Latest infection Stories
Alan McStravick for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A sexually transmitted disease (STD) is a disease that passes from an infected person to a non-infected person during anal, vaginal or oral sex. Depending on the disease transmitted, there can be several differing symptoms and health risks for the infected person. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has published, on their website, an action forum on the prevention and treatment for the most common STD’s. On their site, they...
A 48-week course of antiretroviral medication taken in the early stages of HIV infection slows the damage to the immune system and delays the need for long term treatment, according to research published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. However, the delay was only marginally longer than the time already spent on treatment. The study, the largest clinical trial ever undertaken looking at treating people with recent HIV infection, also suggests that the treatment lowers the...
Earlier therapy enhances restoration of CD4+ T-cell counts Patients who are started on antiretroviral therapy for HIV-1 infection within four months of estimated infection date — and who have higher counts of CD4+ T-cells at the initiation of therapy — demonstrate a stronger recovery of CD4+ T-cell counts than patients in whom therapy is started later, a new study shows. The report, to be published Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine, is co-authored by physicians of UT...
Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online It’s difficult to turn down promising options when you have a debilitating or chronic illness. It’s completely daft to turn your nose up at an option for treatment when your life is on the line. Medical science, as it often does, is once again pushing the boundaries of what that layman perceives as a last-ditch treatment option. According to a new paper published in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) this week, when...
It is well known that COPD patients run a higher risk of contracting respiratory infections. However, a new thesis from Lund University in Sweden shows that they are also at higher risk of other bacterial infections, such as tuberculosis (TB) and pneumococcal and staphylococcal infections that can cause serious illness. The abbreviation COPD stands for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and the disease makes it difficult for patients to breathe. However, the disease affects other organs...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Replacing brand-name, antiretroviral drugs recommended for control of HIV infection with generic medications could save nearly $1 billion a year on health care costs in the US. This strategy of replacing the brand-name drugs with the soon-to-be-available generic drugs could also come with its risks, diminishing the efficacy of the HIV treatment. "The switch from branded to generic antiretrovirals would place us in the...
Patients recovering from surgery get infections far more often than is being reported, a new study led by De Montfort University has found. Infection prevention specialists are now calling on the Department of Health to bring in a clear and standardized system for hospitals to try to identify the true scale of surgical infections. They say a study of the way in which NHS hospital trusts in England has shown "worrying inconsistencies" between hospitals in how they defined surgical site...
IFIT antiviral protein recognizes foreign RNA and blocks viral infections Researchers at McGill University and the Research Center for Molecular Medicine (CeMM) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences have discovered the molecular blueprint behind the IFIT protein. This key protein enables the human immune system to detect viruses and prevent infection by acting as foot soldiers guarding the body against infection. They recognize foreign viral ribonucleic acid (RNA) produced by the virus and...
Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Scientists said a simple breath test could diagnose infections in the respiratory system based on a study identifying the chemical ‘fingerprints’ that are given off by certain bacteria that are present in the lungs. Publishing the new findings in today’s issue of the Journal of Breath Research, the researchers said they have successfully distinguished between different types of bacteria, as well as different strains of the...
Duke researchers are looking to genomic technologies – not the isolation of bacteria or viruses – to quickly detect and diagnose infectious diseases such as the flu and staph. Two studies appearing online Jan. 9, 2013, both in the journal PLOS ONE, show how a pattern of genomic information among infected individuals can be used to accurately pinpoint the cause of infection. "Traditional diagnostic tests for infectious diseases rely on detecting the specific illness-causing...
Latest infection Reference Libraries
Yersinia enterocolitica is a species of gram-negative coccobacillus-shaped bacterium, belonging to the family Enterobacteriaceae. Infection from Yersinia enterocolitica causes the zoonotic disease yersiniosis. Most infected animals recover from the disease and become asymptomatic carriers. Acute infections lead to mild self-limiting entero-colitis or terminal ileitis in humans. Symptoms include watery or bloody diarrhea and fever. After oral uptake it replicates in the terminal ileum and...
Labor Induction is a process of giving an artificial start to birth with medical intervention or other methods. When an induction is not performed for emergency or other medical reasons, the method is considered an elective process. The decision to induce labor has increased in recent years due to its convenience or because it easily accommodates busy schedules. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, however, say that labor should only be induced when it is more risky...
Vibrio vulnificus is a species of Gram-negative, motile, curved, rod-shaped bacteria of the Vibrio Genus. Hollis et al. first reported it in 1976. It was given the name Beneckea vulnifica by Reichelt et al. in 1976 and in 1979 Vibrio vulnificus by Farmer. V. vulnificus is related to V. cholerae and is present in marine environments such as estuaries, brackish ponds, or coastal areas. It causes an infection often incurred after eating seafood, especially raw or undercooked oysters. It can...
Staphylococcus epidermidis is one of thirty-three known species belonging to the genus Staphylococcus. It is part of our skin flora and can also be found in the mucous membranes and in animals. It is the most common species found in laboratory test due to contamination. It is not usually pathogenic; however, patients with a compromised immune system often risk infection. Infections can be both nosocomial and community acquired and are more of a threat to hospital patients. Hospitals carry...
Staphylococcus aureus is a facultative anaerobic gram-positive coccus, and is the most common cause of staph infections. It is commonly part of the skin flora found in the nose and on skin. Around 20% of the human population is long-term carriers. It gets its golden color due to its carotenoid pigment staphyloxanthin. The pigment acts as a virulence factor with an antioxidant action that allows the microbe to evade death by reactive oxygen species used by the host immune system. Staphylococci...
