Virus News and Research

Latest Virus News and Research

Common sense prevails as Brits say one dead swan is not a pandemic

According to a government health adviser, a bird flu pandemic among humans could kill 100,000 children in Britain.

10 Apr 2006

Expert says no bird flu in British poultry

Despite the discovery of a dead swan infected with bird flu in Scotland panic has abated over the possibility of a widespread outbreak of bird flu in the UK.

10 Apr 2006

Discovery of virus implicated in genetics of prostate cancer

The Open Access journal PLoS Pathogens has published an article detailing research that identifies a new retrovirus in the tissue of human prostate tumors.

10 Apr 2006

Cognitive impairment in people with AIDS exists in two forms

The researchers say their findings indicate there probably are two separate mechanisms that can cause cognitive impairment in people with AIDS.

10 Apr 2006

New approach to treating hepatitis C virus

Last year Peter Sarnow, PhD, professor of microbiology and immunology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, identified a previously unknown mechanism that the hepatitis C virus uses to replicate, yielding a promising new approach to combating the disease-causing virus.

10 Apr 2006

Discovery of new human retrovirus

Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers and their colleagues have discovered a new retrovirus in humans that is closely related to a cancer-causing virus found in mice. Their findings describe the first documented cases of human infection with a retrovirus that is native to rodents.

10 Apr 2006

Mass spectrometry could aid biodefense in rapidly detecting dangerous pathogens

Scientists have used mass spectrometry for decades to determine the chemical composition of samples but rarely has it been used to identify viruses, and never in complex environmental samples.

10 Apr 2006

Ceftriaxone may help fight dementia in HIV patients

An antibiotic commonly used to treat a variety of serious infections may also help prevent dementia in HIV patients, according to a test-tube study of human brain cells by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine neurologist Jeffrey Rumbaugh, M.D., Ph.D.

7 Apr 2006

New therapy proven to be effective in the treatment of MRS

Cosmetic considerations and a perceived lack of patent opportunities could be stopping the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries from investing in the development of a new therapy proven to be effective in the treatment of MRSA.

6 Apr 2006

Cervical cancer vaccine gives women 4 years protection

Researchers say a vaccine that protects women against a virus that causes cervical cancer is effective for more than four years.

6 Apr 2006

Brits find first case of bird flu in a dead swan

Government officials in Britain say a dead swan found in Cellardyke, Scotland, has a strain of the H5 bird flu virus.

5 Apr 2006

Expert says cats may spread bird flu to humans

The rapid spread of H5N1 bird flu across Europe and the Middle East in the last month and the re-emergence of the virus in Asia, has further ignited fears that the deadly virus will mutate and cause the pandemic everyone fears.

5 Apr 2006

China asked to spread the word about bird flu

David Nabarro the United Nation's top official on bird flu has urged China to share its experience with other countries on how to tackle the disease threatening to become a pandemic.

5 Apr 2006

Bush's AIDS prevention policy doing more harm than good

According to a new report issued by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the U.S. approach to AIDS prevention is essentially unworkable.

5 Apr 2006

Bird flu pandemic supercomputer simulation model

Using supercomputers to respond to a potential national health emergency, scientists have developed a simulation model that makes stark predictions about the possible future course of an avian influenza pandemic, given today's environment of worldwide connectivity.

4 Apr 2006

Cancer virus protein p13 needed for successful infection and reproduction

New research shows that a protein made by a cancer-causing virus that was thought to be unimportant for its replication is in fact critically needed by the virus to initiate an infection and to reproduce.

4 Apr 2006

Radiofrequency ablation is as effective as surgery for small liver tumors

Three-year data shows that radiofrequency ablation is as effective as surgical resection for overall survival and tumor recurrence, for the treatment of single small hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with liver cirrhosis, according to a study presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology's 31st Annual Scientific Meeting.

4 Apr 2006

Caudal raphe or the hypoglossal nucleus or both together play roles in sleep apnea

The neural pathways between two areas of the brain that control the tongue -- and their interactions with each other -- may hold the key as to why men suffer sleep apnea much more than women.

4 Apr 2006

Multi-site vaccinations could protect against all four dengue viruses

An innovative new study explains, for the first time, the failure of previous attempts to vaccinate against the four known Dengue viruses, and it suggests a very simple solution - injecting the four vaccines simultaneously at different locations on the body.

4 Apr 2006

New clinical trial to test different strengths of a vaccine designed to fight avian influenza

The Duke study is part of a multicenter trial that will test a modified form of an investigational bird flu vaccine to determine whether the vaccine still triggers a strong immune response at lower doses.

4 Apr 2006