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Infectious Diseases
Scientists warn of more zoonotic diseases as third SA monkeypox case confirmed
South Africa recorded its third case of monkeypox on Monday. The Limpopo Health Department said in a statement that the National Institute for Communicable...
Monkeypox mutating faster than expected – Lisbon scientists
With South Africa having two reported monkeypox cases, and more than 3,500 people having contracted the virus in nearly 50 countries, scientists from Portugal...
Monkeypox possibly linked to decrease in smallpox vaccine – global experts
Theories are varied regarding the unusual outbreak of monkeypox, a rare tropical disease that appears to be spreading across the globe, with some linking...
SA study suggests flu shots for children could be effective in reducing overall transmission
Vaccination of children might be effective in reducing influenza transmission in African settings – not only among this at-risk group but the community in...
GSK’s novel malaria treatment for children receives first approval
Australian regulators have approved tafenoquine (brand name Kozenis) as an effective cure for a form of malaria in children aged 2 to 16.
The drug...
Advances in paediatric tuberculosis from 52nd Union World Conference on Lung Health
The screening, diagnosis, and treatment of tuberculosis (TB) in children remain far from optimal and in many respects lag behind what can be done...
Groundbreaking UCT study upends theory on how TB is spread
Upending centuries of medical dogma, University of Cape Town researchers found that breathing may be a bigger contributor to the spread of tuberculosis than the...
World first as GSK’s malaria vaccine is endorsed by WHO
GlaxoSmithKline's anti-malaria RTS,S vaccine, known as Mosquirix, has been given the green light from the World Health Organisation for widespread use. It is not...
Monoclonal antibody can prevent malaria for up to 9 months — NIH trial
One dose of a new monoclonal antibody discovered and developed at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), safely prevented malaria for up to...
Declining susceptibility to azithromycin found in German gonorrhoea samples
Analysis of Neisseria gonorrhoea samples from diagnostic laboratories throughout Germany shows a significant decrease in susceptibility to azithromycin, one of the two remaining antibiotics...
HPV vaccine shows success in gay and bisexual men — HYPER2 study
An Australian study found a 70% reduction in one type of human papillomavirus (HPV) in gay and bisexual men after the implementation of the...
Rapid test for blood infections is up to 40 hours faster
A novel test provides rapid bacterial identification and susceptibility results from positive blood cultures, shortening the time to antibiotic therapy and reducing unnecessary antibiotic...
Malaria vaccine trial demonstrates high-level efficacy
Researchers from the University of Oxford and their partners have reported findings from a Phase IIb trial of a candidate malaria vaccine, R21/Matrix-M, which...
HPV vaccine significantly lowers infection rates in teen girls — CDC study
A US Centres for Disease Control and Infection study found that since the Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine was introduced in 2006, vaccine-type HPV prevalence...
Bedaquiline-delamanid combo for resistant TB — SA and Peru trial
The results of a National Institutes of Health-funded phase 2 study indicate the new tuberculosis (TB) drugs delamanid and bedaquiline, when combined, have only...
Blood biomarker able to predict risk for TB disease progression
A blood biomarker of tuberculosis discriminated between people at high risk for tuberculosis and those who remained healthy, but an effective preventive therapy for...
Candidate TB vaccine appears safe and immunogenic in treated patients
A candidate therapeutic vaccine for prevention of post-treatment TB recurrence has proved efficacious in a phase 2 clinical trial involving the universities of Cape...
New TB regimen reduces treatment time by a third — clinical trial
Lung health researchers have announced important developments in tuberculosis (TB) research at the Union World Conference. This includes promising data from a clinical trial...
Self-sampling for STIs in rectum and throat just as accurate
Self-sampling for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the rectum and throat is just as accurate as testing performed by a healthcare worker, investigators from...
Successful TB vaccine moves forward after phase 2 trial
Results from the Phase 2 trial of the DAR-901 tuberculosis (TB) vaccine have been announced by investigators at Dartmouth University's Geisel School of Medicine....
Kruger Park study: Human activity promotes disease-spreading mosquitoes
Disease-spreading mosquitoes may be more likely to occupy areas impacted by human activities like pesticide use and habitat destruction, than they are areas less...
Promising new treatment regimens for MDR-TB
New treatment regimens for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) have shown early effectiveness in 85% of patients in a cohort that included many people with serious...
Malaria deaths could double this year if prevention is interrupted by COVID-19
Malaria-related deaths in sub-Saharan Africa in 2020 could be more than double those of 2019 if malaria-prevention activities are interrupted due to COVID-19, suggests...
Tuberculosis cases and deaths predicted to spike due to COVID-19
The global COVID-19 pandemic could significantly increase the global burden of tuberculosis (TB) due to disruptions to health services, and delays to diagnosis and...
Shorter antibiotic treatment effective for acute uncomplicated cystitis
Duration of treatment with third- and fourth-generation quinolones and pivmecillinam could be shorter than the currently recommended regimens and still serve to effectively manage...
TB spread from animals to humans may be greater than previously thought
The number of human tuberculosis (TB) cases that are due to transmission from animals, as opposed to human-to-human transmission, may be much higher than...
Despite price, rifampin can be a less costly alternative in TB prophylaxis
While rifampin is a more costly tuberculosis treatment, its shorter treatment length and fewer adverse events resulted in a lower total cost across study...
Influenza: New treatment reduces spread of virus
A large international collaboration in an animal model (ferrets) found that baloxavir reduced the transmission of influenza across all settings, and did so immediately,...
Oxford University way ahead of the pack in race for COVID-19 vaccine
In the worldwide race for a vaccine to stop the coronavirus, sprinting fastest isOxford University, with of their new coronavirus vaccine involving more than...
When three epidemics collide: TB, HIV and COVID-19 in South Africa
Tuberculosis (TB) and HIV pose a significant burden on South Africa’s health system. And now there's the coronavirus.
There’s a close relationship between the TB...
Drug combo for six months successful in treating drug-resistant TB
The new anti-tuberculosis drug combination of bedaquiline, pretomanid and linezolid cures 90% of people with deadly drug-resistant TB if given for six months, researchers...
Booster shots for tetanus and diphtheria not necessary if vaccinated in childhood
Adults don't need tetanus and diphtheria boosters if they were fully vaccinated as children, a study has found. The conclusion aligns with the World...
HPV vaccination prevents more deaths than previously estimated
HPV vaccination has higher health benefits and is more cost-effective than previously estimated, according to a study. The research, led by the London School...
Low southern hemisphere incidence of COVID-19: Is it the sunshine and heat?
There has been much speculation that the low confirmed incidence of COVID-19 infections in Africa and the rest of the southern hemisphere may be...
Cruise ship quarantine resulted in more COVID-19 infections
The cruise ship Diamond Princess was quarantined for over two weeks resulting in more coronavirus infected passengers than if they would have disembarked immediately....
WHO's malaria vaccine study a 'serious breach of ethical standards'
A large-scale malaria vaccine study led by the World Health Organisation (WHO) has been criticised by a leading bioethicist for committing a “serious breach”...
Second antibiotic no advantage for treating super-bug Golden Staph
A world-first, three-year multi-centre study involved 352 patients at 27 hospitals in Australia, Singapore, Israel and New Zealand has called into question the effectiveness...
COVID-19: SA 'would struggle' because of specialist shortage
Despite only one person in Africa so far diagnosed with Covid-19, experts warn of the potential for imminent havoc on an under-prepared, under-resourced continent,...
Long-term effectiveness of shortened DR-TB treatment regimen
Results from an International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union)-led observational study show that a nine-month shortened treatment regimen for rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis...
Intravenous TB vaccine found to be more effective
Delivering a high dose of a vaccine against tuberculosis intravenously, instead of under the skin, greatly improves the drug’s ability to protect against the...