Infectious Disease

Changes in patients' self-rated quality of life after treatment for esophago-gastric cancer can predict the chances for long-term survival. This is the result researchers at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet made, in a new study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The patient's self-rated quality of life, provide indications of whether he or she will survive...

An analysis by researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) has found that only 32 percent of medication studies published in top medical journals compare the effectiveness of existing treatments. These studies, known as comparative effectiveness studies, help doctors know which therapies work best and under what circumstances they are most effective...

Patients with irritable bowel syndrome are at no greater risk of having polyps, colon cancer or inflammatory bowel diseases than healthy people undergoing colonoscopies, according to new research published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology. "Patients and doctors get nervous about the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)," says William D. Chey, M.D...

For more than half a century, products containing ion exchange resins have been used in patients with dangerously high levels of potassium. However, there is no convincing evidence that these products are actually effective, according to an article appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN)...

Admission to a hospital when most of the beds are already full can be deadly for patients, according to a new University of Michigan Health System study showing high occupancy increases the risk of dying in the hospital by 5.6 percent...

Background: Azithromycin (AZM) is a macrolide antibiotic that displays an excellent safety profile even in children and pregnant women and has been shown to have anti-malarial activity against blood stage Plasmodium falciparum. This study evaluated the transmission-blocking effect of AZM using a rodent malaria model. Methods: AZM-treated mice infected with Plasmodium berghei were exposed to Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes, followed by the observation of parasite development at different phases in the mosquito, i.e., ookinetes in the midgut, oocysts on the midgut, and sporozoites in the midgut and salivary glands. Furthermore, to evaluate the effect on organelle replication of each stage, quantitative real-time PCR analysis was performed. Results: The inhibitory effect of AZM was noticeable in both gametocyte-ookinete transformation in the midgut and sporozoite production in the oocyst, while the latter was most remarkable among all the developmental phases examined. Real-time PCR analysis revealed that AZM suppressed apicoplast replication at the period of sporozoite production in oocysts. Conclusions: AZM inhibits parasite development in the mosquito stage, probably through the same mechanism as in the liver and blood stages. Such a multi-targeting anti-malarial, along with its safety, would be ideal for mass drug administration in malaria control programmes.

The U.S. 'race gap' in the commission of violent crime has narrowed substantially, yet persists - with murder arrest rates for African Americans still out-distancing those for whites - concludes a new 80-city study by the University of Maryland, Florida State University and the University of Oregon...

New World hemorrhagic fevers are emerging infectious diseases found in South America that can cause terrible, Ebola-like symptoms. Current treatments are expensive and only partially effective...

CAPE TOWN, Mar 8 (IPS) - Decreasing or levelling HIV funding will destabilise developing countries’ health systems, a group of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) warned. They demand that governments worldwide own up to their promise of achieving universal access to HIV treatment.

JOHANNESBURG, Mar 8 (IPS) - A world where all children are born free of HIV infection is possible in only five years if donors continue to fund global efforts to combat the virus.

JOHANNESBURG, Dec 11 (IPS) - In Ghana, because the stigmatisation against gay men is so great, many are forced to have sexual relationships with women to escape prejudice and homophobic violence.

Experiences from the Holocaust led to the international community coming together and agreeing on the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Despite this, more cases of genocide occurred during the 20th century than during any other century...

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have identified a new syndrome affecting potentially thousands of hospital inpatients...

New measures to speed up delivery of wheelchairs to patients who need them will be announced today by Health Minister Edwina Hart. Faster access to equipment including hearing aids and artificial limbs will also be prioritised, Mrs Hart will tell the Health, Well-Being and Local Government Committee. Around 70,000 people in Wales are wheelchair users - about one in every 43 people...

The Department of Health has failed a key test to demonstrate its willingness to empower the independent sector according to ACEVO, the representative body for charity CEOs. The claim comes as the NHS panel responsible for upholding the rules of Co-operation and Competition for NHS-funded services has dropped a critical case brought to them by ACEVO and the NHS Partners Network...

The Board of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has decided to dissolve the executive agency status of the Meat Hygiene Service (MHS) and to bring its staff and functions into the FSA to form the core of a new FSA Operations Group...

Background: Definite diagnosis of malaria relies on microscopy detection of blood stages of parasites in peripheral blood and requires blood sample collection. The nested PCR method has shown to be more sensitive and superior to microscopy in detecting co-infections of Plasmodium species in circulation while Plasmodium falciparum DNA can be identified in urine and saliva specimens of patients, albeit at a lower sensitivity. Methods: Matched blood, saliva and urine samples were collected from 100 microscopy-positive and 20 microscopy-negative febrile patients who attended a malaria clinic in Tak Province, northwestern Thailand for nested PCR analysis targeting the small subunit ribosomal RNA gene of human malaria. Both P. falciparum and Plasmodium vivax have been known to circulate at a comparable rate in the study area. Results: Comparing with microscopy results, nested PCR of saliva samples had a sensitivity of 74.1% for P. falciparum detection and 84% for P. vivax detection while 44.4% and 34.0% of the corresponding values were observed for urine samples. Both nested PCR results of saliva and urine samples had a specificity of 100% for identification of P. falciparum and P. vivax when compared with nested PCR results from blood. Co-infections of both species were found in four, 26 and 8 patients by microscopy and nested PCR of blood and saliva samples, respectively. Although the positive rates of nested PCR of saliva samples for P. falciparum increased with parasite density, no tendency occurred in results from nested PCR of saliva samples for P. vivax as well as those of urine samples. Conclusions: Saliva and urine samples could be alternative noninvasive sources of DNA for molecular detection of both P. falciparum and P. vivax. Further improvement of the detection method will offer an opportunity to use these samples for diagnosis of malaria.

Nearly a third of children with special healthcare needs are underinsured, and where a child lives strongly influences whether he or she will have adequate healthcare coverage, a new study found.

Hospitals' efforts to prevent perinatal transmission of hepatitis B virus need to be improved, researchers said.

The rapid evolution of clinical experience in liver transplantation during recent years has prompted several leading organizations to revisit the general recommendations used in patient selection and organ allocation, a new report revealed.