TB & Outbreaks Week articles from August 2001

TB & Outbreaks Week archives from August 2001

In Vitro Susceptibility Tests Poor Predictors Of Clinical Outcomes.
August 7, 2001... 2001 AUG 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Measurements of minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) for mycobacteria have not proved reliable indicators of clinical outcome for infection with these...

Bacterial Gene Offers New Hope For Treatment.
August 7, 2001... 2001 AUG 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The discovery of a novel gene in mycobacteria heralds a new approach to the treatment of tuberculosis, according to molecular geneticists at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. The presence...

Global Warming Implicated In Tick-Borne Encephalitis, Spread Of Asian Tiger Mosquito.
August 7, 2001... 2001 AUG 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The increase in incidence of tick-borne encephalitis in Sweden reported over the past two decades is directly related to the country's increasingly mild climate over the same period, conclude...

Adrenal TB Often Diagnosed At Autopsy.
August 7, 2001... 2001 AUG 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - A significant proportion of extrapulmonary tuberculosis cases are diagnosed at autopsy, suggesting that doctors should maintain a higher index of suspicion...

As People's Tastes For Exotic Foods Increase, So Too Does Health Risk.
August 7, 2001... 2001 AUG 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Food-borne pathogens long considered rare on North American plates are an emerging problem, and restaurant and home chefs should be more diligent about washing their fresh produce, University of...

Rumen-Simulating Fermenter Mimics Environment Of Dangerous Pathogens.
August 7, 2001... 2001 AUG 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - A new fermenter that simulates the gut environment of ruminating animals may overcome some of the hurdles involved in experiments with dangerous food-borne...

LYMErix(R) Found Immunogenic, Well Tolerated In Children.
August 7, 2001... 2001 AUG 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - A recombinant vaccine comprising the outer surface protein A (OspA) of Borrelia burgdorferi (LYMErix(R)) generates antibody levels in children three times...

Low-Birth-Weight Babies Most At Risk For Deadly Disease.
August 7, 2001... 2001 AUG 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Epidemiologists in Italy have defined characteristics that put infants at risk for necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a serious gastrointestinal disease often...

Nitazoxanide Is Safe, Effective Treatment For Diarrhea.
August 7, 2001... 2001 AUG 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Within seven days of beginning treatment with the drug nitazoxanide, twice as many patients who had been infected with the protozoa Cryptosporidium parvum were free of diarrhea as patients who had...

Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci Outbreak Leads Ultimately To MRSA Outbreak.
August 7, 2001... 2001 AUG 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - By using isolation facilities to stop an outbreak of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), infection control personnel inadvertently caused a rise in...

Elimination Of Type B Disease May Heighten Virulence Of Other Serotypes.
August 7, 2001... 2001 AUG 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - As Haemophilus influenzae type B infections recede in the vaccine era, other serotypes may be emerging to take their place, say researchers in Utah. ...

Aged Mice Only Partly Protected By Adjuvant-Combined Vaccine.
August 7, 2001... 2001 AUG 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - A study appearing in Vaccine has found that influenza vaccines confer only partial protection on some strains of older mice, but completely protect younger...

Plasmid DNA Vaccine Safe And Well-Tolerated In Animal Models.
August 7, 2001... 2001 AUG 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - A DNA vaccine for malaria has been found safe in mice and rabbits, and its adjuvant was readily detected in muscle following muscular administration,...

Vaccine Improves Survival Of Poorest, Most Vulnerable Children.
August 7, 2001... 2001 AUG 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A new study shows that vaccinating poor children against measles significantly improves their long-term chances for survival and dramatically reduces inequities in child health and survival. ...

Investigational Antibiotic Highly Active In Vitro Against Isolates Of Community-Acquired Pathogens.
August 7, 2001... 2001 AUG 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A novel investigational antibiotic has demonstrated excellent in vitro activity against European isolates of community acquired respiratory pathogens. In vitro data from the international...

New York Findings Do Not Bear Out Intussusception Risk In Young Children.
August 7, 2001... 2001 AUG 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - The rate of intussusception among children younger than one year in New York was less than predicted during nine months of rotavirus vaccine use,...

Adventure Racing, Exotic Tourism Increases Exposure To Unusual Bacteria.
August 7, 2001... 2001 AUG 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The recent growth in popularity of adventure racing and exotic tourism has increased the number of people exposed to unusual infections, according to a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and...

Ciprofloxacin, Ofloxacin Losing Ground In TB Treatment.
August 7, 2001... 2001 AUG 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin are significantly less effective now than a decade ago as alternative therapy for tuberculosis, particularly multidrug-resistant...

DNA Fingerprinting Points To Recent Transmission In Havana.
August 7, 2001... 2001 AUG 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - An epidemiological study in Cuba suggests that recent transmission may be responsible for at least 45% of confirmed tuberculosis cases during the study...

Early Bactericidal Activity of Amikacin Barely Detectable.
August 7, 2001... 2001 AUG 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - The aminoglycoside antibiotic amikacin shows only minimal early bactericidal activity (EBA) against pulmonary tuberculosis, researchers in South Africa have...

M3-Restricted T Cells May Be Critical For Immune Response To TB.
August 7, 2001... 2001 AUG 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Data about Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) epitopes recognized by class Ib-restricted T cells is limited, but researchers now believe one of the...

Novel Cytochrome May Figure Into Development Of New Antimycobacterials.
August 7, 2001... 2001 AUG 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - The metabolic functions of a Mycobacteria tuberculosis protein comparable to those of CYP51 may lead to the development of a new generation of...

Skin Test Variation Among Hospital Staff Can't Be Attributed to Patients.
August 7, 2001... 2001 AUG 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - A new report in the Medical Journal of Australia suggests that infection control and staff screening programs need further scrutiny for their possible role...

First Confirmed Case In Florida Reported, Georgia Case Not Yet Confirmed.
August 7, 2001... 2001 AUG 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The first confirmed Florida case of the dangerous West Nile virus has been discovered in a crow in the northern part of the state, health officials said on July 6, 2001. The disease,...

Human Vaccine Development Closer To Reality.
August 14, 2001... 2001 AUG 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Adjuvants approved for use in humans show promise as vaccine components with Helicobacter pylori antigen in mice, bringing a human vaccine one step closer...

Age, Diabetes Status Independent Risk Factors For Infection.
August 14, 2001... 2001 AUG 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Doctors along the eastern seaboard of the United States should routinely consider West Nile virus in the differential diagnosis of viral encephalitis and...

Rational Antibiotic Use, Staff Training Lower Nosocomial Infection Rate.
August 14, 2001... 2001 AUG 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Strenuous infection control efforts, along with suppression of cephalosporin use, have curbed an outbreak of multidrug-resistant bacterial infections in a...

Tuberculosis-Related Chemokine Disturbance May Hasten Progression.
August 14, 2001... 2001 AUG 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - Elevated levels of inflammatory chemokines may underlie tuberculosis-related acceleration of HIV progression, researchers say. Zahra Toossi and...

Probiotics Cut Risk of Respiratory Infection Among Children In Day Care.
August 14, 2001... 2001 AUG 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Long-term consumption of the "friendly" bacteria Lactobacillus GG may cut the risk and severity of respiratory infections in young children attending day...

Vaccine Protects Seven of Eight Monkeys From Fatal L. Donovani.
August 14, 2001... 2001 AUG 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Autoclaved Leishmania major (ALM) along with BCG, shows promise for protection against cutaneous leishmaniasis and should be evaluated in humans, say...

Genome Sequence Completed; Implications For Gene Therapy.
August 14, 2001... 2001 AUG 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The complete genome of a virulent strain of pneumococcus has been sequenced. The discovery may prove useful in combating this often-deadly bacterium that has grown resistant in recent years to...

Researchers Determine How TB Bacterium Evades Detection By Immune System.
August 14, 2001... 2001 AUG 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the scourges of humans, infecting about one-third of the world's population, or two billion people. It kills an estimated eight million people annually. And while a...

CancerVax Immune Responses Correlate With Improved Survival.
August 14, 2001... 2001 AUG 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - CancerVax, which has been used in the immunotherapy of melanoma, may also be useful against colon cancer, researchers in California have found. Colon...

Condom Use Cuts Male-To-Female Transmission Risk.
August 14, 2001... 2001 AUG 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Using condoms even 25% of the time can lower the chance of herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2) transmission from infected men to uninfected women, researchers...

Teenage Participation in Vaccine Trials Requires Education of Parents.
August 14, 2001... 2001 AUG 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - To get the participation of teenage girls in a trial of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, researchers should not discount the support of their parents,...

Officials Confirm Outbreak In Southeastern Spain.
August 14, 2001... 2001 AUG 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Health officials investigated in early July 2001 an outbreak of a Legionnaires' disease in southeastern Spain that may have affected dozens of people. Authorities said they had confirmed 10...

Killed M. Vaccae Vaccine Offers Good Efficacy.
August 14, 2001... 2001 AUG 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - A preparation of killed Mycobacterium vaccae either alone or with bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG), offers 80% protection against leprosy development in...

Prevention Is Important Approach.
August 14, 2001... 2001 AUG 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Pennsylvania Physician General Dr. Robert Muscalus urged Pennsylvanians to take some simple precautions to protect themselves against the bacterial infection Lyme disease, carried by deer ticks....

Vaccination Is Effective Preventive Medicine.
August 14, 2001... 2001 AUG 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A review of medical literature published in the July 2001 edition of Mayo Clinic Proceedings reports that vaccination is an effective and demonstrated method to prevent Lyme disease and the best...

MMR Vaccine Should Be Made Compulsory In Jordan.
August 14, 2001... 2001 AUG 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - The current measles vaccine coverage in Jordan is not enough to stop periodic outbreaks, and public health policy should mandate measles mumps rubella...

Vaccine Confers Protection On Tribal Children, Despite Malarial Endemicity.
August 14, 2001... 2001 AUG 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Children from two tribes in the Amazon region benefited from a measles vaccination program, despite living in a remote area that is endemic for malaria,...

Better Worldwide Access To Pneumococcal Vaccines Is Needed.
August 14, 2001... 2001 AUG 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Greater availability of the new pneumococcal conjugate vaccine to children in developing countries could not only reduce morbidity and mortality but also...

Proposed Change In Postexposure Treatment Probably Unnecessary.
August 14, 2001... 2001 AUG 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Intradermal preexposure vaccination against rabies is adequate to mount an early immune response following postexposure vaccination, researchers in...

Patients More Likely To Get Chlamydia Test If They Trust Provider.
August 14, 2001... 2001 AUG 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - A new study in Sexually Transmitted Infections clarifies some of the factors that influence whether sexually active patients are willing to be tested for...

M. Vaccae Therapy Improves Hopes For Patients With Drug-Resistant Disease.
August 14, 2001... 2001 AUG 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Patients infected with drug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis - many of whom were not expected to live - have been cured with the addition of...

International Travel May Be Independent Risk Factor For Latent Infection.
August 14, 2001... 2001 AUG 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Travelers to countries with a high incidence of tuberculosis are at higher risk for latent TB infection and may be a substantial source of new infections...

MRI Valuable Tool In Diagnosis Of Childhood CNS TB.
August 14, 2001... 2001 AUG 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - A new study in Infection demonstrates the relevance of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the diagnosis of central nervous system (CNS) tuberculosis in...

Miniature Chest Radiographs Most Cost-Effective Screening For Jail Population.
August 14, 2001... 2001 AUG 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Screening new jail inmates for tuberculosis with chest radiographs is more cost-effective and would ultimately catch more cases of TB than other screening...

Outpatient Treatment Not Appropriate In All Cases.
August 14, 2001... 2001 AUG 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Discharging tuberculosis patients from the hospital without carefully screening them first may lead to high rates of unplanned readmissions, researchers in...

Poor Hygiene, Inadequate Water Supply Are Risk Factors.
August 14, 2001... 2001 AUG 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Inadequate hand washing before meals and a lack of access to clean water place Indonesian residents at greater risk for typhoid fever, say researchers...

Heredity, Immunological Factors Influence Outcomes.
August 21, 2001... 2001 AUG 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Immunity and heritable factors are more likely to determine whether a child succumbs to malaria than the abundance of infected mosquitoes where they...

Novel Diagnostic Assay Based on TB-Specific Antigens Merits Attention.
August 21, 2001... 2001 AUG 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - T-cell responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis-specific antigens may aid in the diagnosis of tuberculosis when other diagnostic tools prove inconclusive,...

Component Of Fly Saliva Has Promise For Vaccine.
August 21, 2001... 2001 AUG 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers seeking to make a vaccine against a serious parasitic infection have discovered a dose of fly saliva might be just what the doctor ordered. Leishmaniasis, a disabling and sometimes...

Lower Incidence Threshold Can Detect Outbreak Early Enough To Start Vaccine Programs.
August 21, 2001... 2001 AUG 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A meningitis incidence threshold of 10 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in just one week - lower than previously recommended by the World Health Organization - can be used reliably to confirm an...

Detection Of Ag85 Antibodies May Be Useful In Diagnosis.
August 21, 2001... 2001 AUG 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Detection of circulating Mycobacterium tuberculosis proteins shed during active infection would not depend on an intact host immune response and would be...

Epitope Plasmid DNA Vaccine Generates Cellular Immunity In Mice.
August 21, 2001... 2001 AUG 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - The ability of epitope plasmid DNAs to trigger only a specific cellular immune response instead of an antibody response may ultimately lead to their use in...

Model Suggests Keeping Dogs Out Of The Bedroom May Reduce Transmission.
August 21, 2001... 2001 AUG 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- By characterizing the population dynamics of an individual household, and by collecting data for many individual households to serve as a base, a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded researcher...

Cytokines Linked To Immune Compromise During Tuberculosis Coinfection.
August 21, 2001... 2001 AUG 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - Researchers in the United States warn that elevated levels of some cytokines are associated with low immune cell counts during infection with HIV and...

Simple Handwashing Reduces Rates Of Respiratory Illness.
August 21, 2001... 2001 AUG 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A little soap and water goes a long way toward preventing illness, a piece of common sense dramatically demonstrated by an experiment with U.S. Navy recruits who had 45% fewer bouts of respiratory...

Extreme Precipitation Linked To Waterborne Disease Outbreaks.
August 21, 2001... 2001 AUG 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- More than half of the waterborne disease outbreaks in the United States in the past 50 years were preceded by heavy rainfall, according to a study conducted at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of...

WHO Plans New Fight Against Flu.
August 21, 2001... 2001 AUG 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Far from being an innocuous "cold-like" infection, flu is a killer, causing approximately 20,000 deaths each year in the United States alone. The virus which causes flu is highly contagious....

Morbidity, Mortality, And Economic Burden Drastically Underestimated.
August 21, 2001... 2001 AUG 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Challenging long-standing beliefs about the international burden of malaria, scientists have presented new information about the severity of malaria morbidity, mortality, and its economic toll. ...

Viral Vector Stimulates CTL, Th1 Responses In Young Mice.
August 21, 2001... 2001 AUG 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - NYVAC(K1L)-HA is the first attenuated live viral vector that is capable of inducing adultlike antibody, Th1, and cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) responses...

College Freshmen In Dorms At Increased Risk.
August 21, 2001... 2001 AUG 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Compared with other college students, freshmen living in dormitories have an increased risk of meningococcal disease, even though U.S. college students as a group are at no greater overall risk for...

B95a Cell Line Offers Alternative For Mumps Culture.
August 21, 2001... 2001 AUG 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - The B95a cell line from rhesus monkeys is as sensitive for mumps detection as standard rhesus monkey kidney (RMK) cells, thus offering an alternative to...

Summer Camp Outbreaks Highlight Importance Of Hand Washing.
August 21, 2001... 2001 AUG 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Outbreaks of Norwalk-like virus infections occurred at two recreational camps in Wisconsin in June 2001, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. The infections were...

Delayed TB Treatment At Least Partly Attributed To Clinician.
August 21, 2001... 2001 AUG 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Health care providers are at least partly responsible for delayed hospitalization for tuberculosis patients in South Africa, researchers there report, and...

Ethiopian Plant Compound Shows Antimycobacterial Activity.
August 21, 2001... 2001 AUG 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - A tannin isolated from the bark of an Ethiopian medicinal plant can subdue a human strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, according to a new report in...

Management Of Therapy Side Effects May Ease Compliance Problems.
August 21, 2001... 2001 AUG 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Patients being treated for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) can benefit from follow-up to ensure that any adverse effects are nipped in the bud,...

Nested PCR Method Detects Rifampin Resistance In Sputum Smears.
August 21, 2001... 2001 AUG 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Researchers in South Korea have overcome hurdles that prevented the detection of rifampin resistance in sputum smears by using a new, nested polymerase...

San Diego Cases Traced to Cross-Border Travel, Raw Dairy Products.
August 21, 2001... 2001 AUG 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Risk factors for TB transmission among young children may depend more on locale than previously supposed, according to research appearing in Pediatrics....

Study Supports Tuberculin Skin Test As Indicator Of Immunity In BCG-Vaccinated Subjects.
August 21, 2001... 2001 AUG 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Whether or not the tuberculin skin test reflects immunity against tuberculosis in people vaccinated with bacillus Calmette-Guerin is a matter of ongoing debate. Researchers at Sahlgrenska...

Analysis Suggests Infection Outbreak In U.S. Was Greater Than Previously Thought.
August 21, 2001... 2001 AUG 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A detailed analysis of the 1999 New York City outbreak of West Nile virus suggests that a substantial, and previously undiagnosed, outbreak of West Nile fever accompanied the 59 cases of West Nile...