MicrobeWorld

According to an evaluation study of the The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief in Africa released in the May 19, 2009 edition of the Annals of Medicine, the difference in the annual change in the number of HIV-related deaths was 10.5% lower in the focus countries than the control countr... Read More

The Easter bunny may not be bringing chocolate to the tots this year according to an article in the New Scientist that say a viral infection is impacting cacao trees on the Ivory Coast and a fungal infection called Witches Broom is doing the same for the cacao tree in Brazil. Thumbnail by Lexng... Read More

A press release from the Infectious Disease Society states "damage to patients’ immune systems is happening sooner now than it did at the beginning of the HIV epidemic, suggesting the virus has become more virulent," according to a new study in the May 1, 2009 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseas... Read More

Did an experimental vaccine save a scientist in Germany from Ebola? The lives of others who work with the deadly virus might ride on the answer. On 12 March a woman working at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNI) in Hamburg accidentally pricked her finger with a needle carryi... Read More

Waterdogs, they're called, these larvae of tiger salamanders used as live bait for freshwater fishing. With tiger salamander larvae, anglers hope to catch largemouth bass, channel catfish and other freshwater fishes. They may be in for more than they bargained for: salamanders in bait shops in A... Read More

Killing just the older mosquitoes would be a more sustainable way of controlling malaria, according to entomologists who add that the approach may lead to evolution-proof insecticides that never become obsolete. Each year malaria -- spread through mosquito bites -- kills about a million people, ... Read More

A sensitive new diagnostic test for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)--a drug-resistant bacterium that can run rampant in hospitals--could help broaden access to fast, cheap testing. The test, being developed by Adnavance Technologies, a startup in San Diego, is simpler to perfo... Read More

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The theme for this year's Professional Development Day is "renewing your career." Sessions include a plenary on coping with change, the ever-popular pitch slam, a panel on how to shoot and edit video, and another on why you might want to, and a plenary on harnessing social media. The cost (which... Read More

More than 70% or Quebec's health care facilities use environmentally safe cleaning products to keep germs at bay, but health officials are warning that these products are ineffective at preventing the transmission of pathogens.

"With little regulation in the area, many manufacturers are marke... Read More

As a major food source for much of the world, rice is one of the most important plants on earth. Keeping it safe from disease has become, in part, the task of a group of three researchers from Iowa State University and one from Kansas State University. The researchers are looking at two bacteria... Read More

Amphibian populations are declining worldwide, principally because of the spread of the fungal disease chytridiomycosis. Researchers know that some amphibian populations and species are innately more susceptible to the disease than others. Read More

At a conference in Beijing, China, World Health Organization officials announced that "the growing prevalence of drug-resistant tuberculosis is a potentially explosive situation." Countries participating in the talks are expected to commit themselves to scale up their TB diagnosis and treatment ... Read More

I found this very interesting post over at www.scienceprogress.org. Here's an excerpt "The Scientists and Congress should trust the public’s capacity to learn, draw conclusions, and contribute. Invite the public to do more, and put a process in place so citizens and researchers can work together... Read More

This is a great visual resource for learning and teaching microbiology lab techniques. You have to join Flickr.com and then sign up to access the groups contents. Read More

I found this video on YouTube of a teacher showing a class how to streak a plate. Thumbnail photo by musicalwds on Flickr. Read More

The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) has set up its country liaison office in Pakistan at the Jinnah University for Women (JUW) and Dr Shahana Urooj Kazmi, Professor at the Department of Microbiology and Dean Faculty of Science, University of Karachi (KU) has been appointed the First Coun... Read More

Here's another reason to hate leftovers. A research study sheds light on one cause of arthritis: bacteria. In the study, scientists from the United States and The Netherlands show that a specific gene called NOD2 triggers arthritis or makes it worse when leftover remnants of bacteria cell walls,... Read More

Dogged education and distribution of an anti-parasitic drug have virtually eradicated river blindness in badly affected parts of Guatemala, researchers reported on Monday. And a second study showed that treating family members with antibiotics helped stop the spread of trachoma, another common c... Read More

We've all heard of healthy bacteria called probiotics, commonly found in yogurts and dietary supplements. A new wave of products now include prebiotics, dietary ingredients intended either to help increase levels of good bacteria naturally found in the body, or to be used in combination with pro... Read More