Infections
New Recommendations for Bacterial Meningitis Vaccination
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Hearing bacterial meningitis mentioned on the evening news can strike fear in any parent, especially if their child is in a high risk setting such as a high school or college dorm. Although rare, this illness can be life threatening, and is particularly alarming because it appears suddenly and can progress rapidly even in healthy children and teenagers.
Modified Herpes Virus Keeps Arteries “Free-flowing” Following Procedures
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A genetically engineered herpes simplex virus, primarily known for causing cold sores, may help keep arteries “free-flowing” in the weeks following angioplasty or stent placement for patients, according to research published early in the online edition of PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America).
Christopher Skelly, MD, assistant professor of vascular surgery at the University of Chicago Medical Center, and the study’s lead author says, “One of the drawbacks of balloon angioplasty to open blocked arteries and the use of stents to keep them open is that arteries sometimes experience aggravation from the procedure. The balloon angioplasty, in addition to opening the artery can lead to smooth muscle cell proliferation, similar to formation of scar tissue, known as neointimal hyperplasia. This scar tissue can restrict blood flow not long after the procedures, leading to a recurrence of symptoms. A significant number of these cases end up requiring further intervention to address this complication.”
Sperm abnormalities seen in male lupus patients
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The prognosis for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), an autoimmune disease that mainly affects women in their reproductive years, has improved recently, prompting a shift toward improving quality of life. For men with SLE, concerns have been raised about their future fertility. However, no studies have been conducted to date on testes function and its relevance to sperm abnormalities in male SLE patients. A new study published in the July 2007 issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism examined gonad function in male SLE patients and found that they have a high frequency of sperm abnormalities associated with reduced testicular volume.
In addition, the study identified intravenous treatment with the immunosuppressant cyclophosphamide (IV CYC) as the major factor in permanent damage to the testes.
Obese people appear better protected from TB
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Elderly people who are obese appear to have a lower risk of falling ill with tuberculosis compared with those who are underweight or of average weight, according to an extensive geriatric study in Hong Kong.
Although obesity has been linked to health problems such as hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, experts notice that among people suffering from the same ailments, those who are overweight tend to outlive those who are thin.
Veterinarians At Increased Risk Of Avian Influenza Virus Infection
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Veterinarians who work with birds are at increased risk for infection with avian influenza virus and should be among those with priority access to pandemic influenza vaccines and antivirals, according to a study conducted by researchers in the University of Iowa College of Public Health.
The investigators, led by Kendall Myers, a doctoral student in occupational and environmental health, and Gregory Gray, M.D., UI professor of epidemiology, examined blood samples from a group of U.S. veterinarians for evidence of previous avian influenza virus infection. The veterinarians all had occupational exposure to live chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese or quail.
Bangladesh launches emergency polio vaccination drive
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Bangladesh began immunizing 2 million children against polio on Sunday in an emergency vaccination drive in a southeastern region close to Myanmar, officials said.
The campaign follows confirmation that a polio-infected child from Myanmar had traveled to Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar for treatment in March.
First ever study predicts outcome for limb-threatening infections in diabetes
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Researchers from the University of Washington, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, Merck Laboratories, and Mount Sinai School of Medicine have released a study suggesting that specific laboratory and clinical tests can predict outcome of antibiotic therapy for infections in persons with diabetes.
“This study is unique in a couple of ways,” said Dr. David G. Armstrong, Professor of Surgery at Scholl’s Center for Lower Extremity Ambulatory Research (CLEAR) at Rosalind Franklin University. “It comes from the largest-ever clinical trial of antibiotics for this type of infection, and it used very specific, day-to-day measures that can be done in any hospital, world wide.”
Malaria in pregnancy: What can the social sciences contribute?
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Most malaria deaths worldwide are in children under 5 years old and pregnant women. While there has been a large amount of social science research on children and malaria, malaria in pregnancy has received little attention from social scientists, say researchers in a policy paper in PLoS Medicine.
Building on existing knowledge from social science research on malaria, Professor Umberto D’Alessandro (Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium) and colleagues propose two models for studying the social science aspects of malaria in pregnancy. One model considers social factors in malaria prevention, and the other in malaria treatment.
Experimental vaccine given during pregnancy reduces stillbirths from common virus
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Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have developed an experimental vaccine that reduces stillbirths among rodents born to mothers infected with cytomegalovirus (CMV) - a common virus that can also cause mental retardation and hearing loss in newborn children who were infected in early fetal life.
Estimates place the number of U.S. children born with CMV each year at about 40,000, and there is no vaccine or treatment for pregnant women who have the infection. In a 2000 report, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences listed as a top priority the development of a vaccine to prevent cytomegalovirus during pregnancy.
Study indicates different treatment may be needed for infection-related breathing problems
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New research suggests that different treatments may be needed for chronic asthma, depending on whether it results from allergies or lung infections.
Previous studies have shown that certain lung infections such as Mycoplasma pneumoniae can linger on and contribute to a person later experiencing symptoms of asthma.
Researchers have now identified a particular gene that influences how severe a M. pneumoniae infection may be, which in turn suggests that a different strategy might be needed for treating asthma resulting from this and similar lung infections rather than allergies.
Babies with viral infection may respond to antibiotic
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Infants with bronchiolitis caused by RSV (respiratory syncytial virus), may benefit from treatment with an antibiotic, according to results of a Turkish study.
Usually occurring in winter, bronchiolitis is the most common respiratory ailment affecting children under two years of age. The virus RSV is the usual cause and treatment has been largely supportive, consisting of supplemental oxygen, intravenous fluids and use of a ventilator if needed. In cases of viral illnesses such as RSV, antibiotics are typically not given.
Battling bacteria in gut may influence weight gain
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Body weight and obesity could be affected not only by what we eat but also by how it is digested in the gut, American scientists said on Wednesday.
They have discovered that levels of two types of good microbes or bacteria in the gut that help to break down foods are different in obese and lean people and mice.
The finding, reported in the science journal Nature, could lead to a better understanding of why some people may be prone to obesity and help find new ways of preventing or treating it.
Antibiotic ear drops favored over popular oral antibiotics for ear infections
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A multicenter study on treating common ear infections in children with ear tubes adds to a growing body of evidence that favors antibiotic ear drops over antibiotics swallowed in pill or liquid form in such cases, a UT Southwestern Medical Center researcher reports.
The latest study, involving 80 children, showed that antibiotic ear drops performed better and faster in treating middle ear infections in children with ear tubes than merely taking oral antibiotics such as swallowing a pill or liquid. The findings are available online in the journal Pediatrics.
10 million people a year are affected by zoonotic viruses spread by non-human hosts
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Doctors and veterinarians need to work together to tackle the increasing global threat of zoonotic viral diseases spread by non-human vertebrate hosts - including dogs, cattle, chickens and mosquitoes - according to a review in the November issue of Journal of Internal Medicine.
An estimated 50 million people acquired zoonotic diseases between 2000 and 2005 and up to 78,000 have died, reports Dr Jonathan Heeney, Chair of the Department of Virology at the Biomedical Primate Research Centre in the Netherlands.
And the diseases responsible for the majority of zoonotic illnesses, and a third of the deaths in the study period, appear to be increasing. This is particularly worrying because there are no effective vaccines for some of the most common zoonotic viruses.
Staph vaccine shows promise in mouse study
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By combining four proteins of Staphylococcus aureus that individually generated the strongest immune response in mice, scientists have created a vaccine that significantly protects the animals from diverse strains of the bacterium that cause disease in humans. A report describing the University of Chicago study, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health, appears online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“This finding represents a promising step toward identifying potential components to combine into a vaccine designed for people at high risk of invasive S. aureus infection,” notes Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., NIAID director.
S. aureus, the most common agent of hospital-acquired infection, is the leading cause of bloodstream, lower respiratory tract and skin infections. These infections can result in a variety of illnesses, including endocarditis (inflammation of the heart), toxic-shock syndrome and food poisoning.
