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Infectious Diseases
Do we need youth-friendly TB clinics?
Tuberculosis treatment programmes in Cape Town, South Africa, do not currently distinguish between adolescent and adult TB patients, and in so doing, may miss...
Efficacy, safety and economic impact of shortened MDR-TB treatment
Final results from Stage 1 of the STREAM randomised clinical trial show that a 9-11-month treatment regimen is as effective in treating multidrug-resistant tuberculosis...
Ground-breaking research facility samples TB from breathed air
Part of the research at the University of Cape Town's new new Aerobiology TB Research Facility involves measuring the amount of air individuals exchange, which may range...
Using smartphones in sub-Saharan Africa to control infectious diseases
An international review outlines how healthcare workers in low-income countries, like those in sub-Saharan Africa, could use existing smartphones to diagnose, track and control infectious...
New assay detects subclinical infection of malaria parasite
The gametocyte sexual form of Plasmodium falciparum, a parasite that causes human malaria, is responsible for mosquito-borne transmission of infection. Some individuals carry low...
Vitamin D in the fight against multi-drug resistant TB
Vitamin D speeds up the clearance of tuberculosis (TB) bacteria from the lungs of people with multi-drug resistant TB, according to a study of...
2011 guidelines on management of gonorrhoea updated
A new guideline on the management of gonorrhoea has been issued by the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV, says a MDmagazine report....
First diagnostic saliva test for malaria 'imminent', says SA firm
An SA company, ERADA Technology Alliance, has announced the "imminent launch" of what it says is a world-first diagnostic saliva test for malaria.
The saliva-based diagnostic...
New oral antibiotic successful with uncomplicated gonorrhoea
An investigational oral antibiotic called zoliflodacin was well-tolerated and successfully cured most cases of uncomplicated gonorrhoea when tested in a Phase 2 multicentre clinical...
UCT in infectious diseases treatment breakthrough
University of Cape Town (UCT) scientists have offered the first hope of addressing the risk of tuberculosis-associated immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (TB-IRIS), which is...
Combo treatment highly effective in chronic HCV patients
Data found the combination of glecaprevir and pibrentasvir is highly effective and well tolerated in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype-1 infections...
Link between appendix removal and development of Parkinson's
Removing the appendix early in life reduces the risk of developing Parkinson's disease by 19% to 25%, according to the largest and most comprehensive...
Diagnostic platform screens for all known human pathogenic bacteria
Scientists at the Centre for Infection and Immunity (CII) in the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health have developed the first diagnostic platform...
Not to be sniffed at: Dogs diagnose malaria to better-than WHO standards
In recent tests trained sniffer dogs successfully diagnosed malaria infections simply by sniffing samples from socks worn briefly by children from a malaria endemic...
NICD rebuts research claiming an outbreak of MDR-TB in SA
The SA National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) says it “does not support” the findings of a research study reporting an outbreak of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB),...
Gilead reduces price of amphotericin B for cryptococcal meningitis
Gilead Sciences have expanded their access initiative for AmBisome (a liposomal preparation of amphotericin B) to include cryptococcal meningitis, where previously it was only...
Candidate vaccine significantly reduces pulmonary TB in trial
A candidate tuberculosis vaccine significantly reduced the incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis in HIV-negative adults who were already infected with latent TB at the time...
Single dose of new drug can shorten flu duration by a day
A single dose of a new influenza drug can significantly shorten the duration of the illness in teens and adults, according to a study....
Airport security plastic trays a hotbed of viruses
The plastic trays used at airport security checkpoints have been found to harbour the highest levels of viruses at airports, in a scientific investigation...
TB treatment successful in children with MDR-TB
The results of a large, international systematic review show that tuberculosis treatment is successful in children with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB).
An IoL report says the...
Higher levels of natural killer cells associated with latent TB
Higher levels of natural killer cells in blood are associated with tuberculosis (TB) latency, reports a University of Cape Town study in collaboration with...
Close to 50% of SA's injecting drug users living with hepatitis C
Close to half of injecting drug users surveyed in South Africa are living with the potentially deadly hepatitis C virus, a study has found....
Low vaccination rates blamed for 'dramatic' surge in measles in Europe
A huge surge in measles across Europe has been reported by the World Health Organisation, which says low MMR vaccination rates are to blame....
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...