Microfluidic Device for Quick and Accurate SARS-CoV-2 Testing
Researchers at the Institute of Photonic Sciences in Barcelona, Spain, have created a microfluidic chip that can detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus in less than 30 minutes, and with a similar level of accuracy as the current gold-standard test, PCR. The technology combines the speed of antigen tests with the accuracy of PCR and may be useful for point-of-care testing. The technique involves combining a few drops of saliva with fluorescent antibodies against the virus. Then, the saliva sample is passed through a microfluidic channel, where a laser illuminates bound fluorescent antibodies and an optical detector rapidly assesses if...
Source: Medgadget - March 1, 2022 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Diagnostics Public Health Source Type: blogs
Microarray Rapidly Identifies Antibodies Against SARS-CoV-2
Researchers at the Technical University of Munich in Germany have developed a sensitive and inexpensive microarray technology that can rapidly identify antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 virus in blood or serum samples. The test can provide a result in as little as eight minutes, but the researchers believe that this can be further reduced to just four minutes with additional development. The technology could be very helpful in confirming immunity against the virus, which will help us to identify how long the vaccines confer immunity and whether booster shots will be required.
With vaccination campaigns in full swing in ...
Source: Medgadget - June 25, 2021 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Diagnostics Medicine Public Health Source Type: blogs
All you need to know about waterborne diseases
Waterborne diseases are contracted through exposure to contaminated water including drinking water, water used in food preparation, and swimming water.
They can be caused by bacteria, viruses, and parasites. Below is a partial list of waterborne disease pathogens, their microbial classification, and their resulting illnesses.
Classification
Microorganism
Disease
Bacterium
Campylobacter spp.
Campylobacteriosis
Bacterium
Escherichia coli
E. Coli Diarrhea
Bacterium
Legionella pneumophila
Legionnaires’ Disease
Bacterium
Salmonella enterica
Salmonellosis
Bacterium
Salmonella typhi
Typhoid fever
...
Source: GIDEON blog - January 14, 2021 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Kristina Symes Tags: Microbiology News Tips Source Type: blogs
Legionellosis Diagnosis and Control in the Genomic Era
Jacob Moran-Gilad and Rachel E. Gibbs present a new book on Legionellosis Diagnosis and Control in the Genomic Era With chapters written by a diverse array of specialists, this book exemplifies the dynamic nature of Legionella and illustrates many new methods such as genomics that have revolutionised this area of science. Written by internationally-recognised scientists under the expert guidance of the editors this volume covers the epidemiology and ecology of Legionella, diagnosis and treatment of legionellosis and presents reviews of current and emerging concepts and new advances in Legionella research. This detailed and...
Source: Microbiology Blog: The weblog for microbiologists. - July 3, 2020 Category: Microbiology Source Type: blogs
Can AI diagnose COVID-19 on CT scans? Can humans?
Vidur Mahajan
Vasanth Venugopal
By VASANTH VENUGOPAL MD and VIDUR MAHAJAN MBBS, MBA
What can Artificial
Intelligence (AI) do?
AI can,
simply put, do two things – one, it can do what humans can do. These are tasks
like looking at CCTV cameras, detecting faces of people, or in this case, read
CT scans and identify ‘findings’ of pneumonia that radiologists can otherwise
also find – just that this happens automatically and fast. Two, AI can do
things that humans can’t do – like telling you the exact time it would take you
to go from point A to point B (i.e. Google maps), or like in this case,
diagnose C...
Source: The Health Care Blog - March 23, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Artificial Intelligence COVID-19 Health Tech AI coronavirus CT scans Pandemic Radiology Vasanth Venugopal Vidur Mahajan Source Type: blogs
Artificial Intelligence vs. Tuberculosis – Part 2
By SAURABH JHA, MD
Clever Hans
Preetham Srinivas, the head of the
chest radiograph project in Qure.ai, summoned Bhargava Reddy, Manoj Tadepalli, and
Tarun Raj to the meeting room.
“Get ready for an all-nighter, boys,”
said Preetham.
Qure’s scientists began investigating
the algorithm’s mysteriously high performance on chest radiographs from a new
hospital. To recap, the algorithm had an area under the receiver operating
characteristic curve (AUC) of 1 – that’s 100 % on multiple-choice question
test.
“Someone leaked the paper to AI,”
laughed Manoj.
“It’s an engineering college joke,...
Source: The Health Care Blog - January 24, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Artificial Intelligence Health Tech Health Technology @roguerad AI Saurabh Jha TB tuberculosis Source Type: blogs
BioethicsTV: Legionnaires ’ Disease and the Cover-Up That Killed Flint Residents During the ‘ Flint Water Crisis ’
by Keisha Ray, Ph.D.
The story of Flint, Michigan’s water crisis, beginning in 2014 is a story that most people are familiar with. After changing how their water is supplied—Going from Detroit supplied water to water supplied from Flint river to the ultimate goal of pipelines bringing in water from Lake Huron—the water became contaminated. The yellow-ish brown, foul odor water brought in from Flint River had high levels of lead causing many people to not drink the water or use it for cooking, brushing teeth, or any other life activity that required water.… (Source: blog.bioethics.net)
Source: blog.bioethics.net - September 13, 2019 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Keisha Ray Tags: Cultural Environmental Ethics Featured Posts Justice Public Health Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 259
It's Friday. Boggle your brain with FFFF challenge and some old fashioned trivia. Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 259
The post Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 259 appeared first on Life in the Fast Lane. (Source: Life in the Fast Lane)
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - November 9, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Neil Long Tags: FFFF fugu George Minot Legionella legionella longbeachae legionella pneumophillia Leriche syndrome liver Pernicious anaemia Pontiac fever puffer fish rené leriche symblepharon tetrodotoxin Whipple William Murphy Source Type: blogs
A resurgence of Legionella
(Source: Notes from Dr. RW)
Source: Notes from Dr. RW - September 17, 2018 Category: Internal Medicine Tags: infectious disease pulmonary Source Type: blogs
Legionellosis in Italy
The following background data are abstracted from Gideon and the Gideon e-book series. [1,2] (Primary references are available on request).
The first case of legionellosis in Italy was reported in 1981 (from Emilia Romagna), and passive surveillance was initiated in 1983. Reported disease rates in Italy and surrounding countries have increased dramatically since 2000. The rate of under-reporting for legionellosis in Italy is estimated at 21.4%
As seen in the following graph, parallel rate increases have been reported in the United States and Italy. Disease rates in the latter are approximated five-fold those report...
Source: GIDEON blog - July 28, 2018 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Dr. Stephen Berger Tags: Ebooks Epidemiology Graphs ProMED Source Type: blogs
Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 230
LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog - Emergency medicine and critical care medical education blog
Just when you thought your brain could unwind on a Friday, you realise that it would rather be challenged with some good old fashioned medical trivia FFFF…introducing Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 230.
Question 1:
Braille refined ‘night writing’ so it could effectively be used in the blind population. Who originally commissioned ‘night writing’ for the military?
+ Reveal the Funtabulous Answer
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Source: Life in the Fast Lane - March 15, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Neil Long Tags: Frivolous Friday Five beard bowel obstruction Braille Charles Barbier Faget's sign Hans Steininger Napoleon orthodontic wire Sutton's law Sutton's slip Source Type: blogs
Laboratory diagnosis of Legionnaires ’ disease
(Source: Notes from Dr. RW)
Source: Notes from Dr. RW - February 24, 2018 Category: Internal Medicine Tags: infectious disease Source Type: blogs
Wrap up of recent posts of relevance on microBEnet
I have been doing a lot of blogging at microBEnet and don't always do a good job of cross posting or even posting here to let people know of the cross talk / related posts.So I am trying to do that briefly now. Here are some posts from the last few months on microBEnet that may be of interest, These are posts from March through today.Great article by Maryn McKenna on the hunt for new antibiotics w/ crowdsourcing helpWorth a look: Are Pets the New Probiotic? in the NY TimesAlleged mishandling of Flint Legionnaire ’s outbreak leads to manslaughter charges for MI health chiefReport: Guests leave Las Vegas ’ Rio hotel...
Source: The Tree of Life - June 25, 2017 Category: Microbiology Authors: Jonathan Eisen Source Type: blogs
The Politics of Hillary ’s Pneumonia
By SAURABH JHA, MD
It is selfish of a leader of a nation to drop dead during office. Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, died suddenly at 74, apparently from a ruptured aneurysm. His aneurysm, allegedly, had something to do with Edwina Mountbatten – the wife of Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India. Shortly after Nehru’s death, Pakistan attacked India. Nehru’s replacement, Lal Bahadur Shastri, died mysteriously in Tashkent two years after Nehru’s death, and was succeeded by Indira, Nehru’s daughter. India’s future was forever changed by a burst aneurysm or, if rumors are to be believed, by ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - September 14, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 153
Just when you thought your brain could unwind on a Friday, you realise that it would rather be challenged with some good old fashioned medical trivia FFFF…introducing Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 153
Question 1
What part of your body could be considered callipygian?
+ Reveal the Funtabulous Answer
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Your buttocks
The Callipygian Venus, literally meaning “Venus (or Aphrodite) of the beautiful buttocks is a roman statue, housed in Naples. [Reference]
Question 2
Why do you hands and feet wrinkle in ...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - July 8, 2016 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Neil Long Tags: Frivolous Friday Five callipygian cardiac tamponade electrical alternans Q-fever Stethoscope total alternans Source Type: blogs
