Here are what the editors at HealthDay consider to be the most important developments in Infectious Disease for March 2009. This roundup includes the latest research news from journal articles, as well as the FDA approvals and regulatory changes that are the most likely to affect clinical practice.
Safe Practice Scores Do Not Add Up to Fewer Patient Deaths
TUESDAY, March 31 (HealthDay News) -- In hospitals, higher self-reported scores for improvements in safe practices do not correlate with reduced mortality rates, researchers report in the April 1 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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Little Clinical Evidence to Support Bed Bug Treatments
TUESDAY, March 31 (HealthDay News) -- Although bed bugs (Cimex lectularius) have been associated with dozens of human diseases and their bites are treated with a range of drugs, there is no clinical trial-based evidence for the efficacy of treatments, and there is little evidence that they are communicable disease vectors, according to a review published in the April 1 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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Study Urges More Clinical Research on Gynecologic Testing
TUESDAY, March 31 (HealthDay News) -- While professional guidelines call for human papillomavirus (HPV) testing in the follow-up of treatment for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), there is insufficient clinical research to guide the clinician in the selection of the test to use, according to a report in the April issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
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Protein Seen to Play Role in Herpes Reactivation
TUESDAY, March 31 (HealthDay News) -- Expression of a virion protein called VP16 appears to be necessary for herpes simplex virus to exit its latent state, according to research published in the March issue of PLoS Pathogens.
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Mass Antibiotic Program Can Offer Trachoma Herd Protection
FRIDAY, March 27 (HealthDay News) -- Herd immunity to trachoma can be achieved through repeated rounds of mass antibiotic administration to children, who are a core means of transmission for the eye disease, according to a report published in the March 28 issue of The Lancet.
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Circumcision Lowers Risk of Sexually Transmitted Disease
WEDNESDAY, March 25 (HealthDay News) -- In a study of Ugandan men, circumcision reduced both the incidence of herpes simplex virus (HSV-2) and the prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV), two co-factors in HIV/AIDs, according to a report in the March 26 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
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Cost Barriers Slow Adoption of Electronic Health Records
WEDNESDAY, March 25 (HealthDay News) -- Citing cost barriers, relatively few U.S. hospitals have adopted electronic health records, posing a major obstacle for policy makers who say health information technology is critical to the improvement of health care quality and cost-effectiveness, according to an article published online March 25 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
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Antibody Combination May Protect Against HIV
WEDNESDAY, March 25 (HealthDay News) -- Investigation into the immune response in slow-progressing patients with HIV indicates that a vaccine that elicits a variety of antibodies could be effective, according to research published online March 15 in Nature.
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Nanotechnology May Aid in Earlier Anthrax Detection
MONDAY, March 23 (HealthDay News) -- A new test utilizing nanotechnology may be able to detect anthrax infection earlier than existing methods, according to a U.S. Food and Drug Administration announcement of research published in the March Clinical and Vaccine Immunology.
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Immune Activation Renders Malaria Mosquitoes Resistant
FRIDAY, March 20 (HealthDay News) -- Gene silencing activates immune pathways in mosquitoes that carry malaria parasites and renders the mosquitoes resistant to infection, according to a report in the March issue of PLoS Pathogens.
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Report Describes Immune Response to West Nile
WEDNESDAY, March 18 (HealthDay News) -- A scientist who was accidentally infected with West Nile virus in the laboratory has an immune response that could be exploited for therapeutics, according to a case report in the March 19 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
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Cytomegalovirus Vaccine Shows Promise in Women
WEDNESDAY, March 18 (HealthDay News) -- A vaccine against cytomegalovirus (CMV) had a 50 percent efficacy in women of childbearing age, researchers report in the March 19 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
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Local Antibiotics After Spinal Surgery Reduce Infection
THURSDAY, Mar. 12 (HealthDay News) -- Rabbits have reduced levels of infection after spinal surgery if the wounds are prophylactically treated with antibiotic-containing controlled-release microspheres, according to a study in the Mar. 1 issue of Spine.
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Third-Generation Smallpox Vaccine LC16m8 Deemed Effective
TUESDAY, Mar. 10 (HealthDay News) -- In unvaccinated or previously vaccinated adults, the use of the third-generation smallpox vaccine LC16m8 is associated with a high rate of seroconversion or booster response, and a low rate of adverse reactions, according to research published in the Mar. 11 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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Poor Infection Control Caused Kidney Unit Hep C Infections
MONDAY, Mar. 9 (HealthDay News) -- A failure to adequately test patients for hepatitis C and poor infection control led to the infection with the virus of nine hemodialysis patients in New York City, according to a report published in the Mar. 6 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
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Patient Confidentiality Versus Disease Prevention Reviewed
MONDAY, Mar. 9 (HealthDay News) -- The morality of patient confidentiality laws are questioned in recent research presented in a special report in the March issue of The Lancet Oncology.
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Compound Could Be Useful As an HIV Microbicide
FRIDAY, Mar. 6 (HealthDay News) -- The use of glycerol monolaurate to protect monkeys from infection following intravaginal exposure to simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) points to the potential efficacy of this product against HIV in humans, according to research published online Mar. 4 in the journal Nature.
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Transdermal Patches Pose Burn Risk During Scans
FRIDAY, Mar. 6 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning about the risk of burns as a result of wearing medicated patches, such as those used for smoking cessation or pain relief, during MRI scans.
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Obama Wants to Spend $630 Billion on Health Care Reform
THURSDAY, Mar. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Achieving health care reform is one of President Barack Obama's major challenges, and his newly released spending plan calls on Congress to commit $630 billion over the next decade to finance that reform, according to an article published online Mar. 4 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
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Oseltamivir-Resistant Flu Viruses Increasing
TUESDAY, Mar. 3 (HealthDay News) -- The 2008 to 2009 influenza season will see a higher prevalence of oseltamivir-resistant viruses, and certain strains of the virus are highly pathogenic to high-risk patients, according to two studies published online Mar. 2 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Another study reports that intranasal live attenuated influenza vaccine is associated with more medical encounters than trivalent inactivated vaccine.
Abstract - Wang et al
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Meningococcal Disease in Maine Well-Reported
TUESDAY, Mar. 3 (HealthDay News) -- The reporting of meningococcal disease cases in the state of Maine reached the 98 percent level between 2001 and 2006, but only 56 percent of cases were reported within a day of admission to hospital, according to a report published in the Feb. 27 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
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US Motor Vehicle-Related Death Rates Vary Geographically
MONDAY, Mar. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Although the mortality rate related to motor vehicles remained almost unchanged from 1999 to 2005 in the United States, on closer inspection the data reveals wide variations from state to state, as well as by gender and ethnicity, according to a report published in the Feb. 27 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
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Trio of Studies Shed Light on Pediatric Asthma Issues
MONDAY, Mar. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Children with asthma have fewer symptoms when their exposure to air pollution is reduced, while antibiotic use is associated with an exacerbation of symptoms, according to two studies published in the March issue of Pediatrics. A third study found that pertussis vaccination is not associated with increased risk of asthma.
Abstract - Renzetti
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Abstract - Marra
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Abstract - Spycher
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