Foodborne Illness News

June 26, 2025

Top Headlines

From Cursed Tomb Fungus to Cancer Cure: Aspergillus Flavus Yields Potent New Drug

June 23, 2025 — In a remarkable twist of science, researchers have transformed a fungus long associated with death into a potential weapon against cancer. Found in tombs like that of King Tut, Aspergillus flavus was ...

Superbugs in Your Shrimp: Deadly Colistin-Resistance Genes Ride on Imported Seafood

June 22, 2025 — Colistin, a last-resort antibiotic, is losing its power due to rising resistance—and the culprits might be hiding in your seafood dinner. A University of Georgia research team discovered ...

How a Common Antibiotic Fuels Bacterial Resistance

June 9, 2025 — A new Rutgers Health study reveals a surprising twist in the antibiotic resistance story: instead of simply killing bacteria, drugs like ciprofloxacin can actually trigger a kind of microbial survival mode. By crashing the bacteria's energy levels, ...

Synthetic Compound Shows Promise Against Multidrug Resistance

June 3, 2025 — Researchers have synthesized a new compound called infuzide that shows activity against resistant strains of ...

Insect Protein Blocks Bacterial Infection

June 2, 2025 — Scientists in Australia have developed a smart, bacteria-repelling coating based on resilin the ultra-elastic protein that gives fleas their legendary jumping power. When applied to surfaces like medical implants or surgical tools, the engineered ...

Earlier Measles Vaccine Could Help Curb Global Outbreak

May 30, 2025 — The global measles outbreak must trigger an urgent debate into whether a vaccine should be recommended earlier to better protect against the highly contagious disease during infancy, a new review ...

Genetic Deep Dive Dispels Fear of Hybrid Worm Threat

May 30, 2025 — Parasitic worms that infect humans are not interbreeding with those that infect cattle as previously thought. This is good news for when it comes to controlling schistosomiasis, a disease caused by these worms that affects more than 200 million ...

Evolution of a Single Gene Allowed the Plague to Adapt, Survive and Kill Much of Humanity Over Many Centuries

May 29, 2025 — Scientists have documented the way a single gene in the bacterium that causes bubonic plague, Yersinia pestis, allowed it to survive hundreds of years by adjusting its virulence and the length of ...

How Cholera Bacteria Outsmart Viruses

May 26, 2025 — Researchers uncover a notorious cholera strain that contains sophisticated immune systems to fend off viruses, which potentially helped it to fuel a devastating epidemic across Latin ...

A Leap Forward in Transparent Antimicrobial Coatings

May 24, 2025 — Hydrogen boride (HB) nanosheets can inactivate viruses, bacteria, and fungi within minutes in the dark conditions. By coating surfaces with HB nanosheets, it rapidly inactivates SARS-CoV-2, influenza virus, and other pathogens. The nanosheets work ...

Engineered Bacteria Can Deliver Antiviral Therapies, Vaccines

May 21, 2025 — New research demonstrates how specially engineered bacteria taken orally can operate as a delivery system for vaccines and antiviral ...

Unlocking the Secrets of Bat Immunity

May 21, 2025 — Bats are known as natural hosts for highly pathogenic viruses such as MERS- and SARS-related coronaviruses, as well as the Marburg and Nipah viruses. In contrast to the severe and often fatal disease outcomes these viruses cause in humans, bats ...

Latest Headlines

updated 1:08pm EDT

Advanced Genomics Study Improves Detection of Hard-to-Find Diarrheal Infections

May 20, 2025 — A study has used advanced genetic and genomic techniques to offer a major step forward in understanding and diagnosing infectious intestinal ...

Survival Trick: Pathogen Taps Iron Source in Immune Cells

May 19, 2025 — The body defends itself against pathogens by depriving them of vital iron. However, this strategy doesn't always succeed against Salmonella. Researchers have discovered that these bacteria ...

Family of Parasite Proteins Presents New Potential Malaria Treatment Target

May 19, 2025 — Researchers have shown that the evolution of a family of exported proteins in the malaria-causing parasite Plasmodium falciparum enabled it to infect ...

Could Nanoplastics in the Environment Turn E. Coli Into a Bigger Villain?

May 19, 2025 — Nanoplastics are everywhere. These fragments are so tiny they can accumulate on bacteria and be taken up by plant roots; they're in our food, our water, and our bodies. Scientists don't know the full ...

Novel Molecular Maneuver Helps Malaria Parasite Dodge the Immune System

May 16, 2025 — Researchers have discovered how a parasite that causes malaria when transmitted through a mosquito bite can hide from the body's immune system, sometimes for years. It turns out that the parasite, ...

Measles Virus Detected in Houston Wastewater Before Cases Were Reported

May 12, 2025 — An innovative outbreak detection program that tracks disease-causing viruses in wastewater identified the measles virus in Houston samples collected in early January 2025, before cases were ...

Unique Model of Rare Epileptic Disease Helps Pinpoint Potential Treatment Route

May 9, 2025 — Scientists have developed a cortical organoid model for UBA5-associated encephalopathy, revealing a new way to possibly address developmental ...

Groundbreaking Device Instantly Detects Dangerous Street Drugs, Offering Hope for Harm Reduction

May 7, 2025 — Groundbreaking device instantly detects dangerous street drugs, offering hope for harm reduction A portable device that instantly detects illicit ...

Researchers Restore Antibiotic Effect in the Event of Resistance

May 7, 2025 — Bacterial resistance negates the effect of antibiotics in the treatment of infection. Using mouse models, researchers now show that if antibiotics are administered with an enzyme called endolysin, ...

New AI Technique Can Uncover Antiviral Compounds Using Limited Data

May 3, 2025 — Artificial intelligence algorithms have now been combined with traditional laboratory methods to uncover promising drug leads against human enterovirus 71 (EV71), the pathogen behind most cases of ...

Bacterial Villain Behind Lake Erie's 'Potent Toxin' Unveiled

Apr. 30, 2025 — In the warm summertime waters of Lake Erie, cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, can proliferate out of control, creating algal blooms that produce toxins at a rate that can harm wildlife and human ...

Hospital-Based Outbreak Detection System Saves Lives

Apr. 28, 2025 — An infectious diseases detection platform demonstrated over a two-year trial that it stops outbreaks, saves lives and cuts costs, making the case for development of a national early outbreak ...

Bacteria Killing Material Creates Superbug Busting Paint

Apr. 23, 2025 — A bacteria killing coating created by scientists has been used in trials of a new paint that can be applied to a range of surfaces to effectively kill bacteria and viruses, including difficult to ...

Long-Term Health Impacts of Flooding Revealed

Apr. 8, 2025 — A comprehensive study of the long-term health impacts of flooding -- via analysis of over 300 million hospitalizations records in eight countries prone to flooding events -- has found an increased ...

Scientists Reveal New Toxin That Damages the Gut

Apr. 7, 2025 — Scientists have discovered how a diarrhea-causing strain of bacteria uses 'molecular scissors' to cut open and destroy gut cells, leading to severe illness and sometimes ...

New Research Boosts Future Whooping Cough Vaccines

Apr. 4, 2025 — New research could aid in improving whooping cough vaccines to once again push this disease toward eradication by targeting two key weaknesses in the ...

Discovery of Bacteria's Defense Against Viruses Becomes a Piece of the Puzzle Against Resistance

Apr. 4, 2025 — Antibiotic resistance is a global health challenge that could overtake cancer mortality within a few decades. In a new study, researchers show that the emergence of resistance can be understood in ...

New Vaccine Concept Tackles Harmful Bacteria in the Intestine

Apr. 3, 2025 — In the fight against bacterial pathogens, researchers are combining vaccination with targeted colonization of the intestine by harmless microorganisms. This approach could potentially mark a turning ...

Precision Medicine Could Be Possible in the Fight Against Antibiotic Resistance

Apr. 3, 2025 — Certain antibiotic-resistant infections could be treated with precision medicine in the future, thanks to a new resource mapping plasmids the ultimate vehicle of rapid bacterial ...

Novel Point-of-Care Technology Delivers Accurate HIV Results in Minutes

Apr. 2, 2025 — The technology described uses a nanomechanical platform and tiny cantilevers to detect multiple HIV antigens at high sensitivity in a matter of minutes. These silicon cantilevers are cheap and easy ...

Multi-Resistance in Bacteria Predicted by AI Model

Apr. 2, 2025 — An AI model trained on large amounts of genetic data can predict whether bacteria will become antibiotic-resistant. The new study shows that antibiotic resistance is more easily transmitted between ...

New Antibiotic for Multidrug Resistant Superbug

Apr. 2, 2025 — Researchers discover a new class of antibiotic that selectively targets Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the bacterium that causes gonorrhoea. These substances trigger a self-destruction program, which also ...

New Insight Into Factors Associated With a Common Disease Among Dogs and Humans

Apr. 1, 2025 — For dogs housed at Texas kennels, age and fecal score are important factors for screening for subclinical Giardia ...

New Approach Could Treat Anthrax Beyond the 'Point of No Return'

Mar. 28, 2025 — Researchers show that a cocktail of growth factors reversed would-be lethal cell damage in mice with anthrax, suggesting that this approach could be adapted for use in ...

Understanding the Immune Response to a Persistent Pathogen

Mar. 28, 2025 — Researchers show that the immune system can recognize and control the latent stage of the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, a finding that can inform the study of latency in other infections of the nervous ...

Enzyme Engineering Opens Door to Novel Therapies for Parkinson's, Cancers and Other Hard-to-Target Protein Diseases

Mar. 26, 2025 — Scientists have long struggled to target proteins that lack defined structure and are involved in cancer, neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinson's disease, and other serious illnesses. Now, ...

C. Diff Uses Toxic Compound to Fuel Growth Advantage

Mar. 25, 2025 — The pathogen C. diff -- the most common cause of health care-associated infectious diarrhea -- can use a compound that kills the human gut's resident microbes to survive and grow, giving it a ...

New Data on Mpox Vaccine Effectiveness

Mar. 19, 2025 — A study has found that a single dose of the Imvanex vaccine provides protection against Mpox with 84% effectiveness. For people with HIV, however, a single dose of the vaccine fails to offer ...

Team Finds Regional, Age-Related Trends in Exposure to Drug-Resistant Pathogen

Mar. 19, 2025 — Campylobacter infections are the most common foodborne illnesses in the U.S., sickening an estimated 1.5 million people each year. A new study examined records of Campylobacter jejuni infections from ...

FDA-Approved Dialysis Drug May Help Fight Against Antimicrobial Resistance

Mar. 18, 2025 — Increased antibiotic use can lead, seemingly paradoxically, to more problematic infections, as the bacteria evolve to resist the treatment. The answer to this antimicrobial resistance, which the ...