Maggot magic
British scientists have developed a dressing that uses maggot secretions to heal difficult wounds. The use of live maggots on wounds to eat dead tissue and encourage regeneration was common until penicillin became popular, and is slowly becoming more widespread. The dressing devised by Bradford University researchers is impregnated with purified excretions and secretions from greenbottle blowfly larvae. It significantly hastened the closure of wounds in lab tests, livescience.com reports. Clinical trials will start soon.
HIV on the rise in Oz
New HIV cases in Australia have risen more than 40 per cent in the past five years, raising concerns that people are becoming lax about safe sex. And it's not only HIV that's on the rise. According to an annual survey by the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research, reported cases of chlamydia rose fourfold during the decade to 2005, and new cases of gonorrhea almost doubled. Gay men accounted for about 70 per cent of the new HIV cases, AP reports.
Heart of the matter
Scientists have found a way to make rats' hearts regenerate, rather than scar, after a heart attack - but the drugs used can be harmful, triggering cancers and damaging the liver. As well, the rats were treated immediately after the attacks, whereas people usually sustain heart damage over time. Nonetheless, the US research is encouraging, WebMD reports. The researchers, from Children's Hospital Boston and the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, are now trying to develop new drugs that have the same effect.
Happy days