An experimental vaccine applied the surface of the skin appears to protect against certain types of ear infections. Scientists from the Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, report their findings today at the 109th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Philadelphia.

Three new studies published in the June 2008 edition of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery focus on what role gender plays in the prognosis of oral tongue cancer, chronic ear infections in children, and the success rates of hearing aid implants in the elderly.

A new report from Perth’s Telethon Institute for Child Health Research has found a strong link between childhood ear infections and exposure to tobacco smoke.

When prescribed to children with middle ear infections, antibiotics are not associated with a significant reduction in fluid buildup in the ear, according to a meta-analysis of previously published studies in the February issue of Archives of Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Researchers have discovered a strain of bacteria resistant to all approved drugs used to fight ear infections in children, according to an article to be published tomorrow in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). A pair of pediatricians discovered the strain because it is their standard practice to perform an uncommon procedure called tympanocentesis (ear tap) on children when several antibiotics fail to clear up their ear infections.

A vaccine has been shown to help reduce the number of infants and toddlers developing frequent ear infections, according to new research from Katherine A. Poehling, M.D., a pediatrician at Brenner Children's Hospital, part of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. Results from her study are published in the April issue of Pediatrics.

St. Jude study success in using virus enzyme to treat mouse model of acute otitis media suggests that nasal spray could prevent both ear infection and pneumonia in people with influenza