Infectious disease can be any disease caused by invasion by a pathogen which subsequently grows and multiplies in the body. Infectious diseases are the result of damaging microorganisms obtaining access to the body, and not being repelled or destroyed by the immune system.
The health effects of one strain of schistosomiasis, a parasitic disease common in developing countries, are seven to 46 times greater than previously estimated, according to new Brown University research. – The health effects of one strain of schistosomiasis, a parasitic disease common in developing countries, are seven to 46 times greater than previously estimated, according to new Brown University research.
A gel using anti-HIV drug tenofovir to shield women from AIDS has been proven safe for daily use and acceptable to women. – An experimental anti HIV gel is safe for women to use on a daily basis, according to researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Emerging infectious diseases such as HIV, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), West Nile virus and Ebola are indeed on the rise. – A team of scientists has shown that emerging infectious diseases such as HIV, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), West Nile virus and Ebola are indeed on the rise. The team ? including University of Georgia professor John Gittleman and scientists from the Consortium for Conservation Medicine, the Institute of Zoology (London) and Columbia University ? recently published their findings in leading scientific journal Nature.
A study published in PLoS Medicine this week suggests that of women who die during pregnancy and childbirth in sub-Saharan Africa, more may die from treatable infectious diseases than from conditions directly linked to pregnancy. – Women who die during pregnancy and childbirth in sub-Saharan Africa, more may die from treatable infectious diseases than from conditions directly linked to pregnancy, revealed by researchers.
Exposure to viral infection – especially viruses of the herpes group – may be associated with pregnancy-induced hypertensive disease (pre-eclampsia) and also with pre-term birth. – Viral infection with high blood pressure during pregnancy may lead to pre-term birth, revealed by researchers at Adelaide’s Women’s & Children’s Hospital and the University of Adelaide.
Cholesterol lowering drug could offer a new direction for therapies against staph infection – a bacterium that’s becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics. – An international team of researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has blocked staph infections in mice using a drug previously tested in clinical trials as a cholesterol-lowering agent. The novel approach, described in the February 14 online edition of Science, could offer a new direction for therapies against a bacterium that’s becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics.
Even with effective anti-HIV therapies, doctors still have not been able to eradicate the virus from infected individuals who are receiving such treatments, largely because of the persistence of HIV in hideouts known as viral reservoirs. – HIV virus is not usually eradicated from infected individuals even after long term HIV therapy because of the persistence of HIV in hideouts known as viral reservoirs. One important reservoir is the gut, where HIV causes much of its damage due to the large number of HIV target cells that reside there.
NIAID Scientists identified new cellular receptor for HIV, and it may help further elucidate the complex mechanisms of the pathogenesis of HIV infection. – A cellular protein that helps guide immune cells to the gut has been newly identified as a target of HIV when the virus begins its assault on the body’s immune system, according to researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
DNA sequencing establishes high throughput genetic sequencing as powerful tool for pathogen discovery; technology enables improvements in screening for transplant safety. – In the first application of high throughput DNA sequencing technology to investigate an infectious disease outbreak, link the discovery of a new arenavirus to the deaths of three transplant recipients who received organs from a single donor in Victoria, Australia in April 2007.
First solid evidence that viral transmission through breast milk can be prevented by a drug Nevirapine HIV drug. – An antiretroviral drug already in widespread use in the developing world to prevent the transmission of HIV from infected mothers to their newborns during childbirth has also been found to substantially cut the risk of subsequent HIV transmission during breast-feeding.
