Viral Disease News and Research

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Humidified air inhalation for treating croup

For decades, parents and pediatricians have relied on humid air to relieve the barking cough and noisy breathing of croup, a common childhood condition that sometimes sends worried families to the emergency room.

19 Jul 2006

New push to tackle priorities in sexual and reproductive health

Leaders of the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, are coordinating action to reverse the global trend of deteriorating levels of sexual and reproductive health and reduce the adverse impact on mothers, babies and young people.

20 Jun 2006

New era in cancer prevention

Nearly two decades ago, researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and other institutions began searching for the underlying causes of cervical cancer.

9 Jun 2006

FDA approves resumed marketing of Tysabri

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved an application for resumed marketing of Tysabri (natalizumab) subject to a special restricted distribution program.

5 Jun 2006

Robins are the vector for West Nile virus not crows

GenoMed has underscored the discovery by Connecticut scientists that robins are the vector for West Nile virus in their state, not crows.

5 Jun 2006

Hepatitis B virus prevalent among Asians in NY

Approximately 15% of Asians living in New York City are chronically infected with hepatitis B virus, according to a new study by New York University School of Medicine researchers and their colleagues.

23 May 2006

15% of Asians living in New York City are chronically infected with hepatitis B virus

Chronic hepatitis B infection usually will lead to liver inflammation and can progress to cirrhosis and liver cancer. The reported infection rate is 35 times higher than the rate in the general U.S. population.

12 May 2006

Combination of genetic mutation and viral infection may cause prostate cancer

Significant recent interest in the literature (JAMA 2006;295:1503, Lancet, epub) and by patients has arisen in response to a presentation given by Dr. Eric Klein of the Cleveland Clinic at the 2006 Prostate Cancer Symposium in San Francisco, February 24, 2006.

3 May 2006

An engineered virus that tracks down and compels cancer cells to eat themselves

An engineered virus tracks down and infects the most common and deadly form of brain cancer and then kills tumor cells by forcing them to devour themselves, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report.

3 May 2006

New study describes molecular basis of NeuroAIDS

Using multi-disciplinary analysis that included cognitive, neurophysiologic, virologic, and molecular techniques, the team found both a low-level viral infection in the brain and immune cells that had infiltrated the brain in order to protect against the virus.

3 May 2006

New insights into how anti-rejection drug daclizumab (Zenapax) helps MS patients

A research team led by the University of Cincinnati's Bibiana Bielekova, MD, report new insights into the role of the MS drug daclizumab (Zenapax) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

11 Apr 2006

New approach to treating hepatitis C virus

Last year Peter Sarnow, PhD, professor of microbiology and immunology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, identified a previously unknown mechanism that the hepatitis C virus uses to replicate, yielding a promising new approach to combating the disease-causing virus.

10 Apr 2006

Discovery of new human retrovirus

Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers and their colleagues have discovered a new retrovirus in humans that is closely related to a cancer-causing virus found in mice. Their findings describe the first documented cases of human infection with a retrovirus that is native to rodents.

10 Apr 2006

Multi-site vaccinations could protect against all four dengue viruses

An innovative new study explains, for the first time, the failure of previous attempts to vaccinate against the four known Dengue viruses, and it suggests a very simple solution - injecting the four vaccines simultaneously at different locations on the body.

4 Apr 2006

Study on fruit flies offers new approach to understand human response to viral infections

A research team led by UC Riverside scientists has shown that the common fruit fly can serve as an excellent model for studying the immunity animals are born with for fighting viral infections.

28 Mar 2006

Ocean Vesivirus found in human blood samples

A virus of ocean origin that can cause a range of diseases in several animal species has been found in human blood samples. The virus, or antibodies to it, was found most often in the blood of individuals with liver damage, or hepatitis of unknown cause related to blood exposure.

28 Mar 2006

It's 2006 and two hundred children are crippled by polio in Somalia

The World Health Organization (WHO) says that since the re-emergence of the disease in July last year, 200 children in Somalia have been paralyzed with polio.

27 Mar 2006

Factor B and H genes found to play role in the development of age-related macular degeneration

A new study, led by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center, pinpoints the role that two genes - Factor H and Factor B - play in the development of nearly three out of four cases of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a devastating eye disease that affects more than 10 million people in the United States.

7 Mar 2006

Parents lose court battle over future of gravely ill child

A high court in the UK has ruled that doctors treating a seriously ill two-year-old girl can let her die naturally.

27 Feb 2006

Purdue biologists visualize protein interaction that may initiate viral infection

Biologists at Purdue University have taken a "snapshot" of a Velcro-like protein on a cell's surface just after it attached to the dengue virus, a linkup thought to initiate the early stages of infection.

16 Feb 2006