Respiratory Infections

We hear a lot about influenza types A and B every year when flu season approaches, and occasionally about the less severe type C. Now researchers have identified a newly recognized form of the virus—influenza D.

Walgreens has partnered up again with the US Department of Health in an effort to improve rates of flu vaccination by providing over $10 million in free flu shot vouchers for Americans who are uninsured.

Nearly 900,000 people in the United States get pneumococcal pneumonia each year, resulting in about 400,000 hospitalizations annually.

A new study has shown that infected wild house mice will disengage from their social groups, resulting in a decreased potential for disease transmission; these findings can be applied to improve models used to predict transmission of infectious diseases spread by social contact, such as Ebola and influenza.

A wild mallard duck found near a state wildlife refuge in Fairbanks, Alaska has tested positive for the H5N2 form of avian influenza.

Researchers from Stanford University have developed a new quick and easy test for tuberculosis (TB) which may help doctors in developing nations.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the new influenza vaccines AFLURIA and AFLURIA QUADRIVALENT from Seqirus.

Otto Schwake, PhD, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech, lead researcher from the Flint Water Study team, explains the danger Legionella poses.

According to the new study, the antibacterial response of white blood cells to the flu virus fails to target the S. aureus bacteria and instead causes inflammatory injury to the lungs and damage to surrounding tissue, creating a higher susceptibility to secondary bacterial infections such as MRSA pneumonia.

Two new cases of Polio have been discovered in Nigeria.

Researchers have found that although HIV makes individuals more susceptible to acquire tuberculosis, it is not the cause of the spread of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.

Burkholderia pseudomallei, the bacteria that causes Melioidosis (or Whitmore's disease), was first discovered in 1911 by pathologist Alfred Whitmore and his assistant.

Researchers at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital discovered that adjuvanted flu vaccines do not protect obese mice as they do their lean counterparts from flu infection.

According to IDSA, early diagnosis reduces the need for otherwise unnecessary testing and treatment.

The IDSA and ATS have updated the Clinical Practice Guidelines for HAP & VAP for the first time since 2005 to recommend that each hospital generate antibiograms and reduce the use of antibiotics in treatment regiments.

Investigators at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) believe they have found the key to developing a universal vaccine for influenza.

Following an outbreak of acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) identified at Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora over three months in 2014, a potential association has been found between enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) infection and AFM in pediatric patients.

Stephen Redd, MD (RADM, USPHS), Director of the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shares which infectious disease he feels needs greater attention.

The belief that patients may face increased risks of complications following reduced antibiotic use after experiencing self-limiting respiratory tract infections (RTIs) may not be well-founded.

Although researchers have made progress in identifying potential medical countermeasures to hinder the spread of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), the virus is still spreading.

As the incidence of tuberculosis (TB) continues to decline in low-prevalence settings such as the United States, there is some concern within the infectious disease/public health field that clinicians may not be aware of the latest diagnostic technologies available to screen for the disease.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has voted against the use of the live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV), or “nasal spray,” for the 2016-2017 flu season.

Research conducted by the Flint Water Study team at Virginia Tech revealed that DNA marker levels for Legionella in the city’s water supply has decreased since October 2015.

Sequirus recently announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Flucelvax Quadrivalent influenza vaccine.

An international team of researchers may have identified a potential animal model for use in the laboratory as part of efforts to better understand the pathogenesis of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus and, hopefully, find an effective treatment for it: alpacas.

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests that many of the reported outbreaks involving Legionella bacteria since 2000 could have been prevented with better testing protocols and infrastructure management.

Public health demands integrity, said Margaret Hamburg, MD, former commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 65th Annual Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Conference in Atlanta, Georgia.

The number of expecting mothers who opt for annual vaccination for influenza during pregnancy remains relatively low; however, the results of a new study suggest this may be changing—and that there are obvious benefits for immunization for newborns.

A program designed to improve the quality of influenza surveillance capabilities in 39 countries from around the globe through partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) seems to have resulted in remarkable progress on all six of the assessed metrics, and even led to improvements in the surveillance of other pathogens, according to the results of a recent study.

The level of hemagglutination inhibition (HAI) used as the traditional gold standard for evaluating influenza vaccines in the United States and European Union may not actually be the best predictor of protection from influenza virus-induced disease.