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A study suggests that a range of respiratory viral infections—including COVID-19 and influenza—may be preventable or treatable with a generic antibiotic that is delivered to the nasal passageway. A team successfully tested the effectiveness of neomycin, a common antibiotic, to prevent or treat respiratory viral infections in animal models when given to the animals via the nose. The team then found that the same nasal approach—this time applying the over-the-counter ointment Neosporin—also triggers a swift immune response by interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs) in the noses of healthy humans. "This is an exciting finding, that a cheap over-the-counter antibiotic ointment can stimulate...

The state has confirmed an additional case of pertussis — or whooping cough — on Hawaii Island amid an outbreak that has so far sickened 11 since March. HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - The state has confirmed an additional case of pertussis — or whooping cough — on Hawaii Island amid an outbreak that has so far sickened 11 since March. Several of the recent cases have been in infants too young to be fully vaccinated. Officials said the cases indicate “community spread” of pertussis on Hawaii Island. Because of that, the state Health Department is strongly recommending that parents stay up...

Surgery patients on blockbuster weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy could be at risk of choking to death, a study warns. Researchers in California looked at nearly 1 million Americans who had an endoscopy, which examines the upper digestive tract. They found that patients who underwent the procedure - which involves inserting a tube with a camera on the end down the throat while the patient is sedated- were 33 percent more likely to suffer aspiration pneumonia. This causes food, liquids, or saliva to get sucked into the airway, which could lead to choking and kills nearly 60,000 Americans a...

Research has revealed how, in diabetics, high levels of blood sugar disrupt the function of key cell subsets in the lungs that regulate the immune response. It also identifies a potential strategy for reversing this susceptibility and saving lives. Prof. Eran Elinav's team subjected multiple mouse models of types 1 and 2 diabetes to a variety of viral lung infections. The immune reaction, which in nondiabetics eliminates the infection and drives tissue healing, was severely impaired in the diabetic mice, leading to uncontrolled infection, lung damage and eventual death. "High blood sugar levels severely disrupt certain subsets of dendritic cells...

Our respiratory systems are lined with a thin fluid layer called mucus on the inside. The mucus protects us from inhaling harmful and unwanted airborne agents from germs to pollutants due to its unique gel-like texture imparted by proteins called mucins. By extension, over- or under-secretion of mucins can lead to abnormal respiratory mucus—a pathological manifestation in many respiratory diseases like chronic bronchitis, cystic fibrosis, and asthma, among others. Although multiple clinically approved drugs are available that can combat abnormal respiratory mucus, many of them cause unwanted and potentially serious side effects. Researchers repurposed an available drug called meclofenamate to...

In a Phase II trial, adding ipilimumab to a pre-surgical combination of nivolumab plus platinum-based chemotherapy, resulted in a major pathologic response (MPR) in half of all treated patients with early-stage, resectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). New findings from the NEOSTAR trial provide further support for neoadjuvant immunotherapy-based treatment as an approach to reduce viable tumor at surgery and to improve outcomes in NSCLC. The combination also was associated with an increase in immune cell infiltration and a favorable gut microbiome composition. The current study reports on the latest two arms of the NEOSTAR trial, evaluating neoadjuvant nivolumab plus...

SARS-CoV-2 — the virus which causes COVID-19 — can get into the tissues of the brain and other non-respiratory sites, autopsies have revealed. Prior to the work, infectious disease specialist Dr Daniel Chertow of the US National Institutes of Health said, “the thinking in the field was that SARS-CoV-2 was predominantly a respiratory virus". The researchers are now moving to expand their study, with the hope of exploring the relationship between widely infected tissues and long COVID. In their study, Dr Chertow and his colleagues analysed tissue samples from the autopsies of 44 people who died with COVID-19 and had...

Well, here's the medical facts that entirely explain why people with more shots get more covid. I've been paying attention to this possibility for a while but until the study work came out that proved it all there was is speculation. ADE ("Antibody dependent enhancement") is a fairly poorly-understood thing; most people believe it is confined to making a particular infection more serious than it would otherwise be. Of course having it occur when it otherwise would not fits that quite-nicely, but isn't what people tend to think about. Now, unfortunately, we have the evidence. Here's the salient graph and...

erman Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has vowed new measures to boost drug supply, but health groups are skeptical that the situation will improve soon. Medical associations in Germany on Wednesday warned that the country's ongoing drug shortages are likely to persist for months, despite new measures announced by Berlin. Liquid ibuprofen and parecetamol for children are among the drugs experiencing supply chain bottlenecks.

America is running short on four key antibiotics and respiratory drugs for children, as seasonal bugs come back with a bang after being suppressed during lockdowns. Health officials have declared a shortage of amoxicillin, a vital antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections such as pneumonia, respiratory infections and strep throat. But doctors on the ground are also reporting dwindling stocks of Augmentin - a antibiotic drug that uses amoxicillin alongside clavulanic acid - Tamiflu, the most commonly used flu medication in US hospitals, and albuterol, an inhaler for asthma and to relieve other lung symptoms.

When asthmatics' respiratory tracts are exposed to dust mites, their immune response becomes less effective, which can lead to a weaker immune system. People who suffer from asthma associated with infection may therefore be more susceptible to secondary viral or bacterial infections. According to the researchers, the results suggest that asthmatics should avoid house dust mites and that patients who are also allergic to the mites should consider undergoing so-called hyposensitization. Clinical data has shown that asthma patients with allergies are more frequently prescribed antibiotics, compared to non-allergic asthmatics, according to Samuel Cerps, first author. "This suggests that allergy is...

Antimicrobial resistance stewardship programs have to be prioritized, keeping the demands of the continuing Covid-19 pandemic in context On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, a pandemic. Two years later, the shadow of the Covid pandemic is still looming over us. While the world is making valiant attempts to move into the post-pandemic phase, the situation is akin to “one step forward, two-step backward”, as new variants of this virus are still emerging. Covid-19 has taken center stage in every facet of life. Policymakers and medical personnel are still...

Dr. Steven Templeton, an Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the Indiana University School of Medicine, attends the inaugural conference of the Brownstone Institute in Hartford, Conn. on Nov. 13, 2021. Lockdowns, school closures, universal masking, vaccine mandates; these responses to COVID-19 are “self-destructive” and more politicized than scientific, according to immunologist Steven Templeton. Templeton once worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for four years. Now he’s an associate professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Indiana University. At the inaugural Brownstone Institute conference on Nov. 13, he shared his views with EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders”...

Audrey Odom John, chief of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said her colleagues started referring last month to the weird influx of kids with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and parainfluenza as “Christmas in July.” Jonathan Miller, chief of primary care at Nemours duPont Hospital for Children in Delaware, said the viruses have been “really exploding,” with 127 positive RSV tests in July, the most since February 2020. That has Miller thinking ahead to the other respiratory virus that usually infects thousands in the fall and winter. “We’ve had January-type RSV in July, so what...

...Some drugs that neutralize stomach acid, such as famotidine, are associated with reduced severity, but others, such as Prilosec, correlate with higher infection rates and risk of death, at least in patients hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2 infections. In a retrospective analysis posted on medRxiv of roughly 1,300 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, Nakaya and colleagues found that individuals taking proton-pump inhibitors, including Prilosec, had a two- to three-fold higher risk of death compared with hospitalized patients not taking those drugs. This observation falls in line with a study published in late August in the American Journal of Gastroenterology by doctors in the US...

A trio of researchers at Oxford University has found that honey is a better treatment for upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) than traditional remedies. In their paper published in BMJ Evidence-based Medicine, Hibatullah Abuelgasim, Charlotte Albury, and Joseph Lee describe their study of the results of multiple clinical trials that involved testing of treatments for upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) and what they learned from the data. Over the past several years, the medical community has grown alarmed as bacteria have developed resistance to antibacterial agents. Some studies have found that over-prescription of such remedies is hastening the pace. Of...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wants to warn you about a respiratory infection that can affect your children and even some adults. Every winter parents should make sure their kids are bundled up, so they won't get sick, but the CDC also wants parents to watch out for Respiratory Syncytial Virus or RSV.As temperatures cool down, parents like Jennifer Simon say it is tough to keep her growing two-year-old germ free. "I think it's next to impossible in the winter, and most days, we are just trying to get through and keep him happy," Simon said. Though beyond...

In the span of four months, at least 94 children in 33 U.S. states have developed a devastating form of paralysis with symptoms similar to polio. Some require a ventilator to breathe. And some of the greatest government health minds in the country say they have no idea what’s causing it. At the same time, during the past four months, at least 12 children have died after falling ill with a respiratory virus called Enterovirus D-68 (EV-D68). Again, federal health officials are at a loss to explain the origin of the epidemic. Are the mysterious outbreaks linked? The Centers for...

Worker who cared for Orlando MERS patient hospitalized, another sick ORLANDO -- Two Orlando health care workers who treated a 44-year-old man with MERS now have flu-like symptoms. One was admitted to the hospital, while the other was sent home. Test results are expected today to find out if they and approximately two dozen others, who had contact with the patient, have contracted the potentially deadly disease. If any results come back positive, it'll be the first time MERS is contracted in the U.S. Florida MERS Patient Sat In A Busy ER For Nearly 8 Hours Almost eight more...

Thousands of San Francisco Bay Area residents may have been exposed to measles last week when an unvaccinated student at the Unversity of California, Berkeley, attended classes and rode the area's BART transit system. Public health officials in Contra Costa County, outside of San Francisco, said anyone riding BART from Feb. 4 to Feb. 7 during the morning or late evening commutes could have been exposed to the highly contagious respiratory virus. The young man in his 20s lives in the county and was confirmed to have measles on Wednesday. He was likely infected while traveling recently in Asia, health...