TB & Outbreaks Week articles from January 2001

TB & Outbreaks Week archives from January 2001

Model Suggests Treatment During Antepartum Stage of Pregnancy is Best Strategy.
January 9, 2001... 2001 JAN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- - by Sonia Bell-Nichols, staff medical writer -- The best strategy for protecting women with latent tuberculosis infections during pregnancy is to treat them during the antepartum period, according to...

Bactec Outpaces Lowenstein-Jensen for Tuberculosis Testing.
January 9, 2001... 2001 JAN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Bactec testing is far superior to Lowenstein-Jensen culture in diagnosing Mycobacterium tuberculosis, researchers told those convened at Chest 2000, a conference of the American College of Chest...

Nasal Mupirocin Ointment Successful in Stopping Staph Outbreak in Neonates.
January 9, 2001... 2001 JAN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers working at an intensive care unit for newborns report that they were able to use a nasal ointment containing mupirocin to contain a sudden outbreak of Staphylococcus aureus infections. ...

Outcomes Following Surgery Explored in Mycobacteria-Infected Patients.
January 9, 2001... 2001 JAN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Mycobacterium strains other than M. tuberculosis are a cause of lung disease in infected patients. Surgical intervention is sometimes indicated as an appropriate treatment in these patients. ...

Cytokines and T Helper Cells Ebb and Flow During Infection.
January 9, 2001... 2001 JAN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- New research indicates that cytokine and T-helper cell responses change during tuberculosis infection. Understanding those changes could be beneficial for developing new TB therapies, say authors of the...

Permeability Increases in Epithelium Cells Prior to Necrosis.
January 9, 2001... 2001 JAN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- New research conducted at Emory University's School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, proposes that cell permeability increases in lung epithelium cells prior to cellular necrosis in Mycobacterium...

Mad Cow Disease May Have Spread to Countries Worldwide.
January 9, 2001... 2001 JAN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Meat and animal feed infected with mad cow disease may have been sold across the globe, raising the possibility of outbreaks beyond Europe, the World Health Organization said on December 23, 2000. ...

Collaborative Agreement for Diagnostic Tests Extended.
January 9, 2001... 2001 JAN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Paradigm Genetics, Inc. (PDGM), Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and Prionics AG, Zurich, Switzerland, have extended a collaborative agreement to co-develop and co-market innovative blood-based...

Germs, Not Genes, Making Us Sick.
January 9, 2001... 2001 JAN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Paul W. Ewald's best thinking started with an attack of diarrhea on a field trip to Kansas. A zoologist, he was studying the social habits of sparrows. But during that ordeal 24 years ago, he had...

WHO Urges Extra Precautions for Last-Minute Vacationers to Africa.
January 9, 2001... 2001 JAN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The World Health Organization on December 22, 2000, cautioned vacationers booking last-minute trips to Africa to take extra precautions against malaria. The organization said it had received...

Bovine Tuberculosis Found in Michigan, Risk to Humans is Low.
January 9, 2001... 2001 JAN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Preliminary tests show a one-year-old whitetail buck shot by a hunter in Emmet County, Michigan, likely had bovine tuberculosis, state officials said December 8, 2000. Although further tests were...

Anergy Observed Following Fluticasone Propionate Treatment in Healthy Volunteers.
January 9, 2001... 2001 JAN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Fluticasone propionate is an inhaled corticosteroid that is indicated for treating patients with asthma, allergic rhinitis, and other respiratory illnesses. New research published in the journal Chest...

Beliefs Act as Barriers to Getting Flu Shots.
January 9, 2001... 2001 JAN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Certain individuals may avoid getting a flu shot because of beliefs they hold, such as concern about unknown ingredients in the vaccine, suggest the results of a small study of elderly low-income...

Volunteers Go House-to-House with Polio Vaccine in Dominican Republic.
January 9, 2001... 2001 JAN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Volunteers went from house to house in poor neighborhoods of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on December 18, 2000, vaccinating children against polio in the wake of an outbreak that has left at least...

CDC Inaugurates High-Tech Lab for Studying HIV, Flu, and Polio.
January 9, 2001... 2001 JAN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) celebrated the opening of its new state-of-the-art research facility, the Edward R. Roybal Laboratory Building, on December 18, 2000. The...

Four Deaths Linked to Recalled Poultry Products.
January 9, 2001... 2001 JAN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Cargill, Inc.'s, chief executive officer is urging customers to destroy recalled poultry products that have been linked to four deaths and three miscarriages or stillbirths. The U.S. Centers for...

Information Key Ingredient for Healthy World; NewsRx.net Offers eHealth Revenue Sharing Booster Shot.
January 9, 2001... 2001 JAN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Health information from the Internet is the key ingredient for advancing world health, according to health publishing executive, C.W. Henderson, CEO of NewsRx. Henderson said that delivering the...

Measles and Pertussis Risk Higher for Children with Personal Exemptions from Immunization.
January 9, 2001... 2001 JAN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Children who are exempt from immunization for religious or philosophical reasons have a higher risk of measles and pertussis, reports an article in the December 27, 2000, issue of The Journal of the...

First Deaths Reported in U.S. Since 1998.
January 9, 2001... 2001 JAN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Rabies killed five people in the United States during 2000 in the first such deaths reported since 1998. All but one of the deaths occurred after the person was bitten by a bat, the U.S. Centers...

Study Blames Hospital Technician for Spreading Hepatitis C to Patients.
January 9, 2001... 2001 JAN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A medical technician with a cut on his finger accidentally infected five hospital patients with hepatitis C virus in the first documented case of its kind, researchers in Germany say. They would...

Respiratory Syncytial Virus Antigen Produced in Tobacco.
January 9, 2001... 2001 JAN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers at Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, have produced human respiratory virus vaccine antigen in tobacco plants. "Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the...

Needle-Exchange Program Propels Drug Users to Tuberculosis Testing Services.
January 16, 2001... 2001 JAN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Needle-exchange programs for injection drug users have been greeted with much controversy in recent years. While some programs have proven successful in meeting their targeted goals, some members of...

South Carolina Inmates with HIV Show Increased Rate of Tuberculosis Transmission.
January 16, 2001... 2001 JAN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- An epidemiological investigation conducted at a South Carolina prison traced tuberculosis transmission to a single dormitory where inmates resided. The results of that investigation demonstrate the...

Practitioners See Changing Trends in Clinical Appearance of Disease.
January 16, 2001... 2001 JAN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Clinical presentation of laryngeal tuberculosis reported recently is different from findings observed in the past, researchers in South Korea have observed. New studies also report that laryngeal...

Age, Gender Among Factors Cited as Predictors in Radiography Outcomes.
January 16, 2001... 2001 JAN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers cited age, gender, and a number of other factors in poor radiological outcomes in tuberculosis patients in a new study published in Acta Radiologica. The study, conducted in a Saudi...

Ligase Chain Reaction a Sensitive Tool for Primary Screening.
January 16, 2001... 2001 JAN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A study published in the journal Thorax says that ligase chain reaction is a valuable primary screening test when used on samples from patients suspected of having Mycobacterium tuberculosis...

Survival Comparable, Cost Lower in Combination Versus Monotherapy.
January 16, 2001... 2001 JAN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Though survival is similar in tuberculosis patients who take combination rifampin/isoniazid therapy and individuals who take isoniazid alone, the cost of combination drug therapy is somewhat cheaper,...

Study Finds Alaska Natives Susceptible to Helicobacter pylori.
January 16, 2001... 2001 JAN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A study on a harmful bacteria common in Alaska Natives has produced some alarming preliminary findings, according to the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage. The center's research has found...

Outbreak in Marshall Islands Reported.
January 16, 2001... 2001 JAN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Five people have died in the first outbreak of cholera reported in the Marshall Islands. Secretary of Health Donald Capelle said December 28, 2000, that the five were among 143 cases of the...

Pennsylvania Public Health System Examined in Wake of Outbreak.
January 16, 2001... 2001 JAN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Pennsylvania's public health system, with its mix of local and state authorities, is coming under scrutiny after officials in one of the state's largest counties criticized their own health department...

Foundation Awards $15.1 Million to Treat Parasitic Diseases.
January 16, 2001... 2001 JAN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded $15.11 million to an international consortium of researchers, led by a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) scientist, to develop new...

Outbreak Leaves Crippled Children and Unanswered Questions.
January 16, 2001... 2001 JAN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Sandy Torres sits in a wheelchair in the front of his sixth grade class, learning anatomy, though his own body is forever damaged by a disease that has scientists scrambling for answers. Sandy, 13...

Behavior Changes Yet to Follow Hepatitis C Diagnosis.
January 16, 2001... 2001 JAN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Young injection drug users (IDUs) seem to ignore diagnoses of hepatitis C (HCV) infection, possibly to the detriment of others. Danielle C. Ompad, of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and...

Serotype G Chlamydia Strain Strongly Associated with Disease Development.
January 16, 2001... 2001 JAN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Women with the sexually transmitted infection Chlamydia trachomatis are at increased risk of developing cervical squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), and the risk is highest when the infection is serotype G,...

Salmonella is Developing Resistance to Important Drug.
January 16, 2001... 2001 JAN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Salmonella illnesses resistant to the standard drug used to treat serious forms of the infection in children are emerging nationwide, government researchers warn. The U.S. Centers for Disease...

Strains of Hepatitis G Virus Show Distinctive Patterns Based on Locale in China.
January 16, 2001... 2001 JAN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- National Cancer Institute researchers say Chinese isolates of GB virus C/hepatitis G virus (GBV-c/HGV) are very distinct, genetically speaking, and can often be linked to geographical locales. P....

CDC Says Vaccination Now is Best Protection Against Slow-Starting Flu Season.
January 16, 2001... 2001 JAN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention influenza surveillance supports the warning to persons at high risk for complications from influenza that it's not too late to get a flu shot this flu...

Clinical Assessment Combined with Laboratory Assays Deliver Better Diagnosis.
January 23, 2001... 2001 JAN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- - by Sonia Bell-Nichols, staff medical writer -- Polymerase chain reaction, adenosine deaminase activity, and interferon (IFN)-gamma levels, when combined with an evaluation of clinical factors,...

Linezolid Might Help Combat Resistant Bacteria.
January 23, 2001... 2001 JAN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs researchers and their colleagues have found that linezolid, the first of a new class of antibiotics, can cure many infections caused by bacteria known for their...

Tanzanian Clinic Outpatients Display Limited Knowledge of Tuberculosis Facts.
January 23, 2001... 2001 JAN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Medical investigators at a Norwegian university, who studied tuberculosis patients at an outpatient clinic in Tanzania, report that very few of patients had an understanding of tuberculosis infection....

Researchers Move Closer to Treatment that Stops Infection.
January 23, 2001... 2001 JAN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers have taken a significant step toward an improved treatment for malaria, by far the world's most prevalent tropical disease. Dr. Daniel Goldberg, of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute...

Hospital Patients Get Staph Infections from Their Own Germs.
January 23, 2001... 2001 JAN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A study shows for the first time that hospital patients often catch life-threatening Staphylococcus infections from germs they harbor in their own noses. Staph infections are a serious threat to...

Elevated Cortisol Levels in Lungs Offer Possible Explanation for Immunoparesis.
January 23, 2001... 2001 JAN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Modified metabolism in pulmonary tuberculosis patients, especially in the lungs, could be the reason for immunoparesis seen in patients with more advanced disease. Modified cortisol metabolism...

Fluorescent Microscopy Makes Most of Single Sputum Sample.
January 23, 2001... 2001 JAN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- When patients only provide one specimen for tuberculosis analysis, researchers suggest that fluorescent microscopy (FM) instead of Ziehl-Neelsen (ZN) analysis be used. When two samples are...

Harlem Fast Track Program Provides Model for Others to Use for Latent TB.
January 23, 2001... 2001 JAN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A program developed and tested in New York City at the Harlem Hospital TB Clinic could potentially change the way latent tuberculosis infections (LTBI) are diagnosed and treated in the future. The...

Public Health Workers Assess TB Risk in Asian Refugees in Australia.
January 23, 2001... 2001 JAN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Public health officials in Sydney, Australia, estimate the rates for reactivation of latent tuberculosis in Southeast Asian refugees match tuberculosis rates similar to those experienced in the United...

Actimmune Phase II Trial Initiated to Treat Atypical Disease.
January 23, 2001... 2001 JAN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- InterMune (ITMN), Burlingame, California, announced that it has commenced enrollment in its Phase II clinical trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of inhaled Actimmune (Interferon gamma-1b) for the...

Antiviral Drug Summit Focuses on Anti-HIV, HBV/HCV, and Influenza.
January 23, 2001... 2001 JAN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The Strategic Research Institute has announced that new pre-clinical and clinical data on compounds to target viral diseases will be the focus of the "2nd International Antiviral Drug Discovery and...

Poor Reading Skills Stop Inmates from Learning Tuberculosis Materials.
January 23, 2001... 2001 JAN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Some Massachusetts inmates lack the reading skills necessary to read and understand tuberculosis education materials, according to workers at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health in Boston....

Virus Identified Following Death of Four-Year-Old Singapore Boy.
January 23, 2001... 2001 JAN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Health officials identified enterovirus 71 in the body of a four-year-old boy who died of possible hand-foot-and-mouth disease in Singapore on January 3, 2001, according to a government report. ...

Engineered Mouse Virus Eliminates Cell-Mediated Response.
January 23, 2001... 2001 JAN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A virus that kills every one of its victims, by wiping out part of their immune system, has been accidentally created by an Australian research team. The virus, a modified mousepox, does not affect...

Researchers Argue the Case For and Against Vaccination Programs.
January 23, 2001... 2001 JAN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Ontario's decision to make the influenza vaccine available at no charge to all its citizens for the 2000-2001 flu season has sparked debate in the public health community. In the "Controversy"...

Study Sheds New Light on Disease Transmission, Implications for Vaccine Development.
January 23, 2001... 2001 JAN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- New research on the tick-borne bacteria responsible for Lyme disease likely will make scientists think differently about how to develop a more effective vaccine. The findings clearly demonstrate...

Initiative Establishes Partnership to Test Vaccine Candidates.
January 23, 2001... 2001 JAN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Under the auspices of a newly formed partnership with the Malaria Vaccine Initiative at PATH (Program for Appropriate Technology in Health), the Emory University Vaccine Research Center, Atlanta,...

Mass Immunization Effective Among Teens and Young Adults, But Not Very Young Children.
January 23, 2001... 2001 JAN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Mass immunization is effective for controlling outbreaks or epidemics of serogroup C meningococcal disease among teenagers and young adults, but there is no evidence of protection in young children,...

Single Ceftriaxone Dose Can Increase Amount of Penicillin-Resistant Bacteria.
January 23, 2001... 2001 JAN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers writing in the journal Acta Paediatrica warn that even a single dose of the antibiotic ceftriaxone, though effective for treating pediatric otitis media, can also cause an substantial...

Outbreak in Haiti and the Dominican Republic Under Control.
January 23, 2001... 2001 JAN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A leading physician monitoring an outbreak of poliomyelitis in Haiti and the Dominican Republic said that the situation appears to be under control and urged countries not to retreat from achieving and...

HLA-A*0201 Recognizes Epitopes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Protein Component.
January 23, 2001... 2001 JAN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A study in HLA-transgenic mice has enabled researchers to identify epitopes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Ag85B that could serve as subunit components in developing TB vaccines. The scientists...

Better Contact Investigation Would Help Eliminate TB.
January 30, 2001... 2001 JAN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Based on findings from a sample of 1,080 adults diagnosed with pulmonary sputum positive tuberculosis (TB) and 6,225 of their close contacts, investigators from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and...

Assay Results in Differential Detection of Genetically Related Mycobacteria.
January 30, 2001... 2001 JAN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The study of tuberculosis, sarcoidosis, and Crohn's disease may be facilitated by a new assay. "A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay targeted to the immunogenic protein MPB64 gene was used to...

Science Closer to Mapping Proteome.
January 30, 2001... 2001 JAN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Scientists are another step closer to mapping and understanding the Mycobacterium tuberculosis proteome. "Human tuberculosis is caused by the intracellular pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis,"...

Emerging Poxvirus May Have Developed from Brazilian Smallpox Vaccine.
January 30, 2001... 2001 JAN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- An emerging poxvirus in cattle and humans in Brazil may have developed from the Brazilian smallpox vaccine, researchers in that country say. "The biological properties of poxvirus isolates from...

Infestation by Parasitic Worms May Increase Susceptibility to HIV Infection.
January 30, 2001... 2001 JAN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Patients infected with parasitic worms, or helminths, can suffer from increased susceptibility to infection with the HIV virus, researchers at the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious...

Campylobacter Vaccine Exhibits Significant Immune Responses in Phase II Clinical Trial.
January 30, 2001... 2001 JAN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Antex Biologics Inc. (ANX), Gaithersburg, Maryland, announced that a recently completed Phase II clinical trial of Campyvax, the company's vaccine to prevent Campylobacter infections, showed...

CDC Adds Another Vaccine to Children's Schedule of Shots.
January 30, 2001... 2001 JAN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has added pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) to its recommended immunization schedule for children. The vaccine protects against infection by...

Transforming Growth Factor-(beta) 1 Role Examined.
January 30, 2001... 2001 JAN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers in Brazil have found that patients with some forms of leprosy show elevated levels of the cell-growth-inducing polypeptide transforming growth factor-(beta) 1 (TGF-(beta) 1), caused by...

Clinical Trial Data of RPspA Vaccine is Encouraging.
January 30, 2001... 2001 JAN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Phase I clinical trial results with pneumococcal surface protein A (PspA) vaccination are encouraging. "PspA, a cross-reactive protein expressed by all pneumococci, is known to elicit an antibody...

Scientists Uncover Break-and-Entry Strategy of Disease-Causing Bacteria.
January 30, 2001... 2001 JAN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- As bacteria become resistant to current antibiotics, scientists are searching for the root causes of infection in order to develop more effective treatments. Researchers at Washington University...

Diagnostic Delays in New Zealand Due to Physicians, Not Patients.
January 30, 2001... 2001 JAN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to a study from New Zealand, delays by doctors in making a diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) were a more important component of total delay of diagnosis than were patient delays in presenting...

Variety of Symptoms Makes Diagnosis Difficult.
January 30, 2001... 2001 JAN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers in The Netherlands evaluated reasons for delays in diagnosis of tuberculous meningitis in that country. "The diagnosis of tuberculous meningitis is easily missed because the variety of...

Case Study of an Airman Presented.
January 30, 2001... 2001 JAN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers in the United States reported a case study of an airman with tuberculous uveitis. R. Haddon and colleagues, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma published their study in the journal Aviation Space...

Study Finds Hepatitis B Vaccination Policies Inconsistent in Colorado.
January 30, 2001... 2001 JAN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Most hospitals in rural areas of Colorado do not have either standing orders for vaccinating newborns against hepatitis B or policies for communicating vaccine administration to clinicians. This...

Reduced Hookworm Infections Occur in BCG-Vaccinated Children.
January 30, 2001... 2001 JAN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to a study from Brazil, children with a bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccination scar have reduced incidence, prevalence, and intensity of infection of hookworms. "BCG, the most common...

Biological Warfare a Continuing Threat.
January 30, 2001... 2001 JAN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- More than 20 years have passed since the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the eradication of smallpox. "Simply put, smallpox represents a direct threat to the entire world," said Block, a...