Featured series 
Tag: infectious diseases
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Nation & World
Rochelle Walensky to run CDC
Rochelle Walensky, professor at Harvard Medical School and chief of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital, was named the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by President-elect Biden.
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Science & Tech
Scientists map human protein interactions
Scientists produce a reference map of human protein interactions, releasing data helpful for understanding diseases including cancer and infectious diseases such as COVID-19.
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Health
‘Test and treat’ won’t stop HIV/AIDS epidemic, study finds
Implementing a program of universal HIV testing and immediate antiretroviral treatment (ART) for infected individuals could have a major impact on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Washington, DC, but a new study by led by Harvard researchers finds that it would not halt the epidemic, something that a previous report had projected. In a paper that will appear in the August 15 issue…
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Health
School of Public Health professor advising feds on H1N1 policy
One thing certain about the flu is uncertainty, according to Marc Lipsitch, a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health and a prominent authority on the spread of infectious disease. The rise and rapid spread of H1N1 flu virus, known as swine flu, has kept Lipsitch busy in recent months. An expert…
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Health
NIH renews Harvard Center for AIDS Research grant for another five years
The National Institutes of Health has renewed for five years – and $18.1 million – the funding for the Harvard University Center for AIDS Research (Harvard CFAR). Harvard is one of only 20 NIH CFAR sites in the U.S. and first received the designation in 2004. The award, under the umbrella of the Harvard Initiative…
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Science & Tech
Parents concerned about financial impact of possible school flu closings
Substantial numbers of parents who have children in school or day care report that two-week closings in the fall would present serious financial problems for them, according to the results of a new national poll that focuses on Americans’ views and concerns about the potential for a more severe outbreak of H1N1 swine flu in…
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Health
Glutamine supplements show promise in treating stomach ulcers
Nearly 20 years ago, it was discovered that bacteria known as Helicobacter pylori were responsible for stomach ulcers. Since then, antibiotics have become the primary therapy used to combat the H. pylori infection, which affects approximately 6 percent of the world population and is also a primary cause of stomach cancer. But today the bacteria…
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Health
Common virus could cause high blood pressure
A new study suggests for the first time that cytomegalovirus (CMV), a common viral infection affecting between 60 percent and 99 percent of adults worldwide, is a cause of high blood pressure, a leading risk factor for heart disease, stroke, and kidney disease. The study, led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC)…
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Health
Outwitting mutating flu during a pandemic
In a global influenza pandemic, small stockpiles of a secondary flu medication – if used early in local outbreaks – could extend the effectiveness of primary drug stockpiles, according to research made available April 30 ahead of publication in PLoS Medicine. Many countries are investing in large stockpiles of a single drug, oseltamivir (Tamiflu). But…
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Health
Survey: Nearly half of Americans concerned they or their family may get sick from swine flu
Following the declaration of a public health emergency due to the new H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, the Harvard Opinion Research Program (HORP) at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) conducted a poll about how concerned Americans are about the outbreak, how they are responding, and what they believe about transmission, prevention,…
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Health
Study identifies human genes required for hepatitis C viral replication
Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers are investigating a new way to block reproduction of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) — targeting not the virus itself but the human genes the virus exploits in its life cycle. In the March 19 Cell Host & Microbe, they report finding nearly 100 genes that support the replication of…
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Health
Scientists identify antibodies effective against bird, seasonal flu viruses
Researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Burnham Institute for Medical Research, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have reported the identification of human monoclonal antibodies (mAb) that neutralize an unprecedented range of influenza A viruses, including the avian influenza A (H5N1) virus, previous pandemic influenza viruses, and some seasonal influenza viruses. These…
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Health
Topical treatment wipes out herpes with RNAi
Harvard Medical School researchers have succeeded in developing a topical treatment that, in mice, wipes out herpes virus, one of the most intractable sexually transmitted human diseases. Judy Lieberman, professor of pediatrics and a senior investigator at the Immune Disease Institute, has overseen the development of the treatment that uses RNA interference, or RNAi, to…
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Health
Harvard researchers receive $14 million TB study grant
Harvard researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Partners In Health (PIH) have received a grant of $14 million over five years from the National Institutes of Health to study multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and extensively drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB). The goal of the project…
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Campus & Community
HSPH, Broad map malaria genetic diversity
Researchers have created the first map of genetic diversity of the malaria parasite, providing new insights in the fight against a public health scourge that kills one person every 30 seconds.
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Campus & Community
$1M prize for the discovery of biomarker for ALS
Prize4Life Inc., the nonprofit organization founded by Harvard Business School (HBS) alumni Nathan Boaz and Andrea Marano and student Avi Kremer, announced earlier this month that it will award a $1 million prize for researchers who discover a biomarker for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. A biomarker is a distinctive…
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Health
Discovery could aid fight against cystic fibrosis infection
Harvard Medical School researchers have discovered one way that a hardy disease-causing bacteria could be surviving in the lungs of chronically infected cystic fibrosis patients. “This work is important because pathogenic bacteria such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa use protein secretion systems to cause disease in their hosts,” said Joseph Mougous, lead author of the study published…
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Campus & Community
Containment buys time but…
Containing an emerging bird flu pandemic at its source will probably only delay – not stop – the illness’ spread because of likely multiple introductions of the pathogen, assert researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the University of Washington in a policy paper in PLoS Medicine. The paper will appear in…
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Campus & Community
African health status explored
The triple scourges of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria pose the greatest threats to the health of the African people, according to LuÃs Gomes Sambo, the World Health Organization’s regional director for Africa. Sambo presented a broad overview of Africa’s health status in his Nov. 14 lecture, “Africa’s Health – Striving to Achieve the Highest Possible…
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Campus & Community
HSPH find AIDS drugs work well in Botswana
Africa’s first large-scale public program to distribute critical AIDS drugs to a developing nation is as successful as similar programs in industrialized countries, a Harvard School of Public Health study has shown, helping put to rest concerns that such programs can’t work in developing nations.
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Health
Harvard researchers complete genomic sequence of deadly malaria parasite
Malaria is the world’s most serious parasitic tropical disease and kills more people than any communicable disease except for tuberculosis. There is more human malaria in Africa today than at any time in history. P.falciparum, the most lethal form of the disease, accounts for the majority of infections, 200 to 300 million, resulting in 1…
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Health
Biostatisticians crunch data vital to AIDS research, genetics
Broadly defined, statistical genetics is the development of methods to analyze DNA. In recent years, the term has been more specifically applied to gene mapping, or the search for locations of genes related to diseases, and to the analysis of drug therapies. Statistical genetics plays a significant role in what some experts predict to be…
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Science & Tech
Analysis of potential mad cow risk in U.S. finds little chance of disease spread
The Harvard Center for Risk Analysis (HCRA), part of the Harvard School of Public Health, performed an analysis for the U.S. Department of Agriculture to determine what the effects would be if “mad cow” disease were introduced into the United States. Mad cow disease, which is the popular term for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, has not…
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Science & Tech
Anthrax expert Matthew Meselson speaks out
In 1992-93, Harvard Professor Matthew Meselson investigated the largest known outbreak of inhalation anthrax in history, which occurred in the Soviet Union in 1979. The anthrax was accidentally released from a Russian military facility. Meselson and his co-researchers documented the deaths of 66 people, and found 11 who survived. In the wake of cases of…
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Health
Anthrax toxin receptor discovered
The first point of contact between anthrax toxin that invades the body and the cells that the toxin will eventually destroy is a protein, known as a “docking” protein or receptor. This docking protein was recently discovered by researchers at Harvard Medical School and the University of Wisconsin Medical School. Their discovery will, they hope,…
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Health
Anthrax immunity gene found in mice
Anthrax is an often fatal disease that is caused by a bacterium. It has been considered a prime biological weapon in the arsenal of terrorists since attacks in the United States in October 2001 and reports elsewhere of anthrax spores being sent through the mail. Harvard Medical School researchers have identified a gene in mice…