Infectious Disease News

High levels of pathogen resistance are, one-by-one, rendering current antibiotics obsolete. Coupled with insufficient investment in discovering new treatments, multidrug resistant infections pose an increasingly urgent public health concern. To curb the growth of antibiotic resistance and prevent major morbidity and mortality from multidrug-resistant bacterial infections we must address overuse and...

This document studies the impact of global climate change on the prevalence of tropical diseases using a heterogeneous agent dynamic general equilibrium model. In this framework, households can take actions (e.g., purchasing bednets or other goods) that provide partial protection from disease. However, these actions are costly and households face borrowing...

The emergence of multiple antibiotics resistance in Gram-negative bacteria can have major medical consequences. Several recent developments require the attention of the medical community. Recommendations of the National Public Health Institute of Quebec (Nosocomial Infections Committee) are expected in the coming weeks.

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A team of researchers led by Dr. Hernán Makse, professor of physics at The City College of New York (CCNY), has shed new light on the way that information and infectious diseases proliferate across complex networks. Writing in “Nature Physics,” they report that, contrary to conventional wisdom, persons with the most...

Richard Lamb and his post doctoral fellow Virginie Mieulet, in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta, may be able to explain why proper nutrition is so vital in fighting infection. They have discovered an amino acid, called arginine, is required to let the body know that...

HCV transmission remains unrestrained among injection drug users (IDUs), with incidence rates ranging from 16% to 42% per year. A novel investigation provides robust evidence about the dynamics of viral transmission with syringes, using simulated injecting practices. More importantly, the ability to culture HCV heralds a new era in which the...

In an effort to explore the generality and robustness of the predictions of mathematical deterministic models to the real world of hospitals, where there is variation in all of the factors contributing to the incidence of infection, researchers developed and used a stochastic model of the epidemiology of hospital-acquired infections and...

Diagnostic difficulties may have led to underestimation of rhinovirus infections in long-term care facilities. Using surveillance data, researchers found that rhinovirus caused 59% (174/297) of respiratory outbreaks in these facilities during 6 months in 2009. Disease was sometimes severe. Molecular diagnostic testing can differentiate these outbreaks from other infections such as...

Chagas disease is one of the most neglected of the tropical diseases, yet millions of people are infected with it. There are only two available drugs to treat it, both of which are more than 40 years old and neither of which is ideal. As the global population has become more...

Key to tackling neglected tropical diseases is clear evidence that the drug to treat or prevent is effective; analysis of comparative effects, particularly, with some drugs, in relation to adverse effects; and evaluation of the effectiveness of programmes that deliver them. Cochrane Reviews are an important independent analysis of research relevant...

This document was developed by the Government of Pakistan with support from the World Health Organization. The purpose of the document is to provide a standardized approach to surveillance and response to epidemic prone diseases in the flood%u2010affected areas of Pakistan. It is hoped it will also provide a framework for...

This PLoS Medicine Debate examines the different approaches that can be taken to tackle neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Some commentators, like Jerry Spiegel and colleagues from the University of British Columbia, feel there has been too much focus on the biomedical mechanisms and drug development for NTDs, at the expense of...

Although many infections that are transmissible from person to person are acquired through direct contact between individuals, a minority, notably pulmonary tuberculosis (TB), measles and influenza are known to be spread by the airborne route. Airborne infections pose a particular threat to susceptible individuals whenever they are placed together with the...

A transparent antiretroviral gel could turn out to be the unexpected winner in the race to give women a means of protecting themselves against HIV. The results of a phase 2b proof-of-concept study of 889 HIV-negative women in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, have shown that a gel for vaginal application containing 1%...

Thijs van de Laar from the Amsterdam Public Health Service and colleagues presented an overview of acute HCV infection among gay/bisexual men with HIV, including epidemiology, risk factors, natural history, disease progression, and challenges of management. The review was based on published studies identified through a MEDLINE search and relevant conference...

The authors of this study demonstrate that hand disinfection can easily be introduced and maintained outside clinical settings as a part of the daily hand hygiene. Therefore it appears as an interesting, and probably cost-efficient method within the scope of company health support programmes.

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CDC researchers identified 1,097 foodborne disease outbreaks, which lead to 21,244 illnesses and 18 deaths, in the United States during 2007. Although Salmonella and norovirus were the most common culprits for both outbreaks and illnesses, these numbers were down 8% and 15% from the annual average reported from 2002 to 2006.
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Following up a pioneering 2007 proof-of-concept study, a University of Utah biochemist and colleagues have developed a promising new anti-HIV drug candidate, PIE12-trimer, that prevents HIV from attacking human cells. Michael S. Kay, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of biochemistry in the University of Utah School of Medicine and senior author of...

WHO strongly recommends that governments focus control and prevention efforts in four main areas: surveillance for antimicrobial resistance; rational antibiotic use, including education of healthcare workers and the public in the appropriate use of antibiotics; introducing or enforcing legislation related to stopping the selling of antibiotics without prescription; and strict adherence...

One year ago, a novel influenza virus claimed its first victim in Mexico, and soon the world was plunged into its first influenza pandemic in 40 years. Although pandemic H1N1 (pH1N1) swept across the globe, we were fortunate this time as the virus was far less virulent than first feared. Now...

In May 1988, the World Health Assembly resolved to eradicate wild poliovirus (WPV) transmission globally. By 2006, transmission of indigenous WPV was eliminated in all but four countries (Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan). In May 1999, the World Health Assembly urged member states to begin the process leading to laboratory containment...

The number of infections caused by Neisseria gonorrhoeae, like some other sexually transmitted infections has increased in recent years. The laboratory surveillance of N. gonorrhoeae infections allows the tracking of the confirmed cases, the use of new diagnostic methods and antibiotic resistance. The analysis of surveillance data presented in this report...

On 10 August 2010 Margaret Chan, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), announced that the world has moved into the post-pandemic period. Following the advice of the Emergency Committee, which based its assessment on the global situation, WHO declared that there has been a pandemic phase change and that...

This study highlights both the effect of the online world on social interactions and the potential benefit to public health agencies in adapting to this new environment.

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One of the tenets driving enthusiasm for more-aggressive HIV testing and prompt treatment of individuals with newly identified infection is the belief that this strategy will decrease HIV transmission. To explore this concept at the population level, researchers analyzed the possible association among expanded antiretroviral therapy (ART) coverage, community viral load,...