Infection
hideAn infection is the detrimental colonization of a host organism by a foreign species. In an infection, the infecting organism seeks to utilize the host's resources to multiply, usually at the expense of the host. The infecting organism, or pathogen, interferes with the normal functioning of the host and can lead to chronic wounds, gangrene, loss of an infected limb, and even death. The host's response to infection is inflammation. Colloquially, a pathogen is usually considered a microscopic organism though the definition is broader, including parasites, fungi, viruses, prions, and viroids. A symbiosis between parasite and host, whereby the relationship is beneficial for the former but detrimental to the latter, is characterised as parasitism. The branch of medicine that focuses on infections and pathogens is infectious disease. "When infection attacks the body, anti-infective drugs can help turn the tide of battle. Four types of anti-infective drugs exist: antibacterial, antiviral, antitubercular, and antifungal. A secondary infection is an infection that occurs during or following treatment of another already existing primary infection.
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News tagged with bacterial infection
CDC now says 4,000 swine flu deaths in US
Nov 11, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Federal health officials now say that 4,000 or more Americans likely have died from swine flu - about four times the estimate they've been using.
Deadly stomach infection rising in community settings, study finds
Oct 26, 2009 |
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Mayo Clinic researchers have found that a sometimes deadly stomach bug, Clostridium difficile, is on the rise in outpatient settings. Clostridium difficile is a serious bacteria that can cause symptoms ranging from diarrhea ...
Rapid DNA Detection Quickly Diagnoses Infections
Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine
Oct 05, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A new portable device can detect bacteria and help prevent the spread of infectious diseases. This new tool takes from 15 minutes to 2 hours to diagnose a patient for infectious diseases and ...
Aspirin misuse may have made 1918 flu pandemic worse
Oct 02, 2009 |
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The devastation of the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic is well known, but a new article suggests a surprising factor in the high death toll: the misuse of aspirin. Appearing in the November 1 issue of Clinical Infectious Di ...
Double hand transplant patient out of hospital
Oct 01, 2009 |
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(AP) -- The mother of the nation's first double hand transplant patient says he's out of the hospital and looking forward to returning to his wife and daughter in Georgia.
Master gene that switches on disease-fighting cells identified by scientists
Sep 13, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The master gene that causes blood stem cells to turn into disease-fighting 'Natural Killer' (NK) immune cells has been identified by scientists, in a study published in Nature Immunology today. ...
Nationwide spread of Lyme disease is focus of new study
Sep 10, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Lyme disease has become a major public health issue in the northeastern United States since it was first identified in Connecticut in the 1970s. But the scientific community is uncertain as to why the risk ...
Sickle cell study boosts call for improved childhood immunization programs in Africa
Sep 09, 2009 |
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Children in Africa with sickle cell anaemia are dying unnecessarily from bacterial infections, suggests the largest study of its kind, funded by the Wellcome Trust. The results are published today in the journal ...
Shining a light on disease -- tracking light-emitting bacteria during infection
Sep 09, 2009 |
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By attaching light-emitting genes to infectious bacteria in an experimental system, researchers at University College, Cork, Ireland, have been able to track where in the body the bacteria go - giving an insight into the ...
Study predicts 40 percent increase in blindness in Nigeria by 2020
Sep 08, 2009 |
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By 2020, 1.4 million Nigerians over age 40 will lose their sight, and the vast majority of the causes are either preventable or treatable, according to the Nigeria National Blindness and Visual Impairment Study Group.
Mounting a multi-layered attack on fungal infections
Sep 08, 2009 |
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Unravelling a microbe's multilayer defence mechanisms could lead to effective new treatments for potentially lethal fungal infections in cancer patients and others whose natural immunity is weakened.
Study links selection for pathogen-resistance with increased risk for inflammatory disease
Aug 06, 2009 |
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New research reveals that a simple laboratory assay detects a genetic variation in host response to bacterial infection that is associated with an increased susceptibility for inflammatory disease. The study, published by ...
Communication breakdown: New strategy may be valid alternative to traditional antibiotics
Jul 30, 2009 |
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Certainly there is strength in numbers, but only if those numbers can effectively communicate with one another. Now, a new study finds that administration of a novel small molecule which effectively disrupts a key bacterial ...
Stress signals link pre-existing sickness with susceptibility to bacterial infection
Jul 28, 2009 |
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Mitochondrial diseases disrupt the power generating machinery within cells and increase a person's susceptibility to bacterial infection, particularly in the lungs or respiratory tract. A new study published in Disease Mo ...
Natural born killers -- how the body's frontline immune cells decide which cells to destroy
Jul 28, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The mechanism used by 'Natural Killer' immune cells in the human body to distinguish between diseased cells, which they are meant to destroy, and normal cells, which they are meant to leave ...
