Superbugs

New Grants Expand U.S. Infectious Disease Modeling Effort

To help the nation — and the world — understand and prepare for contagious outbreaks, the National Institutes of Health's Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study (MIDAS) adds new research expertise to increase its capacity to simulate disease spread, evaluate ...More
September 4, 2009
Posted in News, PPE & Standard Precautions
Prevent MRSA Infections Today, Prepare for the Superbugs of Tomorrow

Most of us know that within six years of the introduction of penicillin, resistant hospital isolates of Staphylococcus aureus climbed from an extremely infrequent occurrence to representing more than 80 percent of the total. Epidemic strains of methicillin-resistant ...More
August 26, 2009
Posted in Articles
Effectiveness of Cranberry Juice in Fighting UTIs is Questioned

Current clinical evidence for using cranberry juice to combat urinary tract infections is “unsatisfactory and inconclusive,” according to Raul Raz, director of infectious diseases at the Technion School of Medicine, Haemek Medical Center in Israel.Not all ...More
August 24, 2009
Posted in News
A New Way to Stop UTIs?

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center may have a new way to stop and even prevent the urinary tract infections (UTIs) that plague more than one-third of all adults, some of them repeatedly.The researchers have discovered how cells within the bladder are able to ...More
August 20, 2009
Posted in News
C. difficile Spores Spread Superbug

New research suggests that antibiotic treatment could be asymptomatically inducing the transmission of the healthcare-acquired infection, C. difficile, contributing to the outbreaks that have recently been widely reported in hospitals and other settings. A team of ...More
July 20, 2009
Posted in News, Environmental Hygiene
Looking for New Antibiotics

As the best drugs become increasingly resistant to superbugs, McMasterUniversity researchers have discovered a completely different way of looking for a new antibiotic.In a paper to be published published on May 29 in the journal Chemistry and Biology, with colleagues in ...More
May 28, 2009
Posted in News
How Superbugs Control Their Lethal Weapons

A team of researchers at The University of Western Ontario, led by Joaquin Madrenas of the Robarts Research Institute, has discovered some processes that reduce the lethal effects of toxins from superbugs, allowing humans and microbes to co-evolve. This discovery may ...More
May 26, 2009
Posted in News
Salmonella's Sweet Tooth Predicts its Downfall

For the first time, UK scientists have shown what the food poisoning bug Salmonella feeds on to survive as it causes infection: glucose. Their discovery of Salmonella's weakness for sugar could provide a new way to vaccinate against it. The discovery could also lead to ...More
May 19, 2009
Posted in News
Bacteria Create Aquatic Superbugs in Waste Treatment Plants

For bacteria in wastewater treatment plants, the stars align perfectly to create a hedonistic mating ground for antibiotic-resistant superbugs eventually discharged into streams and lakes.In the first known study of its kind, Chuanwu Xi of the University of Michigan School ...More
May 12, 2009
Posted in News
Hospitals in Pennsylvania Prevent UTIs

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the most common healthcare-acquired infection, accounting for nearly 40 percent of all nosocomial infections. This has become a major issue for hospitals since the Centers ...More
May 4, 2009
Posted in News