A new device created by a collaborative team of UA engineers and scientists may significantly reduce the amount of time necessary to diagnose tissue infections.
When a patient arrives at a hospital with a serious infection, doctors have precious little time to make an accurate diagnosis and prescribe treatment accordingly. (more…)
Researchers from UCL have demonstrated how an interplay between nutrition, metabolism and immunity is involved in the process of ageing.
The two new studies, supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), could help to enhance our immunity to disease through dietary intervention and help make existing immune system therapies more effective. As we age our immune systems decline. Older people suffer from increased incidence and severity of both infections and cancer. In addition, vaccination becomes less efficient with age. (more…)
Many pregnant women with sexually transmitted infections aren’t getting the treatment they need when they visit emergency rooms, according to a new Michigan State University study that highlights a wholly preventable risk to unborn children and raises questions about current medical guidelines.
About half of the 735 women with gonorrhea or chlamydia who visited the ERs at three hospitals in Grand Rapids, Mich. from 2008 through 2010 did not get treatment there, despite the availability of effective and relatively inexpensive antibiotics. Of the 179 who were pregnant, only 20 percent received treatment in the ER. (more…)
*Candida tropicalis turns out to have sex, making it the second medically important member of the genus to be capable of mating. Sex may improve the survival of the species, particularly when it’s under pressure. It may also mean the species can achieve greater virulence or drug resistance more quickly than previously thought.*
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — The fungi of the Candida genus, known to millions of patients worldwide for their ability to cause serious infections, were once all thought to be asexual. Even after scientists discovered that the mating habits of Candida albicans were many and varied, they remained convinced that many of the more infectious ones did not mate. Now with the first report that Candida tropicalis can mate sexually as well, the chastity of the whole genus comes into further doubt. (more…)
*Bacterial cells have gene mutations that allow them to ‘stick’ to the devices*
New research suggests that some patients develop a potentially deadly blood infection from their implanted cardiac devices because bacterial cells in their bodies have gene mutations that allow them to stick to the devices.
Geoscientists were the major contributors to the finding.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published the study results online this week. (more…)
Psychedelically colored wolves depicted by thermal imaging will shed light on how mange affects the survival, reproduction and social behavior of wolves in Yellowstone National Park.
About a quarter of the wolf packs in the park are afflicted with sarcoptic mange, a highly contagious canine skin disease caused by mites that burrow into the skin causing infections, hair loss, severe irritation and an insatiable desire to scratch.
The resulting hair loss and depressed vigor of the wolves leaves them vulnerable to hypothermia, malnutrition and dehydration, which can eventually lead to death, said Paul Cross, a U.S. Geological Survey disease ecologist, who leads the project along with Doug Smith of Yellowstone National Park. (more…)
