Infections

White blood cell numbers can be cut by health conditions or treatments like chemotherapy. Yale scientists have now discovered a molecule that can be given to quickly boost their numbers back up, to help fight off infections without antibiotics.

As recent history proves, airborne respiratory infections are not to be trifled with. Now, a new sprayable coating applied to standard air filters might give us a leg up in the war against the pathogens that cause these diseases.

Bacteria often go dormant to avoid being wiped out by antibiotics, which makes treatment difficult. Now scientists have discovered a virus that can attack these sleeping bugs, clearing out infections effectively when paired with drugs.

A new study has found that exposing babies to prescription opioids while they’re in the womb can increase their risk of developing immune-related conditions – particularly infections, eczema and asthma – in early childhood.

Current evidence suggests many organisms will struggle to keep pace with a changing climate. However, unlucky for us, some pathogens may thrive – including, as this new study suggests, the bugs that cause the common diarrhea illness campylobacteriosis.

A fungus that attacked plants 407 million years ago has been unearthed among fossils at the Natural History Museum, making it the oldest of its kind to have ever been found. What's more, its new name celebrates one very famous fungi aficionado.

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.