Category: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses

MedImmune, Inc. announced results from two important studies presented at the 2007 Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) 45th Annual Meeting adding to the body of knowledge about respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). RSV is a viral pathogen that produces annual outbreaks usually between fall and spring.

MedImmune, Inc. has announced results from two important studies presented at the 2007 Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) 45th Annual Meeting adding to the body of knowledge about respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). RSV is a viral pathogen that produces annual outbreaks usually between fall and spring.

This is the first time in three years that the rates of positive USDA E.coli sample tests have risen. During the summer nearly 6,000,000 pounds of beef were recalled as a result of possible E.coli contamination - last week another 21.7 million pounds of hamburger meat were recalled.

The Health Department is urging New Yorkers to throw away any Topps ground beef hamburgers due to possible E. coli contamination. Topps, the manufacturer, has recalled this product in several states including New York. If contaminated meat is consumed, the contaminating microbe - E. coli 0157:H7 - can cause severe diarrhea, as well as kidney damage or even death. The latest recall information from the USDA is available

Livestock producers in the United States should be cautious but not overly fearful of bluetongue virus, according to a veterinary laboratory director at Kansas State University Gary Anderson, director of the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at K-State, said strains of the virus, which recently cropped up in the United Kingdom, can be found in Kansas and elsewhere in the United States.

Humans MIFfed by West Nile VirusInfection with West Nile Virus (WNV) can cause lethal encephalitis and there are currently no vaccines or specific therapeutics for use in humans. However, data generated by Erol Fikrig and colleagues at Yale University School of Medicine has provided evidence that the proinflammatory soluble factor MIF might provide a target for developing therapeutics to treat WNV encephalitis.

Readmission rates at Pennsylvania hospitals for 20 conditions and procedures increased from 18.7% in 2004 to 19.1% in 2006, according to a report released Thursday by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports.

October 24, 20071 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.The New York Academy of Sciences7 World Trade Center250 Greenwich Street, 40th FloorNew York, NY 10007The Malaria Research Institute at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and The New York Academy of Sciences present “Progress Against Malaria: Developments on the Horizon,” a half-day symposium to highlight the latest research developments in the fight to combat malaria.

With extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, life-threatening drug-resistant respiratory and skin infections, and other “bad bugs” routinely making headlines, infectious diseases physicians are applauding Rep. Jim Matheson (D-UT) and Rep. Michael Ferguson (R-NJ) for introducing H.R. 3697, the Strategies To Address Antimicrobial Resistance (STAAR) Act.”The STAAR Act has the potential to save thousands of lives,” said Martin J.