2/14/14 Health News: New Strategy to Fight Bacterial Infections - Virus that Kills Anthrax - Food Bug Triggers Multiple Sclerosis - Giving Ourselves Cancer

Scientists Find New Strategy to Combat Bacterial Infections

Increasing numbers of bacteria are developing antibiotic resistance. This forms a significant challenge in the battle against bacterial infections. Alvin Lo and Han Remaut (VIB/Vrije Universiteit Brussel) have identified a chemical substance with the potential of acting as a new drug to treat bacterial infections, particularly urinary tract infections. In contrast to the most popular antibiotics, this candidate drug does not destroy pathogenic bacteria, but rather disarms them. The benefit of this new strategy is that other (useful) bacteria are unharmed .Continue Reading

Anthrax Agent Killed by New, Unusually Large Virus

From a zebra carcass on the plains of Namibia in Southern Africa, an international team of researchers has discovered a new, unusually large virus (or bacteriophage) that infects the bacterium that causes anthrax. The novel bacteriophage could eventually open up new ways to detect, treat or decontaminate the anthrax bacillus and its relatives that cause food poisoning., Continue Reading

Food Bug Toxin May Trigger Multiple Sclerosis

New research presented at a scientific meeting adds to a growing body of evidence that a toxin produced by a common food bug may trigger multiple sclerosis, an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system. Dr. Jennifer Linden Said. "We provide evidence that supports epsilon toxin's ability to cause BBB [blood-brain barrier] permeability and show that epsilon toxin kills the brain's myelin producing cells, oligodendrocytes; the same cells that die in MS lesions. Continue Reading

We Are Giving Ourselves Cancer

Despite great strides in prevention and treatment, cancer rates remain stubbornly high and may soon surpass heart disease as the leading cause of death in the United States. Increasingly, we and many other experts believe that an important culprit may be our own medical practices: We are silently irradiating ourselves to death. The use of medical imaging with high-dose radiation — CT scans in particular — has soared in the last 20 years. Our resulting exposure to medical radiation has increased more than sixfold between the 1980s and 2006, according to the National Council on Radiation Protection & Measurements. The radiation doses of CT scans (a series of X-ray images from multiple angles) are 100 to 1,000 times higher than conventional X-rays. Continue Reading  

11/1/2013 Daily Food News: Handheld Device Detects Bacteria for Home Use, New teats for Anthrax and Cancer

SCIENTISTS DEVELOP HANDHELD DEVICE TO DETECT BACTERIA ON FOOD

Imagine having a handheld device able to detect different types of bacteria on food, whether that food is in your kitchen, a store, a restaurant or virtually anywhere. This wireless device could detect the presence of Salmonella, E. coli and other pathogens and give an alarm in response. Science fiction? Not anymore. “What we want... Continue Reading

HHS Announces Development of Novel Anthrax Infection Blood Test

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced on Monday that it will support the development of a rapid blood test for anthrax infection detection to increase response capability during an anthrax attack. The test must first gain approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.Continue Reading

Breath Test Detects Lung Cancer

An advanced colorimetric sensor that analyzes breath can accurately identify lung cancer and characterize cancer histology, researchers report. "We have certainly discovered a biomarker, but we still have a lot of work to do in technical validation and clinical validation,"  explained Peter Mazzone, MD. Continue Reading

Discovery Could Lead to Saliva Test for Pancreatic Cancer

The disease is typically diagnosed through an invasive and complicated biopsy.  But a discovery by researchers at the UCLA School of Dentistry may be one major step toward creating a noninvasive tool that would enable clinicians and Oncologists to detect pancreatic cancer through a simple risk assessment test using saliva. Continue Reading

India: Anthrax scare in Urigam Reserve Forests

The Karnataka Forest Department is on ‘high alert’ following the death of an eight-year-old Elephant suspected of anthrax, at Urigam reserve forests in Tamil Nadu on Monday last.

Principal Chief Conservator of Forests G S Prabhu said that the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary is situated adjacent to Krishnagiri Forests of Tamil Nadu and this was one of the major worries for them. Officers concerned had been asked to intensify patrolling within the sanctuary as well as to have an eye on elephants.

He said the Department of Veterinary Sciences has agreed to vaccinate cattle for anthrax in villages all along the sanctuary border after 8-10 days as they had vaccinated them for foot and mouth disease recently.

The forest officials have sealed all entry points for cattle into the sanctuary as a precautionary measure. Villagers have also been asked not to enter forests, he added.

Prabhu said the surveillance units are kept on high alert and the department has taken all precautionary steps to make sure that the disease doesn't spread to wild animals in the Cauvery Wildlife sanctuary. “We are closely monitoring the situation and we will take appropriate steps regularly.”

Anthrax is a disease caused by the bacterium Bacillus Anthracis. Most forms of the disease are lethal and it affects both humans and animals. It commonly infects wild and domesticated herbivorous mammals that ingest or inhale the spores while grazing. Carnivores living in the same environment may become infected by consuming infected animals. Diseased animals can spread anthrax to humans, either by direct contact or by consumption of a diseased animal’s flesh.

The vaccine is only given to at risk individuals and animals. Anthrax can be cured by a 60 day treatment with antibiotics.

Source Express News Service