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Background: Neonatal tetanus (NT)is still considered as one of the major causes of neonatal death in many developing countries. The aim of the present study was to assess the characteristics of sixty-seven infants with the diagnosis of neonatal tetanus followed-up in the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Ward of Dicle University hospital, Diyarbakir, between 1991 and 2006, and to draw to factors that may contribute (or may have contributed) to the elimination of the disease in Diyarbakir. Methods: The data of sixty-seven infants whose epidemiological and clinical findings were compatible with neonatal tetanus were reviewed. patients were stratified into two groups according to whether they survived or not to assess the effect of certain factors in the prognosis. Factors having a contribution to the higher rate of tetanus among newborn infants were discussed. Results: A total of 55 cases of NT had been hospitalized between 1991 and 1996 whereas only 12 patients admitted in the last decade.

(NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) The majority of deaths during the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 were not caused by the influenza virus acting alone, report researchers from NIAID. Instead, most victims succumbed to bacterial pneumonia following influenza virus infection. The pneumonia was caused when bacteria that normally inhabit the nose and throat invaded the lungs along a pathway created when the virus destroyed the cells that line the bronchial tubes and lungs.

A man who contends he got a 9-foot tapeworm after eating undercooked fish has sued a Chicago restaurant.

(Washington University School of Medicine) people have long prized silver as a precious metal. Now, silver-coated endotracheal tubes are giving critically ill patients another reason to value the lustrous metal. In a study published in the Aug. 20, 2008, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers at Washington University School of medicine in St. Louis and the NASCENT Investigation Group, report that the silver-coated tubes led to a 36 percent reduction of ventilator-associated pneumonia.

(Society for General Microbiology) A new test for West Nile virus in horses that could be modified for use with humans and wildlife may help track the spread of the disease, according to an article in the September issue of the Journal of Medical Microbiology.

Bacterial pneumonia may have killed most people during the 1918 flu pandemic, and antibiotics may be as crucial as flu drugs to fight any new pandemic, researchers say.