http://medicineworld.org/news/infectious-disease-news.html MedicineWorld.Org brings daily infectious disease news from various sources to keep you updated on the latest events in the world on this topic. Medicineworld infectious disease news service is the most comprehensive infectious disease news service on the internet. We keep an archive of previous few days of news on this site. Please go down through the list to find the older news items Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:37:29 GMT en-us http://medicineworld.org/images/infectious-diseases.jpg http://medicineworld.org/news/infectious-disease-news.html 66 96 http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/1-2012/a-fundamental-malaria-discovery.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/1-2012/a-fundamental-malaria-discovery.html Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:37:29 GMT A team of scientists led by Kasturi Haldar and Souvik Bhattacharjee of the University of Notre Dame's Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases has made a fundamental discovery in understanding how malaria parasites cause deadly disease. The scientists show how parasites target proteins to the surface of the red blood cell that enables sticking to and blocking blood vessels. Strategies that prevent this host-targeting process will block disease........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/12-2011/new-way-to-ensure-effectiveness-of-tb-treatment.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/12-2011/new-way-to-ensure-effectiveness-of-tb-treatment.html Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:37:29 GMT A UT Southwestern Medical Center study using a sophisticated "glass mouse" research model has observed that multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) is more likely caused in patients by speedy drug metabolism rather than inconsistent doses, as is widely believed. If the study published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases is borne out in future investigations, it may lead to better ways to treat one of the world's major infectious diseases. Health workers worldwide currently are mandatory to witness each administration of the combination of drugs during months of treatment........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/5-2011/more-responsive-to-flu-vaccine.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/5-2011/more-responsive-to-flu-vaccine.html Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:37:29 GMT New research shows that African Americans with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) had a higher antibody response to influenza vaccination than European American patients. Treatment with prednisone, a history of hemolytic anemia, and increased disease flares were also associated with low antibody response in SLE patients who received the flu vaccine as per the study now available in Arthritis and Rheumatism, a peer-evaluated journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR)........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/4-2011/quadruple-therapy-shows-100-percent.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/4-2011/quadruple-therapy-shows-100-percent.html Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:37:29 GMT Exciting new data presented today at the International Liver CongressTM 2011 show that quadruple treatment in chronic hepatitis C (HCV) patients suppressed the emergence of resistant variants and resulted in a 100% rate of sustained virological response - undetectable HCV RNA - 12 weeks after therapy (SVR12).1........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/4-2011/promising-target-for-aids-vaccine.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/4-2011/promising-target-for-aids-vaccine.html Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:37:29 GMT A section of the AIDS virus's protein envelope once considered an improbable target for a vaccine now may be one of the most promising, new research by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers indicates. The section, a twisting strand of protein known as the V3 loop, is an attractive vaccine target because immune system antibodies aimed at the loop may offer protection against multiple genetic subtypes of HIV-1, the virus that causes AIDS. This is a key prerequisite of any AIDS vaccine because the viruses mutate rapidly and by now comprise millions of different strains that are grouped into different genetic subtypes, or "clades." The researchers' findings are published online in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS One. ........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/3-2011/hepatitis-c-drug-may-revolutionize-treatment.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/3-2011/hepatitis-c-drug-may-revolutionize-treatment.html Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:37:29 GMT The drug boceprevir helps cure hard-to-treat hepatitis C, says Saint Louis University investigator Bruce R. Bacon, M.D., author of the March 31 New England Journal (NEJM) article detailing the study's findings. The results, which were first reported at the 61st annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease's last November, offer a brighter outlook for patients who have not responded to standard therapy........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/3-2011/better-images-of-bacteria.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/3-2011/better-images-of-bacteria.html Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:37:29 GMT It's a cloak that surpasses all others: a microscopic carbon cloak made of graphene that could change the way bacteria and other cells are imaged. Vikas Berry, assistant professor of chemical engineering at Kansas State University, and his research team are wrapping bacteria with graphene to address current challenges with imaging bacteria under electron microscopes. Berry's method creates a carbon cloak that protects the bacteria, allowing them to be imaged at their natural size and increasing the image's resolution........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/3-2011/focus-on-prion-diseases.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/3-2011/focus-on-prion-diseases.html Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:37:29 GMT New research by Chongsuk Ryou, researcher at the UK Sanders-Brown Center on Aging and professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics in the UK College of Medicine, may shed light on possible therapys for prion diseases. Prion diseases, which include Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans and bovine spongiform encephalopathy ("mad cow" disease) in cattle, are caused by prions - unconventional pathogens composed of infectious protein particles and resistant to conventional sterilization procedures. Presently there is no known agent or procedure that can halt or reverse damage caused by prion disease........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/3-2011/keeping-an-eye-on-h1n1.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/3-2011/keeping-an-eye-on-h1n1.html Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:37:29 GMT In the fall of 1917, a new strain of influenza swirled around the globe. At first, it resembled a typical flu epidemic: Most deaths occurred among the elderly, while younger people recovered quickly. However, in the summer of 1918, a deadlier version of the same virus began spreading, with disastrous consequence. In total, the pandemic killed at least 50 million people - about 3 percent of the world's population at the time........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/3-2011/hiv-vaccine-impacts-the-genetic.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/3-2011/hiv-vaccine-impacts-the-genetic.html Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:37:29 GMT An AIDS vaccine tested in people, but found to be ineffective, influenced the genetic makeup of the virus that slipped past. The findings suggest new ideas for developing HIV vaccines. The results were published Feb. 27 in Nature Medicine This is the first evidence that vaccine-induced cellular immune responses against HIV-1 infection exert selective pressure on the virus. "Selective pressure" refers to environmental demands that favor certain genetic traits over others........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/2-2011/vaccine-made-with-synthetic-gene.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/2-2011/vaccine-made-with-synthetic-gene.html Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:37:29 GMT Scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have developed an experimental vaccine that appears to protect against an increasingly common and especially deadly form of pneumococcal pneumonia. Details of the new vaccine, which was tested in an animal model, are reported in a paper published recently in the Journal of Infectious Diseases....... ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/2-2011/new-pneumococcal-vaccine-approach.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/2-2011/new-pneumococcal-vaccine-approach.html Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:37:29 GMT Pneumococcus (Streptococcus pneumoniae) accounts for as much as 11 percent of mortality in young children worldwide. While successful vaccines like Prevnar� exist, they are expensive and only work against specific pneumococcal strains, with the risk of becoming less effective as new strains emerge. Through a novel discovery approach, scientists at Children's Hospital Boston and Genocea Biosciences, Inc., in collaboration with the international nonprofit organization PATH, developed a new vaccine candidate that is potentially cheaper and able to protect against any pneumococcal strain........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/2-2011/gonorrhea-acquires-a-piece-of-human-dna.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/2-2011/gonorrhea-acquires-a-piece-of-human-dna.html Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:37:29 GMT If a human cell and a bacterial cell met at a speed-dating event, they would never be expected to exchange phone numbers, much less genetic material. In more scientific terms, a direct transfer of DNA has never been recorded from humans to bacteria. Until now. Northwestern Medicine scientists have discovered the first evidence of a human DNA fragment in a bacterial genome � in this case, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the bacterium that causes gonorrhea. Further research showed the gene transfer may be a recent evolutionary event........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/2-2011/hpv-vaccine-works-for-boys-too.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/2-2011/hpv-vaccine-works-for-boys-too.html Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:37:29 GMT The vaccine for human papillomavirus (HPV) can prevent 90 percent of genital warts in men when offered before exposure to the four HPV strains covered by the vaccine, as per a new multi-center study led by H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and UCSF. The four-year, international clinical trial, which also found a nearly 66 percent effectiveness in the general population of young men regardless of previous exposure to these strains, provides the first reported results of using the HPV vaccine as a prophylactic in men........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/2-2011/teens-with-hiv-at-high-risk-for-pregnancy.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/2-2011/teens-with-hiv-at-high-risk-for-pregnancy.html Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:37:29 GMT Teenage girls and young women infected with HIV get pregnant more often and suffer pregnancy complications more frequently than their HIV-negative peers, as per new research led by Johns Hopkins investigators. A report on the multi-center study, based on an analysis of records from 181 patients with HIV, ages 13 to 24, treated at four hospitals over 12 years, would be reported in the Feb. 2 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association....... ]]>