Infections

Anyone who has been on the planet for the last four years will know how viruses that evolve to jump across species can rapidly become a serious global crisis. Researchers now believe we're in an alarming new age of vertebrate animal-to-human infections.

Using a method of total-body imaging, researchers have measured and tracked the body’s immune response to viral infection. It's a promising platform for studying human immunity in greater detail and may assist the study of other infectious diseases.

Trial results have shown that a pH-balanced form of vitamin C, sodium ascorbate, effectively treats sepsis, the life-threatening complication from infection that claims 270,000 American lives every year. This treatment may not be far off use in hospitals.

Hospital patients often pick up dangerous, hard to treat infections. An experimental vaccine given on arrival to hospital could protect against a range of drug-resistant bacteria and fungi, by activating a different arm of the immune system.

A study has found that non-COVID respiratory infections can lead to ‘long’ symptoms that persist well beyond the acute infection stage. The findings increase awareness about the existence of long-lasting respiratory infections other than long COVID.

Researchers have found that using nanoflakes of black phosphorus on wounds infected with drug-resistant superbugs not only kills the bugs, but accelerates wound healing. They say the innovative antimicrobial can be incorporated into common materials.

Turmeric can stain an amateur chef’s kitchen benches, hands and clothes bright yellow and has been a staple in traditional medicine for 4,000 years. Now, for the first time, a clinical trial suggests it can treat acid reflux as well as common medications.

An existing blood cancer drug has been used to eliminate dormant HIV-infected cells that can cause the infection to reactivate when suppressive antiretroviral treatment is interrupted. The drug could remove the current need for lifelong medication.

When Captain Kirk stepped out with a tricorder in hand in Star Trek in 1966, the data sensing, scanning and analyzing gadget seemed a rather useful but far-in-the-future piece of technology. With the Swift Ray 1, we're a step closer to its reality.

Researchers have discovered that lung-based immune cells can be "trained" to remember a previously encountered pathogen, making them more efficient at clearing out the cellular debris that accumulates during infection and reducing inflammation.

A new study has uncovered the mechanism by which common - and problematic - bacteria can develop resistance to a relatively new antibiotic. Providing a better understanding of bacterial resistance, the findings may inform how the drug is used.

Decades of work has paid off, with scientists developing a potent new synthetic molecule that swiftly knocked out 285 strains of bacteria it was tested on, setting it up as a valuable ally in our fight against a looming superbug infection crisis.