https://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Imagine going to the hospital for a bacterial ear infection and hearing your doctor say, "We're out of options." It may sound dramatic, but antibiotic resistance is pushing that scenario closer to becoming reality for an increasing number of people. In 2016, a woman from Nevada died from a bacterial infection that was resistant to all 26 antibiotics that were available in the United States at that time. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-antibiotic-resistance-undo-century-medical.html Wed, 21 Jan 2026 12:53:57 EST news688222381 During the COVID-19 pandemic, disinfectants became our shield. Hand sanitizers, disinfectant wipes and antimicrobial sprays became part of daily life. They made us feel safe. Today, they are still everywhere: in homes, hospitals and public spaces. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12-everyday-chemicals-global-consequences-disinfectants.html Mon, 22 Dec 2025 14:52:33 EST news685637521 Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed a method for diagnosing urinary tract infections that significantly accelerates antibiotic resistance testing in urine. Because the procedure does not require labor-intensive pre-cultivation of bacteria—as is standard practice—results on antibiotic effectiveness are available one day earlier. Conventional laboratory analyses require two to three days. The new approach provides the foundation for a home-use rapid test. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12-method-resistance-urinary-tract-infections.html Tue, 16 Dec 2025 18:50:01 EST news685108593 Treatment with intravenous (IV) iron significantly improved survival and increased hemoglobin levels in patients with iron-deficiency anemia who were hospitalized for an acute bacterial infection, according to an analysis of data from more than 85,000 patients. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12-iv-iron-survival-hemoglobin-patients.html Mon, 08 Dec 2025 06:30:20 EST news684397802 Bacterial infections can spread quickly, especially in hospital settings or crowded communities, where vulnerable people are treated in close proximity and bacteria move between them. Antimicrobial-resistant infections are a growing threat, with over 1 million deaths attributable to AMR annually. Outbreaks caused by resistant strains can be difficult to control and treat. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-11-genomic-analysis-tool-aids-scotland.html Wed, 19 Nov 2025 19:30:01 EST news682766911 Patients often push their doctors to prescribe antibiotics unnecessarily, increasing bacterial resistance. More trust in patients could help here. This is the surprising outcome of a study supported by the SNSF. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-08-role-doctors-patients-antibiotic-prescriptions.html Tue, 26 Aug 2025 14:10:01 EDT news675436035 Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest health threats we face today. It's often blamed on the overuse of antibiotics, and for a good reason. But there's another major factor quietly driving this crisis that doesn't get as much attention: low vaccination rates. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-07-falling-vaccination-fueling-antibiotic-resistance.html Tue, 22 Jul 2025 13:20:01 EDT news672408366 Imagine two people talking over a walkie-talkie set. Successful communication depends on them being tuned to the same frequency. If others try to communicate nearby, interference can occur, and important messages may be lost. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-07-bacteria-cows-results-mrsa-infections.html Wed, 16 Jul 2025 10:30:05 EDT news671878668 Cleveland Clinic researchers are working to improve the way we use evolutionary modeling to understand drug resistance. The study, published in Science Advances, uses a new type of evolutionary model called a "fitness seascape" to incorporate a patient's dosage schedule into models that predict whether an infection will develop antibiotic resistance, and has found that inconsistent timing and missing early doses can lead to treatment failure. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-06-evolutionary-antibiotic-resistance-reveals-dose.html Fri, 13 Jun 2025 14:10:02 EDT news669040556 Researchers at the Ragon Institute have made a significant discovery about how antibodies can directly enhance the body's ability to fight Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the bacteria responsible for tuberculosis (TB). Despite decades of research, TB remains one of the deadliest infectious diseases worldwide, with about 10 million new cases and 1.6 million deaths annually. Currently, there is no highly effective vaccine, highlighting the urgent need for new insights and treatments. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-05-antibody-mechanism-tuberculosis-treatment-options.html Fri, 30 May 2025 13:01:29 EDT news667828886 Stanford University researchers report that ciprofloxacin use drives persistent antibiotic resistance in human gut bacteria, with resistance emerging independently across diverse species and enduring for over 10 weeks. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-04-short-term-antibiotic-linked-resistance.html Fri, 25 Apr 2025 07:40:03 EDT news664776284 Emerging drug-resistant strains are posing significant challenges to the global fight against tuberculosis (TB) and it is a critical task to detect treatment failure as early as possible. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-01-molecular-bacterial-assay-method-effectiveness.html Thu, 30 Jan 2025 16:32:04 EST news657477121 The war in Gaza will leave its mark in many ways, long after the recently negotiated ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-01-blast-wound-chaos-war-deadly.html Thu, 23 Jan 2025 10:52:54 EST news656851968 Antimicrobial peptides derived from a crab and a spider may provide the pathway to overcoming drug resistance in advanced melanoma. QUT researchers based at Brisbane's Translational Research Institute (TRI) have modified the peptides from the Brazilian tarantula and the Japanese horseshoe crab and found they can kill samples of melanoma cells derived from a cancer model in mice that are resistant to other cancer therapies. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-12-horseshoe-crab-tarantula-derived-peptides.html Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:45:03 EST news653586301 Antimicrobial resistance happens when bacteria and other microbes that can cause infections gain the ability to resist treatment by antibiotics or other antimicrobial medicines. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-11-country-drug-resistant-bacteria-hospital.html Thu, 21 Nov 2024 04:48:19 EST news651386892 In his recent doctoral thesis, defended at the University of Helsinki, Matej Zore investigated two drugs, fingolimod and etrasimod—initially developed to treat autoimmune diseases—for their potential to fight drug-resistant bacterial infections. Both drugs showed notable antibacterial effects, including against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE). https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-11-drugs-combat-antimicrobial-resistance.html Mon, 18 Nov 2024 16:39:15 EST news651170347 Scientists from the University of Leicester have discovered that tuberculosis disrupts glucose metabolism in the body. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-10-tuberculosis-liver-metabolism-diabetes.html Mon, 21 Oct 2024 13:21:04 EDT news648735661 Artificial intelligence and non-antibiotic therapeutic approaches could play a role in tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR), according to new research. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-09-tackling-antimicrobial-resistance-antibiotic-therapeutic.html Mon, 23 Sep 2024 12:00:26 EDT news646311619 A lack of detailed record-keeping in clinics and emergency departments may be getting in the way of reducing the inappropriate use of antibiotics, a pair of new studies by a pair of University of Michigan physicians and their colleagues suggests. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-05-medical-antibiotic-overuse.html Sat, 18 May 2024 02:14:26 EDT news635217255 Cleveland Clinic researchers developed an artificial intelligence (AI) model that can determine the best combination and timeline to use when prescribing drugs to treat a bacterial infection, based solely on how quickly the bacteria grow given certain perturbations. A team led by Jacob Scott, MD, Ph.D., and his lab in the Theory Division of Translational Hematology and Oncology, recently published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-04-ai-treatments-superbugs.html Wed, 24 Apr 2024 13:32:03 EDT news633184322 The fascinating human gut bacterium Ruminococcus bromii is one of the ten most common bacterial species found in the colon. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-03-gut-microbiome-ruminococcus-bromii-microbe.html Wed, 27 Mar 2024 06:44:55 EDT news630740689 A new collaborative study discloses the discovery and application of a new therapeutic strategy to target the multidrug-resistant bacterium Salmonella enterica in vivo, with promising results. The results were published in Scientific Reports. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-03-dual-therapeutic-strategy-multidrug-resistant.html Thu, 07 Mar 2024 12:22:10 EST news629036528 Degenerative arthritis is no longer exclusive to the elderly population. According to the National Health Insurance Service report covering the years from 2012 to 2022, there has been a 22.8% increase in the prevalence of degenerative arthritis among people in their 20s and 30s. This rise is attributed to prolonged periods of desk sitting and the excessive lifting of heavy sports equipment, both of which can lead to significant cartilage damage. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-03-implant-coating-triggers-antibiotic-response.html Tue, 05 Mar 2024 09:13:03 EST news628852382 Once known as consumption, the disease that killed Eleanor Roosevelt, Frederic Chopin and all five of the sisters Bronte, tuberculosis is often viewed as a bygone threat. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-01-tb-cases-california-decades-decline.html Wed, 31 Jan 2024 07:31:22 EST news625908674 In a new study, researchers at the University of Chicago were able to predict postoperative infections in liver transplant patients by analyzing molecules in their poop. Their analysis represents a key leap forward in exploring the connection between the gut microbiome—the bacteria that inhabit the human body—and overall health. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-12-microbiome-insights-poop-infections-liver.html Sat, 16 Dec 2023 06:28:24 EST news621930498 Antibiotic resistance occurs when a microorganism changes and no longer responds to an antibiotic that was previously effective. It's associated with poorer outcomes, a greater chance of death and higher health-care costs. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-11-antibiotics-curbing-drug-resistant-bacteria.html Wed, 29 Nov 2023 12:12:04 EST news620482321 Some strains of heavily antibiotic-resistant bacteria in Ghana are not successful at spreading outside of the hospital, suggesting that control measures can be focused on clinical settings to help curb treatment-resistant infections. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-10-team-antibiotic-resistant-bacteria-ghana.html Mon, 16 Oct 2023 18:30:01 EDT news616689019 Low levels of commonly used biocides, such as disinfectants and antiseptics, may increase antibiotic tolerance in Acinetobacter baumannii, a multi-drug resistant, hospital-acquired pathogen that causes serious wound, bloodstream and lung infections. This bacterium is known to cause infections in the blood, urinary tract and lungs (pneumonia), or in wounds in other parts of the body. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-10-disinfectants-antiseptics-antibiotic-resistance-hospital-acquired.html Tue, 10 Oct 2023 09:55:02 EDT news616150498 Feces from endangered animals could be the source of a potential new treatment for the infectious bacteria that cause diabetic foot ulcers, researchers from the University of Sheffield have found. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-09-endangered-species-feces-diabetic-ulcers.html Fri, 22 Sep 2023 10:34:27 EDT news614597661 To understand the main determinants behind worldwide antibiotic resistance dynamics, scientists from the Institut Pasteur, Inserm, Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines and Université Paris-Saclay developed a statistical model based on a large-scale spatial-temporal analysis. Using the ATLAS antimicrobial resistance surveillance database, the model revealed significant differences in trends and associated factors depending on bacterial species and resistance to certain antibiotics. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-07-global-overview-antibiotic-resistance.html Tue, 18 Jul 2023 12:56:04 EDT news608903761