http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. (Medical Xpress)—Vaccines that employ weakened but live pathogens to trigger immune responses have inherent safety issues but Yale researchers have developed a new trick to circumvent the problem—using bacteria's own cellular mistakes to deliver a safe vaccine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-bacteria-safer-vaccine.html Medical research Wed, 13 Mar 2013 07:50:01 EST news282379385 Chickens are vulnerable to a range of infectious diseases similar to those found in humans. Fowl typhoid is a widespread and devastating illness, particularly in the developing world, where the birds are a vital source of income and nutrition. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-experimental-vaccine-poultry.html Medical research Tue, 19 Feb 2013 09:45:03 EST news280489492 The innate immune system detects invasive pathogens and activates defense mechanisms to eliminate them. Pathogens, however, employ a variety of tricks to block this process. A new study shows how the measles virus thwarts the system, by means of a simple hairpin-like structure. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-immune-foiled-hairpin.html Immunology Tue, 22 Jan 2013 05:58:00 EST news278056670 Scientists at the Academy of Finland's Centre of Excellence in Computational Inference Research have developed novel computational methods that have yielded essential knowledge of how hospital-acquired bacteria spread and develop. These new methods, based on randomised algorithms, make it possible to analyse extensive genomic data significantly faster and more efficiently than previously. By applying these results, it is possible to better follow hospital-acquired infections in the future, or even fight them in real time. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-methods-reveal-hospital-acquired-bacteria.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 16 Jan 2013 10:14:29 EST news277553501 (Medical Xpress)—Scientists at the University of Liverpool have identified the origin of an epidemic strain of Clostridium difficile (027) and its mode of spread using tagging genetic signatures in the DNA of bacteria, some of them associated with its increased virulence. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-scientists-bacterial-strain-severe-clostridium.html Genetics Fri, 21 Dec 2012 07:00:04 EST news275294448 In 2010, 35 people in Greece died from a West Nile virus (WNV) outbreak, with a further 262 laboratory-confirmed human cases. A new article published in BioMedCentral's open access journal Virology Journal examines whether wild or migratory birds could have been responsible for importing and amplifying the deadly virus. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-wild-birds-deadly-west-nile.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Sun, 11 Nov 2012 20:00:01 EST news271871413 Exposure to cigarette smoke has long been associated with increased frequency of respiratory infections—which are harder to treat in smoke-exposed people than in those who lack such exposures. Now Ritwij Kulkarni of Columbia University, New York, NY, and colleagues show that cigarette smoke actually boosts virulence of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria. Their study appears in the November 2012 issue of the journal Infection and Immunity. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-cigarette-boosts-virulence-staphylococcus-aureus.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 08 Nov 2012 15:45:02 EST news271611884 Prevalence of a particularly dangerous form of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) jumped three-fold in just two years, in hospitals in the United Kingdom, according to a paper in the October 2012 Journal of Clinical Microbiology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-dangerous-mrsa-endemic-hospitals-uk.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 23 Oct 2012 09:40:02 EST news270203384 (HealthDay)—A new report shows that a deadly swine flu virus can infect ferrets, highlighting the importance of continuous surveillance of emerging flu strains. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-powerful-swine-flu-strain-korea.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 10 Sep 2012 18:00:01 EST news266517454 (Medical Xpress)—With almost 1,600 cases of West Nile Virus and 66 mortalities reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) nationwide, officials are calling the recent West Nile virus outbreak the largest ever seen in the United States. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-texas-tech-cites-complacency-apathy.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 03 Sep 2012 10:02:51 EST news265885357 (HealthDay) -- The incidence of community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) in the United States is increasing and is associated with follicular infection, most commonly folliculitis followed by furunculosis, according to a review published online July 16 in the British Journal of Dermatology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-mrsa-skin-infections-linked-furunculosis.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Fri, 27 Jul 2012 15:30:01 EST news262620927 A new monitoring approach developed by researchers from The Miriam Hospital could close a major gap by providing the ability to track whether HIV-positive prisoners are getting the community-based HIV care they need once they are released. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-approach-track-prisoners-access-hiv.html HIV & AIDS Mon, 09 Jul 2012 13:14:48 EST news261058477 Antivirulence drugs disarm pathogens rather than kill them, and although they could be effective in theory, antivirulence drugs have never been tested in humans. A new study to be published in the online journal mBio on Tuesday, October 18 reveals these drugs have the potential to fight infection while avoiding the pitfalls of drug resistance. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-antivirulence-drugs-infections-resistance.html Medical research Mon, 10 Oct 2011 17:29:01 EST news237486525 Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have discovered a way to block the damaging actions of Chlamydia, the bacteria responsible for the largest number of sexually transmitted infections in the United States. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-newly-molecule-blocks-chlamydia-bacteria.html Medical research Wed, 20 Jul 2011 12:33:42 EST news230384010 On July 8, at approximately 11:26 a.m. EDT, the space shuttle Atlantis will streak skyward from the Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39A, for one last mission. While the STS-135 flight marks the end of the space shuttle's glory days, its final trip may open a new era of research into infectious diseases, thanks to space bound experiments conducted by Dr's. Cheryl Nickerson, and Roy Curtiss III, along with their colleagues at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-countdown-atlantis-next-generation-vaccine-candidate.html Medical research Wed, 06 Jul 2011 13:25:37 EST news229177488 Professor Bill Keevil, Head of the Microbiology Group and Director of the Environmental Healthcare Unit at the University of Southampton, has presented research into the mechanism by which copper exerts its antimicrobial effect on antibiotic-resistant organisms at the World Health Organization's first International Conference on Prevention and Infection Control (ICPIC). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-copper-infection-percent.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Fri, 01 Jul 2011 10:39:08 EST news228735533 A powerful new class of therapeutics, known as recombinant attenuated Salmonella vaccines (RASV), holds great potential in the fight against fatal diseases including hepatitis B, tuberculosis, cholera, typhoid fever, AIDS and pneumonia. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-salmonella-based-vaccines-aid-infectious-disease.html Medical research Wed, 29 Jun 2011 12:48:50 EST news228570514