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Infectious diseases news

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.

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 ...

Trial shows specialist long COVID care may reduce fatigue

The largest clinical trial of long COVID care to date has found that specialist NHS long COVID services may help reduce fatigue, one of the condition's most common and disabling symptoms. The findings, published in Nature ...

The lightbulb moment behind a potential antiviral breakthrough

An unexpected observation by a University of Queensland researcher could lead to a new treatment for deadly infectious diseases including COVID‑19, pneumonia in infants and children, or viral infections caused by Ebola and ...

Targeted school closures can improve pandemic response

New research led by UMC Utrecht shows that school closures during a pandemic outbreak are most effective when carefully targeted. The study, published in Nature Communications, demonstrates that the right strategy depends ...

How US HIV funding cuts quickly affected care in East Africa

The U.S. government's withdrawal of funding for global HIV programs in January 2025 sharply reduced the number of people entering HIV care across East Africa within weeks, according to findings led by UC San Francisco researchers.

Hepatitis E: The underestimated risk in liver cirrhosis

Infections with the hepatitis E virus (HEV) are the most common cause of acute viral hepatitis worldwide. In healthy people, they usually resolve without the person even noticing. For people with preexisting liver damage, ...

Dengue virus can infect immune cells meant to fight disease

Researchers at the University of Vermont's Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine and Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York, have discovered that dengue virus can infect and replicate inside memory B cells, immune ...