News

Complacency in the high-level disinfection (HLD) and manual pre-cleaning of endoscopes is never an option. In order to ensure competency, an institutional quality program with written policies and procedures for endoscope processing must be established and strictly followed. These policies should be based on the Society of Gastrointestinal Nurses and Associates (SGNA) and the American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopists (ASGE) guidelines for the reprocessing of endoscopes.

Tenofovir (TDF), a widely-prescribed antiretroviral therapy for patients infected with HIV, is associated with acute kidney injury (AKI), according to a new study that will be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2015, held Nov. 3-8, 2015 in San Diego. AKI is a costly, yet preventable, health burden linked to nephrotoxic medications, such as medical imaging dyes and anti-inflammatories, and a common postoperative complication.

A rapid-detection Ebola test developed by international scientists including a University of Stirling, Scotland virologist has been deployed following a highly effective pilot project. Dr. Manfred Weidmann, from the University's School of Natural Sciences, was part of a Wellcome Trust project led by the Pasteur Institute of Dakar.

Infectious disease researchers at the University of Georgia have identified a signaling protein critical for host defense against influenza infection. The findings, recently published in PLoS Pathogens, shed light on how a single component of the body's defense system promotes effective immunity against viral infections -- particularly respiratory viruses -- that affect mucosal sites.

Eliminating malaria in the Asia-Pacific could prove more challenging than previously thought, with new research showing that most childhood malaria infections in endemic areas are the result of relapsed, not new, infections.

New research has uncovered an important mechanism in the drive to understand immunological processes that protect us against infection, allergy and cancer. Researchers from medicine, chemistry and biological sciences in the University's Institute for Life Science (IfLS) have been collaborating with Microsoft Research UK to investigate the function of the antigen-presenting protein MHC1.

Manure management is serious business for a meat-hungry world. A single cow, depending on its size, can generate between 43 and 120 pounds of manure a day. Cow manure can be a low-cost fertilizer for farmers' crops. But manure can also host drug-resistant bacteria.

Usually the microbe S. islandicus is found in hot and acidic volcanic springs, but now the microbe has also found its way to the labs of University of Southern Denmark. Here researchers have for the first time showed that the exotic microbe is capable of delivering drugs to the human body.

An international study led by University of Queensland (UQ) researchers has tracked the re-emergence of a childhood disease which had largely disappeared over the past 100 years. Researchers at UQ's Australian Infectious Diseases Centre have used genome sequencing techniques to investigate a rise in the incidence of scarlet fever-causing bacteria and an increasing resistance to antibiotics.