SARS News and Research

RSS

New study explores how social contact patterns influence growth of epidemics

The first-ever long-term study of patterns of social contact in Hong Kong will improve our knowledge of the growth of epidemics say researchers.

6 Feb 2018

Scientists discover promising new target to fight a class of viruses

Scientists at the Morgridge Institute for Research have discovered a promising new target to fight a class of viruses responsible for health threats such as Zika, polio, dengue, SARS and hepatitis C.

25 Jan 2018

Study provides insight into adaptive evolution of common cold viruses

Common cold season is back, which has people wondering why we catch the same virus, year after year. Why don't we ever develop immunity against the common cold? Professor Pierre Talbot at INRS has known about the incredible variability of coronaviruses for some time.

28 Nov 2017

Scientists harness power of machine learning to predict zoonotic disease outbreaks

Through a new $2 million National Science Foundation grant, scientists at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, the University of Georgia, and North Carolina A&T State University are harnessing the power of machine learning to forecast outbreaks of zoonotic disease.

9 Nov 2017

Northumbria researcher develops new, faster and safer way to diagnose Ebola virus

A new, faster and safer way of diagnosing the Ebola virus has been developed by an academic from Northumbria University, Newcastle.

28 Sep 2017

USC scientist finds new approach to prevent HIV infection

Medical treatment that targets human proteins rather than ever-mutating viruses may one day help HIV-positive people whose bodies have built a resistance to "cocktails" currently used to keep them healthy, according to a Keck School of Medicine of USC researcher.

23 Aug 2017

New research helps unravel ecological interplay of African bat, novel virus and a parasite

If there is anything scientists are certain of when it comes to bats and their supposed role in causing human disease, it is that they still have a lot to learn.

13 Jul 2017

New antiviral drug candidate effective against broad range of coronaviruses

A new antiviral drug candidate inhibits a broad range of coronaviruses, including the SARS and MERS coronaviruses, a multi-institutional team of investigators reports this week in Science Translational Medicine.

29 Jun 2017

Morgridge researchers reveal complex viral replication process in unprecedented detail

In the fight against the viruses that invade everyday life, seeing and understanding the battleground is essential. Scientists at the Morgridge Institute for Research have, for the first time, imaged molecular structures vital to how a major class of viruses replicates within infected cells.

27 Jun 2017

Which animal is most likely to spread the latest plague?

There are a large number of infections that are borne and carried by animals and spread to humans. These are called zoonotic diseases wherein the microbe or pathogen jumps from one species of the animals to another. Now a new study has ranked mammals based on the risk they pose to humans in terms of spreading infectious diseases to humans.

22 Jun 2017

New anti-viral tool could become game-changer in the fight against MERS

In June 2012, a 60 year-old man with flu-like symptoms walked into a private hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Two weeks later, he died from multiple organ failure, becoming the first victim of a mysterious virus that came to be known as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome or MERS.

19 May 2017

New study reports long-term infectious disease trends in China after SARS outbreak

Following the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003, China stepped up its prevention and control methods for all infectious diseases, and rates of infection have levelled off since 2009.

19 Apr 2017

Innovate UK funds new, economic vaccine to halt spread of 'zoonotic' infectious diseases

A team of international scientists led by Dr. Michael Jarvis at the University of Plymouth has received funding in excess of £408,000 from Innovate UK to develop a new and economic vaccine designed to halt the spread of highly pathogenic 'zoonotic' (spreading from animals to humans) infectious diseases.

18 Apr 2017

Researchers find new evidence to support structure-based classification system for viruses

Professor Robert Sinclair at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University and Professor Dennis Bamford and Dr. Janne Ravantti from the University of Helsinki have found new evidence to support a classification system for viruses based on viral structure.

23 Feb 2017

New computer model recommends intervention strategies to mitigate pandemics

The 2016 Zika virus outbreak, along with recent outbreaks of SARS, bird flu, H1N1 and Ebola, underscore the importance of being prepared for and responding quickly to infectious diseases. Zika, in particular, poses unique challenges, since its associated birth defects and lack of preventive treatment currently threaten over 60 countries.

17 Feb 2017

Johns Hopkins researchers uncover mechanism in chikungunya virus that controls disease severity

Researchers led by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have identified a mechanism by which the chikungunya virus infects healthy cells and controls how severe the disease it causes will be, a mechanism they believe can be found in a number of other related viruses for which there are no treatments or licensed vaccines.

31 Jan 2017

Scientists discover critical role of biological molecule in protecting against infection

Scientists have discovered that a biological molecule important in cell growth (STAT3) is also critical in protecting us against infection - so much so that we would be unable to fight the common flu virus without it.

26 Jan 2017

Researcher develops innovative way to turn common surgical masks into virus killers

A University of Alberta engineering researcher has developed a new way to treat common surgical masks so they are capable of trapping and killing airborne viruses.

6 Jan 2017

New database of PCR primers enables effective detection and identification of RNA viruses

Scientists at Korea's Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology scientists have compiled a comprehensive new public database of genetic information to enable the detection and identification of RNA viruses using the polymerase chain reaction assay.

28 Dec 2016

Research finds no link between mouth and anus with embryonic blastopore

Animals often form either the mouth or the anus from an opening that appears in the early embryo, which is called the blastopore.

20 Dec 2016