospitalized women in 6 African countries from the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Institute of Human Virology showed that pregnant women with SARS-CoV-2 had 2X the risk of being admitted to the ICU and 4X the risk of dying than pregnant women who didn't have COVID-19.

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Like the coronavirus pandemic, misinformation about monkeypox is mounting along with the number of cases. A Penn State Health infectious disease doctor cuts through the white noise in this week’s Medical Minute.

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Summertime trips to lakes or pools to escape the heat can sometimes lead to ear infections caused by excess moisture in the ear canal. Hongzhao Ji, M.D., Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery at UT Southwestern, offers information on swimmer’s ear, how to treat it, and how to prevent it.

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An array of new, simple “shelf-available” SARS-CoV-2 treatment options could soon be available in the fight against COVID thanks to a new study, “Engineered ACE2-Fc counters murine lethal SARS-CoV-2 infection through direct neutralization and Fc-effector activities,” published July 13 in Science Advances.

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A study led by the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) in partnership with Vanderbilt University found no symptomatic or clinical benefit to taking fluticasone furoate for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 symptoms.

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To develop new COVID-19 medications, researchers are working to target nsp13, a protein coronaviruses need to replicate. In ACS Infectious Diseases, researchers describe a new approach to identifying molecules that interfere with this protein, a step toward developing pan-coronavirus antivirals.

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Scientists have uncovered an intriguing new understanding of how viruses and the hosts they infect evolve new innovations to outcompete each other. Culminating a 10-year research effort, the researchers tracked the way fitness landscapes constantly change in the ongoing struggle for survival.

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When infants breastfeed, they receive an immune boost that helps them fight off infectious diseases, according to recent research from Binghamton University, State University of New York.

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Researchers at the Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine will use a $3.25 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to better understand how HIV impacts the human body, from mouth lesions to oral cancer.

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Mayo Clinic Laboratories can now test for monkeypox, a rare viral infection, using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) orthopoxvirus test kit.

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A monoclonal antibody treatment taken by patients hospitalized with COVID-19 did not improve recovery time but did reduce deaths, according to a study published July 8 in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.

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UC San Diego researchers say they may have found the reason why multiple human clinical trials of staphylococcus vaccines have failed: the bacteria knows us too well.

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Scientists and physicians at UC San Diego and Scripps Research describe how wastewater sequencing provided dramatic new insights into levels and variants of SARS-CoV-2 on campus and in the broader community — a key step to public health interventions in advance of COVID-19 case surges.

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Below are summaries of recent Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center research findings and other news.

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Researchers have created an inhalable COVID-19 vaccine that is shelf stable at room temperature for up to three months, targets the lungs specifically and effectively, and allows for self-administration via an inhaler.

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A new type of vaccine provides protection against a variety of SARS-like betacoronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2 variants, in mice and monkeys, according to a study led by researchers in the laboratory of Caltech's Pamela Bjorkman, the David Baltimore Professor of Biology and Bioengineering.

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A new study reveals why a highly infectious variant of the cholera bug, which caused large disease outbreaks in the early 1990s, did not cause the eighth cholera pandemic as feared – but instead unexpectedly disappeared.

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Could the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine reawaken previous antibody responses and point the way to a universal coronavirus vaccine? A new analysis of the antibody response to a COVID-19 vaccine suggests the immune system’s history with other coronaviruses, including those behind the common cold, shapes the patient’s response, according to a recently published study published in Cell Reports.

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New research from the University of Georgia suggests age and risk perception may have as much of an effect on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance as party affiliation.

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A COVID CommUNITY – South Asian study, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) Open has found that South Asian communities living in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) suffered disproportionately from COVID-19 in the first year of the pandemic.

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PhD in Public Health student examined disease trends and potential impacts of COVID-19 in northern Syria, underscores the need for enhanced infectious disease surveillance in areas facing humanitarian crisis to reduce the global spread of disease. Parts of the world facing conflict and humanitarian disaster tend to experience a high burden of disease, but their disease monitoring systems remain largely understudied.

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UC San Diego researchers have created a mathematical model to help predict risk of anal cancer in persons with HIV infection and aid patients and doctors regarding screening decisions.

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The experts agree — the pandemic is not over. Infections are ticking up again, fueled by the new variants our immune systems are ill prepared for.

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As you’re enjoying the early fall weather and outdoor adventures, like hiking, don’t forget to make safety a priority to help keep illness and injuries from spoiling family fun time. Jeffrey M. Bender, MD, attending physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and former ranger in the Sierra Mountains, points out tips on how to prevent bug bites, proper animal interaction and empowering kids to explore the outdoors in a safe and smart way.

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In just a few hours, UT Southwestern scientists can tell which variant has infected a COVID-19 patient – a critical task that can potentially influence treatment decisions but takes days or weeks at most medical centers.