TB & Outbreaks Week articles from August 2002

TB & Outbreaks Week archives from August 2002

Ribosomal protein mutation confers staphylococcal quinupristin resistance.
August 6, 2002... 2002 AUG 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - Researchers in France have elucidated the mechanisms of quinupristin resistance in refractory Staphylococcus aureus strains. Brigitte Malbruny and...

Molecular testing can distinguish between treatment failure and reinfection.
August 6, 2002... 2002 AUG 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - Molecular assays should be used to distinguish between ineffective tuberculosis therapy and TB reinfection, researchers argue. Annika Kruuner and...

New treatment developed.
August 6, 2002... 2002 AUG 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Scientists at the University of Virginia (UVa) have developed a new combination drug therapy that delivers a one-two punch to knock out colds. In study results reported in the current on-line issue of...

Delayed varicella immunization may improve efficacy.
August 6, 2002... 2002 AUG 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - Delayed administration of varicella virus vaccine might enhance its protective effects, researchers in the United States say. Mark S. Dworkin and...

Gene crucial to antimalarial drug resistance more common than thought.
August 6, 2002... 2002 AUG 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The malaria parasite is not to be underestimated, according to a huge survey of part of the parasite's genome reported in two letters to the journal Nature (2002;418:6895). The work by Xin-zhuan Su...

Lower degrees of 'social capital' predict higher rates of STDs.
August 6, 2002... 2002 AUG 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The amount of trust, reciprocity and cooperation among community members working together to achieve common goals - referred to as "social capital" by behavioral scientists, is a predictor of sexually...

Zimbabwean women very willing to use diaphragms as potential HIV prevention method.
August 6, 2002... 2002 AUG 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A Zimbabwe study of women who were unable to persuade their male partners to use condoms consistently has found that 98% of the women used the diaphragm as an alternative method of contraception and...

Drug targets for treatment of tuberculosis identified.
August 6, 2002... 2002 AUG 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- eXegenics, Inc. (EXEG) announced the demonstration that enzyme targets to which it has proprietary rights can serve in the development of drugs to fight tuberculosis, the world's most dangerous...

Diagnostic kit rewarded by the Altran Foundation.
August 6, 2002... 2002 AUG 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Eric Deharo, biologist and pharmacologist at the Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement (IRD), working in Bolivia, has just received a special mention from the Altran Foundation (Altran...

Aid workers battle outbreak in flood-ravaged Bangladesh.
August 6, 2002... 2002 AUG 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Swollen rivers flooded villages and washed away hundreds of houses July 15, 2002, in northern Bangladesh as aid workers battled an outbreak of diarrhea. Officials said 59 people had died in more...

Reused needles infect at least 19.
August 6, 2002... 2002 AUG 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A Brooklyn, New York anesthesiologist apparently infected at least 19 patients with hepatitis C last year by improperly reusing hypodermic needles, the city Health Department found. A Health...

Invasive pneumococcal disease more prevalent in England/Wales than reported.
August 6, 2002... 2002 AUG 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Maria G. Essig, MS, ELS, senior medical writer - The true incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) incidence in England and Wales is at least three times the official estimate, according to...

Chickenpox vaccination now required for preschool, kindergarten enrollment in some states.
August 6, 2002... 2002 AUG 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Many Tennessee parents will need to add having their children vaccinated against chickenpox to their fall "things-to-do" list. Effective July 1, under legislation passed earlier this year all children...

Molecular analysis can distinguish viral hemorrhagic fevers.
August 6, 2002... 2002 AUG 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - Molecular analysis methods can be used to find and distinguish viruses responsible for deadly hemorrhagic fevers, researchers in Germany report. "Viral...

Roche receives approval in Europe for Tamiflu.
August 6, 2002... 2002 AUG 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Roche and Gilead Sciences, Inc., (GILD) announced that Roche has received approval from the European authorities to market Tamiflu (oseltamivir phosphate) for the treatment of influenza in adults and...

Detection of bioterrorism viruses brought closer to local sites.
August 6, 2002... 2002 AUG 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- In the July 2002 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, researchers outline new methods for safely and accurately identifying a suspected bioterrorism agent and detail what physicians should know about the...

Dozens dead in outbreak in Kenya.
August 6, 2002... 2002 AUG 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- An outbreak of malaria has killed dozens of people and infected thousands in western Kenya, where warm and wet conditions have helped the disease flourish where it normally doesn't strike, experts said...

New website provides research information for Gulf War veterans.
August 6, 2002... 2002 AUG 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Gulf War veterans and their families now have easy access to Gulf War-related medical research information on an Internet site called "Medsearch" at www.gulflink.osd.mil/medsearch. The U.S. Centers...

Across the U.S., volunteers undergo vaccine trials in case of attack.
August 6, 2002... 2002 AUG 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- With the jab of a needle, volunteers are being injected with a smallpox vaccine as part of U.S. government-sponsored experiments that come amid heightened fear of biological terrorism. About 330...

U.S. officials ready plan for quarantine.
August 6, 2002... 2002 AUG 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- U.S. health officials are quietly making plans for quarantining Americans who might be exposed to a highly contagious smallpox patient, addressing sensitive questions of how to hold people, possibly...

Surprising role found for staph's toxic shock toxin.
August 6, 2002... 2002 AUG 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- New York University (NYU) School of Medicine scientists have discovered a novel role for the toxin that is responsible for toxic shock syndrome, a deadly infection linked to the use of highly absorbent...

Expert calls for more attention to antibiotic resistance problem.
August 13, 2002... 2002 AUG 13 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Recent public awareness on the problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria has helped slow the improper use of antibiotics, but further action is needed to contain the problem, according to an expert at a...

Photographic recognition helps locate transmission sites.
August 13, 2002... 2002 AUG 13 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Recognition by tuberculosis (TB) patients of photographs of other patients with TB, when combined with restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of specimens to determine disease...

More frequent ivermectin could reduce symptoms of parasitic disease.
August 13, 2002... 2002 AUG 13 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Authors of a study in the July 20, 2002, issue of the Lancet propose that more frequent drug therapy with ivermectin could reduce symptoms of the parasitic disease onchocerciasis, which affects around...

Nonmyeloablative conditioning may raise cytomegalovirus infection risk.
August 13, 2002... 2002 AUG 13 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - Stem cell transplant conditioning regimens that spare the recipients' bone marrow may also increase their risk of post-transplant cytomegalovirus (CMV)...

White House warns tests often inaccurate.
August 13, 2002... 2002 AUG 13 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The White House is warning that anthrax field tests - widely used since last fall's attacks - give fast but often incorrect results, prompting authorities to shut down buildings prematurely and hand...

CDC unveils brand new labs, one of which could play an antiterrorism role.
August 13, 2002... 2002 AUG 13 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- After complaining for years that its facilities are Third World-quality, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) unveiled two gleaming new laboratories July 19, 2002, including one...

E. coli concerns prompt major meat recall.
August 13, 2002... 2002 AUG 13 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The possible presence of toxic E. coli bacteria has prompted the recall of 19 million pounds of hamburger, the second largest beef recall on record. The expanded recall was announced July 19, 2002,...

Second case revealed in Nebraska.
August 13, 2002... 2002 AUG 13 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Another confirmed case of hantavirus in Nebraska does not have state health officials concerned. James Cahoj, 41, of Imperial became the second person to contract hantavirus in western Nebraska,...

Report: CDC off on infection deaths.
August 13, 2002... 2002 AUG 13 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- About 103,000 deaths were linked to hospital infections in 2000 - a figure 14% higher than government estimates - and nearly 75% of the deaths were preventable, the Chicago Tribune reported. The...

CDC issues mortality stats for 2000.
August 13, 2002... 2002 AUG 13 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Medical care providers should consider pertussis as a cause of new cough illness in people of all ages, according to a report issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the July...

Texas officials deal with surge in cases.
August 13, 2002... 2002 AUG 13 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Texas health officials are continuing to battle a surge in whooping cough cases that has not abated since a record year in 2001. This year, 378 cases of whooping cough, including the deaths of...

Company that provided DNA for man-made polio virus says oversight needed.
August 13, 2002... 2002 AUG 13 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The Iowa company that unknowingly supplied bits of genetic material used by scientists to make their own polio virus from scratch said it had recently asked the government to take steps to oversee the...

U.S. agency confirms case.
August 13, 2002... 2002 AUG 13 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A federal agency has confirmed that a 5-year-old Ross County, Ohio girl died of Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Cheyenne Diehl's death on June 4, 2002, was the state's first from the tick-borne...

$30M granted to control initiative gives hope to developing countries.
August 13, 2002... 2002 AUG 13 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Imperial College London has announced that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given a grant of $30 million to establish the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI), a partnership at Imperial...

Cases in Puerto Rico indicate vaccine safe and effective, CDC reports.
August 13, 2002... 2002 AUG 13 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Between February and May 2002, the Puerto Rico Department of Health (PRDOH) received reports of three tetanus cases, two of which were fatal, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and...

Cases spread west.
August 13, 2002... 2002 AUG 13 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The West Nile virus has spread to Texas, Oklahoma and Nebraska - the farthest west it has been found - prompting officials to begin spraying creeks, ponds and anywhere there is standing water to...

Expert calls for more attention to antibiotic resistance problem.
August 20, 2002... 2002 AUG 20 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Recent public awareness on the problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria has helped slow the improper use of antibiotics, but further action is needed to contain the problem, according to an expert at a...

Photographic recognition helps locate transmission sites.
August 20, 2002... 2002 AUG 20 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Recognition by tuberculosis (TB) patients of photographs of other patients with TB, when combined with restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of specimens to determine disease...

More frequent ivermectin could reduce symptoms of parasitic disease.
August 20, 2002... 2002 AUG 20 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Authors of a study in the July 20, 2002, issue of the Lancet propose that more frequent drug therapy with ivermectin could reduce symptoms of the parasitic disease onchocerciasis, which affects around...

Nonmyeloablative conditioning may raise cytomegalovirus infection risk.
August 20, 2002... 2002 AUG 20 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - Stem cell transplant conditioning regimens that spare the recipients' bone marrow may also increase their risk of post-transplant cytomegalovirus (CMV)...

White House warns tests often inaccurate.
August 20, 2002... 2002 AUG 20 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The White House is warning that anthrax field tests - widely used since last fall's attacks - give fast but often incorrect results, prompting authorities to shut down buildings prematurely and hand...

CDC unveils brand new labs, one of which could play an antiterrorism role.
August 20, 2002... 2002 AUG 20 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- After complaining for years that its facilities are Third World-quality, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) unveiled two gleaming new laboratories July 19, 2002, including one...

E. coli concerns prompt major meat recall.
August 20, 2002... 2002 AUG 20 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The possible presence of toxic E. coli bacteria has prompted the recall of 19 million pounds of hamburger, the second largest beef recall on record. The expanded recall was announced July 19, 2002,...

Second case revealed in Nebraska.
August 20, 2002... 2002 AUG 20 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Another confirmed case of hantavirus in Nebraska does not have state health officials concerned. James Cahoj, 41, of Imperial became the second person to contract hantavirus in western Nebraska,...

Report: CDC off on infection deaths.
August 20, 2002... 2002 AUG 20 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- About 103,000 deaths were linked to hospital infections in 2000 - a figure 14% higher than government estimates - and nearly 75% of the deaths were preventable, the Chicago Tribune reported. The...

CDC issues mortality stats for 2000.
August 20, 2002... 2002 AUG 20 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Medical care providers should consider pertussis as a cause of new cough illness in people of all ages, according to a report issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the July...

Texas officials deal with surge in cases.
August 20, 2002... 2002 AUG 20 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Texas health officials are continuing to battle a surge in whooping cough cases that has not abated since a record year in 2001. This year, 378 cases of whooping cough, including the deaths of...

Company that provided DNA for man-made polio virus says oversight needed.
August 20, 2002... 2002 AUG 20 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The Iowa company that unknowingly supplied bits of genetic material used by scientists to make their own polio virus from scratch said it had recently asked the government to take steps to oversee the...

U.S. agency confirms case.
August 20, 2002... 2002 AUG 20 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A federal agency has confirmed that a 5-year-old Ross County, Ohio girl died of Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Cheyenne Diehl's death on June 4, 2002, was the state's first from the tick-borne...

$30M granted to control initiative gives hope to developing countries.
August 20, 2002... 2002 AUG 20 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Imperial College London has announced that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given a grant of $30 million to establish the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI), a partnership at Imperial...

Cases in Puerto Rico indicate vaccine safe and effective, CDC reports.
August 20, 2002... 2002 AUG 20 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Between February and May 2002, the Puerto Rico Department of Health (PRDOH) received reports of three tetanus cases, two of which were fatal, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and...

Cases spread west.
August 20, 2002... 2002 AUG 20 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The West Nile virus has spread to Texas, Oklahoma and Nebraska - the farthest west it has been found - prompting officials to begin spraying creeks, ponds and anywhere there is standing water to...

Beijing strains responsible for spread of Russian drug-resistant infections.
August 27, 2002... 2002 AUG 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - Researchers have elucidated the epidemiology of drug-resistant pulmonary tuberculosis strains in a hard-hit region of Russia. Olga S. Toungoussova and...

Infection-induced neutrophil death may be part of host defense.
August 27, 2002... 2002 AUG 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - Researchers in Sweden have shed new light on the immune response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. "In addition to direct bactericidal activities,...

Study: BP cuffs hold antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
August 27, 2002... 2002 AUG 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A new study entitled "Single Use Barriers for Blood Pressure Cuffs" revealed that bacteria, including variants resistant to standard antibiotics, were routinely found on blood pressure cuffs. The...

Is the American public at increased risk for food poisoning?
August 27, 2002... 2002 AUG 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Walking into a fast food restaurant or a seafood diner could be a high-risk proposition. Most people would scoff at that notion but for 8000 Americans last year, eating contaminated food led to death....

Researchers discover shift in organisms causing early-onset sepsis in low-birth-weight infants.
August 27, 2002... 2002 AUG 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Although the overall rate of early-onset sepsis in low-birth-weight newborns has not changed significantly over the past decade, researchers have discovered a recent shift in the organisms responsible...

Cytokine dysregulation linked to multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.
August 27, 2002... 2002 AUG 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDRTB) infection is associated with significant cytokine dysregulation, researchers in South Korea report. J.-S. Lee and...

Versicor expands agreement with Novartis to discover oral antibiotics.
August 27, 2002... 2002 AUG 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Versicor, Inc., (VERS) announced that its ongoing collaboration with Novartis AG (NVS) related to the discovery and development of novel antibacterial agents has been extended. The collaboration...

Outbreak reaching epidemic proportions, WHO says.
August 27, 2002... 2002 AUG 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Dengue fever is reaching epidemic proportions this year, mainly in Asia and Latin America, the World Health Organization (WHO) says. There have been reports of a resurgence in the mosquito-borne...

Paratek patents second genetic target in fight against drug resistance.
August 27, 2002... 2002 AUG 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Paratek Pharmaceuticals, Inc., announced the issuance of U.S. Patent No. 6,346,391, entitled "Methods of Reducing Microbial Resistance to Drugs." The patent covers methods for inhibiting a new...

FDA warns of contaminated romaine lettuce.
August 27, 2002... 2002 AUG 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- U.S. consumers are being warned to avoid romaine lettuce made by Spokane Produce following an Escherichia coli outbreak apparently caused by contaminated lettuce. At least 29 people in Washington...

Prenatal screening most effective strategy to prevent newborn infections.
August 27, 2002... 2002 AUG 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released data indicating routine screening for group B Streptococcus late in pregnancy is the most effective way to prevent transmission of the...

Parents' misperceptions about chickenpox may influence vaccine decisions.
August 27, 2002... 2002 AUG 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Results from a nationwide survey found that parents of children ages 4-12 were more reluctant to vaccinate their child against chickenpox than against other preventable illnesses and that...

Vical Receives U.S. government contract to manufacture Ebola vaccine.
August 27, 2002... 2002 AUG 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Vical, Inc., (VICL) announced that the company has been awarded a contract to manufacture clinical-grade supplies of an experimental DNA vaccine against Ebola for initial clinical development planned...

Family of postal worker who died of anthrax expands HMO suit.
August 27, 2002... 2002 AUG 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The family of a Maryland postal worker who died of inhalation anthrax has expanded its suit against the medical facility that treated him, claiming racial discrimination was a factor in the man's...

Vitex's Inactine system inactivates Borrelia burgdorferi in blood.
August 27, 2002... 2002 AUG 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- V.I. Technologies (Vitex), Inc., (VITX), a biotechnology company dedicated to developing products that improve the safety of the transfusion blood supply by pathogen reduction or removal, announced...

Nonprofit offers alternative to pesticides used to treat head lice.
August 27, 2002... 2002 AUG 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The nonprofit National Pediculosis Association (NPA) is reaching out to families with "Jesse's Project" and a nonchemical choice for head lice. Jesse was a child whose mother treated him for head...

Group finds air pollution adds to illness.
August 27, 2002... 2002 AUG 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Adding insult to injury, breathing polluted air when you have a cold makes you feel twice as bad. Cold viruses and certain pollutants, researchers say, both prompt cells to release the kinds of...

Simulated outbreak called a success.
August 27, 2002... 2002 AUG 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Linn County, Iowa emergency officials declared a simulated smallpox outbreak a success, although 30 Cedar Rapids-area residents died in the make-believe epidemic. "There's no other community of...

U.K. government criticized for choice of vaccine.
August 27, 2002... 2002 AUG 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A newspaper claimed July 31, 2002 that Britain had ordered the wrong smallpox vaccine to stockpile in case of bioterror attack. But the government defended its decision, saying it was made with...

Soil birthing surface, father's illiteracy increase risk of tetanus-related neonatal death.
August 27, 2002... 2002 AUG 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Maria G. Essig, MS, ELS, senior medical writer - An epidemiological survey in Loralai District, Pakistan, revealed contact with soil during delivery was a major cause of tetanus mortality in...

Etest susceptibility testing may not be feasible for use in developing regions.
August 27, 2002... 2002 AUG 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - The Etest method of assessing tuberculosis drug susceptibility may not be suitable for use in resource-poor areas, researchers in Brazil warn. I. M....

Cases in 33 states, seen spreading rapidly.
August 27, 2002... 2002 AUG 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- West Nile virus is sickening people far earlier this summer than usual, and is spreading so quickly - it's hit 33 states, as far west as South Dakota - that health officials believe it will reach...