Scientists are reporting an advance in the search for a fast, sensitive test to detect bird flu viruses — one that requires no refrigeration and can be used in remote areas easily.

The new technique is the first to use sugar molecules rather than antibodies.

In the new report, Jurgen Schmidt, Suri Iyer, and colleagues point out that conventional tests for flu viruses rely on antibodies, proteins produced by the immune system, to recognize viruses. 

However, antibody-based tests can be costly and require refrigeration to remain stable.

Doctors have developed artificial forms of sialic acid, a sugar molecule found on the surface of cells to which flu viruses attach. Researchers showed that their highly-selective artificial sugars could be used to quickly capture and recognize two common strains of influenza viruses, H1N1, which infects birds, and H3N2, which infects pigs and humans. They used the molecules to differentiate between two strains — from Sydney and Beijing – commonly found in human infections without isolating the viral RNA or surface glycoproteins.

These sugars remain stable for several months, can be produced in large quantities, and demonstrate extended shelf life.

– by Gene J. Koprowski, Editorial Director

Posted: July 31st, 2008 under Avian Flu, Developing Diseases.
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The health department closed the Hawaiian Falls Adventure Park in Garland, Texas, this week because of potential cryptosporidiosis contamination.

A person who swam in the pool there has tested positive for crypto, an intestinal infection that causes diarrhea, cramping, nausea or vomiting, doctors said. The city closed all of the water attractions at Hawaiian Falls while park employees treat the water with chlorine to destroy any contaminants. Another Hawaiian Falls facility in nearby Mansfield, Texas, closed Wednesday night for the water to be treated as a precaution. The Hawaiian Falls in The Colony, Texas will close Thursdsay night for similar treatment. This is just the latest cryptosporidiosis scare in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. According to news reports, the following incicents have been reported recently: 

• Burger’s Lake in Fort Worth reopened last weekend after at least 20 people became sick. The lake was treated for crypto.
• All YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas pools will close Thursday night or Friday night while the water is treated for crypto.
• Play grounds at Mildred Dunn Park and Campbell Green Park in Dallas were closed last weekend, after children became ill. Those spraygrounds reopened after treatment. Now the city plans to treat all 28 pools and spraygrounds every week.
• Fifteen Tarrant County YMCA pools were closed Thursday, July 24, for crypto treatment. They reopened over the weekend.
• City pools in Arlington were treated Wednesday, July 23.
• Splash Station in Cleburne was treated for crypto Saturday, June 26, after an employee was infected with the parasite, according to doctors.

Good infection control practices are required to combat this disease. If you swim in a pool that may have been tainted with crypto, make sure you use disinfectants when getting out of the water.

– by Gene J. Koprowski, Editorial Director

Cryptosporidiosis threatens swimmers in Texas.

Posted: July 31st, 2008 under Diseases, Hand Hygiene.
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The chances of getting an HIV infection increase drastically for male drug addicts who were deported to Tijuana from the U.S., a new study reports. Expected to be presented Aug. 5 at the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, the findings suggest further investigation is required to determine the risk factors of displacement and the need for programs that offer support to displaced persons on either side of the U.S.-Mexico border.

The study was produced by the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, and was also published in the July 30 issue of Public Library of Science (PLoS) One.

As the largest city on the U.S.-Mexico border, Tijuana is a major route for drug trafficking. The largest number of drug users per capita in Mexico live there and an estimated 5,000 female sex workers can be found in the city’s busy zona roja, or red light zone, the researchers said. These risk factors contribute to a growing epidemic of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections there.

The study examined HIV infection rates among 1,056 injection drug users (IDUs) in Tijuana, 86 percent of whom were male, and assessed potential risk factors that might increase the risk of getting the disease. Deportation was the most commonly cited reason for coming to the city among males — 57 percent versus 30 percent among females. A greater proportion of men also reported being homeless — 15 percent versus 5 percent – and injecting drugs outside the home.

“Deportation was significantly associated with HIV infection in males,” Steffanie A. Strathdee, chief of the division of international health and cross-cultural medicine at UC San Diego’s School of Medicine, said. “The prevalence of HIV infection and potential risk factors differed by gender. But a finding we didn’t anticipate is that living in Tijuana for longer periods was associated with lower HIV prevalence in men, which is the opposite of what we found in women. Among women, longer-term residents in Tijuana actually had a higher risk of HIV infection.”

– by Gene J. Koprowski, Editorial Director

Deported drug addicts at risk.

Posted: July 30th, 2008 under Diseases, HIV.
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The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH),  is financing new research on pyrimidinedione inhibitors as topical microbicides to prevent the sexual transmission of HIV.

The grant to ImQuest BioSciences is providing funding for the continued development of the dual-acting pyrimidinedione molecules which inhibit two critical steps in the HIV replication pathway.

Scientists plan to use the funds to define the “most potent microbicide” candidate for advanced preclinical and clinical development.

“Women now account for over 50 percent of the cases of individuals living with AIDS and the successful development of a microbicide is essential for providing them with an effective means to protect themselves from infection,” says Dr. Robert Buckheit, the chief scientific officer at IMQuest. “In the absence of an effective vaccine, topical microbicides represent the best means to prevent new HIV infections throughout the world.”

As part of the grant, scientists will work in collaboration with Dr. Patrick Kiser of The University of Utah to develop an optimal formulated gel product which can be used by women to prevent the sexual transmission of HIV. The firm is planning to file an investigational new drug application (IND) with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and start human clinical microbicide trials with their lead microbicide candidate in 2009.
 

– by Gene J. Koprowski, Editorial Director

Posted: July 30th, 2008 under Diseases, HIV.
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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is now telling consumers that jalapeño and serrano peppers grown in the U.S. are not connected with the current Salmonella outbreak – but they should avoid raw jalapeño peppers, and any foods that contain them, from Mexico.

The feds are collaborating with state regulatory agencies and food industry groups representing restaurants, grocery stores, and wholesalers to ensure that this new advisory is clearly understood by all.  The agency’s investigation into the food-poisoning, however, continues.

This new information on tainted Mexican peppers is based on evidence gathered by the intensive investigation that has been ongoing for several weeks.  The current traceback probe of harvesting dates was matched with the dates that people became ill, have combined to indicate that the contaminated peppers originated in Mexico.

Further traceback information obtained this week indicates that the Agricola Zaragoza plant in McAllen, Texas—from where the positive jalapeño pepper sample was taken—have determined that the Texas plant was not the original source of the disease.

High risk populations, including elderly persons, infants and people with impaired immune systems, should avoid eating raw Serrano peppers from Mexico or food made from raw Serrano peppers from Mexico until further notice, according to the FDA.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 1,294 persons with Salmonella Saintpaul with the same “genetic fingerprint” have been identified in 43 states, the District of Columbia and Canada since April 2008.

– by Gene J. Koprowski, MA, Editorial Director and Nancy Bruening, Managing Editor

FDA says Mexican peppers — raw, or in food products — should be avoided for now.

Posted: July 29th, 2008 under Developing Diseases, Salmonella.
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The number of cases of staph infection — causing skin abscesses and other grotesque afflictions — has doubled during the last eight years in the U.S., a new study demonstrates.

Called Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, the reports of this dreaded, developing disease are growing from emergency rooms and private medical doctors’ offices.

MRSA last fall caused the closure of several junior high and high schools in San Francisco, as students became infected. Crews cleaned campuses as fretful parents pelted school officials with phone calls.

In a study published this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers from University of California at San Francisco looked at patient visits nationally for skin infections from 1997 to 2005.

Doctors discovered that the number of people who went to a doctor’s office or hospital emergency room because of a skin abscess or cellulitis rose from 4.6 million to 9.6 million during that time.

That represented an increase from 17.3 patients per 1,000 population to 32.5 patients, based on data from the National Center for Health Statistics.

Abscesses and cellulitis are sometimes symptoms of MRSA. Cellulitis is a bacterial skin infection marked by redness, pain, and swelling.

“Most of this increase is attributable to MRSA,” said Dr. Adam Hersh, a lead author on the study and a fellow in the UCSF division of pediatric infectious diseases.

– by Gene J. Koprowski, MA, Editorial Director

Staph infections skyrocketing.

Posted: July 29th, 2008 under Developing Diseases, MRSA.
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Doctors say a vaccine is on the horizon for tularemia, a fatal disease caused by the pathogen Francisella tularensis, an organism considered a potential biological warfare agent. Until recently medicine knew very little about this bacterium.  But, according to the August issue of the Journal of Medical Microbiology, research on the bacterium is now making fast progress.

Infection with F. tularensis can result in a variety of symptoms, depending on the route of infection. For example, infection via an insect bite can lead to a swollen ulcer or fever, chills, malaise, headaches and a sore throat. When infection occurs by eating contaminated food, symptoms can range from mild diarrhea to an acute fatal disease. If inhaled, F. tularensis infections can have a 30 percent mortality rate if left untreated.

“Very few bacteria are needed to cause serious disease,” said Dr. Petra Oyston. “Because of this and the fact that tularemia can be contracted by inhalation, Francisella tularensis has been designated a potential biological weapon. Since the events of September 2001 and the subsequent anthrax attacks on the USA, concern about the potential misuse of dangerous pathogens including F. tularensis has increased.”

Tularemia resides in rodents and animals like rabbits and hares. Outbreaks in humans often happen at the same time as outbreaks in these creatures. The disease is probably transmitted by insects like mosquitoes, doctors speculate. People can also become infected by contact with contaminated food or water. Farmers, hunters, walkers, and forest workers are most at risk of contracting tularemia.

Presently, there is no vaccine against tularemia. Since there are few natural cases of tularemia, money was not spent by researchers on the development of a vaccine. But, some nations have developed F. tularensis as a biological weapon, including the reported production of antibiotic-resistant strains, so research into its pathogenesis has become a biodefense issue.

“Progress is being made,” said Dr. Oyston. “Since the genome of F. tularensis was sequenced, researchers have taken great strides in understanding the molecular basis for its pathogenesis. This is essential information for developing a vaccine and getting it licensed.”

– by Gene J. Koprowski, Editorial Director

Biological warfare still a threat in the years after 9-11.

Posted: July 28th, 2008 under Anti-Bacterial Resources, Vaccinations.
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 A new clinical trial at the University at Buffalo demonstrates that using antimicrobial sutures to secure a shunt and close a wound significantly reduces the number of shunt infections arising during the first six months after brain surgery. Results of the trial appear online in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics. 

Sixty-one children requiring brain shunt surgery were assigned randomly to undergo their surgery with antimicrobial sutures, considered the study group, or with conventional sutures, which served as the control group.  All of the procedures were performed by one of two pediatric neurosurgeons at Women & Children’s Hospital of Kaleida Health in Buffalo. At the end of the trial, the shunt infection rate in the study group was 4.3 percent, compared to 21 percent in the control group.

“Some earlier studies, but not all, found that antibiotic-impregnated shunt systems in particular appear to reduce infection risk,” said Dr. Curtis J.  Rozzelle, MD.  “Unfortunately, none of these studies were prospective, randomized, and double-blinded.” In animal trials, sutures were coated with the antimicrobial triclosan have been shown to reduce the number of bacteria adhering to sutures, but only one study has been published thus far on their effect in preventing surgical site infection, so we decided to conduct our own trial, the doctor said.

“Our results showed that using antimicrobial sutures reduced infection risk by 16 percent,” he added.

Antibiotic-impregnated shunts, which are used in some surgeries, have several limitations, said Rozzelle, “They don’t provide complete protection, they can’t be used in patients who are allergic to the antibiotics, and they are a lot more expensive than non-impregnated shunts.”

“Closing wounds with antimicrobial sutures may reduce infections in procedures implanting other devices, such as pacemakers and neurostimulators, pumps that deliver pharmaceuticals and shunts elsewhere in the body,” he said.

– by Gene J. Koprowski, Editorial Director

New sutures cut infection rates for brain surgeries.

Posted: July 28th, 2008 under Anti-Bacterial Resources, Wound Management.
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Government officials officials have closed more than two dozen beaches on New York’s Long Island and are cautioning swimmers to stay away from 63 others. Concerns that storm water runoff could raise high levels of bacteria have led to the health warnings.

Nassau County announced Thursday that 18 beaches on Long Island Sound were closed until further notice. Nearby Suffolk County closed three beaches and issued the advisory for 63 others.

Public officials indicate the closings are just a precaution. Heavy rain has hit the New York City metropolitan area in the past 24 hours, causing local flooding.

– by Gene J. Koprowski, Editorial Director

Stay off the beach as an infection protection measure, New York public health officials say.

Posted: July 25th, 2008 under Developing Diseases, Diseases, Impaired Immunity.
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The first U.S. registry of complicated skin and soft tissue infections (cSSTIs), dubbed the Skin and Soft Tissue Infection Hospital Registry (SSTIR), this week began enrolling patients. The registry plans to enroll more than 1,200 hospitalized patients by the end of this year with the goal of gaining a better understanding of treatment patterns and improving patient outcomes, according to media reports.

Sponsored by Ortho-McNeil, division of Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., more than 50 hospitals nationally have agreed to participate in this prospective, multi-center registry, which will comprehensively characterize the four major types of cSSTIs: diabetic foot infections, surgical site infections, deep soft tissue abscesses and cellulitis, an infection of tissue under the skin.

“Physicians are treating more and more patients with complicated skin infections in hospitals across the U.S., and the emergence of resistant pathogens has made the situation even more complex,” said Dr. Susan Nicholson, MD, therapeutic area leader for internal medicine at Ortho-McNeil. “This data will give physicians insight into how to manage these difficult-to-treat infections.”

Skin and soft tissue infections account for nearly 10 percent of all hospital admissions in the U.S. Researcher say the most common types of cSSTIs are post-operative surgical site infections, which represent 25 percent of all hospital infections.

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), 111,000 people with diabetes are hospitalized with foot infections every year, and as many as 3.09 million adults will develop a diabetic foot infection in their lifetime.

– by Gene J. Koprowski, Editorial Director

Skin infections increasingly common, NIH says.

Posted: July 25th, 2008 under Developing Diseases, Diseases, Hand Hygiene, MRSA.
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