Infection News

Zimbabwe's cholera outbreak, one of the world's largest ever recorded, is far from being brought under control and an enhanced response is needed to urgently reverse an epidemic that has so far infected more than 60,000 people and killed more than 3,100 since August 2008. "The World Health Organization and other international and local partners are supporting the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare's (MoHCW) efforts to control the epidemic.

Northeastern University was awarded a $2.7 million grant by the National Institutes of Health to help develop a targeted therapy to combat a contagious and potentially lethal bacterial pathogen commonly found in hospital and nursing home settings called Clostridium difficile (C. difficile). The five-year international project, led by Northeastern's Antimicrobial Center under the direction of professor Kim Lewis, Ph.D.

In an effort to determine the influence of viral pathogens in declining coral health, researchers at San Diego State University recently used metagenomic analysis with the Genome Sequencer System from 454 Life Sciences to sequence Porites compressa coral samples under varying environmental stressors. The purpose of the study, led by Dr.

AdvanDx announced it received FDA 510(k) clearance for E. coli/P. aeruginosa PNA FISH(R) to identify Escherichia coli and/or Pseudomonas aeruginosa directly from positive blood cultures. E. coli/P. aeruginosa PNA FISH is the first-ever test for identifying E. coli and P. aeruginosa directly from positive blood cultures and the latest addition to AdvanDx's easy-to-use, molecular-based PNA FISH diagnostics platform.

Each year, The Company of Biologists (http://www.biologists.com/) organises and supports a themed conference as the basis of a special review issue of The Journal of Experimental Biology. The main aim of this annual Symposium is to unite outstanding biologists and bring together their varied expertise on one particular subject. It is a leisurely meeting with enough time to talk and to discuss.

Lincoln Park Zoo has been awarded a grant by The Davee Foundation to establish a new research division, the Urban Wildlife Institute, which will focus studies on the interactions between urban dwellers and wildlife, and utilize sound science to create best practice conflict resolution. The institute aims to integrate landscape and animal ecology with epidemiology research to create a holistic approach to ecosystem health as it applies to urban settings.

Taking a hint from the text comparison methods used to detect plagiarism in books, college papers and computer programs, University of California, Berkeley, researchers have developed an improved method for comparing whole genome sequences. With nearly a thousand genomes partly or fully sequenced, scientists are jumping on comparative genomics as a way to construct evolutionary trees, trace disease susceptibility in populations, and even track down people's ancestry.

The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) will host its 2009 Biodefense and Emerging Diseases Research Meeting February 22-25, 2008 at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel in Baltimore, MD.

The study, involving researchers from Duke University Medical Center and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is one of the largest randomized trials to date to look at the link between the two conditions. Previous research had suggested that gum disease was associated with very preterm deliveries (defined as less than 32 weeks gestation).

Yale School of Medicine researchers have identified proteins associated with early onset neonatal sepsis (EONS), a stealthy bacterial infection linked to premature birth, illness and death. Using protein analysis, the researchers have found the biomarkers that can provide key information on how EONS develops. "The biomarkers we identified have diagnostic value for infection and inflammation," said Yale assistant professor Catalin Buhimschi, M.D.

Researchers at the University of British Columbia have discovered a mimic of one of "nature's antibiotics" that can be used to coat medical devices to prevent infection and rejection. The study, released in the journal Chemistry and Biology, found that a synthetic form, short tethered cationic antimicrobial peptides (peptide), can protect surfaces, like those of medical devices, killing bacteria and fungi that come into contact with them. Peptides are small proteins.

Biota Holdings Limited (ASX:BTA)(PINK:BTAHY) announced that GlaxoSmithKline (LON:GSK) has been awarded a significant contract by the UK Department of Health for 10.6 million treatment courses of RelenzaTM (zanamivir). Biota notes that the UK Government's decision to purchase zanamivir is consistent with recommendations published by the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) and the UK's Royal Society and Academy of Medical Sciences.

Approximately 1.6 million people die worldwide every year as a result of pneumococcal infection, which causes grave illnesses, including pneumonia, meningitis, and middle-ear infections. Children and the elderly are especially at risk. Vaccines are only effective against a few of the pneumococcal types and increasing resistance to antibiotics is making treatment more difficult. Researchers led by Jesús M.

People are dying from "super bugs" because our antibiotic arsenal has run dry, leaving the world without sufficient weapons to fight ever-changing bacteria, warn infectious disease researchers at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston. In a Jan. 29 perspective in The New England Journal of Medicine, Barbara E. Murray, M.D., and Cesar Arias, M.D., Ph.D., evaluate the past, present and future response to preventing and treating "super bugs.

For the first time, a team of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine have imaged in real time the body's immune response to a parasitic infection in the brain. The

As global warming raises concerns about potential spread of infectious diseases, a team of researchers has demonstrated a way to predict the expanding range of human disease vectors in a changing world. Researchers from Australia and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have identified the key biological and environmental factors constraining a population of the dengue fever vector, the mosquito Aedes aegypti. In a study publishing online Jan.

Resources for the Future have launched a new global health initiative to explore incentives to slow the development and spread of resistance to lifesaving antibiotics by promoting their prudent use in developing nations. The Global Antibiotic Resistance Partnership was established with the support of a grant of more than $2 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Around a third of people don't know how hepatitis C can be passed from person to person, according to new research commissioned by the Department of Health. The findings come as a major hepatitis C awareness campaign is launched to reach out to the estimated 100,000 people in England who are unaware they have the infection and stop others getting it.

The British Midlands Development Corporation announced that scientists at The University of Nottingham are leading a major European study to unravel the genetic code of one of the most lethal strains of hospital acquired infections. The $4.

A component of DNA that can both stimulate and suppress the immune system, depending on the dosage, may hold hope for treating cancer and infection, Medical College of Georgia researchers say. Low levels of CpG increase inflammation, part of the body's way of eliminating invaders. But high doses block inflammation by increasing expression of the enzyme indoleamine 2,3 dioxygenase, or IDO, an immunosuppressor, the researchers say.