News

Scientists have found that mosquitoes are changing their hunting routines in response to host cues. For example, in Africa, mosquitoes now recognize when people emerge from bednets in the morning and have begun hunting more often during the day than at night.

First impressions are important -- they can set the stage for the entire course of a relationship. The same is true for the impressions the cells of our immune system form when they first meet a new bacterium.

Despite a large literature on surgical site infection (SSI), the determinants of prevention behaviors in surgery remain poorly studied. Understanding key social and contextual components of surgical staff behaviour may help to design and implement infection control (IC) improvement interventions in surgery.

The aim of this study by Ling and Hui (2019) was to establish a set of assessment methods suitable for evaluating the complex indoor environment of hospital wards and to ascertain the composition of bacteria and microbial ecology of hospital wards.

Microbial resistance to classical antibiotics and its rapid progression have raised serious concern in the treatment of infectious diseases. Recently, many studies have been directed toward finding promising solutions to overcome these problems. Phytochemicals have exerted potential antibacterial activities against sensitive and resistant pathogens via different mechanisms of action.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Recarbrio (imipenem, cilastatin and relebactam), an antibacterial drug product to treat adults with complicated urinary tract infections (cUTI) and complicated intra-abdominal infections (cIAI).

Researchers in the group of Jan Michiels (VIB-KU Leuven Center for Microbiology) identified a mechanism of how sleepy bacteria wake up.

Fear, trust and the likelihood of exposure are three leading factors that influence whether people are willing to be vaccinated against a virulent disease, according to a new study in the journal Heliyon, published by Elsevier.

Having healthy gut flora -- the trillions of bacteria housed in our intestines -- could lower the risk of infection following knee and hip replacement surgeries, while an unhealthy intestinal flora may increase the risk of infection.

A new study by Montreal scientists published today in Nature demonstrates that a gut infection can lead to a pathology resembling Parkinson’s disease (PD) in a mouse model lacking a gene linked to the human disease.

The Leapfrog Group, an independent national healthcare watchdog organization,?today released Safety In Numbers: The Leapfrog Group’s Report on High-Risk Surgeries Performed at American Hospitals.

Women tend to have a greater immune response to a flu vaccination compared to men, but their advantage largely disappears as they age and their estrogen levels decline, suggests a study from researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Cryptococcus neoformans is a fungal pathogen that infects people with weakened immune systems, particularly those with advanced HIV/AIDS. New University of Minnesota Medical Research could mean a better understanding of this infection and potentially better treatments for patients.

Gut microbes produce compounds that prime immune cells to destroy harmful viruses in the brain and nervous system, according to a mouse study published today in eLife.

Ten years ago, in Marathon County, Wisconsin, 55 people were sickened by an uncommon fungal infection called blastomycosis. Thirty patients were hospitalized. Two people died.

A new study, led by researchers from the University of California, Irvine (UCI), uncovers the long-sought-after, three-dimensional structure of a toxin primarily responsible for devastating Clostridium difficile infection (CDI).

A team of researchers from the SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medicine Centre's Viral Research and Experimental Medicine Centre (ViREMiCS) found that immune cells undergoing stress and an altered metabolism are the reasons why some individuals become sick from viral infections while others do not, when exposed to the same virus.

Strong political support and strong public health systems are necessary to combat measles outbreaks, which are growing in frequency around the world, argue public health experts in a commentary in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

Adults with HIV are more likely to continue life-saving treatments if their primary health care providers show respect, unconditional empathy without judgement and demonstrate an ability to partner with patients in decision making to address their goals, a Rutgers study finds.

A new study published in the Journal of the International AIDS Society shows that the World Health Organization's (WHO) 2015 recommendation for immediate treatment of all people living with HIV has become the standard of care across HIV clinics in countries around the world.

A new study led by Dr. Antonella Fioravanti in the lab of professor Han Remaut (VIB-VUB Center for Structural Biology) has shown that removing the armor of the bacterium that causes anthrax slows its growth and negatively affects its ability to cause disease.

Researchers want to use similar genetic patterns, which have been present in the blood of humans and animals for thousands of years, to improve computer-assisted disease prognosis.

The number of syphilis cases has been consistently going up across Europe since 2010, mostly affecting men who have sex with men living in urban areas. In 2017, notification rates reached an all-time high in the EU/EEA countries with more than 33,000 reported cases.

In 2014, a virus called crAssphage that infects bacteria was discovered as part of the body’s intestinal environment. Now, a new study has investigated the origin and evolution of this virus, which may have coevolved with human lineage.

While decolonization of Staphylococcus aureus reduces surgical site infection (SSI) rates following hip and knee arthroplasty, its cost-effectiveness is uncertain. Rennert-May, et al. (2019)