Microbiology & Virology

Tech news: March 2024

This month's top tech news stories

Iodine antiseptic and surgical-site infections

A large multicentre clinical trial found that an antiseptic containing iodine resulted in about one-quarter fewer post-surgical infections in patients with limb fractures compared to another frequently used skin antiseptic.

Point-of-care testing

Point of Care Project Manager Rakhee Surti outlines a unique project to enhance patient health outcomes in the community.

Mitochondria, fatigue and long COVID

Persistent fatigue in patients with long COVID has a biological cause – mitochondria in muscle cells that produce less energy than in healthy patients.

Influenza A(H1N2)V

Claire Atkinson, a Lecturer in Biomedical Science at London South Bank University, on the recent detection of influenza A(H1N2).

Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever

Dr Arantza Portillo discusses the changing epidemiology of this tick-borne viral disease in Spain and looks at the future situation for the UK.

Skin bacterium that inhibits antibiotic-resistant bacteria growth

A research group looking at antibiotic-resistant bacteria has reported promising results with a study on bacteriocins – substances that bacteria produce to inhibit the growth of competitors.

“Monkeypox virus evolving due to human transmission”

A new analysis shows the monkeypox virus (MPXV) is rapidly diverging into several lineages characterised by mutations resulting from continued interaction with the human immune system, suggesting that the virus has been circulating in humans since 2016.

Self-sampling for asymptomatic mpox

A pilot study carried out in Catalonia to evaluate the self-collection of biological samples reveals the high acceptability of the proposal and the key role of diagnosis in people without symptoms of mpox.

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