New tests to rapidly detect the flu are allowing doctors to cut down on the number of hospital patients who receive antibiotics, helping soften the rapidly worsening threat of antibiotic resistance.
An Egyptian woman died from bird flu on friday. The bird flu virus has killed 11 people in Egypt, which has the largest cluster of human bird flu cases outside Asia.
Novartis announced that it has received a contract from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) of approximately USD 55 million. The contract supports the company’s efforts to bring the antigen-sparing capabilities of the MF59 adjuvant to the United States. An adjuvant is a substance added to a vaccine to enhance the body’s immune response to the vaccine’s active constituent, called the antigen.
In a study of nonhuman primates infected with the influenza virus that killed 50 million people in 1918, an international team of scientists has found a critical clue to how the virus killed so quickly and efficiently.
A team of international scientists has decoded the genome of the parasite behind trichomoniasis, a sexually transmitted infection (STI) that each year affects about 170 million people worldwide.
Kenya government has taken all possible steps to confront the Rift valley fever viral infection in Garissa. The death toll continued to rise claiming four more people in just 24 hours. This brings the number of Rift valley fever victims to 74.
While there is no cure for lingering viral infections such as HIV and herpes, a recent study at Princeton University suggests it may be possible to deactivate such viruses indefinitely with the flick of a genetic switch.
Testing has identified Norovirus as the cause of illness in two care homes in the Criccieth area. In the Bryn Awelon home, 22 of the 30 residents and eight of the 22 staff have had the stomach bug. The first person fell ill on 22_December and the last case was reported on 29_December.
On 4_January, 8 new suspected cases of Rift Valley Fever were discovered by MSF teams in the Ijara District in the North-Eastern Province of Kenya. One of the patients died, taking the death toll to at least 67 since the outbreak began on 7_December.
A set of guidelines have been developed that can help predict the risk of bacterial meningitis for children with cerebrospinal fluid pleocytosis (presence of greater number of white blood cells than normal), reducing unnecessary hospitalizations and antibiotics, according to a study in the January 3 issue of JAMA.