Infection

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An 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 infection

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Researchers take aim at hard-to-treat fungal infections

Researchers take aim at hard-to-treat fungal infections

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Nov 19, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

A team of researchers at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute Life Sciences and Bioengineering Center at Gateway Park has developed a new model system to study fungal infections. The system can be a powerful ...


On the trail of a vaccine for Lyme disease: Yale researchers target tick saliva

On the trail of a vaccine for Lyme disease: Researchers target tick saliva

Medicine & Health / Research

created Nov 19, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

A protein found in the saliva of ticks helps protect mice from developing Lyme disease, Yale researchers have discovered. The findings, published in the November 19 issue of Cell Host & Microbe, may spur d ...


The benefits of stress ... in plants

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Nov 19, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Chronic stress in humans has been implicated in heart disease, weight gain, and diabetes, among a host of other health problems. Extreme environments, a source of chronic stress, present a challenge even for the hardiest ...


Last-resort lower-body amputation effective in extreme cases of bone infection, 25-year review shows

Medicine & Health / Other

created Nov 17, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

A landmark, 25-year review of cases in which surgeons had to remove the lower portion of the body from the waist down for severe pelvic bone infections shows the therapy can add years and quality of life to survivors, say ...


Cross-country runabouts -- immune cells on the move

Cross-country runabouts -- immune cells on the move

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Nov 17, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- In order to effectively fight pathogens, even at remote areas of the human body, immune cells have to move quickly and in a flexible manner.


HIV vaccine failure probably caused by virus used, says new research

Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS

created Nov 16, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

The recent failure of an HIV vaccine was probably caused by the immune system reacting to the virus 'shell' used to transmit the therapy around the body, according to research published today in the Proceedings of the Na ...


Study shows link between influenza virus and fever

Medicine & Health / Research

created Nov 16, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

One feature of the "new influenza" is a sudden rise in temperature. Up to now it was not exactly understood how this reaction occurs. Scientists at the University of Bonn and the Technical University of Munich, Germany, have ...


Shape of things to come: Structure of HIV coat could lead to new drugs

Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS

created Nov 12, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Structural biologists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have described the architecture of the complex of protein units that make up the coat surrounding the HIV genome and identified in it a "seam" of functional ...


CDC now says 4,000 swine flu deaths in US

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created Nov 11, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(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.


Exposure to several common infections over time may be associated with risk of stroke

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Nov 09, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Cumulative exposure to five common infection-causing pathogens may be associated with an increased risk of stroke, according to a report posted online today that will appear in the January 2010 print issue of Archives of ...


FDA-approved drugs eliminate, prevent cervical cancer in mice

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Nov 09, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health have eliminated cervical cancer in mice with two FDA-approved drugs currently used to treat breast cancer and osteoporosis.


Scientists explain binding action of 2 key HIV antibodies; could lead to new vaccine design

Medicine & Health / Research

created Nov 09, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

A very close and detailed study of how the most robust antibodies work to block the HIV virus as it seeks entry into healthy cells has revealed a new direction for researchers hoping to design an effective vaccine.


Possible help in fight against muscle-wasting disease

Possible help in fight against muscle-wasting disease (w/ Video)

Medicine & Health / Research

created Nov 06, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A compound already used to treat pneumonia could become a new therapy for an inherited muscular wasting disease, according to researchers at the University of Oregon and the University of ...


Pathogen protection and virulence: Dark side of fungal membrane protein revealed

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Nov 06, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Researchers at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) at Virginia Tech and Montana State University have discovered a fungal protein that plays a key role in causing disease in plants and animals and which also shields ...


Report on H1N1 cases in California shows hospitalization can occur at all ages, with many severe

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created Nov 03, 2009 | popularity 1 / 5 (1) | comments 1

In contrast with some common perceptions regarding 2009 influenza A(H1N1) infections, an examination of cases in California indicates that hospitalization and death can occur at all ages, and about 30 percent of hospitalized ...