http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. German scientists at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Labor Berlin GmbH have succeeded in clarifying the molecular signature of the viruses that lead to an increasing size and number of hantavirus outbreaks in Germany. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-molecular-signature-hantavirus-infection-humans.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 03 Sep 2012 11:00:02 EST news265887125 Researchers have successfully tested in monkeys a vaccine against Nipah virus, a human pathogen that emerged in 1998 during a large outbreak of infection and disease among pigs and pig farmers in Southeast Asia. This latest advance builds upon earlier work by the scientists, who found that the same vaccine can protect cats from Nipah virus and ferrets and horses from the closely related Hendra virus. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-vaccine-successfully-monkeys-nipah-virus.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 08 Aug 2012 14:00:01 EST news263648470 Just as the globalization of trade and travel is rapidly evolving, so is the globalization of infectious diseases and the need for cooperative approaches to detect, prevent and control them, according to Dr. David Dausey, chair of the Mercyhurst University Public Health Department. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-focuses-sustainability-infectious-disease-surveillance.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 17 Jul 2012 13:37:47 EST news261751062 Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or "mad cow disease") is a fatal disease in cattle that causes portions of the brain to turn sponge-like. This transmissible disease is caused by the propagation of a misfolded form of protein known as a prion, rather than by a bacterium or virus. The average time from infection to signs of illness is about 60 months. Little is known about the pathogenesis of BSE in the early incubation period. Previous research has reported that the autonomic nervous system (ANS) becomes affected by the disease only after the central nervous system (CNS) has been infected. In a new study published online in the August issue of The American Journal of Pathology, researchers found that the ANS can show signs of infection prior to involvement of the CNS. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-mad-cow-disease-cattle-widely.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 09 Jul 2012 00:00:03 EST news260951632 (HealthDay) -- Although the plague is typically considered a remnant of the Middle Ages, when unsanitary conditions and rodent infestations prevailed amid the squalor of poverty, this rare but deadly disease appears to be spreading through wealthier communities in New Mexico, researchers report. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-plague-rare-surfacing-affluent-areas.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 13 Jun 2012 18:34:13 EST news258829959 Response efforts to outbreaks of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in Africa can benefit from a standardized sampling strategy that focuses on the carcasses of gorillas, chimpanzees and other species known to succumb to the virus, according to a consortium of wildlife health experts. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-health-experts-narrow-ebola.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 16 May 2012 13:39:09 EST news256394176 A bacterium historically associated with cat scratch fever and transmitted predominately by fleas may also play a role in human rheumatoid illnesses such as arthritis, according to new research from North Carolina State University. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-bartonella-infection-rheumatoid-illnesses-humans.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 23 Apr 2012 12:47:05 EST news254403987 In the spring of 1835, Charles Darwin was bitten in Argentina by a "great wingless black bug," he wrote in his diary. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-climate-chagas-disease.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 15 Mar 2012 14:01:43 EST news251038868 Foodborne disease outbreaks caused by imported food appeared to rise in 2009 and 2010, and nearly half of the outbreaks implicated foods imported from areas which previously had not been associated with outbreaks, according to research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, presented today at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases in Atlanta. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-cdc-outbreaks-linked-imported-foods.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 14 Mar 2012 16:24:28 EST news250961060 The number of people who died from gastroenteritis (inflammation of the stomach and intestines that causes vomiting and diarrhea) more than doubled from 1999 to 2007. The findings of this study will be presented today at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases in Atlanta. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-deaths-gastroenteritis.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 14 Mar 2012 16:18:31 EST news250960704 Smartphones are showing promise in disease surveillance in the developing world. The Kenya Ministry of Health, along with researchers in Kenya for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that smartphone use was cheaper than traditional paper survey methods to gather disease information, after the initial set-up cost. Survey data collected with smartphones also in this study had fewer errors and were more quickly available for analyses than data collected on paper, according to a study presented today at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases in Atlanta. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-smartphones-accurate-faster-cheaper-disease.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 12 Mar 2012 15:50:01 EST news250779152 (HealthDay) -- About one in four cases of tuberculosis in the United States can be attributed to recent transmission, with groups such as men and persons born in the United States at higher risk, according to a study published in the March issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-tuberculosis-cases-due-transmission.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:50:02 EST news250517799 More than 70 years after the first sulfa drugs helped to revolutionize medical care and save millions of lives, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists have determined at an atomic level the mechanism these medications use to kill bacteria. The discovery provides the basis for a new generation of antibiotics that would likely be harder for bacteria to resist and cause fewer side effects. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-mystery-sulfa-drugs-bacteria-yields.html Medical research Thu, 01 Mar 2012 15:10:41 EST news249837022 Urinary tract infections are common conditions that occur when bacteria from the intestines enter the urinary tract. New research, however, suggests that the bacteria causing these infections may come from contaminated food - especially chickens. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-urinary-tract-infections-linked-contaminated.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 20 Feb 2012 12:10:45 EST news248962227 A new map pinpoints well-defined areas of the Eastern United States where humans have the highest risk of contracting Lyme disease, one of the most rapidly emerging infectious diseases in North America, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As part of the most extensive Lyme-related field study ever undertaken, researchers found high infection risk confined mainly to the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Upper Midwest and low risk in the South. The results were published in the February issue of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Given frequent over- and under-diagnosis of Lyme disease, the new map could arm the public and health officials with critical information on actual local risk. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-areas-highest-human-lyme-disease.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:23:38 EST news247339410 A commonly held theory says that flu virus originates every year in Southeast and Eastern Asia, making this region the source of seasonal flu epidemics in other parts of the world. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-tropical-areas-arent-source-seasonal.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 14 Nov 2011 15:00:03 EST news240490782 Researchers in the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech have identified the first strains of hepatitis E virus from farmed rabbits in the United States. It is unknown whether the virus can spread from rabbits to humans. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-veterinary-strains-hepatitis-virus-rabbits.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 25 Oct 2011 12:49:50 EST news238765779 (Medical Xpress) -- Yale School of Public Health researchers in collaboration with Russian scientists have discovered a new tick-borne bacterium that might be causing disease in the United States and elsewhere. Their findings appear in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-tick-borne-disease.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 20 Sep 2011 15:22:01 EST news235749919 The September issue of the online scientific journal Acta Crystallographica: Structural Biology and Crystallization Communications (Acta Cryst F) will consist entirely of work done at the Seattle Structural Genomics Center for Infectious Disease (SSGCID), a consortium of researchers from Seattle BioMed, Emerald BioStructures, the University of Washington and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). This free online edition features 30 peer-reviewed manuscripts, describing 40 unique infectious disease protein structures, as well as high-throughput gene-to-structure methodologies developed by SSGCID, and marks only the second time that Acta Cryst F has dedicated an entire issue to a single Structural Genomics center. The elucidation of such a large number of protein structures, all of which are freely available to scientific researchers to study and compare, provides a highly detailed "blueprint" for fighting infectious disease and bioterrorism. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-genomics-blueprint-infectious-disease-biodefense.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 01 Sep 2011 13:42:33 EST news234103328 A new study of children's hospitals nationwide has found them underequipped to handle a major surge of patients in the event of a pandemic, and urges health care institutions and government agencies to immediately review emergency preparedness plans as flu season approaches. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-children-hospitals-equipped-pandemics.html Health Tue, 23 Aug 2011 12:27:12 EST news233321133 Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) have identified the oncoprotein that allows a common and usually harmless virus to transform healthy cells into a rare but deadly skin cancer called Merkel Cell Carcinoma (MCC). Their findings, published today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, could improve diagnosis for MCC and may help in understanding how other cancers arise. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-cancer-key-oncoprotein-merkel-cell.html Cancer Mon, 15 Aug 2011 13:09:17 EST news232632109 Researchers have developed a new candidate vaccine to protect against chikungunya virus, a mosquito-borne pathogen that produces an intensely painful and often chronic arthritic disease that has stricken millions of people in India, Southeast Asia and Africa. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-experimental-vaccine-chikungunya-virus.html Medications Fri, 12 Aug 2011 12:13:54 EST news232370010 A computerized epidemiological model of the spread of the mosquito-borne West Nile virus in 17 counties of California in 2005 successfully predicted where 81.6 percent of human cases of the disease would arise and defined high-risk areas where the risk of infection turned out to be 39 times higher than in low-risk areas, according to newly published research. The DYCAST software used in those predictions is now open-source and is being applied to other diseases. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-software-california-west-nile-virus.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 11 Aug 2011 16:42:15 EST news232299672 (PhysOrg.com) -- Google searches are apparently providing much more important information than just a typical search for a local restaurant or research for a term paper. Google trends are also providing much more information than just the ‘top celebrity gossip’ and news searches. According to a paper published in the June issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases, epidemiologist Diane Lauderdale of the University of Chicago show how Google searches and trends could be used to better track the spread of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-mrsa-tracked-google-patterns.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 23 May 2011 07:00:01 EST news225343726 Mast cells, which can help the body respond to bacteria and pathogens, also apparently sound the alarm around viruses delivered by a mosquito bite, according to researchers at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-cell-dengue-virus.html Medical research Mon, 16 May 2011 15:00:13 EST news224770099 A new strain of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria associated with exposure to livestock was recently discovered in one Iowa child care worker who reported no contact with livestock, according to University of Iowa researchers. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-livestock-related-staph-strain-child-worker.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Fri, 06 May 2011 13:35:59 EST news223907720 (PhysOrg.com) -- Little did Brian Foy know that when he came home from a scientific research trip and had sex with his wife that that sexual act would create virological history. A study just released in Emerging Infectious Diseases presents the case of probable sexual transmission of the Zika virus. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-04-sexual-transmission-insect-born-virus.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 07 Apr 2011 12:51:35 EST news221399472