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Community MRSA is re-emergence of 1950s pandemic, study suggests

An early type of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that caused a global epidemic of infections in the 1950s has re-emerged as one of the community-acquired MRSA 'superbugs', according to a study published in The Lancet tomorrow (Saturday 2 April 2005). This "re-equipping and re-emergence" of a clone that caused a pandemic 40-50 years ago could mean that community acquired MRSA will spread fast...

Understanding biases in epidemic models important when making public health predictions

Mathematical models have become invaluable decision-making tools for public health officials. As demonstrated during the United Kingdom's foot-and-mouth epidemic of 2001, models can be useful in two ways: they can reveal the underlying characteristics of an infection and they can allow the comparison of alternative control measures. Often, however, such models make implicit assumptions that may s...

Sleeping Sickness Epidemic Spreading in Uganda

A drug first used to reduce the risk of stomach ulcers in people taking certain types of painkillers offers an alternative to surgery after miscarriage, according to a study by researchers at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health and other research institutions. The study appears in the August 18, 2005, New England Journal of Med...

Preventing a pandemic: Study suggests strategies for containing a flu outbreak

Though quick to caution about the many things that could go wrong, researchers say that it may be possible to contain a Southeast Asian outbreak of avian influenza in humans, buying precious time for the production of a vaccine. Using a computer model to simulate an outbreak in a rural Southeast Asian population, the scientists have shown how a combination of strategies, including targeted...

Researcher says flu responders can learn from 1918 epidemic

A doctoral student's research brings lessons and insight to a looming pandemic While that prospect would terrify the average person, it also intrigues Jim Higgins, a doctoral candidate at Lehigh Unive...

Lethal needle blight epidemic may be related to climate change

Increased summer precipitation apparently helping to spread spores of pathogen Biologists studying a lethal blight of lodgepole pines in northwestern British Columbia present strong evidence in the September issue of BioScience that climate change is to blame for the outbreak. The blight, caused by the fungus Dothistroma septosporum, causes trees to lose their needles and, in the case of...

New U. of Colorado at Boulder flu chip may help combat future epidemics, pandemics

A novel "Flu Chip" developed at the University of Colorado at Boulder that can determine the genetic signatures of specific influenza strains from patient samples within hours may help world health officials combat coming epidemics and pandemics. Tests last month on the new technology by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta showed the CU-Boulder Flu Chip can determine...

Ernst Mayr's theory illustrated in genetic epidemiology studies

The late, famed evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr's theory of genetic revolution , introduced in 1954, remains controversial to this day and has many detractors. Mayr believed that genes interacted with one another, and that this genetic interaction in turn led to an interaction of natural selection with genetic drift that could cause genetic revolution ?new directions of evolutionary ch...

Study outlines genetic differences between potential pandemic influenza strains

An analysis of H5N1 influenza samples in Southeast Asia shows not only how the two strains that have caused human disease are related but also that they belong to two different, distinct genetic subgroups. Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report their findings today at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases. "As the virus continues its...

Avian flu modeled on supercomputer, explores vaccine and isolation options for thwarting a pandemic

Using supercomputers to respond to a potential national health emergency, scientists have developed a simulation model that makes stark predictions about the possible future course of an avian influenza pandemic, given today's environment of worldwide connectivity. The research, by a team of scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, the University of Washington and the Fred Hu...

Epidemic of unneeded amputations

Non-traumatic amputations ?those caused by arterial blockages related to diabetes, smoking, obesity and vascular system complications ?are occurring at an alarming rate. Yet physicians may be too quick to amputate as 85 percent of them may be preventable, according to the International Diabetes Foundation. Amputations are not only disfiguring and life-threatening, but are more dangerous an...

UGA study explains peaks and troughs of dengue epidemics

Scientists have long known that epidemics of dengue fever wax and wane over a period of several years, but they've never been quite sure why. With the incidence and range of the potentially deadly mosquito-borne illness increasing, understanding the factors that influence these epidemics has never been more important. A new study by researchers at the University of Georgia suggests that a...

First surveys of Tanzanian mountains reveal 160+ animal species, including new & endemic

The first field surveys of the Rubeho Mountains in Tanzania revealed over 160 animal species--including a new species of frog and eleven endemic species--according to an article published in the African Journal of Ecology this month. The findings elevate the importance of protecting this biologically-rich wilderness area and the broader Eastern Arc Mountain range from destructive activities under...

UGA researchers find that hunting can increase the severity of wildlife disease epidemics

A new study by University of Georgia researchers shows that the common practice of killing wild animals to control disease outbreaks can actually make matters worse in some cases. In a study published the August 7 edition of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, post-doctoral researcher Marc Choisy and Pejman Rohani, associate professor of ecology and UGA Bi...

Diabetes hits 275 Australians each day as pandemic spreads

A new national health study funded by the NH&MRC, industry and state governments released today by the International Diabetes Institute in Melbourne shows diabetes is hitting up to 275 new victims each day throughout Australia. The findings of the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study (AusDiab) were presented today to the Federal Minister for Health and Ageing, Mr Tony Abbot...

Air travel and pandemic flu

Restricting air travel from countries where there is a serious influenza outbreak will do little to hold back the spread of the infection, according to the findings of a study conducted at the UK Health Protection Agency and published in the journal PLoS Medicine. Sometimes a new type of influeza virus appears that causes an illness that is more serious than is usually the case for flu. T...

Radiologists attempt to solve mystery of Tut's demise

Egyptian radiologists who performed the first-ever computed tomography (CT) evaluation of King Tutankhamun’s mummy believe they have solved the mystery of how the ancient pharaoh died. The CT images and results of their study were presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). Ashraf Selim, M.D., radiologist at Kasr Eleini Teaching Hospital, Cair...

Recurrence of a flu pandemic similar to infamous 1918 flu could kill 62 million

In recent years, health professionals and the general public alike have been acutely aware of the potential ravages that could result from a flu pandemic. Although many people might still recall the pandemics of 1968 and 1957, it is the infamous 1918-1920 pandemic--and the possibility of a recurrence on that scale--that causes the most trepidation. Strangely, researchers still don't kno...

The subtleties of tropical forest demise

"It's not just that tropical forests are being rapidly destroyed, but also that most of the remaining forests and nature reserves are being severely degraded," said William Laurance of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, who co-edited the book along with Carlos Peres, a Brazilian biologist with the University of East Anglia, U.K. "It's astonishing how insidious many of t...

A silent pandemic: Industrial chemicals are impairing the brain development of children worldwide

Fetal and early childhood exposures to industrial chemicals in the environment can damage the developing brain and can lead to neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs)--autism, attention deficit disorder (ADHD), and mental retardation. Still, there has been insufficient research done to identify the individual chemicals that can cause injury to the developing brains of children. In a new revie...

National Academies advisory: Invasive aquatic species in the Great Lakes

On May 7, a National Research Council committee will hold a meeting in Toronto to gather information on trade in the Great Lakes region and ways to eliminate further introductions of nonindigenous aquatic species into the lakes by vessels traveling the St. Lawrence Seaway. The committee's final report will comment on the strengths and weaknesses of various options and recommend those that seem mo...

Rapid response was crucial to containing the 1918 flu pandemic

One of the persistent riddles of the deadly 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic is why it struck different cities with varying severity. Why were some municipalities such as St. Louis spared the fate of the hard-hit cities like Philadelphia when both implemented similar public health measures? What made the difference, according to two independent studies funded by the National Institutes of Health (...

US control strategies may make flu epidemics worse, UCLA study shows

Regular as clockwork, the flu arrives every year. And, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 5 to 20 percent of the U.S. population on average will come down with it. About 36,000 people will die. But among health experts, a bigger concern than the seasonal flu is an outright flu pandemic, such as a human strain of avian flu. And officials say it is not a qu...

Experts predict Tamiflu could halve the pandemic influenza death toll versus no intervention

Treatment with the oral antiviral Tamiflu (oseltamivir) and prophylaxis for people exposed to infected patients could be one of the most cost-effective strategies for reducing illness and death during an influenza pandemic. According to modelling research presented by Beate Sander, University of Toronto, Canada, a stockpile of Tamiflu sufficient to cover 65% of a country’s population could cut...

Ancient retrovirus sheds light on modern pandemic

These findings, reported by a team of researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in the June 22 issue of Science, provide a better understanding of this modern pande...