Infectious Diseases

China Details First Human Fatality Linked to Novel H10N8 Influenza
The study, published in the Lancet, details the case of a 73-year-old woman with several comorbidities who became ill 4 days after visiting a poultry market in Jiangxi province. A novel avian H10N8 virus was identified in a tracheal aspirate specimen obtained from the patient a week after illness onset. A field investigation failed to find an identical virus circulating in poultry from the market. Journal Watch

When Cats Bite: 1 in 3 Patients Bitten in Hand Hospitalized, Infections Common
Dogs aren’t the only pets who sometimes bite the hands that feed them. Cats do too, and when they strike a hand, can inject bacteria deep into joints and tissue, perfect breeding grounds for infection. Cat bites to the hand are so dangerous, 1 in 3 patients with such wounds had to be hospitalized, a Mayo Clinic study covering three years showed. Of those hospitalized, two-thirds needed surgery. Middle-aged women were the most common bite victims, according to the research, published in the Journal of Hand Surgery. NewsWise

Source of chlamydia reinfections may be GI tract
The current standard of care treatment for chlamydia sometimes fails to eradicate the disease, according to a review published ahead of print in Infection and Immunity, and the culprit may be in the gut. Chlamydia trachomatis not only infects the reproductive tract, but abides persistently—though benignly—in the gastrointestinal tract. There it remains even after eradication from the genitals by the antibiotic, azithromycin, says first author Roger Rank, of the Arkansas Children's Research Institute, Little Rock. And that reservoir is likely a source of the all-too-common reinfections that follow treatment. Eurekalert! 

How our immune system backfires and allows bacteria like Salmonella to grow
Our immune system wages an internal battle every day to protect us against a broad range of infections. However, researchers have found that our immune response can sometimes make us vulnerable to the very bacteria it is supposed to protect us from. A study published by Cell Press on February 6th in the journal Immunity reveals that the immune protein interleukin-22 (IL-22) actually enhances the growth of dangerous bacteria, like Salmonella, which causes food poisoning, and curbs the growth of healthy bacteria commonly found in the gut. The findings suggest that a supposedly protective immune response actually aids the growth of a gut pathogen by suppressing the growth of its closest competitors. Eurekalert!