With an estimated fatality rate of 52%, the need to discover a cure for Ebola has never been more urgent. New research published in Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics this month suggests that scientists currently investigating potential cures for the Ebola virus should focus more attention on the protein furin.
The Ebola virus disease training modules for health care workers developed in collaboration between experts at Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are now available.
Is chlorhexidine still the best decolonisation method? For many decades decolonisation – be it selective intestinal, oral or skin decolonisation – has been the accepted procedure to prevent infections by endogenous bacteria. Report: Brigitte Dinkloh
Austrian firm Greiner Bio-One is presenting products for the pre-analysis and diagnostics industry at this year’s Medica. Vacuette safety products have been developed to minimise this risk of injuries from contaminated puncture devices – a significant safety hazard to healthcare workers, the firm underlines.
Infection, the tightest space and fast scanning are the three biggest things clinicians must tackle today in a point of care (POC) environment.
Earlier this year a drug was launched that can cure hepatitis C without severe side effects in most patients. Whilst the treatment is fast, it is very expensive but does avoid liver cancer and thus makes liver transplants superfluous. This is only one of the many promising developments in hepatitis research that Dr Markus Cornberg of the Medical University Hanover will address at the Medica…
Critically ill children hospitalised with traumatic injuries have a high risk of acquiring nosocomial infections, especially if their immune function is impaired. A nosocomial infection, such as sepsis, can become as deadly as a traumatic injury, the leading cause of death in children. Report: Cynthia E Keen
Accident and Emergency (A&E) teams play a key role in identifying patients with sepsis, followed by risk stratification for severe sepsis and septic shock, initiating resuscitation and treatment, and ensuring the correct onward management of patients identified with sepsis. Report: Mark Nicholls
Fever, vomiting, internal and external bleeding – these are the symptoms of the Ebola virus infection. The current epidemic in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone is the largest recorded Ebola outbreak ever and a serious challenge for the healthcare institutions worldwide.
‘Ebola does not present a direct epidemiological danger for Europe,’ according to Dr Armin Fidler, Lead Advisor on Policy and Strategy at the World Bank, but, he added, ‘Inevitably some Europeans will become infected with Ebola, such as those in the healthcare professions or aid workers.’ Report: Michael Krassnitzer
More than 750 British military personnel as well as RFA Argus – the country’s medical ship – have arrived in Sierra Leone, for front line duties in the battle against Ebola. In the meantime Britain tested its readiness for a possible Ebola virus epidemic. Report: Brenda Marsh
With strong links with the West Coast of Africa, France is among countries most likely to experience Ebola, with an estimated 20% chance of cases in the homeland before October ends - a few suspected cases have arisen.
Professor Tobias Welte MD, President of the 24th International Congress of the European Respiratory Society, gave EH some personal views on the symposium ‘New perspectives in the management of nosocomial pneumonia’. Interview: Ralf Mateblowski
Unlike some news reports the Ebola virus is not as easily transmitted as influenza or other infections. Still, healthcare and laboratory workers must take precautions to quickly identify those infected and prevent an outbreak. Report: Lisa Chamoff
Poor logistics logistics and low trained staff numbers are two of the greatest limitations to providing a sufficient molecular diagnostic capacity for Ebola in West Africa, says Andrew S. Thompson, Ph.D., GlobalData’s Senior Analyst.
Johns Hopkins Medicine has been tasked by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to lead a group and to design an interactive Web-based learning program that guides health care workers, nurses and physicians through government-approved protocols to aid clinicians as they provide care to patients who may be at risk of contracting the Ebola virus.
Approach could improve treatment of drug-resistant infections. Combining a PET scanner with a new chemical tracer that selectively tags specific types of bacteria, Johns Hopkins researchers - working with mice report - have devised a way to detect and monitor in real time infections with a class of dangerous Gram-negative bacteria.
World-renowned experts discussed the situation of predomonant epidemics at the International Roche Infectious Disease Symposium in Barcelona.
The current ebola outbreak in West Africa, which began in December 2013 in Guinea and has since spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Congo, is considered the largest ebola outbreak ever in West Africa. As of today more than 2,600 cases were reported and more than 1,400 people have died of the disease.
In May, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that bacterial infections might lead to an increasing number of deaths because new resistance mechanisms threaten our ability to treat common infectious diseases.
Doctor Véronique Mondain from Nice explains the ambitious project she and colleagues have put in place to help combat the rise of these resistant pathogens.
UK scientists are developing a hand-held testing device for use at the point of care and provide a disease diagnosis on the same day.
Sepsis kills around a hundred and thirty patients daily In Germany alone. This systemic disease is mostly caused by bacterial pathogens, and less frequently by fungal organisms or parasites. The delayed diagnoses result in high mortality. Professor Dr Frank M Brunkhorst of the Centre of Sepsis Control and Care (CSCC), at Jena University Hospital, Germany, is seeking strategies to combat such…
Frost & Sullivan Life Sciences Senior Research Analyst Sriram Radhakrishnan discusses the available screening options to enable early detection of the virus.
The Norovirus, which affects around 267 million people and is attributed to cause over 200,000 deaths annually (usually among the very young, elderly or immune-suppressed, or in 3rd world areas) can be rapidly destroyed by copper and copper alloys, scientists at the United Kingdom’s University of Southampton confirm.