Brucellosis

Photograph: Shutterstock A late-comer to delivery, Chili’s Grill & Bar is striving to capitalize on the opportunity by reconsidering its staffing and packaging for off-premise business. Executives of parent company Brinker International attributed the casual-dining chain’s increase in same-store sales for the first quarter ended Sept. 25 in large part to the benefits of adding delivery. Comps rose 2.9% for company-operated restaurants and 0.4% for franchised units. Asked about the discrepancy in results for franchised and company stores, Brinker CEO and Chili’s President Wyman Roberts cited differences in the rate of adding delivery.  After holding off on that service while competitors cannonballed into it, the casual chain finally took the plunge during the summer through an exclusive deal with DoorDash . Brinker executives did not divulge what portion of Chili’s sales are currently generated by delivery. Chili’s posted positive comps for Q1 despite a rollercoaster pattern to

“The teamwork, dedication, and bias for action exhibited by this crew and other Coast Guard vessel crews represent how the Coast Guard protects this nation from threats delivered by sea and I could not be more proud of them,” said Capt. Jeffrey Randall, Cutter James commanding officer. “They are the very best of what America stands for, and it is truly a privilege to have the opportunity to lead them as they continue the Coast Guard Cutter James’ growing legacy of brave and faithful service, while remaining ready, relevant and responsive to our nation, the Department of Homeland Security, and our Coast Guard." https://ift.tt/34lnRzL

Thu Oct 31, 2019 / 6:18 PM EDT Patricia Zengerle and Mike Stone WASHINGTON WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is withholding $105 million in security aid for Lebanon, two U.S. officials said on Thursday, two days after the resignation of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri. The State Department told Congress on Thursday that the White House budget office and National Security Council had decided to withhold the foreign military assistance, the two officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The officials did not say why the aid was blocked. One of the sources said the State Department did not give Congress a reason for the decision. The State Department declined to comment. The administration had sought approval for the assistance starting in May, arguing that it was crucial for Lebanon, an important U.S. partner in the volatile Middle East, to be able to protect its borders. The aid included night vision goggles and weapons

[unable to retrieve full-text content] ‘They protected all of us.’ Modesto Stand Down aids homeless and other needy veterans    Modesto Bee https://ift.tt/2qVgfp8

[unable to retrieve full-text content] Biomarker May Predict Who Will Have Malaria Symptoms    Infectious Disease Special Edition https://ift.tt/2Cd9emh

Tribal Health raises alert to Advisory From Tribal Health Department and MT Department of Public Health and Human Services   MONTANA — Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ Health Department issues an Advisory alert in response to an increase of sexually transmitted diseases (STD) gonorrhea and syphilis. Local and state health departments continue to receive reports of increased gonorrhea and syphilis activity. Gonorrhea activity continues to be elevated in Montana’s larger cities and in and around tribal communities, partially due to excellent screening efforts and increased overall testing in the state. Although syphilis activity has been elevated since 2016, the noticeable increase in recent gonorrhea cases is a significant public health concern.  The majority of recent primary and secondary syphilis have been males (83 percent), ages 18 to 68 years old. 54 percent of cases have been reported in high risk heterosexuals (HRH) that makes up the majority of our syphilis cases

Attacks on humanitarian aid and workers have been persistent crimes in South Sudan's conflict, resulting in the death of at least 115 aid workers since 2013.   © Liatile Putsoa/IOM South Sudan Three more aid workers, this time staff from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), have been killed in South Sudan, the latest in a long line of frontline workers who have become casualties of the country’s devastating six-year war. The three IOM workers were reportedly killed in crossfire on October 27, during clashes between government forces and a rebel group, National Salvation Front (NAS), in Morobo, Central Equatoria region. Two other workers were injured, and a female worker and the four-year-old son of one of the deceased workers were abducted. Both sides deny responsibility for the crimes. Attacks against aid workers and aid operations have been a common occurrence since hostilities broke out in December 2013, with both government forces and rebels and allie

IMAGE:  New research shows that sporozoite stage parasites inside their mosquito host use translational repression to prepare for unpredictable transmission from mosquitoes to humans. This energetically expensive strategy might have weak... view more  Credit: Penn State The parasite that causes malaria expresses genes that code for the proteins it will need in later life stages, using two separate schemes to prevent these proteins from actually being made until they are needed, according to new research. Having the mRNAs for these genes at the ready is risky: It's energetically costly, and proteins made prematurely can cause the parasites to become non-infectious. However, this strategy allows the parasite to quickly respond to unpredictable changes as it is transmitted between its mosquito and human hosts. Understanding these "translational repression" schemes may allow researchers to spot their weaknesses, which could be exploited in new strategies for combatti

Researchers from Israel, in collaboration with others looked at the effects of the malaria plasmodium on red blood cells in vivo in presence of a drug, to understand the workings of the pathogen in its disease causing ability and also lay foundation for development of effective treatment for the deadly disease. The study results were published in an article titled, “Mode of action of quinoline antimalarial drugs in red blood cells infected by Plasmodium falciparum , revealed in-vivo,” in the latest issue of the journal Proceedings of Nation Academy of Sciences (PNAS) . The image shows details such as the vacuole of the parasites (colored in blue and green) inside an infected blood cell. Image Credit: S. Kapishnikov Organizations have said that 4 in 10 individuals live in regions that are endemic for malaria. Estimates show that nearly 200 million people are infected with malaria annually and the disease kills around 600,000 each year. Malaria is caused by unicellular organisms

LONDON — The World Health Organization says more than 7 million cases of malaria have been reported in Burundi this year. Officials blame the outbreak on factors including the lack of protective bed nets, problems with medicines and climate change. The U.N. health agency says malaria has killed nearly 2,700 people this year in the East African nation and caused 64% more cases than in 2018. The agency says there is "probably a decrease in the effectiveness of treatment, which is still under investigation." It says Burundi is ordering new medicines and planning campaigns to spray homes with insecticide and distribute bed nets. Scientists fear warming temperatures may result in a spike in mosquitoes, which spread malaria and other diseases. Globally, malaria sickens about 219 million people every year. https://ift.tt/2q950Jz

The parasite that causes malaria expresses genes that code for the proteins it will need in later life stages, using two separate schemes to prevent these proteins from actually being made until they are needed, according to new research. Having the mRNAs for these genes at the ready is risky: It's energetically costly, and proteins made prematurely can cause the parasites to become non-infectious. However, this strategy allows the parasite to quickly respond to unpredictable changes as it is transmitted between its mosquito and human hosts. Understanding these "translational repression" schemes may allow researchers to spot their weaknesses, which could be exploited in new strategies for combatting malaria. The research, by a team of scientists at Penn State, the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Washington, appears October 31, 2019 in the journal, Nature Communications . The malaria parasite has a complex life-cycle in wh

Mosquito borne disease malaria is a major menace in several developing nations. It is a disease caused by parasites transmitted to people through bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes and it is a severe cause of concern along the sub-Sahara belt of Africa. According to This Day, in 2017, there were an estimated 219 million cases of malaria in 87 countries with an estimated number of deaths related to malaria standing at about 435,000 in the year. The WHO African Region carries a disproportionately high share of malaria burden. In 2017, the region was home to 92 per cent of malaria cases and 93 per cent of malaria deaths. In Nigeria, there are estimated 100 million malaria cases with over 300,000 deaths per annum. About 11 per cent of maternal death is attributed to malaria while over 70 per cent of deaths in children under five years are linked to malaria. Several efforts have been made at global and national levels to combat the spread of malaria and reduce mortality. The R

Tuberculosis disease is a global killer, infecting 10 million people every year and taking the lives of 1.5 million. Being HIV positive is a risk factor for contracting tuberculosis disease and dying from it . Pregnancy also leaves women vulnerable to the ravages of tuberculosis, and pregnant women who also have HIV are especially at risk.  HIV patients often take the first-line antibiotic isoniazid to both prevent the transmission of tuberculosis bacteria and to inhibit the progression of latent tuberculosis disease into active disease with symptoms. Questions about the safety of isoniazid in pregnant women arose after a study , funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), found that women who took isoniazid during pregnancy experienced poorer fetal or newborn outcomes than those who waited until they had delivered to begin the medication. This outcome was unanticipated, as isoniazid has been recommended for pregnant women with HIV in low-resource settings for more than 25 yea

Karachi/Paris – Médecins Sans Frontières and Interactive Research and Development (IRD) have announced the start of a clinical trial in Pakistan that aims to find better, shorter treatments against multidrug-resistant forms of tuberculosis (MDR-TB). The endTB trial is a phase III randomized controlled trial comparing five new treatment regimens against MDR-TB which contain two of the three new tuberculosis (TB) drugs developed in recent years, bedaquiline and delamanid, in combination with other existing oral TB drugs. A related, parallel trial, called endTB-Q, will evaluate a sixth treatment combination and two different treatment durations, to be used against forms of MDR-TB which are also resistant to fluoroquinolones, a group of antibiotics used as so-called ‘second-line’ drugs in the treatment of TB. Together, the two trials will identify the most effective and less toxic all-oral, shorter (between six and nine months) treatment regimens against the deadliest forms of TB.

Close to 1.8 billion people worldwide are infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis ( Mtb ), the common and occasionally deadly bacterium that causes millions of cases of tuberculosis each year. The bacteria, having coevolved with humans over millennia, have devised ways of hijacking nutrients from its human host for its own benefit. Humans have equally complex ways of fighting back. In a new study appearing in the journal Science , a team led by Michigan Medicine researchers working with collaborators at Harvard, has discovered a specific mechanism by which a “weapon” used by the immune system, called itaconate, targets Mtb . Researchers only recently discovered that itaconate is produced in large amounts by the immune system when under attack. So far, just how itaconate disarms disease-causing bacteria has been somewhat of a mystery. Mtb hides inside human immune cells, using cholesterol for the energy needed to grow and proliferate. During this process, the bacteria produce a t

Abstract Background Whole genome sequencing provides better delineation of transmission clusters in Mycobacterium tuberculosis than traditional methods. However, its ability to reveal individual transmission links within clusters is limited. Here, we used a 2-step approach based on Bayesian transmission reconstruction to (1) identify likely index and missing cases, (2) determine risk factors associated with transmitters, and (3) estimate when transmission happened. Methods and findings We developed our transmission reconstruction method using genomic and epidemiological data from a population-based study from Valencia Region, Spain. Tuberculosis (TB) incidence during the study period was 8.4 cases per 100,000 people. While the study is ongoing, the sampling frame for this work includes notified TB cases between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2016. We identified a total of 21 transmission clusters that fulfilled the criteria for analysis. These contained a total of 117 individu