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Infectious Diseases
Resistance to H. pylori infection antibiotics increasing
The resistance of Helicobacter pylori to antibiotics is increasing worldwide, with primary and secondary resistance to clarithromycin, metronidazole, and levofloxacin reaching levels higher than...
TP-PA shows excellent sensitivity for adjudicating syphilis
Treponema pallidum particle agglutination assay (TP-PA) is a better test to adjudicate syphilis results given its high specificity and superior sensitivity, according to a...
Shorter treatment more successful in tackling latent TB
Treatment of latent tuberculosis is set to transform after a pair of studies from the Research-Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) revealed...
New dawn in TB prevention therapy
It is estimated that around 1.7bn people on earth are infected with tuberculosis (TB). Spotlight reports that in these so-called latent infections, people have...
Bedaquiline significantly reduces XDR- and MDR-TB mortality
Bedaquiline-based regimens are associated with 'striking' reductions in mortality in patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis, University of Cape Town and Department of Health research has...
J&J urged to slash SA price of breakthrough TB medicine
A breakthrough tuberculosis pill is being sold at about 10 times the price it should be by patent holder Johnson & Johnson (J&J). Business...
SA makes history with 'bold' move on DR-TB drug
South Africa's 'bold' announcement that all drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) patients will be eligible to receive the new medicine, bedaquiline, move may influence the World Health...
Looking to an 'experimental' intervention to fight new Ebola outbreak
An unlicensed vaccine, made by Merck, which performed exceptionally well during the deadly West African Ebola outrbreak of 2015, is being trialled in the...
Funding allocated to TB 'pitiful' in comparison to HIV
The funding that has been allocated in the past to TB is ‘pitiful in comparison to HIV’, says Dr Helen Cox, an epidemiologist at...
Warnings of significant contamination of hair clippers used for 'chiskop'
Two recent studies conducted by the University of Cape Town have found significant contamination of hair clippers with blood and blood-borne viruses, especially hepatitis...
Latest flu vaccine predicted to again have reduced efficacy
A US study predicts that this seasons flu vaccine – a new H3N2 formulation for the first time since 2015 – will likely have...
MVA85A vaccine effective in infants borne to HIV-positive parents
The University of Cape Town (UCT) and international researchers are hopeful that infants born to HIV-positive parents could in future not be dependent on...
WHO's guidelines for TB medications may be too low for patients with HIV
The World Health Organisation's dosage guidelines for two leading tuberculosis medications may be far too low for patients with HIV, allowing them to remain...
Motsoaledi ends port testing for listeriosis, despite more deaths and infections
The death toll from South Africa's listeriosis outbreak has reached 199, with 50 new infections reported since the recall of implicated products on 4...
Malaria-infected children's skin smell attracts malaria mosquitos
Children infected with the malaria parasite Plasmodium were found to produce distinctive skin smells making them more attractive to malaria mosquitoes than uninfected children,...
Link found between HDL cholesterol and infectious disease risk
Most people recognise that there is a relationship between cholesterol levels and risk of heart disease. But new research from Copenhagen University Hospital and...
Even short trips to developing world can spread colistin resistance to bacteria
The emergence of antibiotic resistance among dangerous pathogens is increasingly problematic worldwide. Researchers at Osaka University have followed Japanese travellers to find out how short...
Stellenbosch has role in developing simple blood test to predict TB development
Stellenbosch University (SU) researchers are part of an international consortium that developed a simple blood test that can predict the development of tuberculosis (TB)...
Kidney dysfunction contributes to severe malaria
Understanding the most severe presentations of malaria is key to lowering the mortality associated with the infectious disease, which currently stands around 500,000 deaths...
Majority of hepatitis B cases remain undiagnosed and untreated
About 300m people worldwide are living with hepatitis B, yet the majority of cases remain undiagnosed or untreated – The Guardian reports that a...
Fresh strategies needed to rein in excessive antibiotic use
A dramatic rise in global antibiotic consumption has led public health experts to call for fresh strategies to rein in excessive use of the...
Listeria outbreak prompts improvements in SA food safety standards
The huge and deadly outbreak of listeria in South Africa could alter the country’s approach to food-borne disease and prompt improvements in food safety...
Regimen change may halve cryptococcal meningitis deaths
The Advancing Cryptococcal Treatment for Africa (ACTA) Trial shows relatively simple regimen changes can cut mortality rates in the region of 70% to 25-30%....
Young rural SA women more vulnerable to STIs than young men
Young women in rural SA were more than twice as likely as young men to be infected with chlamydia and nearly twice as likely...
Motsoaledi backs class action over listeriosis outbreak
Victims of the world's worst listeriosis outbreak, which has killed at least 183 people, are being invited to join a class action — supported...
Adverse pregnancy outcomes with Isoniazid Preventive Therapy in HIV
Isoniazid preventive therapy (IPT) for tuberculosis in pregnant women with HIV was associated with excess adverse pregnancy outcomes and may warrant a re-assessment of...
Innovative 'invisible ink' successfully detects TB
University of Witwatersrand scientists and international researchers have pioneered an innovative process to detect TB bacteria by adding a molecule to the bacteria’s own...
First evidence of what most attracts the mosquitos that carry dengue and chikungunya
The first evidence from a University of Nairobi study of how chemical compounds found in body odour can be used to develop effective mosquito...
Dolutegravir at 50mg twice daily is safe and effective in patients on TB treatment
Data presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2018) in Boston from the 24-week interim analysis of the INSPIRING clinical trial...
Meta-analysis of STI prevalence in sub-Saharan Africa
Prevalence of curable sexually transmitted infections (STIs)– chlamydia, gonorrhoea, syphilis and trichomoniasis – among women aged 15 to 24 exceeds that of older women...
First diagnostic test for candidemia cleared by FDA
A new blood test seems to perform as well as, if not better than, traditional blood cultures at detecting the candidemia infection that commonly...
New drug combo successfully treats DR-TB
Research by the international medical humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) provides strong evidence that a combination of two new drugs for...
Low immunisation rates fuels spread of measles in Europe
Cases of life-threatening measles have tripled in Europe because of a continent-wide outbreak, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has warned. Low...
Flu vaccine information updated
The Acute Respiratory Infections Group team of the Cochrane Reviews has updated the latest evidence on influenza vaccines.
Three Cochrane Reviews led by Vittorio Demicheli,...
Newest, untreatable malaria strain alarms experts
The outbreak in Cambodia, then Thailand, Laos and most recently Vietnam, of malaria that is untreatable with the newest and best drugs we have...
How the sushi boom is fuelling tapeworm infections
Reports this week that a US man's sushi habit ended with a hospital trip with an almost two-metre tapeworm, has sparked much revulsion and...
SA's listeriosis outbreak 'the worst in global history'
In the past month‚ another 167 people have contracted deadly listeriosis‚ bringing the total number of confirmed cases in South Africa to 717. And,...
Scarlet fever making an unexpected and puzzling comeback
England is experiencing an unprecedented rise in scarlet fever with the highest incidence for nearly 50 years, according to a study in The Lancet. ...
NSAIDs inferior to antibiotics in treating UTIs
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) were found to be inferior to antibiotics for symptom relief of uncomplicated urinary tract infection (UTI), according to findings from...
Preventing malaria infections the old-fashioned way
Seasonal malaria chemo-prevention is saving thousands of children in West Africa, according to studies presented this week at the American Society of Tropical Medicine...