Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome News and Research

Latest Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome News and Research

Outbreaks of infectious diseases offer lessons for critical care providers

Outbreaks of infectious diseases, such as Ebola in West Africa, offer insight for how healthcare professionals can respond more effectively to current and future challenges, according to editors of the American Journal of Critical Care.

5 Jan 2015

Identifying infections rapidly: an interview with Dr. David J. Ecker

Current methods for diagnosing infectious diseases are based on the 150-year-old culture method, where physicians collect a sample of a patient’s tissue, such as blood, mucus or urine, and transfer it onto media bottle to allow the pathogens to grow.

From Abbott Diagnostics 20 Oct 2014

Novel virus could be source of severe respiratory disease in ball pythons

Researchers have identified a novel virus that could be the source of a severe, sometimes fatal respiratory disease that has been observed in captive ball pythons since the 1990s. The work is published this week in mBio-, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

9 Sep 2014

MERS virus can be transmitted from camel to man

A report published yesterday provided the first solid evidence that the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus (MERS-cov) can be contracted by man through close contact with an infected camel.

9 Jun 2014

Upstream interventions may provide options to contain emerging pathogens at source

While many endemic infectious diseases of humans have been largely contained, new microbes continue to emerge to threaten human and animal health.

18 Feb 2014

Scientists provide insight into emergence of inter-species transmittable viruses

Outbreaks such as the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS) have afflicted people around the world, yet many people think these trends are on the decline.

13 Aug 2013

Saudi and UK scientists provide detailed picture of MERS coronavirus

Saudi and UK scientists provide the most detailed picture yet of the clinical and laboratory characteristics of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus, revealing a wide range of clinical symptoms and an extremely high death rate among patients with co-existing medical conditions.

29 Jul 2013

McMaster University researchers identify three factors that influence pandemic influenza

Three waves of the deadliest influenza pandemic in history, known as the Spanish flu, hit England and Wales in 1918, just as World War 1 was coming to an end.

10 Jul 2013

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus currently unlikely to cause a pandemic, finds study

New estimates of the transmissibility of the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in humans suggest that it does not yet have pandemic potential, according to research published in The Lancet.

9 Jul 2013

Study describes radiologic findings in H7N9 pneumonia

H7N9 pneumonia is characterized by imaging findings that differentiate it from other types of pneumonia, including rapidly progressive changes in the lungs and pulmonary connective tissues, according to the first study to describe radiologic findings in the disease. The results are published online in the journal Radiology.

2 Jul 2013

Coronavirus incubation period may be longer than previously thought

A detailed clinical description of two cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in France, published online in The Lancet today, suggests that the incubation period for the virus may be longer than previously thought, and longer quarantine periods may be required to rule out infection among patient contacts.

29 May 2013

Five more die of SARS-like disease in Saudi Arabia

"Saudi Arabia said five more people have died of a deadly new virus from the same family as SARS, and two other people were in intensive care," Reuters reports.

3 May 2013

Nature editorial, opinion piece address H7N9 virus

The journal Nature published an editorial and opinion piece on the emergence of the H7N9 avian influenza strain.

26 Apr 2013

World must be better prepared for potential pandemics

"In China an influenza virus never before seen in people had, as The Economist went to press, infected at least 82 and killed 17. Meanwhile a new type of coronavirus, the family that brought severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), is festering in the Middle East," an editorial in the magazine states.

23 Apr 2013

GeneCapture developing new device with one-hour pathogen testing capabilities

A company hatched as a partnership between The University of Alabama in Huntsville and chemical engineering professor Dr. Krishnan Chittur is in the design phase for a device that can provide physicians one-hour pathogen testing capabilities.

23 Apr 2013

U.S., Chinese researchers developing vaccine for H7N9 avian flu virus; Some question speed of case reporting

"Less than two weeks after Chinese officials released the genetic sequence of a new type of bird flu [H7N9], U.S. vaccine experts are well on the way to making a vaccine to protect people against it," NBC News's "Vitals" blog reports (Fox, 4/10).

12 Apr 2013

WHO reports 9th death from new SARS-like virus

"A Saudi man infected with a deadly new virus from the same family as SARS has died, becoming the ninth patient in the world to be killed by the disease which has so far infected 15, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday," Reuters reports.

14 Mar 2013

Immunotherapy could be answer to treating novel coronavirus

Investigation into the mechanism of action of the novelcoronavirus HCoV-EMC, which recently emerged in the Middle East, has revealed that although human bronchial epithelia are very susceptible to infection with the virus, interferon I and III were both able to significantly reduce its replication in cell culture.

20 Feb 2013

WHO assists Middle East authorities with coronavirus investigation

The World Health Organization has sent a team to Jordan at the request of the country’s Ministry of Health to help investigate the emergence of a novel coronavirus that resulted in the deaths of two people earlier this year, and to assist with further epidemiologic surveillance.

5 Dec 2012

UC Davis professor monitors world's hot spots for signs of emerging diseases

It's not a matter of if a worldwide pandemic will strike but when, say experts like veterinarian and epidemiologist Jonna Mazet, a professor in the Department of Medicine and Epidemiology in the University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine. That's why Mazet, who leads an early warning pandemic system called PREDICT, monitors the world's hot spots, or "hot interfaces" for signs of emerging diseases.

21 Dec 2011