https://medicalxpress.com/infectious-diseases-news/ en-us Latest medical news and research in Infectious diseases West Nile virus (WNV) is transmitted by mosquitoes and is increasingly relevant for Europe and worldwide. It can cause severe brain infection and death, yet there is no specific antiviral treatment or approved human vaccine. A collaborative study published in Immunity analyzed blood from WNV convalescents in Serbia to understand antibody immune responses and identify protective human monoclonal antibodies with potential to prevent or treat WNV and related orthoflavivirus infections. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-human-antibodies-west-nile-viruses.html Mon, 22 Jun 2026 18:20:08 EDT news701366522 Genital herpes is a lifelong infection. While available treatments can manage symptoms, they cannot cure the infection or prevent transmission. Now, Yale School of Medicine researchers have taken a significant step toward a genital herpes vaccine that—in preclinical models—prevented infection. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-prime-vaccine-genital-herpes.html Mon, 22 Jun 2026 16:40:06 EDT news701362921 Clover Hill Dairy is recalling all of its brand cheese over possible Listeria contamination tied to a multistate outbreak that has killed one person and hospitalized eight others. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-clover-hill-dairy-recalls-cheese.html Mon, 22 Jun 2026 16:20:03 EDT news701362021 Soon after Philadelphia hosted America's bicentennial celebrations in late July 1976, more than 200 attendees of the American Legion Convention at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia fell ill with pneumonia symptoms, including fever, cough and trouble breathing. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-legionnaires-disease-outbreak-years-scientists.html Mon, 22 Jun 2026 10:20:10 EDT news701341562 Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) can cause severe lower respiratory tract infections, particularly in newborns and older adults. How the virus manages to evade the immune system and what changes it triggers in infected cells have not been fully understood. Researchers from TWINCORE, Center for Experimental and Clinical Infection Research, together with interdisciplinary colleagues from Würzburg, Regensburg, Braunschweig and Hannover, have now demonstrated how the virus interferes with the genetic program of respiratory cells, inhibits the immune response and disrupts cell function. They published their findings in the journal Science Advances. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-rsv-immune-response-respiratory-cells.html Mon, 22 Jun 2026 09:20:03 EDT news701337836 Confirmed cases in the Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo have reached 1,003, including 254 deaths, officials said in a statement late Sunday, as tracing those who had been in contact with patients remains a major challenge. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-ebola-cases-congo-outbreak-deaths.html Mon, 22 Jun 2026 04:50:01 EDT news701321970 Most pandemics start when a pathogen spreads from animals to humans. It's a leading explanation for the COVID-19 pandemic: The SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, is a cousin of coronaviruses that live in bats. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-amino-acid-viruses-human.html Sun, 21 Jun 2026 17:00:01 EDT news700822128 When vaccination rates drop—as is the case with adult influenza vaccinations in Canada and child measles vaccinations in British Columbia—the explanation is often that people are "hesitant." https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-dont-people-vaccinated-complicated.html Fri, 19 Jun 2026 08:40:01 EDT news701076121 Almost all the passengers and crew of the cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak who had to quarantine in the Netherlands are now allowed to return home, the WHO chief said Thursday. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-quarantine-hantavirus-ship-passengers-crew.html Fri, 19 Jun 2026 04:30:01 EDT news701060064 A growing Ebola outbreak in Central and East Africa could become the worst on record if infections are not brought under control soon, health officials warned this week. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-ebola-infections-climb-year-health.html Thu, 18 Jun 2026 22:20:01 EDT news701010377 The Oropouche virus outbreak in 2023 drew attention in Brazil and other Latin American countries not only because of its scale—with more than 30,000 cases recorded nationwide—but also because of the first confirmed death in the country caused by the disease and its rapid spread to all states, extending beyond the Amazon region. In light of this situation, the World Health Organization (WHO) expressed concern earlier this year and called for the accelerated development of prevention and control tools against this pathogen, which was virtually unknown until then. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-oropouche-virus-infected-million-people.html Thu, 18 Jun 2026 17:20:06 EDT news701013075 In the current outbreak of Ebola disease caused by Bundibugyo virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as in previous Ebola disease outbreaks in Africa, immediate neighboring countries are most affected when it comes to cross-border spread. As decision-makers outside Africa consider border and travel policies to interrupt pathways for international transmission, researchers have identified and analyzed all known Ebola disease cases outside Africa to assess the risk of undetected Orthoebolavirus transmission outside Africa and to put it into context with possible border and travel policies. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-ebola-global-years-worth.html Thu, 18 Jun 2026 16:40:08 EDT news701013048 There are no vaccines or treatments for the strain of Ebola that has killed more than 200 people in DR Congo and Uganda, but several are being urgently developed in the hope of reining in the outbreak. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-vaccines-treatments-ebola-outbreak.html Thu, 18 Jun 2026 16:20:07 EDT news701012753 The Ebola outbreak in Congo and Uganda has claimed more than 200 lives in its first month and is the worst known outbreak at this stage, with up to 35,000 suspected potential contacts, Africa's Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-ebola-cases-week-death-toll.html Thu, 18 Jun 2026 15:40:09 EDT news701012729 A new kind of flu vaccine moved a step closer to the U.S. market Thursday as federal health advisers recommended approval of the first made with the same mRNA technology that was key to ending the COVID-19 pandemic. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-fda-panel-kind-flu-vaccine.html Thu, 18 Jun 2026 14:46:14 EDT news701012712 A common bacterial strain that lives naturally in people's guts can cause a dangerous or deadly infection for some, especially when it becomes multidrug resistant and causes chronic urinary tract infections (UTIs) in elderly women. But the extent of its effect on the broader population and its prevalence in the community were not well known—until now. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-community-reservoir-drug-resistant-klebsiella.html Thu, 18 Jun 2026 12:00:01 EDT news700998186 A new study published in JAMA Network Open projects that reductions in federal funding for syringe service programs (SSPs) could lead to substantial increases in mortality among people who inject drugs in the United States. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-funding-syringe-thousands-deaths.html Thu, 18 Jun 2026 11:00:05 EDT news700992361 An international clinical trial has identified the optimal antibiotics for golden staph bloodstream infections, a breakthrough set to reshape treatment for the life-threatening condition. The SNAP Trial found that the standard antibiotic, flucloxacillin, should no longer be the drug of choice for treating the infection, revealing that cefazolin and benzylpenicillin offer safer and equally effective alternatives for patients. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-global-clinical-trial-reveals-safest.html Thu, 18 Jun 2026 10:20:06 EDT news700995168 Researchers from Trinity have discovered how two deadly coronaviruses (SARS1 and MERS) outsmart one of our most important antiviral defenses by shutting down parts of the immune system. The findings help explain why certain therapies (using interferon) have performed poorly in past outbreaks and point toward new therapeutic strategies that could matter in future coronavirus emergencies. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-sars-mers-trigger-immune-antiviral.html Thu, 18 Jun 2026 10:20:04 EDT news700994779 With tens of millions of annual cases, gonorrhea is the second most frequently reported sexually transmitted infection (STI). In the U.S. alone, more than 600,000 cases are reported each year. If left untreated, gonorrhea can result in severe reproductive health issues, including infertility in both women and men and pelvic inflammatory disease. The infection also increases the risk of HIV transmission, and—if the pathogen spreads from the genitals or throat to other parts of the body—it can damage the heart and cause meningitis and sepsis. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-ai-screens-million-compounds-uncover.html Thu, 18 Jun 2026 08:40:06 EDT news700988701 A fast-rising strep bacterium has become increasingly notorious for causing serious infections in humans, including complications that can lead to muscle damage and patient death. New Houston Methodist research published in The American Journal of Pathology sheds light on how Streptococcus dysgalactiae subspecies equisimilis (SDSE) causes disease and may provide insights to aid vaccine development. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-strep-unravel-genetics-powering-emerging.html Wed, 17 Jun 2026 18:40:04 EDT news700921203 A University of California, Riverside-led study of more than 3,200 emergency department (ED) patients across the United States found that while awareness of influenza vaccination is widespread, most adults seen in EDs are not up to date on their annual flu vaccine. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-emergency-department-major-gaps-flu.html Wed, 17 Jun 2026 17:20:07 EDT news700920901 The bacteria enterotoxigenic E. coli and Shigella together cause hundreds of millions of infections each year and are among the leading causes of diarrheal death, especially in children. Decades of vaccine development efforts have come up short, in part because the usual vaccine targets vary too much from one strain to the next. Now, new research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis points to a shared biological feature of these gut pathogens that could lead to a vaccine that protects against both. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-exploiting-common-weakness-enzymes-vaccine.html Wed, 17 Jun 2026 16:11:52 EDT news700931486 A multidisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison has identified a promising new therapeutic candidate against Candida auris, an emerging fungal pathogen that has alarmed health officials worldwide because of its ability to resist multiple antifungal drugs and spread rapidly through hospitals and care facilities. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-therapeutic-dangerous-fungal-infections.html Wed, 17 Jun 2026 14:40:08 EDT news700919881 A 16-month-old baby and his mother have recovered from Ebola in eastern Congo, a rare positive development as Africa's top health body warned the outbreak of the deadly virus could become the worst on record if it continues to spread. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-month-mother-recover-ebola-rare.html Wed, 17 Jun 2026 12:00:04 EDT news700915085 Pneumonia remains the leading infectious cause of death among children under 5 worldwide, claiming almost 1 million lives each year. Researchers at University College Dublin have developed an artificial intelligence tool that can more accurately identify young children with pneumonia at serious risk of needing hospital treatment. Found to significantly outperform existing risk assessment methods used to identify children who require urgent referral to the hospital, the BIOTOPE algorithm has the potential to save lives in low-resource health care settings. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-ai-tool-outperforms-methods-severe.html Wed, 17 Jun 2026 11:35:14 EDT news700914716 Whenever Ebola comes, some of the afflicted choose the road to the nearest hospital. Others take the path to the shrine of a traditional healer, often with devastating consequences. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-africa-ebola-outbreaks-complicated-victims.html Wed, 17 Jun 2026 04:06:00 EDT news700887907 Federal health officials are mobilizing against the New World screwworm, a flesh-eating parasite recently detected in animals in the southwest United States. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-cdc-fda-tackle-world-screwworm.html Tue, 16 Jun 2026 14:00:05 EDT news700835003 What do hurricanes, military equipment, aromatherapy oil and a pet raccoon have in common? According to a new review led by Menzies School of Health Research (Menzies), all have been linked with cases of melioidosis, a potentially fatal disease caused by the bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei, as part of tracking the global spread of the disease. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-unmasking-melioidosis-collaborative-alarming-global.html Tue, 16 Jun 2026 13:00:04 EDT news700831141 The deadly Ebola outbreak in the DR Congo has yet to peak and could take a year to contain, the Red Cross warned Tuesday, amid mounting warnings of dangerous gaps in the response. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-dr-congo-ebola-outbreak-peak.html Tue, 16 Jun 2026 11:00:03 EDT news700824505