Infections
New role for Natural Killers!
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Scientists at the University of York have discovered a new role for a population of white blood cells, which may lead to improved treatments for chronic infections and cancer.
Natural Killer (or NK) cells are abundant white blood cells that were recognised over 30 years ago as being able to kill cancer cells in the test tube. Since that time, a role for NK cells in activating other white blood cells (including ‘T’ lymphocytes and phagocytes) and in directing how the immune system responds to a wide range of infections has also been established.
Because of these properties, NK have been widely regarded as being of benefit in the fight against cancer and infection, and methods to increase NK cell activity underpin a range of new experimental anti-cancer drugs and anti-infectives.
Infections linked to premature births more common than thought, Stanford study finds
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Previously unrecognized and unidentified infections of amniotic fluid may be a significant cause of premature birth, according to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
An analysis of amniotic fluid from women in preterm labor indicated that 15 percent of the fluid samples harbored bacteria or fungi - an increase of 50 percent over previous estimates. The heavier the burden of infection, the more likely the women were to deliver younger, sicker infants.
“If we could prevent these infections in the first place, or detect them sooner, we might one day be able to prevent some of these premature births,” said research associate Dan DiGiulio, MD, who conducted the study in the laboratory of senior author David Relman, MD. About 12 percent of all births in this country are premature and the frequency of premature birth is increasing.
Childhood ear infections may predispose to obesity later in life
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Researchers are reporting new evidence of a possible link between a history of moderate to severe middle ear infections in childhood and a tendency to be overweight later in life. Their study suggests that prompt diagnosis and treatment of middle ear infections — one of the most common childhood conditions requiring medical attention — may help fight obesity in some people. The findings were presented today at the 236th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
Study leader Linda M. Bartoshuk, Ph.D., noted that chronic, repeated ear infections can damage the chorda tympani nerve, which passes through the middle ear and controls taste sensations. Damage to this nerve appears to intensify the desire for fatty or high-energy foods, which could result in obesity, she said.
Other research has shown that middle ear infections, or otitis media, are becoming more common in children. Childhood obesity is likewise on the rise and has reached epidemic levels, particularly in the United States. Although scientists have known for years that ear infections can lead to hearing loss in children that can result in speech and language impairment, a possible link between ear infections and obesity has been largely unexplored until now, said Bartoshuk, who is with the University of Florida’s Center for Smell and Taste in Gainesville.
Even viruses get sick
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Even viruses can go down with a viral infection, French scientists reported on Wednesday, in a discovery that may help explain how they swap genes and evolve so rapidly.
A new strain of giant virus was isolated from a cooling tower in Paris and found to be infected by a smaller type of virus, named Sputnik, after the first man-made satellite.
Sputnik is the first example of a virus infecting another virus to make it sick.
British study links IMF loans to tuberculosis
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Austerity measures attached to International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans may have contributed to a resurgence in tuberculosis in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, researchers said on Tuesday.
Governments may be reducing funding for health services such as hospitals and clinics to meet strict IMF economic targets, the British researchers said.
The study, published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Medicine, found that countries participating in IMF programmes had seen tuberculosis death rates increase by at least 17 percent between 1991 and 2000—equivalent to more than 100,000 additional deaths. About one million new cases were recorded during the same period.
Averting postsurgical infections in kids: Give antibiotics within hour before first incision
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Giving children preventive antibiotics within one hour before they undergo spinal surgery greatly reduces the risk for serious infections after the surgery, suggests a Johns Hopkins study to be published in the August issue of Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal (also available online ahead of print). Children who received antibiotics outside of the golden one-hour window were three and half times more likely to develop serious infections at the surgery site, researchers report, pointing out that something as simple as ensuring that a child gets timely prophylaxis can prevent serious complications and reduce the length of hospital stay.
“When it comes to preventing infections, when a child gets antibiotics appears to be one of the most critical yet most easily modifiable risk factors, and may matter just as much as the type and dosage of the medication ,“says lead researcher Aaron Milstone, M.D., infectious disease specialist at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. “The moral of this is that an ounce of timely prevention is indeed worth a pound of treatment.”
Nearly 780,000 postsurgical infections occur in the United States each year, according to estimates from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. An infection after surgery nearly doubles a patient’s risk of death, doubles a patient’s hospital stay and adds up to $50,000 to treatment costs per patient, researchers say.
Pneumonia Most Common Reason for Hospitalization
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More than 1.2 million Americans – roughly equivalent to the population of Dallas – were hospitalized for pneumonia in 2006, making this lung infection the most common reason for admission to the hospital other than for childbirth, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Treating pneumonia cost hospitals $10 billion in 2006. The disease, which can be especially deadly among the elderly, occurs when the lungs fill with fluid from infection or inflammation caused by bacteria or a virus.
AHRQ’s new analysis of 2006 hospitalizations estimated admissions and hospitals’ costs for other common conditions:
Malaria on the increase in the UK
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A huge rise in the numbers of UK residents travelling to malaria endemic areas, combined with a failure to use prevention measures, has significantly increased cases of imported falciparum malaria in the UK over the past 20 years, according to a study published on BMJ.com.
Between 1987 there were 5120 reported cases of the potentially fatal faliciparum malaria, increasing to 6753 in 2002ǰԃ. These findings highlight the urgent need for health messages and services targeted at travellers from migrant groups visiting friends and family abroad, say the authors.
Malaria acquired in one of the 150 countries where it is endemic and then imported into non-endemic countries accounts for a significant proportion of largely preventable disease and death in Europe every year.
Residual urine not tied to urinary infection
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Among nursing home residents, incomplete bladder emptying is not associated with the occurrence of a urinary tract infection, according to a report in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
It is generally assumed that residual urine after voiding increases the risk for urinary tract infection, “in that it creates an environment favorable to bacterial growth,” Dr. Esther Kuhry from Namsos Hospital, Norway told Reuters Health.
However, she explained, “The few studies published so far show conflicting results with regards to the association of post-void residual and urinary tract infection in the elderly.”
Second Hand Smoke Increases Hospital Admissions for All Types of Infectious Diseases
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Children exposed to second hand tobacco smoke are more likely to get severe infectious diseases and have to be admitted to hospital, finds research published online ahead of print in Tobacco Control.
These children are at greater risk of a whole range of infectious illnesses, such as meningococcal disease, and not just respiratory illness, the results showed. Exposure to smoke in the first few months of life did the most harm, especially if they had a low birth weight or had been born prematurely.
The researchers assessed the relationship between second hand smoke exposure and first admission to hospital for any infectious illness for 7,402 children born in Hong Kong in April and May 1997. The children were followed until they were eight.
U.S. reports 5 baby deaths from usually mild virus
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A virus that typically causes a mild infection killed at least five babies in the United States last year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday.
The virus was involved in an unusually high number of severe infections in newborns last year, but the CDC said it was not certain of the reason.
Coxsackievirus B1, or CVB1, is part of a group of viruses called enteroviruses. It usually does not cause serious infections but can cause more severe and potentially life-threatening illness in newborns.
New Species of Infectious Disease Found in Amazon
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While investigating the tropical disease leptospirosis in the Peruvian Amazon, an infectious disease specialist from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has uncovered new, emerging bacteria that may be responsible for up to 40 percent of cases of the disease. Patients with severe forms of leptospirosis have jaundice, renal failure and lung hemorrhage, with high fatality rates.
Joseph Vinetz, M.D., professor of medicine in UC San Diego’s Division of Infectious Diseases – working in collaboration with colleagues from Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima, Peru, and others – headed the study that led to discovery of the new species in the family of pathogens, Leptospira, which is spread from animals to humans. The findings will be published in the April 1 issue of the Public Library of Science (PLoS) journal Neglected Tropical Diseases.
Leptospirosis is a severe, water-borne disease transmitted from animals to humans, with tens of millions of human cases worldwide each year. Fatality rates can range as high as 20 to 25 percent in some regions, and it is particularly prevalent in tropical countries where poor people live under highly crowded condition, or in rural areas where people are exposed to water contaminated by the urine of Leptospira-infected animals such as rats.
Reason for cystic fibrosis infections uncovered
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People with cystic fibrosis are prone to lung infections, especially with the bug Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and now a German team has discovered why. Their experiments with mice show that the accumulation of a fatty substance called ceramide in the respiratory tract is the reason.
The good news is that one enzyme, dubbed Asm, is in large part responsible for this build-up, so treatment aimed at blocking this enzyme might reduce lung infections in people with CF.
The underlying cause of the disease cystic fibrosis is known to be a gene mutation, but how this promotes lung infections was unclear.
New TB test means quicker and easier diagnosis for patients
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A new blood test could enable doctors to rule out tuberculosis (TB) infection within days rather than weeks, according to a new study published this week in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
The study, by researchers from Imperial College London and the University of Oxford, shows that doctors can determine that a patient does not have tuberculosis with 99% accuracy when using the new blood test, ELISpot-Plus, in conjunction with a skin test known as tuberculin skin testing, already in use.
TB is difficult to diagnose because many of its symptoms, such as fever, fatigue, and loss of appetite, are also commonly found in many other conditions. The combination of ELISpot-Plus and tuberculin skin testing is able to rule out TB within 48 hours, providing a much quicker result than existing testing methods, for which results take up to several weeks.
New tests find deadly new virus that killed three
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A previously unknown virus killed three women who got organ transplants from an Australian donor, and researchers say the technique they used to identify it could lead them to many more new infectious agents.
The as-yet-unnamed virus appears to be related to a bug called lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus, which usually causes only a minor flu-like illness.
But this one killed the three transplant patients by causing encephalitis, a swelling of the brain, the team reported on Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine.
