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Avian flu pandemic a very real threat

A new influenza pandemic is being seen by experts as the most significant global public health emergency caused by a naturally occurring pathogen.

2 May 2005

Judge calls GlaxoSmithKline 'high-handed' over legal action from Biota

A Supreme Court judge in Melbourne, Australia has described as "high-handed" the delay by global pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in filing a defence against legal action from Biota Holdings last Friday.

1 May 2005

Respiratory syncytial virus affects the elderly and high-risk adults as much as influenza

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), primarily seen as a cause of illness in infants and children, often affects the elderly and high-risk adults as much as influenza, a study by University of Rochester Medical Center researchers demonstrates.

27 Apr 2005

Promising new West Nile therapy cures disease in mice

West Nile virus alarmed Americans when it made its first U.S. appearance in New York City in 1999. It has since spread from coast to coast, sickened more than 16,000 Americans and killed more than 600.

27 Apr 2005

Generex Biotechnology receives Australian patent for vaccine technology to fight cancer and pandemic influenza

Generex Biotechnology announced today that its wholly owned subsidiary, Antigen Express, has received Australian Patent No. 778115 titled "Hybrid Peptides Modulate the Immune Response." Antigen Express is designing and testing such vaccine peptides for the control of cancer and infectious diseases with a particular focus on the pandemic H5N1 influenza, which has been reported in South East Asia.

26 Apr 2005

Antibody for West Nile virus shows promise

Researchers have developed an antibody that can cure mice of West Nile virus (WNV) infection, a disease for which no specific treatment exists, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has announced.

25 Apr 2005

Birdflu outbreak in Korea contained

Drastic action which has included the culling of nearly 220,000 infected chickens, the vaccination of others and strict biosecurity measures, has successfully contained the recent outbreak of bird flu in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

25 Apr 2005

H7 strain of the bird flu outbreak in North Korea contained

The recent outbreak of avian influenza in North Korea (DPRK) has been successfully contained, FAO said today, urging the country to continue surveillance on the affected farms and elsewhere to ensure that no residual infection remains.

25 Apr 2005

UK plan for influenza pandemic

The HPA Influenza Pandemic Contingency Plan outlines the Health Protection Agency’s plan for responding to an influenza pandemic. It replaces the Public Health Laboratory Service Pandemic Influenza Plan of July 2001.

23 Apr 2005

Health officials urge precautions after confirming year’s first case of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome

The Arizona Department of Health Services is urging the public to take appropriate precautions when living or working in rodent infested areas, following the confirmation of the state’s first case of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS) in 2005.

23 Apr 2005

Almost all killer flu bug kits destroyed

99 percent of the kits containing a killer flu bug that mistakenly ended up in thousands of laboratories around the world, sparking fears of a pandemic, have been destroyed, according to top U.S. health official Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

22 Apr 2005

Missing samples of deadly flu strain now found

World Health Organization (WHO) officials say that all but one of the deadly flu virus samples mistakenly sent to labs outside the United States have been destroyed.

20 Apr 2005

Concern over H2N2 freeze-dried powder being available over the Internet

The World Health Organization fears that a global pandemic could occur should the H2N2 virus, the "Asian flu" strain of 1957, be unwittingly released, the virus which was mistakenly included in routine test kits and sent to 61 laboratories in 18 countries outside the United States.

19 Apr 2005

Scientists reveal the shape of a protein that helps retroviruses break into cells

Retroviruses are among the trickier and more malicious disease agents, causing AIDS and cancers such as leukemia. The viruses manage to sneak into cells with the help of special protein assemblies scattered all over their surfaces. These retrovirus surface proteins cause the membrane envelope of the virus to fuse with the membrane of the cell, spilling virus RNA into the cell to wreak damage.

13 Apr 2005