TB & Outbreaks Week articles from October 2000

TB & Outbreaks Week archives from October 2000

Logging Companies Play Major Role in Emergence, Spread of New Diseases.
October 3, 2000... 2000 OCT 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- A recent study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health that examined the factors causing humans to become infected by novel pathogens has found that the intersection of forest hunting and...

Study Finds WHO Cure Rates are Insufficient for Gold Miners in South Africa.
October 3, 2000... 2000 OCT 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- A study published in the September 23, 2000, issue of The Lancet concludes that World Health Organization (WHO) targets for cure rates of tuberculosis are not sufficient in South African gold-mining...

Dental Water Units Harbor High Levels of Microorganisms Despite Guidelines.
October 3, 2000... 2000 OCT 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- The cleanliness level of the water we receive when we visit the dentist for treatment has been an issue of major concern recently. Now researchers in England have produced a study that examines the...

HIV-1 Infection Increases Risk of Malaria.
October 3, 2000... 2000 OCT 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- People in developing countries with HIV-1 infection may be twice as likely to develop malarial infection and disease compared with HIV-1 negative individuals, according to research published in the September...

Funding for Biodefense Research Focuses on Public Health Issues.
October 3, 2000... 2000 OCT 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has awarded a $300,000 grant to The Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health that will be used to launch an educational initiative...

Handwashing Survey Reveals Americans Still Don't Get It.
October 3, 2000... 2000 OCT 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- Despite an ever-increasing threat from antibiotic resistant "superbugs" and emerging new microbial illnesses, at least one-third of Americans appear to have forgotten the single best piece of infection control...

Parents Who Smoke Create Risk for Invasive Disease in Children.
October 3, 2000... 2000 OCT 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- Parents who smoke place their children at risk for acquiring invasive meningococcal disease, scientists say in an article in the Archives of Disease in Childhood. In addition, unfavorable socioeconomic...

Silver-Coated Catheters Cut Infections, May Save Money, Analysis Finds.
October 3, 2000... 2000 OCT 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- Almost anyone who has been in a hospital knows it: having a urinary catheter is one of the least pleasant parts of your stay. But it can also be risky; catheters are the most common source of hospital-acquired...

Satellite Mapping Shows Areas Where Adverse Reactions to Ivermectin are Likely.
October 3, 2000... 2000 OCT 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- A research letter published in the September 23, 2000, issue of The Lancet describes a satellite mapping technique in Africa that can identify areas where high loa loa endemicity may adversely affect the safe...

Scientists Study Risk Factors for Trachoma in Children in Tanzania.
October 3, 2000... 2000 OCT 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- John Hopkins School of Medicine researchers recently reported findings about the epidemiology of trachoma in children in Tanzania in the American Journal of Epidemiology. Trachoma is an eye disease that is...

Some Types of Tuberculosis Granulomas Associate with Apoptosis More than Others.
October 3, 2000... 2000 OCT 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- Scientists in Germany, who have characterized the relationship between tuberculosis granulomas and the mycobacteria that inhabit them, suggest that granulomas with caseous necrosis are more prone to be...

Israel Declares Epidemic.
October 3, 2000... 2000 OCT 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- Health authorities in Israel have declared West Nile virus infection an epidemic, saying the mosquito-borne illness has killed 13 people in Israel this summer and infected thousands more. The virus has...

Epidemics Prompt Emergency Campaigns.
October 3, 2000... 2000 OCT 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- Epidemics of dengue and its more serious form, dengue hemorrhagic fever, in El Salvador and other countries have prompted emergency campaigns to control the outbreaks, showing the fact that dengue is basically...

Tuberculosis Spreading in Japan at Faster Pace.
October 3, 2000... 2000 OCT 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- The number of tuberculosis patients in Japan jumped in 1999 for the third year in a row as the resurgence of the infectious lung disease progressed at an even faster pace, health officials said September 22,...

States Ready for Flu Vaccine Delay.
October 3, 2000... 2000 OCT 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- Health departments across the western U.S. say they will limit flu shots to high-risk people and take other steps to cope with an expected shortage of the vaccine this winter. The U.S. Centers for Disease...

Treatment Results in Favorable Response.
October 3, 2000... 2000 OCT 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- Clinical study results showed that treatment with Cancidas (caspofungin acetate), an investigational medicine, resulted in a favorable response in 22 of 54 patients (41%) diagnosed with life-threatening...

New Research Facility Dedicated in Mali, West Africa.
October 3, 2000... 2000 OCT 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- A new malaria laboratory facility was recently dedicated at the University of Mali in Bamako, Mali, West Africa, to promote malaria research, especially the development of effective malaria vaccines. ...

Day Care Centers Incubate and Spread Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria.
October 3, 2000... 2000 OCT 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- Many parents regard occasional minor illnesses as the most likely health risks posed by day care centers. However, according to data presented on Global Resistance Day, a more insidious danger lurks in these...

Baltimore Cuts Some STD Rates in Half.
October 3, 2000... 2000 OCT 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- Two years after Baltimore, Maryland, was ridiculed for having the highest sexually transmitted disease infection rates in the U.S., syphilis case are down 60% between 1997 and 1999, and chlamydia and gonorrhea...

South African Health Minister Questions Cause of AIDS.
October 3, 2000... 2000 OCT 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- Defying mainstream scientific opinion and dismissing mounting criticism that it is confusing the public, the South African government continued to question whether HIV alone causes AIDS. Health minister...

Outbreak in U.S. Caused by Oysters Carrying Vibrio parahaemolyticus.
October 3, 2000... 2000 OCT 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- An outbreak of acute gastroenteritis in 1998 in the United States was caused by oysters that contained the bacteria Vibrio parahaemolyticus, according to an article in the September 27, 2000, issue of The...

Drug-Resistant Strains Reported in Several U.S. States.
October 3, 2000... 2000 OCT 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- As drug-resistant strains of gonorrhea continue to emerge, successful treatment of this sexually transmitted disease (STD) is becoming more difficult. In the 1980s, gonorrhea became resistant to penicillin...

Antibiotics Compared for Chronic Bronchitis Treatment.
October 3, 2000... 2000 OCT 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- SmithKline Beecham's (SBH) investigational antibiotic Factive (gemifloxacin mesylate) eradicated the bacterium, Haemophilus influenzae, after one day of treatment in airway infections in patients with chronic...

CDC Releases U.S. Vaccine Coverage Statistics.
October 3, 2000... 2000 OCT 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- According to a report in the September 22, 2000, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, immunization coverage in the U.S. was greater than or equal to 90% for three doses of poliovirus vaccine, three doses of...

Global Vaccine Fund To Assist 13 Developing Countries.
October 3, 2000... 2000 OCT 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- The Global Fund for Children's Vaccines will give more than US$150 million worth of vaccines and funding over five years to improve immunization programs in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Thirteen...

Hepatitis A Virus Outbreak Worsening in Maryland.
October 3, 2000... 2000 OCT 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- Twenty-four people have been sickened in a hepatitis A outbreak linked to three southern Maryland restaurants, and the virus appears to be spreading, health officials said. To fight the highly contagious...

Clinical Trial Reinforces Safety of Tequin Antibiotic.
October 3, 2000... 2000 OCT 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- The results of the Tequin Clinical Experience Study (TeqCES), the largest clinical study of community-acquired respiratory tract infections (RTIs) conducted for an antibiotic, were announced during the...

Environmentalists Say Pesticide Sprays are Harming People.
October 3, 2000... 2000 OCT 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- A woman who said she could barely speak after pesticide hit her face was among witnesses called by environmentalists who hoped to convince a judge to block New York City's all-out attack against the West Nile...

United Nations Agency Campaign "Resounding Success".
October 3, 2000... 2000 OCT 3 - (NewsRx.com) -- The U.N. health agency declared victory in the first phase of its anti-yellow fever campaign in Liberia. "The vaccination campaign is ending in Grand Cape Mount County and has been a resounding success,"...

Tuberculosis On the Rise in HIV Infected Children in New York City.
October 17, 2000... 2000 OCT 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- According to a study from the United States, tuberculosis has increased in HIV infected children in New York city. "Tuberculosis disease incidence increased sharply in New York City (NYC) in the late...

Study Identifies High-Risk Immigrant Groups in Canada.
October 17, 2000... 2000 OCT 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- Many immigrants arriving in Canada from developed countries are known to be at risk for tuberculosis. Dr. Wendy Wobeser and colleagues have analyzed data from the Ontario Reportable Disease Information...

Streptococcus pneumoniae Remains Susceptible to Some Antimicrobials.
October 17, 2000... 2000 OCT 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria have increasingly grown resistant to antibiotics that have been used to treat infections for years. Now researchers at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio,...

Enteroviral Assay Saves Hospital Costs When Prevalence is Above Breakeven Point.
October 17, 2000... 2000 OCT 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- Two Harvard University researchers propose that by using a diagnostic strategy that incorporates enteroviral polymerase chain reaction (ePCR) testing on infants admitted to hospitals with elevated fevers and...

Study Demonstrates How Streptococci Go for the Throat.
October 17, 2000... 2000 OCT 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- Pathogenic bacteria, like viruses, are accomplished molecular mimics, deploying surface molecules that interact with host-borne proteins in much the same way that endogenous host molecules do. In the...

Isoniazid Therapy for TB Causes Liver Problems in Transplant Patients.
October 17, 2000... 2000 OCT 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- Isoniazid therapy could cause potential problems in the same people it is meant to protect. A study conducted by researchers in Spain shows that prophylactic isoniazid (INH) therapy, when administered to...

Protein Homolog Necessary to Survive Starvation.
October 17, 2000... 2000 OCT 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- A signaling molecule is often required for bacteria to survive conditions that are suboptimal relative to nutrient requirements. The signaling molecule is called hyperphosphorylated guanine [(p)ppGpp], and is...

Inconsistent Condom Use in Nigeria Puts Wives at More Risk than Sex Workers.
October 17, 2000... 2000 OCT 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- Nigerian men use condoms more often with commercial sex workers than they do with casual sexual partners or with their wives, a new study finds. As a result, men and women may be more vulnerable to sexually...

Researchers Develop Bacteria that Express Antibodies to Fight Pathogens.
October 17, 2000... 2000 OCT 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- Microbiologists in Italy have found a way to enable beneficial bacteria to fight pathogenic organisms. Specifically, they have created a beneficial bacterium that expresses antibodies that can kill the...

Air Force Pilot Discharged for Refusing Vaccination.
October 17, 2000... 2000 OCT 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- Another active duty pilot at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware has been discharged for disobeying an order to receive an anthrax vaccination, a newspaper reported on September 26, 2000. Former 1st Lt....

Death Toll in South Africa Rises to Thirteen.
October 17, 2000... 2000 OCT 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- Cholera outbreaks in northeastern South Africa have claimed 13 lives, Health Ministry spokesman Sibani Mngadi said on September 26, 2000. Seven of the deaths were direct results of the waterborne disease....

North Carolina Finds Virus in Sentinel Chicken.
October 17, 2000... 2000 OCT 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- Brunswick County, North Carolina, officials have boosted mosquito control efforts after confirming that a sentinel chicken tested positive for potentially deadly eastern equine encephalitis. Since...

San Luis Valley, Colorado, Man Treated at New Mexico Hospital.
October 17, 2000... 2000 OCT 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- Colorado state health officials were trying to determine how a man from the San Luis Valley contracted a hantavirus infection. The 50-year-old man from the Mosca area was in critical but stable condition...

Organizations Encourage Respiratory Disease Patients to Receive Flu Shot.
October 17, 2000... 2000 OCT 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- Although the flu season is still a few months away, four professional organizations are reminding the 17 million asthmatics in the U.S. that now is the time to protect against the influenza virus. The...

Rift Valley Fever Reported in Saudi Arabia, First Cases Ever Outside Africa.
October 17, 2000... 2000 OCT 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- As of September 17, 2000, the Health Ministry of Saudi Arabia reported 16 deaths in humans (14 males), from Rift Valley fever in the Jizan region in southwestern Saudi Arabia. Laboratory confirmation of...

Rift Valley Fever/Acute Hemorrhagic Fever Syndrome Reported in Yemen.
October 17, 2000... 2000 OCT 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- The Yemen Ministry of Health has reported 113 human cases, including 30 deaths of suspected Rift Valley fever in Wadi Mawr, Al-Hudaydah Governorate in northern Yemen. There have also been 266 animal...

American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Meeting in Late October.
October 17, 2000... 2000 OCT 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- Tropical diseases aren't just tropical anymore. Because of increasing international travel, immigration, and reliance on imported foodstuffs, diseases no longer respect boundaries. And, U.S. citizens can...

Maryland Officials Urge Calm.
October 17, 2000... 2000 OCT 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- Mosquito control trucks sprayed insecticide over two square miles of downtown Baltimore, Maryland, streets early on September 27, 2000, in an effort to eradicate mosquitoes that could carry the West Nile...

Multidrug-Resistant TB Can Cause Reinfection in HIV Patients.
October 17, 2000... 2000 OCT 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis was responsible for reinfection of HIV patients in Spain. Researchers conducted a study to analyze "the frequency of reinfection in an outbreak of tuberculosis caused by a...

Preclinical Antibiotics Studies Initiated.
October 17, 2000... 2000 OCT 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- Antex Biologics Inc. (ANX), Gaithersburg, Maryland, announced that AntexPharma has formed a collaboration with Lyotropic Therapeutics, LLC, to formulate the company's antibiotic candidates with Lyotropic's...

Similarities Characterize Strains Detected in South American Virus Isolates.
October 17, 2000... 2000 OCT 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) can be linked to two major types of viruses in South America: the Laguna Negra (LN) virus and the Andes (AND) virus. More than 400 individuals have been identified with...

Public Health Genetics Crucial to Treatment, Expert Says.
October 17, 2000... 2000 OCT 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- New discoveries in what is being called "Public Health Genetics" will be crucial in harnessing genetics technologies to track emerging infectious diseases and improve their diagnosis, treatment and...

Cost-Benefit of Flu Shots for Healthy Working Adults Questioned.
October 17, 2000... 2000 OCT 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- Giving influenza shots to healthy working adults who are less than 65 years of age can reduce rates of illness and work absenteeism, but may not be cost-beneficial overall, according to a new study published...

Experts Decide Content of 2001 "Southern Hemisphere" Vaccine.
October 17, 2000... 2000 OCT 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- The composition of the vaccine for year 2001 (southern hemisphere influenza season) has been decided and communicated to vaccine manufacturers by the World Health Organization (WHO), following agreement on...

Vaccine is Cost-Effective in High Risk Populations.
October 17, 2000... 2000 OCT 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- Lyme disease (LD) vaccine is cost-effective only in high risk populations, suggest researchers in the United States. "LD is the most frequently reported tick-borne disease in the United States with an...

Molecular Testing Identifies Patients Common to Hepatitis B Outbreak.
October 17, 2000... 2000 OCT 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- Researchers in Italy described in a recent edition of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology how they used molecular testing to identify the genetic characteristics of a hepatitis B virus (HBV) outbreak in a...

Heptavalent Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine Evaluated in Children.
October 17, 2000... 2000 OCT 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- Kaiser Permanente, California, researchers report that the Wyeth Lederle heptavalent CRM197 PCV vaccine is safe and efficacious in children. Their study aimed "to determine the efficacy, safety, and...

Vaccine Against Otitis Media and Pneumonia Found Cost-Effective in a Subset of Children.
October 17, 2000... 2000 OCT 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- Vaccinating children two to five years of age against pneumococcal otitis media and pneumonia appears to be a cost-effective strategy. D. Weycker and colleagues at Policy Analysts, Inc., Massachusetts,...

Conjugate Vaccines May Be More Effective than Polysaccharide Vaccines in HIV Patients.
October 17, 2000... 2000 OCT 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- Depending on HIV serotype, a 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine was more protective than a 23-valent polysaccharide vaccine in HIV infected adults, researchers in the United States found. "HIV...

CDC Forecasts Top Ten Challenges of 21st Century.
October 17, 2000... 2000 OCT 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) outlined what it believes are the top 10 public health challenges the United States must address and says the tools already exist to combat them, in a...

Mechanism of Action Discovered.
October 17, 2000... 2000 OCT 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- Researchers at the University of Amsterdam have made an important step in understanding why the drug thalidomide is such an effective therapy for patients with HIV or mycobacteria infections. They...

Virus Confirmed in Two Crows in Pennsylvania.
October 17, 2000... 2000 OCT 17 - (NewsRx.com) -- Pennsylvania's secretary of health Robert S. Zimmerman, Jr., confirmed the West Nile virus infection has been found in two crows in southeastern Pennsylvania. Previously, all tests for West Nile virus in...

Resistant Tuberculosis Strains Sometimes Passed from Adult to Child Contacts.
October 31, 2000... 2000 OCT 31 - (NewsRx.com) -- More often than not, children with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis can trace the source of their tuberculosis to adult contacts with the same type of strain, researchers in South Africa report. Contact...

Blocking Tumor Necrosis Factor-Alpha Reduces Apoptosis in Infected Animals.
October 31, 2000... 2000 OCT 31 - (NewsRx.com) -- Recent experiments performed at the Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock show that a blockage of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha reduces the number of cells in animals infected with Chlamydia that...

Bone Marrow and Blood Cultures Used to Identify Mycobacterial Infections.
October 31, 2000... 2000 OCT 31 - (NewsRx.com) -- Researchers in Spain determined that blood cultures are valid specimens for diagnosing disseminated mycobacterial infections (DMI). "Diagnosis of DMI is usually based on the recovery of mycobacteria from...

Investigators Examine Nature of Tuberculosis Patients Who Fail Therapy.
October 31, 2000... 2000 OCT 31 - (NewsRx.com) -- Factors associated with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDRTB) were recently outlined by public health researchers from New York at the 38(th) Annual Meeting of the Infectious Diseases of America...

Mutations on Mycobacterium tuberculosis are Indicators for Rifampin Failure.
October 31, 2000... 2000 OCT 31 - (NewsRx.com) -- A genetic mutation at a certain site on the microbe that causes tuberculosis has been associated with resistance to rifampin drug therapy. That mutation was recently identified by researchers in a report...

Use of Clinical Scoring System Could Reduce Antibiotic Prescriptions.
October 31, 2000... 2000 OCT 31 - (NewsRx.com) -- Three years ago, a national consensus conference on antibiotic resistance recommended that the number of antimicrobial prescriptions written in Canada be reduced "by 25% within three years by focusing on...

Four E. coli Restaurant Outbreaks Highlight Need for Proper Food Handling.
October 31, 2000... 2000 OCT 31 - (NewsRx.com) -- Even though beef, when cooked properly, does not generally transmit the Escherichia coli bacterium to humans, improper handling methods before the meat is cooked could still mean that it is a source of...

New Test Quickly Identifies Bacteria in Urine Specimens.
October 31, 2000... 2000 OCT 31 - (NewsRx.com) -- Scientists in Spain have identified a new use for a type of test called immunochromatographic assay (ICT). This assay can be used to identify the bacteria that causes Legionnaire's disease, Legionella...

Ordinary Commercial Surfactants May Hold Promise as Anti-Malaria Agents.
October 31, 2000... 2000 OCT 31 - (NewsRx.com) -- Chloroquine, which is used in treating malaria, is increasingly losing its effectiveness because of parasitic resistance. Now researchers at the University of Toronto in Canada have reported that commercially...

Study Characterizes Staph. aureus Infections Transmitted at a Children's Hospital in Barcelona.
October 31, 2000... 2000 OCT 31 - (NewsRx.com) -- Several risk factors are associated with acquiring nosocomially transmitted Staphylococcus aureus. Researchers identified these risk factors and presented them recently at a major international conference...

Study Reiterates Benefits of Handwashing by Hospital Staff.
October 31, 2000... 2000 OCT 31 - (NewsRx.com) -- Yet another study has demonstrated the positive effects of health-care workers washing their hands prior to working with patients. Research published in the October 14, 2000, issue of The Lancet...

Complications Mean Longer Illness for Children with Necrotizing Pneumonitis.
October 31, 2000... 2000 OCT 31 - (NewsRx.com) -- Unfortunately, children with pneumonia do not always get well as expected and a complication called necrotizing pneumonitis can develop. As a result, those children are more susceptible to longer hospital...

Computed Tomography Tested for Efficacy in Distinguishing Pneumonia Nodules.
October 31, 2000... 2000 OCT 31 - (NewsRx.com) -- Pneumonia is a serious illness, and perhaps more so in patients with lung transplants. In an effort to ascertain whether or not computed tomography (CT) can distinguish the different lung manifestations that...

CDC Outlines Characteristics of TB Contacts and Infection.
October 31, 2000... 2000 OCT 31 - (NewsRx.com) -- People who have close day-to-day contact with patients with active tuberculosis infection are subject to acquiring that infection themselves. Government researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control...

European Commission, WHO, and UNAIDS Take United Stand Against Killer Diseases.
October 31, 2000... 2000 OCT 31 - (NewsRx.com) -- The European Commission, the World Health Organization, and the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS announced a common stand against the epidemics of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis in the developing...

Authorities Close Singapore Kindergartens, Day Care Centers.
October 31, 2000... 2000 OCT 31 - (NewsRx.com) -- Singapore authorities recently ordered all kindergartens, child-care centers, and nursery schools to close temporarily after three children died from suspected hand, foot, and mouth disease. A...

Animal and Human Disease Surveillance Continues in Yemen.
October 31, 2000... 2000 OCT 31 - (NewsRx.com) -- As of October 2, 2000, 321 suspected cases of Rift Valley fever (RVF) with 32 deaths have been reported in Yemen, according to the World Health Organization. In Yemen, eight teams of physicians and...

Saudi Arabia Preparing for Worst in Fight to Contain Outbreak.
October 31, 2000... 2000 OCT 31 - (NewsRx.com) -- With the official death toll from Rift Valley fever at 39 as of September 29, 2000, and the mosquito-borne virus still spreading "like wildfire," health officials in Saudi Arabia said authorities should...

Jordan Reports First Case.
October 31, 2000... 2000 OCT 31 - (NewsRx.com) -- The first confirmed case of West Nile virus has been reported in Jordan, but the Health Ministry says the patient contracted the disease in Israel, the official news agency said October 3, 2000. Health...

U.S. Defense Department Says Vaccinations Safe.
October 31, 2000... 2000 OCT 31 - (NewsRx.com) -- A top U.S. Department of Defense expert on chemical and biological warfare says the pleas of service members claiming harm from the anthrax vaccine fail to prove the shots are either unsafe or ineffective. ...

Tuberculosis Now Most Common Opportunistic Infection in HIV Patients.
October 31, 2000... 2000 OCT 31 - (NewsRx.com) -- Marked decreases in the incidence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) and M. avium complex (MAC), common opportunistic infections among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected patients, took place among...

Illness Can Resemble Acute Viral Encephalopathic Diseases.
October 31, 2000... 2000 OCT 31 - (NewsRx.com) -- Although a patient with dengue infection typically presents with fever and sometimes spontaneous bleeding, in some instances the symptoms can be deceiving. Scientists in Thailand have found that some...

Multiplex PCR Rapidly Detects Methicillin-Resistant S. aureus.
October 31, 2000... 2000 OCT 31 - (NewsRx.com) -- Researchers in the United States used multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to rapidly detect methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) directly from blood cultures. "MRSA is frequently...