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Infectious diseases news

New RNA vaccine strategy aims to build broader immunity against mutating viruses

New research by Malaghan's Connor Laboratory, published in PNAS, shows how directing the immune system toward conserved areas of the COVID virus and its many variants using RNA technology could be a significant step toward ...

A doctor's take: Cyclospora or Salmonella? The key differences and how to protect yourself

Recent outbreaks of foodborne illness, like the cyclosporiasis cases that have led to hundreds of illnesses, two deaths and produce recalls in several states, remind us that food safety is an ongoing concern.

Early trials for 'common cold' vaccine offer encouraging signs

A vaccine designed to protect against rhinoviruses, which cause the great majority of common colds and exacerbate chronic respiratory illnesses, has shown encouraging early results in a phase 1 clinical trial. Initial findings ...

Egyptian group developing Ebola vaccine

An Egyptian pharmaceutical firm is developing a potential vaccine against the deadly Ebola strain raging in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), it announced Thursday.

WHO declares Uganda Ebola-free

Uganda was declared officially Ebola-free by the World Health Organization on Thursday after 42 days without a new case.

New approach cuts sepsis diagnosis from days to hours

Sepsis, a life-threatening condition that stems from the body trying to fight off an infection, plagues more than 1.5 million patients a year in the U.S. alone, with one in three deaths recorded in hospitals attributed in ...

How pregnancy itself drives deadly hepatitis E outcomes

Researchers have uncovered a biological mechanism that helps explain why hepatitis E virus infections can be especially severe—and often fatal—during pregnancy, finding that normal pregnancy-related hormonal changes inadvertently ...

Wastewater may offer an early warning of pertussis outbreaks

Pertussis, or whooping cough, continues to cause periodic outbreaks worldwide and can be especially dangerous for infants who have not completed vaccination. Yet conventional surveillance depends on people seeking medical ...

Congo's Ebola outbreak has killed nearly 1,000 people

At least 999 people have died from the Ebola outbreak in Congo, according to official data published overnight into Wednesday, a grim toll in what's already been declared the fastest Ebola outbreak in history, as conflict, ...

India approves first dengue vaccine

India has approved its first dengue vaccine, authorizing the use of Japanese drugmaker Takeda's Qdenga jab, the Health Ministry said Tuesday.

Last-line antibiotics at risk as children's resistance rises

Antimicrobial resistance in children is rising globally and will worsen over the next decade, threatening the effectiveness of life-saving antibiotics, according to the world's first monitoring platform. The study, led by ...

Long non-coding RNA emerges as a 'kill switch' for macrophages

Macrophages are considered the "scavenger cells" of the immune system, but some pathogens exploit these very cells as hiding places. Researchers from the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) in Würzburg ...

Pandemic treaty talks roll on into September

Countries failed to find a breakthrough after a seventh round of talks aimed at finalizing the missing piece of a pandemic treaty, the World Health Organization said Monday.

Drug-resistant gonorrhea on the rise in Europe, ECDC warns

Alongside growing evidence of the domestic spread of such resistant strains in Europe over the past two years, this poses a significant challenge for future treatment options for one of the most common sexually transmitted ...