News

The Emergency Ministerial meeting on Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) has ended, with ministers of health agreeing on a range of priority actions to end the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The scale of the ongoing outbreak is unprecedented, with reports of more than 750 cases and 445 deaths in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia since March 2014.

Millions of microbial species populate the world, but so far only a few have been identified due to the inability of most microbes to grow in the laboratory. Edgar Goluch, an engineer, and Slava Epstein, a biologist, aim to change this. The pair, both researchers at Northeastern University, has developed a device that allows scientists to cultivate a single species of bacteria that can then be studied and identified.

Meat fondue with chicken is one of the primary risk factors for a campylobacter infection in Switzerland in winter, a new study shows. At the end of each year, the reported case numbers of this severe intestinal infection increase in Switzerland. This increase over the festive season can be attributed to the consumption of Fondue chinoise.

Today, the World Health Organization (WHO), together with the European Respiratory Society (ERS), presented a new framework to eliminate tuberculosis (TB) in countries with low levels of the disease. There are 33* countries and territories where there are fewer than 100 TB cases per million population.

Bacteria love to colonize surfaces inside your body, but they have a hard time getting past your rugged, salty skin. Surgeries to implant medical devices often give such bacteria the opportunity needed to gain entry into the body cavity, allowing the implants themselves to act then as an ideal growing surface for biofilms.