News

UW researchers working in collaboration with Kineta Inc. and the University of Texas at Galveston have shown that making a drug-like molecule to turn on innate immunity can induce genes to control infection in several -known viruses. The findings being published in the Journal of Virology Dec. 18 show promising evidence for creating a broad spectrum antiviral that can suppress a range of RNA viruses, including West Nile, dengue virus, hepatitis C, influenza A, respiratory syncytial, Nipah, Lassa and Ebola.

This report summarizes and synthesizes studies from the medical literature examining the efficacy and benefits of using germicidal UV-C light technology to enhance manual cleaning and disinfection of healthcare environmental surfaces.

Uninsured patients can be trained to safely and efficiently self-administer long-term intravenous antibiotics, UT Southwestern Medical Center physicians have found, a result that may have profound implications for patient treatment at public hospitals across the country. A four-year study compared outcomes of Parkland Memorial Hospital patients who either self-administered long-term IV antibiotics or had their long-term antibiotics administered by a healthcare worker. The study found similar or better outcomes for the group that administered their own antibiotics, a practice that is rare among hospitals.

Many animals gravitate toward heat, most often to regulate their own body temperatures. In rare cases, certain species--ticks, bedbugs, and some species of mosquitoes--seek out heat for food. For female mosquitoes, finding heat is essential for survival, as they need to feast on warm-blooded prey to produce eggs. At the same time, mosquitoes have to know when something is too hot, so they won't get scorched on an over-heated blacktop, for instance.

A vaccine to prevent dengue fever discovered by a Saint Louis University researcher in 1997 and now licensed worldwide by Sanofi Pasteur has been approved for use in Mexico. Dengvaxia® is the world’s first vaccine approved to prevent dengue fever, which is a virus spread by mosquitoes primarily in tropical and sub-tropical areas.

The last decade has brought unprecedented changes in healthcare delivery. Although there has been continued development of new devices, drugs and techniques, the major change for those in infection prevention and epidemiology is to identify, manage and use clinical data to provide important information leading to early recognition of disease including prevalence and risk factors for infections, in and across multiple healthcare settings. The potential for more rapid identification and dissemination of important information extends from public health to the individual organization level.