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Protective Effect of Hand-Washing and Good Hygienic Habits Against Seasonal Influenza
Compared with the poorest hand-washing score of 0 to 3, odds ratios of influenza infection decreased progressively from 0.26 to 0.029 as hand-washing score increased from 4 to the maximum of 9 (P < 0.001). Compared with the poorest hygienic habit score of 0 to 2, odds ratios of influenza infection decreased from 0.10 to 0.015 with improving score of hygienic habits (P < 0.001). Independent protective factors against influenza infection included good hygienic habits, higher hand-washing score, providing soap or hand cleaner beside the hand-washing basin, and receiving influenza vaccine.
Antibiotics Resistance: Scientists Develop Algorithm-Based Technique To Personalize Antibiotic Treatments
“It is now possible to computationally predict the level of bacterial resistance for infection-causing bacteria. This is done by weighing of demographic data, including age, gender, pregnancy … together with levels of resistance [which are] measured in the patient’s previous urine cultures as well as their drug purchase history,” Israel Hayom quoted Yelin.
For the research, the scientists analyzed over 700,000 urine cultures. Then they focussed on urine tract infections that involve various types of bacteria, including E. coli, Klebsiella pneumonia and Proteus mirabilis.
The researchers then developed an algorithm, which was based on antibiotic purchases made in the past 10 years for over five million cases. The algorithm provided treatment recommendations based on the infection’s antibiotics resistance.
Link found between gut bacteria, successful joint replacement -- ScienceDaily
In normal mice, immune system markers in the bloodstream rise during an infection, as the body responds. But in the study, these markers did not rise in mice with unhealthy microbiomes that also developed infections. The results suggest that mice with unhealthy microbiomes may have compromised immune systems.
Safe' UV light may prevent infections in catheters, cardiac drivelines -- ScienceDaily
A specific wavelength of ultraviolet light, now delivered through light-diffusing optical fibers, is highly effective at killing drug-resistant bacteria in cell cultures, according to a new study led by David J. Brenner, PhD, a professor of radiation biophysics at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. The technology is designed to prevent infections around skin-penetrating medical devices, such as catheters or mechanical heart pump drivelines.
Why Is Everyone Getting Shingles? – Member Feature Stories – Medium
From the late 1940s to the early 2000s, the prevalence of shingles among Americans younger than 50 more than quadrupled, Harpaz’s data shows. Some research suggests the incidence of shingles among younger adults may actually be gaining steam. At least anecdotally, shingles seems to be increasingly common among people in their twenties and thirties — a group that, historically, suffered from vanishingly low rates of the disease.
First multiplex test for tick-borne diseases: Promising to revolutionize diagnosis, a single blood test can now accurately detect if someone is infected with Lyme and/or one of seven other tick-borne diseases -- ScienceDaily
The TBD Serochip can simultaneously test for the presence of antibodies in blood to more than 170,000 individual protein fragments. Version 1.0 can identify exposure to eight tick-borne pathogens present in the U.S., including Anaplasma phagocytophilum (agent of human granulocytic anaplasmosis), Babesia microti (babesiosis), Borrelia burgdorferi (Lyme disease), Borrelia miyamotoi, Ehrlichia chaffeensis (human monocytic ehrlichiosis), Rickettsia rickettsii (Rocky Mountain spotted fever), Heartland virus and Powassan virus. The researchers also included Long Island tick rhabdovirus, a novel virus they recently discovered in Amblyomma americanum ticks. As new tick-borne infectious agents are discovered, the TBD-Serochip will be modified to target them -- a process the researchers say can be done in less than four weeks.
Childhood infection and adult schizophrenia: A meta-analysis of population-based studies
Our meta-analysis indicates an association between childhood CNS viral infection and risk of adult non-affective psychosis.
Chronic sleep deprivation suppresses immune system: Study one of first conducted outside of sleep lab -- ScienceDaily
"The results are consistent with studies that show when sleep deprived people are given a vaccine, there is a lower antibody response and if you expose sleep deprived people to a rhinovirus they are more likely to get the virus," Watson said. "This study provides further evidence of sleep to overall health and well-being particularly to immune health.
The researchers, citing data from the Centers for Disease Control, said that over the past century people in the United States are sleeping an estimated 1.5 to two hours less, and about one-third of the working population sleeps less than six hours per night.
"Modern society, with its control of light, omnipresent technology and countless competing interests for time, along with the zeitgeist de-emphasizing sleep's importance, has resulted in the widespread deprioritization of sleep," they wrote.
Birth year dictates which flu strains make you sick
They discovered that people born before the Hong Kong flu pandemic of 1968 – in which H7N9’s ancestor, H3N2, first emerged – were largely protected from the older-type H5N1, but were vulnerable to severe illness from H7N9.
Those born after 1968 showed the opposite responses.
This explains a pattern that has puzzled scientists since 2013, when H7N9 itself was first detected: flu viruses from the H5N1 “family” disproportionately affect children and young adults, while those more closely related to H7N9 are more likely to infect older adults.
Inflammation markers could guide depression treatments | EurekAlert! Science News
Glutamate is a chemical messenger used by neurons to communicate. However, at high levels, it can become toxic to both neurons and glia, cells that support brain health. It is unlikely that the elevated levels seen in some depressed patients are acutely toxic, Haroon says.
"Still, we think that one of the ways that inflammation may harm the brain and cause depression is by increasing levels of glutamate in sensitive regions of the brain, possibly through effects on glia," he says.
Researchers examined 50 patients with depression who were not receiving antidepressant medication at that time. Inflammation was determined by a blood test for C-reactive protein (CRP), which was measured on repeat visits to make sure its levels were stable.
Even when not threatened, some bacteria specialize as antibiotic resistance
"It's costly from a metabolic standpoint for a cell to express the proteins that enable it to be resistant," said Mary Dunlop, assistant professor in the university's College of Engineering and Mathematics Sciences, and the paper's corresponding author. "This strategy allows a colony to hedge its bets by enabling individual cells within a population to assume high levels of resistance while others avoid this extra work."
Previous research has demonstrated that, when exposed to some antibiotics, all the cells within a bacterial population will use the protein cascade strategy, activated by a mechanism called MarA, to become resistant.
But the new study is among the first to show that colonies use the protein cascade strategy even when they are not under threat.
"This transient resistance, distributed in varying degrees among individual cells in a population, may be the norm for many bacterial populations," Dunlop said.
