Immunology

Cholera Bacterium Is The Mad Max Of DNA

Cholera is characterized by acute watery diarrhea resulting in severe dehydration and occurs  when the bacterium Vibrio cholerae infects the small intestine. How does it happen?  ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 7 2015 - 8:30am

Your Mother Is Right: The Cold Virus Replicates Better In Colder Temperatures

Cold and damp is bad, no matter what you may have heard recently about it making no difference. The common cold virus reproduces itself more efficiently in the cooler temperatures found inside the nose than at core body temperature, confirming the popular- ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 5 2015 - 6:00pm

Keep A Cool House, Risk Your Health: Cold Virus Replicates Better In Cool Temps

Folk wisdom has long held that people are more likely to catch a cold in cool-weather or damp conditions but some recent claims have disputed that and found the virus transmits just as often regardless of temperature.  This has been latched onto by people ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 5 2015 - 7:52pm

Infections Increase ICU Patient Risk Of Death By 35 Percent

Elderly patients admitted to intensive care units are about 35 percent more likely to die within five years of leaving the hospital if they develop an infection during their stay. The upside to this finding is that preventing two of the most common health ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 6 2015 - 11:08am

Teixobactin Antibiotic Kills Pathogens Without Developing Resistance

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection has gotten a lot of attention. It is caused by a strain of staph bacteria that's become resistant to the antibiotics commonly used to fight it, but antibiotic resistance is not new. For as ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 9 2015 - 2:00pm

Fat Cells Under The Skin Help Protect Us From Bacteria

Maybe fat gets a bad rap. Immune responses matter but when it comes to skin infections, those response may depend greatly upon what lies beneath, according to a paper published in Science. Fat cells below the skin help protect us from bacteria, they write. ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 10 2015 - 10:00am

Hybrid 'Super Mosquito' Resistant To Insecticide-Treated Bed Nets

Interbreeding of two malaria mosquito species in the West African country of Mali has resulted in a "super mosquito" hybrid that's resistant to insecticide-treated bed nets. Anopheles gambiae, a major malaria vector, is interbreeding with i ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 17 2015 - 4:11pm

How To Boost The Immune System Of City Dwellers

It's not new that dwellers and cities are a little less hearty than rural cousins. There is even a hygiene hypothesis that says kids in the country get dirtier to their benefit and that wealthy, educated helicopter parenting and all those hand sanitiz ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 14 2015 - 9:00am

Superbugs: How Montezuma's Revenge Impacts Society Long After That Trip

If you are in the United States and travel to Mexico, you are cautioned not to drink the water, just like if you travel to Taiwan or China you are cautioned not to eat chicken bought from a street vendor; people are immune to some nasty stuff you probably ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 24 2015 - 8:11am

Avian Flu In Washington State Duck Not Deadly H5N1

Some media, such as the New York Daily News and NBC, have reported that the Asian H5N1 strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza has now entered the United States. This is incorrect and they were told it was not the same strain by the United States Geolo ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 25 2015 - 11:22am