Yoghurt health drinks are at the centre of safety fears after 24 patients died during clinical trials of probiotics, the dietary supplements containing potentially beneficial bacteria.
A mumps outbreak has been identified among university students in Adelaide. The highly infectious disease has been diagnosed in at least 8 students in the past 2 weeks, with more cases likely.
More than 3000 people who volunteered to receive an experimental AIDS vaccine are being told to come back and get extra tests because the jab may raise the risk of infection.
Due to widespread resistance of bacteria to the available drugs, the discovery of new antibiotics is urgently needed, and naturally occurring antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are promising candidates for future therapeutic use. Amphibian skin is one of the r
The Ministry of Health in Viet Nam has confirmed two new human cases of influenza A(H5N1) virus infection, the first human cases to have been reported from Viet Nam since November 2005.
Everyone has a vast community of microbes in their digestive system, but people who crave daily chocolate show signs of having different colonies of bacteria than people who are immune to chocolate's allure.
Thousands of interesting new compounds have been discovered inside the bodies of marine sponges according to scientists speaking at the Society for General Microbiology’s 161st Meeting at the University of Edinburgh, UK.
Researchers have measured concentrations of bacteria in the cabin air of 12 commercial passenger aircraft and found that flying may be safer than we think.
Scientists at the University of Calgary have developed a way of fertilizing the bacteria that exist in heavy oil reservoirs in order to improve recovery of hard-to-develop energy.
Anyone who has sex can catch a sexually transmitted infection. Find out how to avoid infection, get tested, get treated and how to protect your sexual health.
Health officials say 2 recent incidents in which swimmers in Maryland were attacked by a rabid beaver should remind people that those "no swimming" signs are there for a reason. One rabid beaver, now dead, was responsible for an attack on a swimmer on Sun
Scientists are perfecting a test which they hope will confirm mad cow disease (vCJD) in humans. Protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA), works by by mimicking and accelerating the replication of prions so they are more easily detected in test sampl
Officials are deeply concerned that the high level of virus circulation in birds in the country could create conditions for the virus to mutate and to finally cause a human influenza pandemic.
Scientists say the power of copper to fight germs lies in the fact that copper ions separate on contact with bacteria and cause irreversible damage to the bacteria's cells.
Defra today announced that the existing Bluetongue Control and Protection Zones are being extended following confirmation of further cases of Bluetongue in Essex.
The UK bluetongue outbreak has jumped species, having been found in sheep after first infecting cattle. The virus has infected at least 60 sheep and cattle, spreading to 36 farms in Suffolk and neighboring Essex.
Parents are being urged to protect their children against measles by getting them immunised with two doses of MMR before they return to school this September, following an increase in cases of measles over recent weeks.
There is seemingly consistent and compelling evidence that there is no association between breastfeeding and breast cancer. We challenge the assumption follows that milk borne viruses cannot be associated with human breast cancer.
The death toll in China's outbreak of hand-foot-mouth disease has risen to 42 children, with the capital Beijing reporting its first case on Wednesday.
An international aid agency has confirmed some cases of cholera in Myanmar's cyclone-hit Irawaddy delta but the number is line with normal levels in previous years.
Ciguatera poisoning is caused by the consumption of tropical reef fish that have assimilated ciguatoxins through the marine food chain from toxic microscopic algae.
Currently there's no evidence to suggest that salads are a major source of food poisoning in the UK and very few incidents of contamination in pre-packed salads have been reported to the Food Standards Agency in the past three years.
An experimental, combination vaccine against Ebola and Marburg viruses using virus-like particles (VLPs) provides complete protection against infection in monkeys.
The government has set up a 10km (6.2 mile) control zone centred on the affected site near Egham, Surrey, and a pre-emptive slaughter has been ordered.
DEFRA has confirmed that foot and mouth disease movement restrictions will be lifted outside the Risk Area on Wednesday 15 October in parallel with the lifting of the foot and mouth protection zone in Surrey.
Dengue fever is reaching epidemic levels in the Caribbean and Latin America. Changing weather patterns and increased tourism and migration have raised the prevalence of the disease.
As of 28 March, 2008, the Brazilian health authorities have reported a national total of 120,570 cases of dengue including 647 dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF) cases, with 48 deaths.
Researchers have made a breakthrough in understanding a disease that has wiped out more than half the Tasmanian devil population. A lack of genetic diversity in the devil population is allowing the devil facial tumor disease to spread quickly.
The Ministry of Health of the Democratic Republic of Congo has declared an outbreak of Ebola haemorrhagic fever. As of 26 December, WHO is aware of 34 suspected cases including 9 deaths associated with the ongoing event.
A report from Sun 11 May 2008 shows that 183 children from the capital city Ulaanbataar and provincess have been infected and have been admitted to hospitals for treatment.
All horse movement across the Australian state of New South Wales has been halted indefinitely, following an outbreak of equine flu, throwing its racing and breeding industry into turmoil.
Bacteria have tiny channels in their walls which operate like the valve on a pressure cooker - they open to release material when the pressure in a bacterial cell gets too great. If the channel didn't open to relieve pressure the bacteria would explode and die, so this is a target for drug development.
The National Farmers Union is responding to the need for farmers to keep up to date on the latest FMD and Bluetongue outbreaks using text messaging. The NFU is encouraging its members to register their mobile phone number to ensure they receive the latest
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved BinaxNOW as the first malaria rapid diagnostic test (RDT) authorized for use in the United States. Malaria RDTs, which detect circulating malaria-specific antigens, already are available in other countries
In the UK 164 people have died of variant CJD, which originally came from cows infected with BSE, and all cases to date shared the same version of the prion gene (MM). A new case has a different varian tof the gene (MV). Estimates are that up to 350 people could be affected in this new wave.
A cheetah at a zoo in Nuremberg has died after contracting an illness similar to mad cow disease, becoming the 1st confirmed case in Germany of so called feline spongiform encephalopathy (FSE).
A Texas algae farm will commence operations on April 1. 1,100 acres of saltwater ponds will produce 4.4 million gallons of algal oil and 110 million pounds of biomass annually.
The strain of foot-and-mouth disease found at a Surrey farm has been identified, Defra has said. The strain in infected cattle (an O1 BFS67-like virus, isolated in the 1967 foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Great Britain) is identical to that used for va
This study shows that Campylobacter bacteriophage can easily be isolated from free-range chickens and form part of the normal microbiological biota of environmentally exposed birds.