Computer analysis of existing drugs may be key to fighting new infectious agents and antibiotic-resistant pathogens like deadly tuberculosis strains and staph “superbugs.” Researchers in Canada say the use of such “emergency discovery” technology could save time, money and lives during a sudden outbreak or a bioterrorism attack. The study will be presented in August at the American Chemical Society national meeting in Boston.
A team of Mayo Clinic researchers has discovered a new, more accurate diagnostic test to detect infection of prosthetic joints, potentially leading to better treatment options and patient outcomes.
Antibacterial soaps show no health benefits over plain soaps and, in fact, may render some common antibiotics less effective, says a University of Michigan public health professor.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded a UCLA research team a five-year, $9 million contract to fund a multicenter study investigating antibiotic treatments for MRSA, a staph infection seen increasingly in communities across the nation that is resistant to antibiotics most commonly used to treat skin infections.
Risk of a common vaginal infection linked to preterm birth appears to escalate when even one partner is African-American, according to a University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine study presented today at the 34th annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society for Obstetrics and Gynecology in Boston.
University of Alberta researchers stress that all children adopted from outside North America should be screened for tuberculosis. The study shows that in the Canadian province of Alberta, from 2004-2006, 40 percent of foreign-born children under 5 years of age who were found to have tuberculosis were international adoptees.
Preparing vaccines and therapeutics that target a future mutant strain of H5N1 influenza virus sounds like science fiction, but it may be possible, according to a team of scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and a collaborator at Emory University School of Medicine.
A cooperative research project involving seven institutions in the United States and Peru, led by Joseph Vinetz, M.D., professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Disease at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine, has received a biodefense grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy has received a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to develop new drugs to combat agents of bioterrorism.
Although physicians have imposed quarantine orders since at least 1374, when the Port of Venice officially isolated foreigners and shippers for 40 days to keep out infectious scourges, there has been no definitive evidence that public health measures like quarantining the sick and isolating people after exposure to ill people would save lives during an influenza pandemic.