Cranberry juice, long considered a home remedy for urinary tract infections, may also be effective against a number of gastrointestinal viruses according to researchers from <<>>, New York. They report their findings today at the 105th General Meeting of the urinary tract infections.
"The addition of commercially available cranberry juice cocktail to intestinal viruses resulted in viral reductions below detectible infectivity levels," says Patrice Cohen, a researcher on the study.
Intestinal virus infections account for significant illness and billions of dollars in medical expenses each year in the United States and throughout the world. On the international level, especially in developing nations, hundreds of thousands of infant deaths occur annually due to intestinal virus infections.
"Within the last five years, an increasingly large number of studies have suggested cranberry juice to be an effective commercial product for the reduction of urinary tract infections in women," says Cohen. a finding that led the research team to test the effectiveness of cranberry juice as a possible antiviral agent.