Author Interviews, Radiology, Zika / 25.08.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Fernanda Tovar Moll, MD, PhD Vice president of the D'Or Institute for Research and Education Professor,Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, Brazil MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The consequences of congenital zika virus infection are still under investigation. Recent studies suggest microcephaly as one of the consequences, but we wanted to go deeper in investigating what other kinds of neurological changes could happen in the developing central nervous system. Based on that, we performed a cohort study with multimodal images exams and longitudinal follow up (pre and post natal analyses) of some cases. (more…)
Author Interviews, Depression, Heart Disease, HIV, Vanderbilt / 25.08.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Matthew S Freiberg, MD, MSc Cardiovascular Medicine Division, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Tennessee Valley Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center, Nashville  TN Tasneem Khambaty, PhD Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida Jesse C. Stewart, PhD Department of Psychology, Indiana University–Purdue University , Indianapolis, Indianapolis MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Due to highly effective antiretroviral therapy, people with HIV are living longer. Unfortunately, these HIV-infected individuals remain at a higher risk for other chronic diseases, with cardiovascular disease (CVD) being one of the leading cause of death in this population. In the general population, depressive disorders, such as major depressive disorder (MDD) and dysthymic disorder, are associated with increased risk of new-onset CVD. Given that roughly 24-40% of HIV-infected individuals have a depressive disorder, we examined whether MDD and dysthymic disorder are also associated with an increased risk of new-onset CVD in people with HIV. (more…)
Allergies, Author Interviews, Infections / 23.08.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Emily L. Heil, PharmD, BCPS-AQ ID Assistant Professor Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science University of Maryland School of Pharmacy 20 N Pine St Baltimore, Maryland 21201 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: As many as nine out of ten people who think they are allergic to penicillin are, in fact, not allergic when penicillin allergy skin testing is performed. This mistaken belief, confirmed in multiple other studies and a matter of concern of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has widespread implications given that patients who report penicillin allergies tend to get suboptimal antibiotic therapy compared with patients who do not. Penicillin skin testing (PST) can clarify allergy histories but is often limited by access to testing. We aimed to implement an infectious disease (ID) fellow managed PST program and to assess the need for PST via national survey. Our study found that inpatient Penicillin skin testing can be successfully managed by ID fellows, thereby promoting optimal antibiotic use. Our study showed that by testing patients for penicillin allergy via skin test, we could improve their care: 80 percent of patients were able to switch to more effective antibiotic therapy once they were tested. (more…)
Author Interviews, C. difficile, Genetic Research, Infections / 19.08.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Charles Darkoh, Ph.D., MS., MSc. Assistant Professor University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics & Environmental Sciences Center for Infectious Diseases Houston, Texas 77030 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Clostridium difficile (Cdiff) is a multidrug-resistant pathogen that takes over the colon after the good bacteria in the colon have been wiped out by antibiotic therapy. As a result, antibiotic treatment is a major risk factor for C. diff infections. Because of the ability of C. diff to inactivate the majority of the antibiotics currently available, it has become necessary to urgently develop a non-antibiotic therapy for this life-threatening infection. We know that C. diff causes disease by producing toxins, designated toxin A and B. During infection, the toxins are released into the colon resulting in diarrhea and inflammation of the colon as well as other diarrhea-associated illnesses. We also know that C. diff strains that are unable to produce toxins cannot cause disease. Therefore, the toxins are promising targets for a non-antibiotic therapy. We reported last year that C. difficile regulates toxin production using quorum sensing — a system that allows bacteria to coordinate their biological activities as a group. Two sets of quorum-sensing genes (agr1 and agr2) were identified. These genes form part of a signaling communication system that makes a small peptide, which serves as a cue for the infecting bacterial population to turn on their toxin genes. In this study we used genetic analysis to identify which of these two sets of genes is responsible for regulating the toxins. Our results demonstrates that agr1 is the culprit. This is because Cdiff agr1 mutant cannot produce toxins and unable to cause disease in mice, whereas the agr2 mutant can cause disease just like the wild type C.diff. (more…)
Annals Internal Medicine, Author Interviews, Flu - Influenza, Pediatrics, Vaccine Studies / 16.08.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Mark Loeb BSc (McGill), MD (McGill), MSc (McMaster), FRCPC Professor, Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine Joint Member, Dept of Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics Division Director, Infectious Diseases, McMaster University MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The background for this study is that in the U.S, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the committee that advises the CDC on vaccination policy, decided this June not to recommend LAIV (nasal live vaccine) for children. This is because of non-randomized studies conducted in the U.S suggesting that the vaccine was ineffective. This was an unprecedented decision in influenza vaccine policy making for children. Our study, a randomized, blinded, controlled trial, which is the most rigorous type of study design, conducted over 3 years (2012-13, 2013-2014, 2014-2015 influenza seasons), showed in fact very similar protection for children and their communities for the live and inactivated vaccines. We conducted the study in the Hutterite community of Western Canada which allowed us to compare the effect of the vaccines in entire communities. That is, we were able to study the direct effect and the indirect effect of these vaccines. (more…)
Author Interviews, Infections, Pediatrics / 12.08.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Marieke de Hoog Assistant Professor Julius Centrum voor Gezondheidswetenschappen en Eerstelijnsgeneeskunde UMC Utrecht The Netherlands  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Acute otitis media (AOM) is a prime reason for doctor consultations and antibiotic use in children. Although symptoms of AOM may resolve spontaneously, these infections have a significant impact on child and family life and carry a considerable health care and economic burden.  Acute otitis media occurring early in life, also called early-onset AOM, has been suggested as a risk factor for subsequent  Acute otitis media episodes during childhood and could therefore also impact health care resource use. Identifying the critical age-period and quantifying the long-term consequences of early-onset AOM is important to guide future management and prevention programs aiming to reduce the burden of AOM. (more…)
Author Interviews, Critical Care - Intensive Care - ICUs, Infections, JAMA, Mental Health Research / 11.08.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Helene Lund-Sørensen BM Department of Biomedical Sciences Section of Cellular and Metabolic Research University of Copenhagen MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Accumulating research has shown that inflammation and infections are associated with psychiatric diagnoses and interactions between infectious agents, known to affect the brain, and suicidal behavior have been reported. We find an increased risk of death by suicide among individuals hospitalized with infections. The risk of suicide increased in a dose-response relationship with the number of hospitalizations with infections and with the number of days hospitalized with infections. We also examined the risk of suicide association with the time since the last hospitalization with infection and found that infection was linked to an elevated risk with the strongest effect after 1 and 2 years compared with those without infections. (more…)
Author Interviews, Infections, PLoS / 05.08.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Peter Monk BSc PhD Faculty Director of International Affairs Reader in Immunology Department of Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease Sheffield University Medical School MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The tetraspanin proteins are found on the surface of all mammalian cells. The cell surface is the place where cells 'socialise': they talk to each other to coordinate activities, stick to each other to form tissues and sometimes crawl across each other to get to where they need to go. Tetraspanins have an important job to do in the organisation of the cell surface, amongst other things enabling the formation of 'sticky patches' (tetraspanin-enriched microdomains or TEM) that cause cells to adhere together or provide traction to allow movement. Some bacteria have evolved ways of hijacking the TEM for their own ends, adhering to tightly to these structures so that the normal things that sweep bacteria away (such as blood, sweat and tears!) are no longer effective. At this point, infection begins. We have found that the TEM can be partly disrupted, by adding small parts of tetraspanins (peptides) to cells. The peptides seem to work by weakening the tetraspanin glue that holds the TEM together and causing the other components that give the 'stickiness' to the TEM to become more spaced out. We use the analogy of Velcro(TM), where the fabric hooks and loops are held together in woven material; loosen the weave and the hooks and loops fall apart, no longer able to engage strongly with the loops in the opposing piece of fabric. Using reconstructed human skin, we were able to show that the tetraspanin peptides were both safe and effective; they did not affect wound healing in burned skin, but they could lower the bacterial load in the wound by 50%. This would allow the immune system (including the fluid that 'weeps' from wounds) to deal with the remaining bacteria more easily. Unlike conventional antibiotics that tend to kill bacteria, our peptides simply cause them to get washed away, so not invoking the evolutionary selective mechanisms that lead to resistance. (more…)
Author Interviews, Dental Research, Infections / 05.08.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Stephanie S. Momeni, MS, MBA Doctoral Candidate, Department of Biology DART Trainee, Department of Pediatric Dentistry & IOHR UAB School of Dentistry Birmingham, Alabama 35294-0007 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: This study was a small part of a large scale of S. mutans in a group of high-caries risk children and their household family members in Perry County, Alabama, USA. Overall dental caries is a dietary and infectious disease that we seek to understand better. We found only 34 rep-PCR genotypes for over 13,000 bacterial isolates from over 594 individual subjects. With so much commonality we wanted to determine if any conclusions could be made about transmission. The key findings are: • Children having multiple S. mutans genotypes were 2.3 times more likely to have dental caries. • Analysis for transmission performed from two perspectives (by child and by genotype) indicating 63% of children shared at least 1 genotype with their mother, but 72% of children had at least 1 genotype not shared with any household family members. • Child-to-child transmission of some genotypes is highly probable. • About 1/3 of isolates observed were transient, and may confound the search for strains associated with tooth decay. (more…)
Author Interviews, CDC, OBGYNE, Zika / 04.08.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Charlan D. Kroelinger, PhD Division of Reproductive Health National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion CDC MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Zika virus infection during pregnancy can cause microcephaly and other severe fetal brain defects. Doctors have also found other problems in pregnancies and among infants infected with Zika virus before birth, such as absent or poorly developed brain structures, defects of the eye, hearing deficits, and impaired growth. Nearly half of all pregnancies in the United States are unintended. Increased access to birth control may lead to reductions in unintended pregnancies, which may result in fewer adverse pregnancy and birth outcomes in the context of a Zika virus outbreak. A new report from CDC estimates that use of highly effective, reversible forms of birth control, called long-acting reversible contraception (LARC), which includes intrauterine devices (IUDs) and implants, remains lower than use of moderate or less effective methods such as oral contraceptive pills and condoms, although contraception use varied across states and by age group and race/ethnicity. CDC scientists used data from four state-based surveillance systems to estimate contraception use for non-pregnant and postpartum women at risk for unintended pregnancy and sexually active female high school students who live in states with the potential for local Zika virus transmission. Less than one in four sexually active women of reproductive age and fewer than one in 10 sexually active female high school students reported using LARC. A higher percentage of postpartum women reported LARC use. Moderately effective and less effective contraceptive methods, including pills, patches, rings, injections, condoms and other barrier methods, were used more frequently than highly effective methods. These estimates are of concern because the most commonly used methods of contraception are not as effective at preventing unintended pregnancy. (more…)
Author Interviews, Global Health, Lancet, Methamphetamine, OBGYNE, STD / 29.07.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: N. Saman Wijesooriya Public Health Advisor/Technical Advisor Centers for Disease Control and Prevention MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The article Global burden of maternal and congenital syphilis in 2008 and 2012: a health systems modeling study by Wijesooriya, et al published in the August 2016 issue of The Lancet Global Health (Open source - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(16)30135-8) estimates the incidence and prevalence of maternal and congenital syphilis for both time periods and identifies gaps antenatal care access and syphilis testing and treatment services to assess progress in the global elimination of congenital syphilis, or mother-to-child transmission of syphilis, as a public health problem. Untreated maternal syphilis is understood to be transmitted from mother-to-child in utero in 50% of cases resulting in tragic adverse pregnancy outcomes, or congenital syphilis infections, including early fetal death, stillbirth, preterm birth, low birthweight, neonatal death, and congenital infections in infants. Since most maternal syphilis infections are asymptomatic, it is recommended that screening for syphilis use a combination of serological tests for pregnant women and treatment of syphilis seropositive women with at least 2.4 million units of benzathine penicillin intramuscularly early in pregnancy to prevent most congenital syphilis infections. In 2007, the World Health Organization responded to estimates indicating 2 million maternal and 1.5 congenital syphilis infections would occur annually without treatment and launched the global initiative for the Elimination of Congenital Syphilis (ECS). The strategy includes reducing the prevalence of syphilis in pregnant women and mother-to-child transmission of syphilis. The objective is for countries to achieve high performing antenatal care systems providing access to antenatal care to more than 95% of pregnant women, syphilis testing for more than 95% of pregnant women, and treatment for more than 95% of seropositive women to attain a congenital syphilis rate of 50 or fewer cases per 100,000 live births. (more…)
Author Interviews, Infections, PNAS / 27.07.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Adam Hayward PhD Impact Research Fellow University of Stirling MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Adult life expectancies in industrialized countries have increased dramatically in the last 150 years, even once we’ve accounted for the fact that previously common deaths in childhood and now very rare. One hypothesis seeking to explain this increase is that childhood infections cause chronic inflammation, which are then linked with heart disease and stroke in later life, reducing lifespan. Since such childhood infections were previously common but are now, thanks to vaccine and sanitation, much rarer, chronic inflammation should be lower and people should live longer and be less likely to die from early-onset heart disease. If this hypothesis is correct, we should see that higher exposure to infections in early life leads to increased adult mortality and deaths from heart disease and stroke. (more…)
Author Interviews, Infections, JAMA / 25.07.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Ane Uranga MD Department of Pneumology, Galdakao-Usansolo Hospital Galdakao, Bizkaia, Spain MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Despite clear benefits of shorter antibiotic treatments, reducing the duration of treatment remains challenging in daily clinical practice. Actually, IDSA/ATS recommendations for Community Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) suggested a minimum of 5 days of treatment based on clinical stability criteria. However, in our study the median of duration of antibiotic treatment in the control group was as high as 10 days. The main finding is that receiving 5 days antibiotic treatment in hospitalized patients suffering from CAP is not inferior to arbitrary treatment schedules in terms of clinical success. (more…)
Author Interviews, HIV / 22.07.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Zhe Yuan MS. MS. PhD Candidate Nebraska Center for Virology University of Nebraska-Lincoln MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: AIDS causes millions of infections and deaths each year. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the cause of this detrimental disease of humans. Just like Ebola and Zika, AIDS is also a zoonotic disease at the beginning. For the origins of HIV, people believed that HIV originated from simian immunodeficiency virus from wild chimpanzees (SIVcpz). But until now, there has been no direct in vivo evidence for this assumption. Further, people cannot explain why only certain SIVcpz strains are thought to be the ancestors of already discovered HIV strains in humans. There is also a need to clarify what transmission risks might exist for those SIVcpz strains that have not already been found to infect humans. The answers to these questions are essential for a better understanding of cross-species transmission and predicting the likelihood of additional cross-species transmission events of SIV into humans. (more…)
Author Interviews, Infections / 20.07.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Prof. Andrea Endimiani, MD, PhD Institute for Infectious Diseases University of Bern MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The spread of multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria represents a serious issue for the healthcare system worldwide because our antibiotic armamentarium is becoming too limited. These «superbugs» may cause serious infections with high morbidity and mortality rates – there are already 700,000 estimated deaths per year worldwide because common antimicrobial therapies have become ineffective. In this scenario, colistin has represented the last active antibiotic option able to cure many infected people. Unfortunately, in November 2015 a new mechanism of resistance against colistin was found with a high prevalence in Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae strains detected in China among humans, food animals, and chicken meat; more recently, it has also been found in other countries. This mechanism is encoded by a gene (named mcr-1) that is plasmid-mediated, thus assuring its great ability to mobilize and spread between different enterobacteria, including those normally present in the human and animal intestinal tracts. (more…)
Author Interviews, Infections, NEJM, Vaccine Studies / 20.07.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Nicole E. Basta, PhD MPhil Assistant Professor Division of Epidemiology and Community Health School of Public Health University of Minnesota MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Meningococcal disease is a serious and often life-threatening condition. In the past several years, multiple outbreaks caused by meningococcal serogroup B (MenB) have occurred on college campuses in the US. Recently, a new meningococcal B vaccine known as 4CMenB or Bexsero was developed. The FDA granted special approval to use the vaccine to control an outbreak at a University in New Jersey prior to its licensure. We took advantage of this unique opportunity to investigate the impact of Bexsero during the outbreak. In doing so, we conducted the first clinical study of Bexsero among teens and young adults in the US. (more…)
Author Interviews, Dermatology, Infections, Technology / 19.07.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Kerry Zang Founder of the Arizona Institute of Footcare and Dr. Robert Sullivan Clinical Director, Midleton Foot Clinic MedicalResearch.com Editor's note: Dr. Zang and Dr. Sullivan discuss the recent announcement of FDA approval of the Lunula Laser for the treatment of Onychomycosis. MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this new technology? Response: “For two decades, Erchonia Corporation studied the clinical utility of low-level laser devices for the treatment of numerous medical ailments. Dr. Sullivan and I worked with Erchonia on the Lunula laser to revolutionize the way the medical community treats onychomycosis. Lunula underwent four independent clinical investigations for the treatment of onychomycosis. More than 500 subjects participated with increasingly effective results and each completed without a single adverse event.” - Dr. Kerry Zang Response: “There has never been a non-pharmaceutical treatment for onychomycosis. When I became aware that there was a small study completed by Dr. Zang, I became interested in the potential of this new technology. Erchonia was very helpful in bringing me up to speed with what this technology may do. The results of my extended study were unbelievable.” -Robert Sullivan (more…)
Author Interviews, Infections, Technology / 18.07.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: For the past 5 years or so, my collaborators and I have been working on several issues leading to the realization of the so-called “Windows to the Brain (WttB)” platform. WttB are transparent nanocrystalline yttria-stabilized-zirconia (nc-YSZ) cranial implants capable of replacing portions of the skull to allow non-invasive optical interrogation of the brain on an ongoing recurring basis. This new technological advancement could eventually afford for: a) advancing understanding of the brain, by facilitating the clinical translation of emerging optogenetic neurotechnologies; and b) facilitating the diagnosis and treatment of a wide variety of brain pathologies and neurological disorders, such as traumatic brain injury, stroke, brain cancer, and others. (more…)
Author Interviews, CDC, Zika / 16.07.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Martin Cetron, MD Director of the CDC’s Division of Global Migration and Quarantine MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: According to the Brazilian Tourism Board, approximately 350,000 – 500,000 international visitors and athletes from 207 countries are expected to travel to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games. This travel volume represents a very small fraction – less than 0.25% – of the total estimated 2015 travel volume to Zika-affected countries. CDC conducted a risk analysis to predict those countries at risk for Zika virus importation exclusively attributable to the Games. (more…)
Author Interviews, Fertility, HPV, OBGYNE, STD / 12.07.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dejan R. Nonato, MD, PhD Institute of Tropical Pathology and Public Health School of Medicine Federal University of Goiás Goiânia, GO, Brazil MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Human papillomavirus (HPV) and Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) share the same route of sexual transmission and possess similar risk factors, indicating that co-infection may act synergistically in the induction of epithelial cell abnormalities. (more…)
Author Interviews, Infections / 12.07.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jenny A. K. Ekberg Eskitis Institute for Drug Discovery Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Bond University Institute for Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, School of Medical Science, Griffith University Queensland, Australia MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Melioidosis is a tropical bacterial infection that causes around 90,000 deaths world-wide each year. It is caused by the bacteria Burkholderia pseudomallei which can cause pneumonia and a serious flu-like illness which can cause death, however if the brain is infected, which happens in particular with the Australian variant of the disease, the mortality is particularly high (~25 %). The route by which the bacteria invade and progress through the central nervous system is to date largely unknown. We have now shown in an animal model that the bacteria can penetrate the trigeminal nerve within the nasal cavity and then rapidly invade the brainstem and spinal cord only 24 hours after intranasal inoculation. By migrating along the trigeminal nerve, the bacteria bypasses the blood-brain barrier.This study constitutes the first characterization of the path by which B. pseudomallei bacteria migrate all the way from the nasal cavity into the spinal cord. (more…)
Author Interviews, Infections / 11.07.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Hemilä Harri Hemilä, MD, PhD Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Our meta-analysis of 3 randomized controlled trials on zinc acetate lozenges was motivated by an early trial which indicated that zinc lozenges might be more effective for patients with allergies. We found that allergy, sex, age, and ethnic bacground did not influence the effect of zinc acetate lozenges. Thus, the average effect of 3 day reduction in colds seems to be applicable for a wide range of common cold patients. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, CDC, HPV, Vaccine Studies / 09.07.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Laura J. Viens, MD Division of cancer prevention and control CDC MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: We analyzed the most recent available data from 2008–2012 from CDC’s National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR) and the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program for HPV-associated cancers.
  • These data cover 99% of the US population.
  • These data represent the official federal statistics on cancer incidence (new cases).
  • Every year between 2008 and 2012, about 39,000 men and women were diagnosed with cancers associated with HPV, an overall increase when compared with the 33,000 cancers associated with HPV between 2004 and 2008.
  • 23,000 (13.5 per 100,000 population) among females and 15,793 (9.7 per 100,000 population) among males.
(more…)
Author Interviews, Fertility, Herpes Viruses, Infections, PLoS / 09.07.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Roberta Rizzo PhD Department of Medical Sciences Section of Microbiology University of Ferrara Ferrara, Italy MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Infertility affects approximately 6% of 15-44 year old women or 1.5 million women in the US, according to the CDC. Approximately 25% of female infertility cases are unexplained, leaving women with few options other than expensive fertility treatments. Researchers are trying to identify factors and mechanisms at the basis of this condition. (more…)
Author Interviews, Flu - Influenza, JAMA, Pediatrics, Vaccine Studies / 07.07.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Marta C. Nunes, PhD DST/NRF:Vaccine Preventable Diseases Respiratory and Meningeal Pathogens Research Unit University of Witwatersrand Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital Soweto, South Africa MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Young infants are at increased risk for influenza infection and hospitalizations associated with influenza infection. While active annual influenza vaccination is the most efficient mode for the prevention of influenza infection, current vaccines are poorly immunogenic and not licensed for use in infants (more…)
Author Interviews, Infections, Microbiome, Pulmonary Disease / 06.07.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Genevieve Marchand Ph.D., RMCCM SCCM(Env) Microbiologiste agréée & Biochimiste Chercheure, Prévention des risques chimiques et biologiques IRSST MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: It is well known that Health Care Workers (HCWs) are at risk of occupationally acquired infections. Some procedures, such as bronchoscopies, are recognized to be high-risk tasks. Most researches that have linked infectious risk to specific task in healthcare settings did not measure the real bioaerosol exposure. Those link where mostly made from epidemiology observations. The aim of this study was to qualify and quantify the real bioaerosol concentrations found during bronchoscopy procedures in order to estimate the true occupational risk. (more…)
Annals Internal Medicine, Author Interviews, Infections / 05.07.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Louise Bruun Østergaard MD. Ph.D student Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Engineering and Science Aalborg University Department of Cardiology, Gentofte Hospital Hellerup MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia strikes people of all ages resulting in devastating consequence even in young and healthy individuals. Animal studies have shown that the susceptibility to Staphylococcus aureus differs among different genetic strains in mice, suggesting that genetic differences could influence the susceptibility to Staphylococcus aureus in other spices. As a first step in determining whether genetics influence risk of Staphylococcus aureus infections we aimed to study whether a family history of Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia in first-degree relatives was associated with risk of the disease. (more…)
Author Interviews, Infections, NEJM, Vaccine Studies / 29.06.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Philip Bejon, Ph.D. Professor of Tropical Medicine, Director of the Wellcome-KEMRI-Oxford Collaborative Research Programme, Group Head / PI, Consultant Physician and Unit Director Kilifi, Kenya MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: According to the latest World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates more than 400,000 people died from malaria in 2015, with over 90% of these deaths occurring in sub-Saharan Africa. The vast majority who die are children under 5, and almost all cases are caused by the P. falciparum strain of malaria transmitted by female Anopheles mosquitoes. RTS,S, which protects only against P. falciparum, was developed by GlaxoSmithKline with support from the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) and with grant funds from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to MVI. In July 2015, it received a positive opinion from the European Medicines Agency. Earlier this year, the WHO recommended further evaluation of the four-dose regimen of RTS,S in a pilot implementation programme in sub-Saharan Africa, to address several knowledge gaps before the vaccine might be rolled out more widely. (more…)
Author Interviews, Beth Israel Deaconess, Nature, Vaccine Studies, Zika / 28.06.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dan Barouch, M.D., Ph.D. Professor of Medicine Harvard Medical School Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard Director, Center for Virology and Vaccine Research Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: We showed that two vaccines, a DNA vaccine and a purified inactivated virus vaccine, both provided complete protection against Zika virus challenge in mice. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of Zika vaccine protection in any animal model. (more…)