Last update:

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 ...

Candida on urinary catheters can be more than contamination, patient samples suggest

Relying on a urinary catheter is a standard part of medical care for hundreds of thousands of patients each year. Unfortunately, the device carries the risk of catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs), for which ...

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 ...

Q&A: Rise in cyclosporiasis cases

Cyclosporiasis is a gastrointestinal illness caused by the microscopic parasite Cyclospora. People contract cyclosporiasis by consuming food or water contaminated with feces containing Cyclospora parasites. Health officials ...

New clues raise hopes for better treatment of RSV in babies

Future therapies for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) must target both the virus and the immune response to ensure babies get the best possible outcomes, a new study by researchers at UCL and Great Ormond Street Hospital ...

Another tick-borne disease to avoid: Anaplasmosis in Canada

Move over, Lyme disease—there's another tick-borne disease to worry about in Canada. Anaplasmosis, the second-most common tick-borne disease in the country, can cause a range of health issues, including myocarditis, as a ...

Hepatitis E viruses mutate early during infection

Knowing how viruses change in the initial weeks of an infection can provide important information about their adaptability. Researchers from the Departments of Molecular & Medical Virology and Translational & Computational ...

High fever could temporarily reduce malaria transmission

The fever experienced by people with malaria exposes parasites to high temperatures within blood cells. This heat can lead to the accumulation of damaged proteins inside the parasite and trigger protective mechanisms against ...

Ebola outbreak is 'fastest growing ever' as 600 die

The Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo is the "fastest-growing" ever, African health authorities said Thursday, as the World Health Organization said it had killed 600 people.