Bacteria found in hospital patients in Ukraine is showing extreme antibiotic resistance, making it harder to treat the wounded and ill in this war-torn country, new research warns.

“I am quite thick-skinned and have witnessed numerous situations involving patients and bacteria," said study author and bacteriologist

More than 2 million people in the United States have hepatitis C, but most are not getting the safe treatment that can cure the disease, public health officials said Thursday.

A new U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report details this problem and highlights the need for a proposed national program to expand access to the cure, in the form of antiviral pills.

Left untr...

Animal research is pointing toward a new way to prevent HIV infection: a refillable implant that continuously delivers antiretroviral medications for up to 20 months at a time.

Antiretrovirals are the cornerstone of PrEP, an infection prevention protocol that has been around since 2010.

But the new approach -- though so far only tested in rhesus macaque monkeys -- promises an even m...

Pop superstar Madonna, 64, is in the hospital due to a “serious” infection and has had to postpone her upcoming tour, according to an Instagram announcement posted Wednesday by her talent manager and producer Guy Oseary.

“On Saturday June 24, Madonna developed a serious bacterial infection which lead to a s...

Leprosy is an ancient infectious disease, but it has not been banished to the past, or from the United States.

That's the key takeaway from a new report describing six cases of leprosy among California residents. All were diagnosed between 2017 and 2022, and all were U.S.-born -- that is, not hailing from a country where leprosy remains relatively common.

It's not clear where or how...

Meningococcal disease -- which includes meningitis -- appears to be on the rise among Americans infected with HIV, new research reveals.

Researchers stress that the risk to any one person remains exceedingly rare, regardless of their HIV status.

Each year between 2017 and 2021 HIV-positive patients accounted for five to 15 cases of the bacterial disease, which typically shows up as ...

“Superbug” infections are increasing in U.S. hospitals, and a coalition of medical groups has now issued a set of updated recommendations to protect patients.

These guidelines are meant to prevent the spread of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, also known as MRSA, the authors of the recommendations argue.

MRSA causes about 10% of hospital-associated infection...

Dr. Anthony Fauci, best known for his public health leadership during the pandemic, will become a professor at Georgetown University starting next week.

Fauci will work in both the Division of Infectious Diseases in the School of Medicine and at the McCourt School of Public Policy.

“I am delighted to join the Georgetown family, an institution steeped in clinical and academic exce...

Having even a mild COVID-19 infection could trigger a months-long drop in sperm, a new study finds.

Researchers found both lower sperm concentrations and fewer sperm that were able to swim when studying men an average of 100 days after COVID-19 infection, which is enough time for new sperm to be produced.

“There have been previous studies that show semen quality is affected in th...

Dentures may hide harmful germs that cause pneumonia, British researchers report.

For the study, the investigators took samples from the dentures of nursing home patients who did and didn't have pneumonia. They analyzed the samples to identify the types of microbes present. The researchers specifically looked for microbes that could cause pneumonia and if there were significant differenc...

Ticks can be a problem for people who love to spend the summer outdoors, especially in certain regions of the United States.

Ticks are responsible for the well-known Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses, said Dr. David Ingram, an infectious diseases physician and researcher at Penn State Health...

Regulators want your next tattoo to be as safe as it is trendy.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a draft of new guidance aimed at helping manufacturers and distributors of tattoo inks prevent microbial contamination.

“Wit...

Hepatitis C is a viral infection of the liver no one wants to catch, so knowing how that can happen can be critical.

The American Liver Foundation...

A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel on Thursday recommended that the agency approve an RSV vaccine for infants and some toddlers.

The monoclonal antibody shot would protect against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in infants born during or entering their first RSV season, the New York Times reported. It could also be used for toddlers up to 24 months old who are p...

U.S. health officials are urgently trying to reach people who've recently had medical procedures at clinics in Matamoros, Mexico, because they may be at risk of potentially fatal fungal meningitis.

Those at risk had procedures done under epidural anesthesia between Jan. 1 and May 13 at River Side Surgical Center and Clinica K-3 in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, the U.S. Centers for Disease Contr...

Researchers have identified the oldest cases of plague in Britain to date, with DNA that is 4,000 years old.

The team from the Francis Crick Institute in London has found three ancient British cases of Yersinia pestis -- the bacteria that causes the plague -- in skeleton samples of two children and one woman.

Two of the cases were found in a mass burial site in Charterho...

U.S. health officials are bracing for the possibility that mpox could surge again this summer as cases mount in several states.

On Thursday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 21 more cases of mpox, with Illinois, New York and Maryland reporting the most new infections. Illi...

The first vaccine designed to protect infants against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) by vaccinating their mothers during pregnancy has been backed by a panel of advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

On Thursday the independent committee of experts voted unanimously that the Pfizer-made vaccine was effective, and 10-4 that there was adequate data on safety to move the vacci...

The first RSV vaccine designed to protect infants is under consideration by a panel of advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

An independent committee of experts will vote Thursday on whether to recommend the shot for pregnant mothers at 24 to 36 weeks gestation.

“Before the pandemic, RSV was the No. 1 cause of infant hospitalization in the United States, so this ...

Months before U.S. health officials warned that tainted eye drops were causing vision loss and even death, a Cleveland woman lost the sight in her eye in a case that puzzled her doctors.

The 72-year-old went to an outpatient eye clinic last November complaining of blurry vision. She was sent to a hospital emergency department from there.

Ophthalmologists evaluated her eye, cultured ...

While the mpox outbreak has been waning since last summer, it hasn't disappeared yet.

Howard Brown Health, a LGBTQ-focused health clinic in Chicago, recently reported seeing an increase in mpox (formerly known as monkeypox) cases, with eight diagnosed since April 17, compared to only one in the previous three months.

Last week's case count was the highest in Chicago since early No...

About half of extremely preterm babies have at least one life-threatening bacterial infection in their bloodstream after 72 hours of life.

Now, new research points to the babies' own gut microbiomes as the source.

Knowing that the most common bacteria in bloodstream infections are also commonly found to colonize the gut without causing disease at first, researchers set out to test...

The first vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in seniors aged 60 and older.

Arexvy, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), is expected to help prevent lower respiratory tract infections caused by RSV, the agency said Wednesday.

“Older adults, in particular those with underlying health conditions, such as ...

For the first time since the mpox outbreak began last spring, no new cases have been reported in more than a week, fresh government data shows.

At the peak of the outbreak, there were 500 new infections reported daily, but by late last year that number was 16, CDC statistics show.

While the...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved the first pill form of fecal microbiota -- similar to what's known as fecal transplant therapy -- to treat the bacterial infection Clostridioides difficile, one of the most common and deadly infections found in health care settings.

The drug, Vowst, is approved to prevent recurrence of C. difficile in people who...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to get tougher on Salmonella bacteria found in breaded, stuffed raw chicken products, the agency announced Tuesday.

About 1.35 million people are infected with Salmonella bacteria each year in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Almost a quarter of the nation's Salmonella infections are caused by ...