Virus News and Research

Latest Virus News and Research

Coalition drive to eradicate polio from Horn of Africa

Countries in the Horn of Africa are increasing their level of planning, coordination and streamlining their polio eradication strategies to cut the corridor of transmission of the poliovirus.

11 Sep 2006

Trial shows H5N1 vaccine safe and effective

A vaccine in development against the H5N1 influenza virus can produce a safe immune response in healthy people at low doses, according to an article published by The Lancet.

7 Sep 2006

Please go Tshabalala-Msimang!

HIV/AIDS advocates and scientists, including a U.S. Nobel laureate, on Tuesday in a letter to South African President Thabo Mbeki called for Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang to step down and protested the government's response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the Wall Street Journal reports.

7 Sep 2006

HIV needs human protein - potential therapy target

Mayo Clinic virologists have discovered that a specific human protein is essential for HIV to integrate into the human genome.

7 Sep 2006

China appears to have beaten the world to a bird flu vaccine

Scientists in China have developed a potential vaccine against the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus currently sweeping across Asia.

7 Sep 2006

Fewer deaths from cancer in the U.S.

According to a new report fewer Americans are dying of cancer even though the rates of new cancers remains the same.

7 Sep 2006

GPS the latest tool in fight against avian influenza

Wearing light solar-powered GPS satellite transmitters, wild swans from Mongolia are winging their way across Eurasia, while land-bound scientists tracking the birds' journeys on computers say that these unique studies will shed light on how wild birds may be involved in the spread of avian influenza.

6 Sep 2006

Libyan retrial of foreign medics stalls yet again

The retrial of six foreign medics accused of infecting hundreds of Libyan children with the virus that causes AIDS has been adjourned yet again until September 12th.

6 Sep 2006

H5 and N1 avian influenza found in Pennsylvania wild bird samples

The U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Interior today announced that the presence of the H5 and N1 avian influenza subtypes in samples from wild mallard ducks in Pennsylvania.

5 Sep 2006

Iraqis allegedly infected with HIV in 1980s through contaminated blood products file civil lawsuit

Three groups in Iraq -- including about 35 Iraqis who allegedly contracted HIV through contaminated blood products in the 1980s -- have filed a civil lawsuit against the country's Ministry of Health and two companies that sold blood products, the New York Times reports.

5 Sep 2006

India primarily to promote condom use in HIV prevention programs

India primarily will promote condoms to prevent HIV transmission as part of the government's five-year, $2.5 billion HIV/AIDS initiative, Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said recently, Bloomberg News reports.

5 Sep 2006

Namibia launches HIV/AIDS information booklet in Braille

Namibia on Tuesday launched an information booklet on HIV/AIDS in Braille in an effort to reach blind and visually impaired people, Namibia's New Era reports.

5 Sep 2006

Messy nappies may be sign of severe intestinal infection

Anyone who's ever cared for an infant or young child knows what it's like to change the occasional smelly, messy diaper.

5 Sep 2006

New map for human genome expression

ExonHit Therapeutics has announced the completion of a new messenger RNA (transcripts) map coming from human genome expression.

5 Sep 2006

Bird flu flys into Egypt again

Four new cases of bird flu have been detected in poultry in Egypt, after a two month infection free period.

5 Sep 2006

Indian woman infected with HIV forced to abort her own baby

According to officials in India, a pregnant HIV-positive woman was forced to abort her own foetus after doctors and nurses in the government hospital in Kolkata in eastern India, shunned her and told her they would not help her undergo an abortion.

5 Sep 2006

Bird flu: a new sampling campaign is planned in Africa

Asia, Europe, Africa... The bird flu epidemic has not needed a passport to cross borders, but has almost certainly required a vector.

4 Sep 2006

Induction of potent antitumor immunity by intratumoral injection of IL-23 transduced dendritic cells

One therapy for treating brain tumors alerts the immune system to the presence of foreign material. A second therapy enhances the first and prolongs the immune system's response.

4 Sep 2006

Sanofi pasteur begins shipping influenza vaccine

Sanofi pasteur, the vaccines business of the sanofi-aventis Group, began shipping influenza vaccine (Fluzone, Influenza Virus Vaccine) to the U.S. market for the 2006-2007 season.

4 Sep 2006

Ducks in Pennsylvania found with a strain of bird flu

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has found bird flu in wild ducks in Crawford County in northwestern Pennsylvania as part of a routine sampling procedure, but the strain is apparently not the deadly H5N1 strain currently sweeping across Asia.

4 Sep 2006