Emerging Infectious Diseases
The United States is part of the international plan to prevent the naturally occurring, accidental or deliberate spread of infectious diseases, but remains among many countries hampered by the inadequate or underprepared systems around the world that can’t effectively deal with rapidly emerging... Read More »
Researchers from Sahlgrenska Academy in Sweden are exploring the possibilities of a drinkable antidote to address cholera.
The work of the scientists published in PLOS Pathogens and ACS Infectious Disease showed how the drinkable protection is distributed during an ongoing cholera epidemic to... Read More »
An outbreak of yellow fever is ravaging Brazil, driven by mosquitoes that are now reaching popular tourist destinations typically removed from such outbreaks, and prompting a warning call from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The CDC warns that travelers should be... Read More »
A pair of clinical trials sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) will test an experimental vaccine to prevent influenza caused by an H7N9 influenza virus.
Officials said the Phase 2 studies would test different dosages of the inactivated influenza vaccine... Read More »
A study published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases highlighted a 50 percent lower mortality rate in patients with drug-resistant infections who see infectious diseases (ID) specialists compared with those who do not.
The study was single-center and retrospective, focusing on records from 2006... Read More »
Responding to the public health emergency over Zika, labs at Inserm and REACting set about studies of the fetal and neonatal complications linked to the disease and, in the process, have determined a 7 percent rate of neurological abnormalities.
While this figure is significantly lower than... Read More »
Scientists at the Center for Sepsis Control and Care at the University Hospital Jena and Friedrich Schiller University are currently developing a new, rapid test of antibiotic resistance.
Existing diagnostics for such infections can take up to 72 hours to get results. Time can be a crucial... Read More »
In a recent study published in the journal Human Gene Therapy, researchers put the effectiveness of ZMapp antibodies on display and found they could achieve 100 percent protection against Ebola infection in mice.
To test this, scientists administered both individual ZMapp antibodies and greater... Read More »
A pair of scientists recently put out a call for tuberculosis (TB) research to step up its game and achieve the same sort of advances that HIV/AIDS research has reached since its recognition.
Publishing their perspective in The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, authors Anthony... Read More »
Researchers maintain monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) may play a critical role in future battles against emerging infectious disease outbreaks.
Work of scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) published in the New England Journal of Medicine outlined potential... Read More »
Using a DNA editor system, scientists from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Malaria Research Institute determined that malaria could potentially be combated by removal of a single gene from mosquitoes.
"Our study shows that we can use this new CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing... Read More »
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agriculture specialists at Washington Dulles International Airport (Dulles) and Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) recently intercepted Khapra beetles, one of the world’s most destructive insect pests, in passenger... Read More »
Researchers from the University of Guelph have turned to an antibody-based therapy they say could both help prevent and treat otherwise deadly Ebola infections.
The method in question is a new way of delivering antibodies, discovered by professor Sarah Wootton of the university’s Department of... Read More »
Brazilian researchers have determined that Yellow Fever may have been underestimated, with a patient who survived the disease still showing signs of it nearly a month after infection.
Previously, scientists operated on the idea that yellow fever had a transmissibility period that roughly... Read More »
Advances in medicine have meant many lives saved over the years, but it also has led to weakened immune systems that would leave people vulnerable to the resurrection of an older, incredibly deadly disease: smallpox.
Professor Raina MacIntyre of the University of New South Wales (UNSW) is... Read More »
Researchers at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) recently published a study that found that the United States is unprepared for the surge in pediatric patients that an infectious disease pandemic could cause.
The paper, which was published in the American Journal of Disaster Medicine,... Read More »
Lassa Fever has broken out in Nigeria, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), with 1081 suspected cases spread across 18 states.
Among these, 72 deaths have been confirmed as linked to the fever, though as many as 90 may have actually died from it. Four of the dead were health care... Read More »
A study from scientists at the Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin found that almost two-thirds of all molecular diagnostic tests for the Zika virus in Brazil showed false-positive or false-negative results.
Almost all cases of Zika-associated malformations in newborns have been reported from... Read More »
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) laid out a point by point note of the necessities for a universal flu vaccine this week, publishing their strategy in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.
For such a vaccine to be successful, the organization saw four main goals... Read More »
A new bill being considered by the Senate seeks to formulate a concrete strategy against antibiotic resistance and lower the inappropriate use of antibiotics which is fueling the condition’s rise.
The legislation comes from U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and has been dubbed the Strategies to... Read More »
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) awarded a 12-month, $26 million contract to Emergent BioSolutions on Wednesday for the continued supply of Vaccinia Immune Globulin Intravenous (VIGIV) to the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile (SNS).
Emergent BioSolutions developed VIGIV,... Read More »
The Ministry of Health (MoH) of Kenya reported 453 cases, including 32 laboratory-confirmed cases and 421 suspected cases, of chikungunya from Mombasa County from mid-December 2017 through Feb. 3.
Based on reports from peripheral health facilities, the outbreak spread to the six sub-counties... Read More »
Researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health recently developed an improved system for predicting the geographic spread of seasonal influenza in the United States.
According to a paper published in the journal PNAS, the forecasting system can accurately predict local... Read More »
A union of Emergent BioSolutions Inc. and Valneva SE has led to the initiation of a Phase 1 clinical trial for a Zika virus vaccine candidate in the United States.
The purified inactivated vaccine candidate, VLA1601, has been developed using the same manufacturing platform as Valneva’s... Read More »
Low flu shot counts this year in Europe have worried prompted worries among regional health experts and prompted a joint study from the Italian National Research Council and the European Commission Joint Research Centre that showcases the efficacy of vaccination efforts.
The focus of this study... Read More »
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) recently announced that its Pandemic Prevention Platform (P3) program has all performer institutions under contract and working to developing technology that can quickly prevent the spread of infectious diseases.
P3 was launched last year in... Read More »
More than 50 groups marshalled by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) seek an act of Congress to rush urgently needed new antimicrobial drugs to market that protect America’s national security and the health of its citizens against biothreats posed by antimicrobial resistant (AMR)... Read More »
A new saliva-based diagnostic test for Zika virus is being developed by researchers at New York University College of Dentistry, in collaboration with Rheonix, Inc., and allows test results to be delivered in minutes rather than hours or days.
Current Zika testing is conducted using blood... Read More »
Researchers at MIT have discovered the means of growing their own dormant malaria parasites, granting them the ability to study how it operates, its vulnerabilities, and how it seemingly resurrects itself.
All of this is housed in engineered human liver tissue. With the malaria parasite so... Read More »
A clinical trial has begun on a new generation of typhoid vaccines and, in a major step, the first African child has been vaccinated.
The trial revolves around a typhoid conjugate vaccine (TCV) and is being run by Professor Melita Gordon of the University of Liverpool, in conjunction with the... Read More »
U.S. Congressman Scott Peters (D-CA), whose 52nd District in San Diego County encompasses a large military presence that partners in strategic national defense, thinks it’s important the United States find smart solutions to biothreats that include preparedness for any catastrophic biological... Read More »
The effort to identify and contain the capabilities of infectious diseases is going robotic, with the development of a new artificial intelligence algorithm by University of South Carolina (USC) researchers.
A team from USC’s Viterbi School of Engineering developed the algorithm using a mix of... Read More »
Facing a Cholera outbreak in Mozambique that has gone on since Aug. 14, 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) has committed a great many resources, but now, they are also calling for nationwide improvements.
Since the start of the outbreak--an annual occurrence in Mozambique--1799 cases have... Read More »
In urging Congress to reject public health cuts proposed by the Trump Administration, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) said on Wednesday that the fiscal year 2019 budget proposal reflects a “narrow and short-sighted understanding of national safety and well-being.”... Read More »
Whether an infectious disease ever reaches U.S. shores or not, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are now warning of the damage they could still do to U.S. interests--notably, its export economy.
In articles published in Health Security, the agency noted that there are 49... Read More »
