Virus News and Research

Latest Virus News and Research

Adelaide man guilty of deliberately spreading HIV

An Adelaide man, Stuart McDonald, 43, has been accused of deliberately infecting his sexual partners with HIV. He has been found guilty of two counts of endangering life.

14 Dec 2010

DARPA awards Pulmatrix $5.7 million grant to advance iCALM therapies

Pulmatrix, a clinical stage biotechnology company discovering and developing a new class of therapies for the prevention, treatment and control of respiratory diseases, today announced that it has been awarded a grant for $5.7 million from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a component of the Department of Defense (DOD), focused on identifying and advancing novel technologies to support defense of our nation's soldiers and civilian population.

14 Dec 2010

Pharmasset initiates dosing in PSI-7977 exploratory study in HCV

Pharmasset, Inc. announced today that dosing has begun in an exploratory study of PSI-7977, a nucleotide analog polymerase inhibitor, for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C (HCV). The trial will evaluate PSI-7977 400mg QD in combination with ribavirin (RBV), with 0, 4, 8, or 12 weeks of pegylated interferon alfa 2a (Peg-IFN) in treatment-naive patients infected with HCV genotype 2 or 3.

14 Dec 2010

Scientists discover new way in which HPV triggers cancer

University of Manchester scientists have discovered for the first time an important new way in which the human papilloma virus (HPV) triggers cancer in what could lead to new treatments for cervical and mouth cancer.

14 Dec 2010

Myths and misunderstandings about medical male circumcision for HIV prevention

A new report from the Women's HIV Prevention Tracking Project (WHiPT), a collaborative initiative of AVAC and the ATHENA Network, features an unprecedented collection of voices from Kenya, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and Uganda reflecting on what male circumcision for HIV prevention means for women. It highlights women's perspectives, advocacy priorities and recommendations on this new prevention strategy.

14 Dec 2010

New theory explains spread of infectious diseases

New research using human-networking theory may give a clearer picture of just how, exactly, infectious diseases such as the common cold, influenza, whooping cough and SARS can spread through a closed group of people, and even through populations at large.

14 Dec 2010

Chimerix reports positive results from CMX157 Phase 1 clinical trial for HIV

Chimerix, Inc., a pharmaceutical company developing orally-available antiviral therapeutics, today announced first-in-human Phase 1 clinical trial results for CMX157 demonstrating a favorable safety, tolerability and drug distribution profile.

14 Dec 2010

Clinical trail shows 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine safe and effective in asthma patients

Results from a government-sponsored clinical trial of inactivated 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine in people with asthma indicate that a single dose of vaccine was safe and induced a strong immune response predictive of protection.

14 Dec 2010

Go Daddy gifts $500,000 to Southwest Center for HIV/AIDS to launch Women's Health Center in Phoenix

Southwest Center for HIV/AIDS received $500,000 from Go Daddy to launch the Go Daddy Women's Health Center in Phoenix. The gift was announced by Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons at the company's annual holiday event held Saturday, December 11 at Chase Field in Phoenix. Parsons presented a 'big check' to Carol Poore, President and CEO, Southwest Center for HIV/AIDS.

14 Dec 2010

Mouse study shows flu virus infection may protect against asthma

In a paper that suggests a new strategy to prevent asthma, scientists at Children's Hospital Boston and their colleagues report that the influenza virus infection in young mice protected the mice as adults against the development of allergic asthma.

14 Dec 2010

Top-line results from Inhibitex's FV-100 Phase II clinical trial for treatment of shingles

Inhibitex, Inc. today reported top-line safety and efficacy data from its Phase II clinical trial of FV-100, an oral antiviral compound being developed to treat herpes zoster, more commonly referred to as shingles. The study was the first clinical trial to assess the antiviral activity of FV-100, included 350 shingles patients and compared two once-daily doses of FV-100 (200 mg and 400 mg) to an active control, valacyclovir, one of the most commonly-used antiviral drugs to treat shingles.

14 Dec 2010

PREZISTA/ritonavir once-daily dosing for HIV-1 receives FDA approval for treatment in no DRV RAM adults

Tibotec Therapeutics, a division of Centocor Ortho Biotech Products, L.P., announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a revision to the dosing recommendation to include once-daily dosing of PREZISTA® (darunavir) tablets in combination with ritonavir for the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) in treatment-experienced adult patients with no darunavir resistance-associated mutations (DRV RAMs).

13 Dec 2010

Alzheimer’s research update

Alzheimer’s disease researchers have been working for a while with a small, sticky protein fragment, beta amyloid, that clumps into balls in the brains of patients with this degenerative neurological disease. It is a normal protein that is present in every normal brain but in Alzheimer’s it starts to accumulate into these balls or plaques. On buildup of amyloid symptoms of the disease appear.

13 Dec 2010

CEL-SCI reports net income of $10.48M for fiscal 2010 vs. $40.9M loss for fiscal 2009

CEL-SCI Corporation reported financial results today for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2010.

13 Dec 2010

First-ever Prophylactic Cancer Vaccine Conference to be held in Tempe, Arizona

World-leading scientists, ethicists, policymakers, and cancer patient advocates will gather at Arizona State University for the first-ever Prophylactic Cancer Vaccine Conference in Tempe, Ariz., March 16-18, 2011. The conference will be a premier forum to discuss the latest developments in a radical new approach to battling cancer: the development of cancer vaccines aimed at protecting healthy individuals from the disease.

13 Dec 2010

New groundbreaking research advances understanding of HIV

It is estimated that 38 million people worldwide are currently infected with HIV and that 4.1 million more are added each year. For scientists to design treatment therapies that are effective over the long-term it is essential to learn more about how the virus mutates and develops resistance to medications.

13 Dec 2010

EMEA calls for Europe-wide ban on blood donation from ME/CFS patients

The European ME Alliance (EMEA) is calling on Europe's health ministers to initiate an immediate Europe-wide prohibition of blood donation from people who have been diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS).

13 Dec 2010

Young gay men taking risks - raising HIV transmission

A new study on HIV transmission in Australia reveals an alarming culture shift in which younger gay men appear more willing to take sexual risks and so become infected with the virus earlier. When comparing older men who have sex with men (MSM) with those aged under 35, the younger ones were found to be more likely to have never previously been tested for HIV and more likely to report not knowing the HIV status of regular partners. These men commonly reported inconsistent condom use with casual and regular partners.

12 Dec 2010

GeoVax's phase 2a trial results indicate excellent safety profile for HIV vaccine

GeoVax Labs, Inc., announced today that early results from part A of an ongoing phase 2a clinical trial indicate an excellent safety profile and highly reproducible immunogenicity.

10 Dec 2010

News outlets report on polio outbreaks in Central, East Africa

"Bad immunisation strategy has been blamed for an outbreak of polio, which has killed nearly 200 and is believed to have caused paralysis in more than 2,000 others across Angola, Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo," the Mail & Guardian writes in a story examining the emergence of the disease in the three countries and efforts to control it.

10 Dec 2010