News by Subject Medicine & Health

Researchers at the University of Waterloo may have discovered a new, pesticide-free way to limit mosquito populations in some area and reduce the spread of the West Nile virus.

Purdue University researchers have identified a new compound that in preliminary testing has shown itself to be as effective as antibiotics approved by the FDA to treat life-threatening infections while also appearing to be less susceptible to bacterial resistance. The compound has been potent against antibiotic-resistant pathogens such as MRSA, which is often found in hospitals and other health care settings, and vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus, with vancomycin long considered a drug of last resort.

With vector-borne diseases posing an increasing public health threat to communities in South Florida and elsewhere, a new study led by public health researchers at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine has revealed that ornamental bromeliad plants contribute to breeding of the Aedes aegypti mosquito--a key culprit for the Zika outbreak that hit Miami-Dade County and other areas of Florida and the Americas in 2016. Aedes aegypti was the most dominant species of mosquito in the study's test sites.

The results of two studies presented today at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR 2018) demonstrate exciting advances for individuals suffering from systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The first is a phase II clinical study of a promising oral treatment, baricitinib. The second demonstrates the effective use of shingles vaccine in SLE patients who are particularly prone to this infection.

Infections with bacteria resistant to carbapenems, a group of highly effective antibiotics, pose a significant threat to patients and healthcare systems in all EU/EEA countries, warns ECDC in a Rapid Risk Assessment.

A study led by UNC's Sylvia Becker-Dreps, M.D., M.P.H., reviewed more than 675,000 pregnancies in the US to determine if the Tdap vaccine given to a mother will reduce the chances of her child developing pertussis during the first 18 months of life. The results show a decrease in overall cases of pertussis, and most notably, in pertussis hospitalization in infants whose mothers were immunized during pregnancy.

More than a million neonatal deaths worldwide each year are estimated to be due to sepsis. Many patients receive antibiotic therapy during their hospital stay, but babies with a specific genetic change can suffer irreversible hearing loss as a result. Now, a rapid test for distinguishing those infants who will have this adverse reaction to gentamicin has been developed.

Neonatal intensive care units increasingly encourage meaningful touch and skin-to-skin care -- aka 'kangaroo care' -- between parents and premature babies to aid the babies' development. But a Michigan children's hospital practicing skin-to-skin care noticed an unwanted side effect in 2016 -- a spike in Staphylococcus aureus (SA) infections among newborns.