Latest Conference Articles

The new guidelines provide important updates in four key areas, including behavioral screening for possible HIV transmission, sexually transmitted disease screening and treatment, HIV partner services, and referral for medical and social services.

The ECTRIMS conference may be based in Europe but as the conference has grown so has its global impact on multiple sclerosis treatment. With topics ranging from newly approved therapies to those in the pipeline to those not yet ready for testing there is lots to learn in the yearly event.

In the world of multiple sclerosis treatment the relapsing remitting form of the disease is well ahead of the primary progressive form.

A pair of phase III studies revealed positive efficacy and safety outcomes for ocrelizumab, and this could be a game-changer for patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).

Overuse of urinary catheters is a common problem in all hospitals. Intervention is possible.

A University of Colorado School of Medicine hypothesized that the nasal microbiome could be protective against MRSA colonization in some individuals. Reporting at ID Week 2015 in San Diego, CA, Mary Bessenden, MD and colleges looked at 26 persistently MRSA colonized people and 26 non-colonized controls.

Patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) commonly experience tremoring limbs, head pain, and blurred vision, among other symptoms. Fatigue is another commonly reported and has the power to alter a patient's quality of life (QoL). But by how much?

Results from clinical trials that included patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) do not appear to be consistent for patients with primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS), according to Markus W. Koch, MD, from the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada.

It's not uncommon for patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) to experience a reduction in brain volume. However, treatment with alemtuzumab can slow the process, according to a multi-continental team of investigators.

The problem of antibiotic resistance is a national health problem, a national security problem, and a global problem. The hope is that we'll get more of our citizens involved and active in playing a role in addressing this crisis.

For patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), disturbances in the thermoregulation can result in episodic hypothermia. It's believed that this is caused by hypothalamic lesions from the disease, however, the specifics are not fully understood. M. Toledano and colleagues from the University of Utah set out to uncover more in a poster session that will be presented at the 31st Congress of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS 2015) in Barcelona, Spain.

Katarina Fink, an associate in the Department of Clinical Neuroscience at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, and colleagues analyzed the influence that multiple sclerosis (MS) has on a woman's fertility – an area that has remained unclear. The findings will be described in a poster session at the 31st Congress of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS 2015) in Barcelona, Spain.

Hospital-associated infections can be better identified and contained through technology, a multi-institutional team reports.

MR-PET imaging can reveal inflammation and neurodegeneration in the brain, among other things, and a recent study showed that it can also help determine the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS).

With some patients being treated for multiple sclerosis with Aubagio for more than a decade questions have been raised about the safety of the treatment for such a long period of time. Further research has shown it to still be safe for the people who need it most.

It can be easy to look at the treatment of multiple sclerosis and stop at the physical symptoms of the disease. For patients living with the condition their daily lives are about more than the symptoms and making them work within their own individual challenges.

Young suburban heroin users who were admitted recently to a Princeton, NJ drug rehab facility showed an unexpectedly high incidence of hepatitis C infection.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be used to identify lesions in the central nervous system in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), but not all patients with active disease have identifiable lesions, and researchers are mixed over the extent to which lesions can be used as a marker for MS disease activity.

Co-infection with malaria appears to give people who are infected with Ebola virus a better chance of recovering, Scripps Institute researchers found in West Africa.

No one was more shocked than local HIV specialists when an epidemic of HIV hit a small town in Indiana. Diane Janowicz, MD, a Bloomington, Indiana AIDS/HIV specialist gave ID Week attendees a detailed description of how she and other health officials and entities handled the case.

What do you do when you need to test drug therapies for Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome but the usual animal subjects do not get the disease? Easy, you just engineer a new kind of mouse.

Ian Crozier, MD, an infectious disease expert working treating Ebola patients in West Africa, had to admit himself to his own emergency treatment unit. His riveting account of his recovery included an episode in which virus lurking in one eye turned it from blue to green. Crozier got a standing ovation in his talk today at ID Week 2015 in San Diego, CA.

Cats and dogs can be vectors for an eye parasite, a multi-center team in the US Southwest reports. The parasite is called Onchocerca lupi. Six cases, believed to be the first in the US, are reported.

Delayed-release dimethyl fumarate (DMF, also known as gastro-resistant DMF) is effective at lowering disease activity long-term in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), according to Eva Havrdova, MD, of Charles University of Prague. The findings are set to be presented in a poster session at the 31st Congress of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS 2015) in Barcelona, Spain.

When it comes to treating and studying multiple sclerosis, the correlation between magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) lesions and actual disease activity has been widely disputed. A new analysis says that using MRI lesions as a proxy for disease activity is a sufficient approach when determining primary endpoints in clinical trials.

Doctors appear to be overprescribing fluoroquinolones for women with uncomplicated urinary tract infections.

Patients who are morbidly obese need a revised dosing protocol when getting vancomycin.

Canadian researchers found a "troubling trend" in an increase in dentists prescribing antibiotics to patients.

The results from an on-going phase 4 trial add to the growing evidence that teriflunomide is effective for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, according to Patricia K. Coyle, MD, of Stony Brook University in New York.

Better understanding the relationship between inflammation and biomarkers could help improve treatments for those with multiple sclerosis.