Infectious Diseases

Bacterial toxin a potential trigger for multiple sclerosis
"We provide evidence that supports epsilon toxin's ability to cause BBB permeability and show that epsilon toxin kills the brain's myelin producing cells, oligodendrocytes; the same cells that die in MS lesions," says Jennifer Linden of Weill Cornell Medical College, who presented the research. "We also show that epsilon toxin targets other cells types associated with MS inflammation such as the retinal vascular and meningeal cells. Epsilon toxin may be responsible for triggering MS."

Epsilon toxin is produced by certain strains of Clostridium perfringens, a spore-forming bacterium that is one of the most common causes of foodborne illness in the United States. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that non-epsilon toxin producing C. perfringens strains cause nearly a million cases of foodborne illness each year. Eurekalert!

Infection control practices not adequately implemented at many hospital ICUs: study
U.S. hospital intensive care units (ICUs) show uneven compliance with infection prevention policies, according to a study in the February issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC). Eurekalert!

Thousands of unvaccinated adults die each year from preventable diseases
While adults make up 95 percent of those who die annually from vaccine preventable diseases, a new study from the University of Colorado School of Medicine shows their vaccination rates remain stubbornly low, representing a growing public health concern.

The study, published recently in the Annals of Internal Medicine, is the first to examine several important aspects of adult vaccination. Every year, 30,000 people on average die of vaccine preventable illnesses, almost all of them adult. Eurekalert!