http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. A clinical trial involving more than 3,000 women in the U.S. and southern Africa demonstrates for the first time the promise of a vaginal microbicide gel for preventing HIV infection in women. According to findings presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), one 0.5 % dose of a microbicide designed to prevent HIV from attaching to cells in the genital tract, was 30% effective. While the results are encouraging, researchers on the study, known as HPTN 035, report that additional evidence is needed to determine more definitively its effectiveness. http://www.physorg.com/news155480567.html Medicine & Health Thu, 05 Mar 2009 13:03:29 EST news155480567 Three specific biomarkers provide an accurate indication of the severity of Chikungunya fever (CHIKF), which is emerging as a threat in South-East Asia, the Pacific and Europe, according to research conducted in Singapore. http://www.physorg.com/news155397190.html Biology Wed, 04 Mar 2009 13:53:42 EST news155397190 A new study in the online issue of Annals of Internal Medicine has found that cholesterol medications can work well among certain HIV patients at risk for cardiovascular disease. http://www.physorg.com/news155237503.html Medicine & Health Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:32:33 EST news155237503 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists from Queen Mary, University of London have discovered how changes to a frog's immune system may be the key to beating a viral infection which is devastating frog populations across the UK. http://www.physorg.com/news154960069.html Biology Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:28:18 EST news154960069 Cameroon is a sub-Saharan African country with high HIV rates yet many pregnant women do not know their HIV status. Research published in the open access journal BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth has shown that HIV testing during labour is a suitable way of improving detection rates and may help mothers and their infants receive appropriate antiretroviral treatment. http://www.physorg.com/news154938079.html Medicine & Health Fri, 27 Feb 2009 06:23:34 EST news154938079 (PhysOrg.com) -- New and emerging strains of the bacteria Clostridium difficile (C.diff) are being studied by scientists in Glasgow, London and Cambridge in an attempt to understand the rise in the reported incidence of this infection over the last decade. http://www.physorg.com/news154888362.html Medicine & Health Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:33:19 EST news154888362 Infection prevention and control resources and programming in Canadian long-term care facilities fall short of recommended standards, a new Queen's University study shows. http://www.physorg.com/news154288064.html Medicine & Health Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:48:04 EST news154288064 Researchers at Rhode Island Hospital have completed a study to better understand the impact of infection control measures during a possible flu pandemic. Their study focused on the likelihood of the transmission of flu from individuals showing no symptoms (asymptomatic) or from individuals who are infected but have not yet exhibited symptoms. The researchers call on the scientific community to better understand the transmission of influenza in order to provide guidelines for effective pandemic flu planning. Their findings are published in the March-April 2009 edition of Public Health Reports. http://www.physorg.com/news154192370.html Medicine & Health Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:13:27 EST news154192370 So far, this has been a mild flu season in the Chicago area, but beware -- we're not completely out of the woods yet. http://www.physorg.com/news154016261.html Medicine & Health Mon, 16 Feb 2009 14:18:26 EST news154016261 Worldwide, nearly 2 million people per year die from diarrhea, the vast majority of them in poor countries in Africa and Asia. The disease accounts for 18 percent of all deaths among children - and yet is almost always preventable with proper treatment. Now, new research from MIT indicates that underlying, low-level undiagnosed infection may greatly add to the severity of a significant number of these cases. This realization could lead to changes in health-care strategies to address the problem. http://www.physorg.com/news153685255.html Medicine & Health Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:22:18 EST news153685255 As vaccines against a virus that infects 100 million people annually reach late-stage clinical trials this year, researchers have developed a test to better predict whether a given vaccine candidate should protect patients from the infection, or in some cases, make it more dangerous, according to an article just published in the journal Clinical and Vaccine Immunology. http://www.physorg.com/news153669699.html Medicine & Health Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:02:07 EST news153669699 An investigational vaginal gel intended to prevent HIV infection in women has demonstrated encouraging signs of success in a clinical trial conducted in Africa and the United States. Findings of the recently concluded study, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the NIH, were presented today at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Montreal. http://www.physorg.com/news153399286.html Medicine & Health Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:55:57 EST news153399286 For the first time, a team of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine have imaged in real time the body's immune response to a parasitic infection in the brain. http://www.physorg.com/news152371179.html Biology Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:20:06 EST news152371179 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have likely found one reason why the Ebola virus is such a powerful, deadly, and effective virus. Using a cell culture model for Ebola virus infection, they have discovered that the virus disables a cellular protein called tetherin that normally can block the spread of virus from cell to cell. http://www.physorg.com/news152290263.html Medicine & Health Tue, 27 Jan 2009 14:51:27 EST news152290263 Actor and pancreatic cancer patient Patrick Swayze's recent hospitalization with pneumonia as a result of his compromised immune system underscores the sensitivity of the lungs: many patients die from lung complications of a disease, rather than the disease itself. http://www.physorg.com/news151931051.html Medicine & Health Fri, 23 Jan 2009 11:05:11 EST news151931051 When an infection attacks, the body's immune system sounds the alert, kills the invading germs and remembers the pathogen to protect against contracting the same type of infection again. Exactly how immunological memory develops is a mystery just beginning to be unveiled by Emma Teixeiro, PhD, in an article published in the Jan. 23 issue of the journal Science. http://www.physorg.com/news151858322.html Medicine & Health Thu, 22 Jan 2009 14:52:30 EST news151858322 Reporting in the journal Nature, researchers led by Emad Alnemri, Ph.D., professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson, discovered a key protein component involved in inflammation. http://www.physorg.com/news151855433.html Biology Thu, 22 Jan 2009 14:04:45 EST news151855433 Researchers led by Drs. Lillian Maggio-Price and Brian Iritani at The University of Washington found that mice that lack the immune inhibitory molecule Smad3 are acutely sensitive to both bacterially-induced inflammation and cancer. They report these findings in the January 2009 issue of The American Journal of Pathology. http://www.physorg.com/news151760754.html Medicine & Health Wed, 21 Jan 2009 11:46:11 EST news151760754 A research group from Costa Rican evaluated risk factors for gastric cancer in Costa Rican regions with contrasting gastric cancer incidence rates (GCIR). They found that although a pro-inflammatory cytokine genetic profile showed an increased risk for developing gastric cancer (GC), the characteristics of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection, in particular the status of cagA and vacA genotype distribution seemed to play a major role in GCIR variability in Costa Rica. http://www.physorg.com/news151755622.html Medicine & Health Wed, 21 Jan 2009 10:20:42 EST news151755622 Coral reefs around the world are in serious trouble from pollution, over-fishing, climate change and more. The last thing they need is an infection. But that's exactly what yellow band disease (YBD) is -a bacterial infection that sickens coral colonies. Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and colleagues have found that YBD seems to be getting worse with global warming and announced that they've identified the bacteria responsible for the disease. http://www.physorg.com/news151649872.html Biology Tue, 20 Jan 2009 04:58:24 EST news151649872 Researchers at National Jewish Health and the University of Colorado Denver have discovered a gene that is associated with improved survival among patients with acute lung injury. Acute lung injury (ALI) is often caused by a respiratory infection and results in low oxygen levels in the blood, and fluid in the lungs. It is one of the most vexing problems for intensive care units, afflicting almost 200,000 people in the United States each year, and killing 40 percent of them. http://www.physorg.com/news151318330.html Medicine & Health Fri, 16 Jan 2009 08:52:10 EST news151318330 Government plans to make certain prescription-only drugs for common problems available over the counter have overwhelmingly been given the thumbs down by healthcare professionals, reveals a survey of readers of the influential Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin (DTB). http://www.physorg.com/news151141673.html Medicine & Health Wed, 14 Jan 2009 07:47:53 EST news151141673 Masses of immune cells that form as a hallmark of tuberculosis (TB) have long been thought to be the body's way of trying to protect itself by literally walling off the bacteria. But a new study in the January 9th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, offers evidence that the TB bacteria actually sends signals that encourage the growth of those organized granuloma structures, and for good reason: each granuloma serves as a kind of hub for the infectious bugs in the early stages of infection, allowing them to expand further and spread throughout the body. http://www.physorg.com/news150643255.html Biology Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:20:55 EST news150643255 Two new studies suggest that male circumcision may assist in the prevention of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, particularly infection with the high-risk subtypes associated with cervical, penile, and other cancers. Both studies are published in the January 1 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online. http://www.physorg.com/news148735353.html Medicine & Health Wed, 17 Dec 2008 11:22:33 EST news148735353 Results from the Step study, a test-of-concept efficacy study of a Merck & Co., Inc. HIV vaccine candidate, were published online today in two papers in The Lancet. These analyses of the Step study are being conducted, presented and published to inform the continued search for an effective HIV vaccine. http://www.physorg.com/news145773261.html Medicine & Health Thu, 13 Nov 2008 04:34:21 EST news145773261 Researchers at the University of Toronto and the University of California, San Francisco, have revealed new hope for HIV treatment with the discovery of a way to 'rescue' immune cells that are exhausted from fighting off HIV infection. http://www.physorg.com/news145530660.html Medicine & Health Mon, 10 Nov 2008 09:11:00 EST news145530660 Although infection control has been substantially ramped up in Canadian hospitals since the SARS crisis of 2003, the number of resistant bacterial infections post-SARS have multiplied even faster, a new Queen's University study shows. http://www.physorg.com/news145280285.html Medicine & Health Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:38:05 EST news145280285 A multi-center research team, led by Columbia University Medical Center, has uncovered a major contributor to the cause of stomach cancer - the second leading cause of cancer-related mortality in the world. The team described for the first time, that elevated levels of a single proinflammatory cytokine, an immune system protein called interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β), can start the progression towards stomach cancer. These results are published in the Nov. 4, 2008 issue of Cancer Cell. The researchers hope to use this finding to develop ways to block this process, thereby preventing cancer from developing. http://www.physorg.com/news145109406.html Medicine & Health Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:10:06 EST news145109406 In September 2007, a phase II HIV-1 vaccine trial was abruptly halted when researchers found that the vaccine may have promoted, rather than prevented, HIV infection. A new study by a team of researchers at the Montpellier Institute of Molecular Genetics in France shows how the vaccine could have enhanced HIV infection. The study, lead by Matthieu Perreau, will be published online on November 3 of the Journal of Experimental Medicine. http://www.physorg.com/news144928118.html Medicine & Health Mon, 03 Nov 2008 09:48:38 EST news144928118 Three Virginia Commonwealth University epidemiologists are downplaying the value of mandatory universal nasal screening of patients for MRSA, arguing that proven, hospital-wide infection control practices can prevent more of the potentially fatal infections. http://www.physorg.com/news143975734.html Medicine & Health Thu, 23 Oct 2008 10:15:34 EST news143975734