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 infection
Researchers take aim at hard-to-treat fungal infections
Nov 19, 2009 |
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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: Researchers target tick saliva
Nov 19, 2009 |
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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
Nov 19, 2009 |
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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
Nov 17, 2009 |
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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
Nov 17, 2009 |
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(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
Nov 16, 2009 |
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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
Nov 16, 2009 |
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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
Nov 12, 2009 |
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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
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.
Exposure to several common infections over time may be associated with risk of stroke
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Nov 09, 2009 |
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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
Nov 09, 2009 |
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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
Nov 09, 2009 |
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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 (w/ Video)
Nov 06, 2009 |
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(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
Nov 06, 2009 |
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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
Nov 03, 2009 |
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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 ...
