Virology News and Research

Latest Virology News and Research

Scientists have discovered the mechanism that enables some CD4 T cells - the main target of HIV - to thwart the virus

The discovery, reported on April 13 in the online version of Nature, could open the door to an entirely new strategy for preventing the spread of HIV infection in the body's cells, according to the senior author of the study, Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology Director Warner C. Greene, MD, PhD.

13 Apr 2005

Rates of cervical cancer could jump fourfold to a million a year by 2050

Deaths from cervical cancer could jump fourfold to a million a year by 2050, mainly in developing countries. This could be prevented by soon-to-be-approved vaccines against the virus that causes most cases of cervical cancer- but there are signs that opposition to the vaccines might lead to many preventable deaths. The trouble is that the human papilloma virus (HPV) is sexually transmitted.

13 Apr 2005

Marburg outbreak - experts struggling to get message across

Disease experts in Angola say it will be weeks before it is determined whether the on-going Marburg crisis can be averted in Angola where the disease has already killed at least 194 people.

12 Apr 2005

New medical uses for the Kunjin virus

Queensland Government scientists at the Department of Health Services have collaborated with scientists at the University of Queensland (UQ) and The Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR) to discover new medical uses for the Kunjin virus.

12 Apr 2005

Vaccine against the virus that causes cervical cancer and genital warts shows promise

A vaccine against the virus that causes cervical cancer and genital warts could reduce persistent infection and disease by 90%, suggest the results of a randomised trial published online by The Lancet Oncology.

12 Apr 2005

Locals resist efforts to control the worst ever outbreak of Marburg

The World Health Organisation (WHO) have sent communications experts into Uige, the epicentre of the outbreak of Marburg epidemic to help Health experts in the fight to contain and eradicate the killer virus. It is hoped they will send a clear message to Angolans to take the necessary measures to fight the virus.

12 Apr 2005

South Africa protects itself against Marburg virus

The Marburg virus has already killed 193 people since the outbreak began in northern Angola in October and now South Africa is taking precautions to prevent the spread of the Marburg virus into the country.

11 Apr 2005

HIV treatment-experienced patients set high standards for therapy success

Patients who have previously failed at least two anti-HIV regimens continue to have high standards for their treatment success, according to a survey commissioned by the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR).

11 Apr 2005

Now revealed that Salk polio vaccine was a team effort

The cure for polio came as a result of the collaboration between Thomas Francis Jr. and Jonas Salk.

10 Apr 2005

Panel in US disputes drug trial allegations

Medical experts have been forced to defend a study conducted in Uganda and called HIVNET 012 that led to the widespread use of a single AIDS drug called nevirapine to protect newborns, after allegations by Dr. Jonathan Fishbein, a National Institutes of Health researcher, that the research was flawed and the conclusions were unfounded.

10 Apr 2005

UAB reaction to Lancet study on human papilloma virus (HPV)

The prominent British medical journal Lancet published results of a clinical trial on a vaccine for human papilloma virus (HPV) The virus is a leading cause of cervical cancer and genital warts.

10 Apr 2005

Test of new HIV drug

A study under way at UAB aims to determine whether the first of a new class of HIV drugs is safe and effective in preventing the virus from entering healthy cells.

10 Apr 2005

Attacks on WHO staff - progress on Marburg epidemic halted

The World Health Organization (WHO) has suspended its efforts to contain the outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus in Angola, in the northern province of Uige, after staff in their mobile surveillance vehicles have been attacked.

10 Apr 2005

US agencies work together to prevent disease spreading through air travel

In an attempt to prevent the spread of infectious diseases or other deadly agents aboard commercial aircraft, U.S. government health agencies, airlines and aviation regulators plan to work together, federal officials said this week.

7 Apr 2005

Race to market cancer vaccine

In a race to market the first vaccine against the virus that causes cervical cancer and genital warts drug manufacturers Merck & Co Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline plc are in head-to-head competition.

7 Apr 2005

Experts available for comment on controversy over a nevirapine

The controversy over a nevirapine clinical trial conducted in the late 1990s threatens to limit the use of a drug that has saved hundreds of thousands of babies in the developing world from HIV infection, according to experts from the HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA) of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA).

7 Apr 2005

Oncolytic viruses may one day help treat brain tumors

New research shows that a virus designed to kill cancer cells can significantly increase the survival of mice with an incurable human brain tumor, even in some animals with advanced disease.

7 Apr 2005

Fibril shape is the basis of prion strains and cross-species prion infection

New research on prions, the infectious proteins behind "mad cow" disease and Creutzfeld-Jakob disease in humans, suggests that the ability of prions in one species to infect other species depends on the shape of the toxic threadlike fibers produced by the prion. Two studies on the topic appear in the 8 April issue of the journal Cell.

7 Apr 2005

Epstein-Barr virus may increase risk of lupus

Almost everyone has been infected with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), a member of the herpes family and one of the most common human viruses.

7 Apr 2005

Vaccine against cervical cancer and genital warts looks hopeful

More than two thirds of sexually active women will become infected with human papillomavirus (HPV) during their lifetime. HPV causes around 470 000 cases of cervical cancer each year and even though most cases of cervical cancer occur in the developing world, where cervical screening programmes are in the main non-existent, in Europe and the US 35000 women die from the disease every year.

6 Apr 2005