Content about Infection

TREVOSE, Pa. — Research has shown that three in four women will experience candidiasis, more commonly known as a vaginal yeast infection, and 67% are embarrassed by it, Insight Pharmaceuticals announced Wednesday, citing an independent survey commissioned for Monistat.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — A drug maker and medical research institute will work together to identify new treatments for bacterial and viral infections.

AstraZeneca and the Broad Institute, owned jointly by Harvard University and MIT, announced Monday that they would collaborate for two years to develop medicines to treat severe infections, saying the identification of high-quality chemicals for the development of new drugs was a significant challenge. The two will use the Broad Institute's collection of 100,000 chemicals known as diversity-oriented synthesis, or DOS compounds.

FOSTER CITY, Calif. — Gilead Sciences scored a second favorable Food and Drug Administration expert panel vote as the FDA's Antiviral Drugs Advisory Committee recommended on Friday that the regulatory agency approve an experimental drug designed to treat HIV.

NEW YORK — The Food and Drug Administration may be close to approving a drug for preventing HIV infection, according to published reports.

The Associated Press reported that the FDA had said Truvada (emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate), made by Gilead Sciences, appeared to be safe and effective for preventing HIV infection when taken daily. An FDA advisory committee will review the drug and decide whether to recommend its approval for pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP.

ATLANTA — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday released new recommendations to treat latent tuberculosis infection.

The new recommendations, published in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, provide guidance on how to administer a new 12-dose regimen for TB preventive therapy that will significantly shorten and simplify the course of treatment from about nine months to 12 weeks. The recommendations are based on the results of three clinical trials, as well as expert opinion.

ATLANTA — A new resistant strain of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus may be on the rise due to the frequent use of over-the-counter antibacterial ointments, according to a study to be published in the October issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases.

As reported by CNN.com, Japanese researchers made the finding after testing 259 MRSA strains for susceptibility to bacitracin and neomycin, two of the antibacterial ingredients commonly found in such OTC ointments as Neosporin and Polysporin.

NEW YORK — Taking drugs for treating HIV might reduce the risk of infection among heterosexual couples, according to two new studies conducted in Africa.

One study, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and conducted among 4,758 couples in Kenya and Uganda, found that when taken daily, Gilead’s Viread (tenofovir) reduced the rates of infection by at least 62% compared with placebo. Truvada (tenofovir and emtricitabine), another drug made by Gilead, reduced infection risk by 73%.

NEW YORK — Researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston found that patients with diabetes are at higher risk of contracting tuberculosis, a deadly bacterial disease, than nondiabetics.

The study investigators discovered among 233 patients that were diagnosed with TB between March 2006 and March 2008 — which included 61 patients in southern Texas and 172 in northeastern Mexico — 25% of TB cases were attributed to the presence of diabetes, while 6% of TB cases were caused by HIV.