A new treatment that delivers a freezing or near-freezing temperature to the back of the nose of patients can offer relief to people suffering from chronic stuffy or runny nose, postnasal drip and cough. These symptoms result from persistently inflamed nose and sinuses, a condition known as chronic rhinitis.
Pfizer has agreed to pay German biotech firm BioNTech up to $425 million in an alliance to develop more effective influenza jabs, the latest among several major pharma companies to bank on a promising new genetic approach.
For the upcoming 2018-2019 influenza season, the quadrivalent live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV4; FluMist Quadrivalent) is an option for appropriate individuals, according to updated recommendations from the the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).
After advising the public to avoid the nasal-spray version of the flu vaccine for the past two years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now giving it the green light.
Scientists have identified the cause of outbreaks of enterovirus, one of the most prevalent types of virus in the world. The findings, from researchers at Imperial College London and published in the journal Science, may help the public and healthcare workers prepare for an outbreak up to two years before it occurs.
The 1918 "Spanish Flu" was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, killing 50-100 million people. To this day influenza is a major health concern, having killed another 50-100 million people since 1918. The most recent pandemic was the H1N1 flu outbreak in 2009.
The critical, structural changes that enveloped viruses, such as HIV, Ebola and influenza, undergo before invading host cells have been revealed by scientists using nano-infrared spectroscopic imaging.
Helminthic parasites, like hookworm and liver flukes (schistosomiasis), affect an estimated 1 billion people worldwide. Infection from hookworm and schistosomiasis result in a combined loss of as much as 92 million disability-adjusted life years annually. Little progress has been made to relieve this global burden and eradicate these parasites until now.
In a study, a new HIV drug reduced viral replication and increased immune cells in individuals with advanced, drug-resistant HIV infection. Used in combination with existing HIV medications, the drug is a promising strategy for patients who have run out of effective treatment options, the researchers said. The study, co-authored by Yale assistant professor of medicine Brinda Emu, M.D., was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Transgenic males of Aedes aegypti with defective sperm have been created at the University of São Paulo's Biomedical Science Institute (ICB-USP) in Brazil and may be produced on a pilot scale next year. Alongside the development of vaccines, the production of genetically modified mosquitoes could become one of the most effective means of combating epidemics of dengue, chikungunya, Zika and yellow fever.
An adult from the north coast of New South Wales is the latest Australian to be diagnosed with the deadly infectious disease, diphtheria. The patient, who was diagnosed, is being treated with antibiotics and health authorities have followed up all contacts.
Researchers have found that a group of viruses that cause severe stomach illness—including the one famous for widespread outbreaks on cruise ships— get transmitted to humans through membrane-cloaked "virus clusters" that exacerbate the spread and severity of the disease. Previously, it was believed that these viruses only spread through individual virus particles.
The discovery of these clusters, the scientists say, marks a turning point in the understanding of how these viruses spread and why they are so infectious. This preliminary work could lead to the development of more effective antiviral agents than existing treatments that mainly target individual particles.