Virology News and Research

Latest Virology News and Research

Blackflies infected with Onchocerca volvulus parasite may spread nodding syndrome

Despite decades of research, scientists have yet to pinpoint the exact cause of nodding syndrome (NS), a disabling disease affecting African children. A new report suggests that blackflies infected with the parasite Onchocerca volvulus may be capable of passing on a secondary pathogen that is to blame for the spread of the disease. New research is presented in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases.

3 Oct 2014

Genetic history of HIV finally unravelled

Research, published today, shows that the HIV pandemic almost certainly began its global spread in the 1920s in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

3 Oct 2014

Viewpoints: Another troubled website rollout; insurers fight consumer measures in Calif.

If the federal government's new Open Payments website were a consumer product, it would be returned to the manufacturer for a full refund. Open Payments is the government's site for publishing payments made to doctors and teaching hospitals by drug and medical device manufacturers. It includes 4.4 million payments, worth $3.5 billion, to more than half a million doctors and almost 1,360 teaching hospitals (Charles Ornstein, 10/1).

3 Oct 2014

UPM researchers find way to enhance detection of rotavirus

Researchers at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid have found a way to enhance detection capacity of small concentrations of rotavirus. All this thanks to a new way to assess the biosensing response applied to an interferometric device.

3 Oct 2014

BIDMC receives $20 million grant to evaluate, test monoclonal antibodies for HIV treatment

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has received a four-year, $20 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to evaluate and test broadly neutralizing monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of HIV.

3 Oct 2014

First Ebola case slipped through hospital cracks

Doctors at the Texas hospital that initially treated the man who visited West Africa and contracted the disease sent him home with antibiotics after a lapse in communication. The miss is drawing scrutiny of the U.S.'s readiness to handle an outbreak.

3 Oct 2014

Family physician answers questions related to Ebola virus

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the outbreak of Ebola in four West African countries is one of the largest outbreaks of the disease in history.

1 Oct 2014

First U.S. case of Ebola diagnosed in Texas

The patient, who reportedly took a Sept. 20 commercial flight from Liberia to Dallas, represents the first case in the current outbreak diagnosed outside of Africa.

1 Oct 2014

Viewpoints: Mergers causing health costs to rise; reauthorize CHIP; Obamacare's influence on politics

Health care costs are going up, and there's a lot of debate about why. Is it the high cost of drugs or our aging population?

1 Oct 2014

Rapid and coordinated response helps control Ebola outbreak in Nigeria

The Ebola outbreak in Nigeria appears to be nearing a possible end thanks to a rapid response coordinated by Nigeria's Emergency Operations Center with assistance from international partners, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

1 Oct 2014

Mymetics' innovative HIV vaccine candidate to enter new preclinical trial

Mymetics Corporation, a pioneer in the research and development of virosome-based vaccines to prevent transmission of human infectious diseases across mucosal membranes, announced today that its innovative HIV vaccine candidate will enter a new preclinical trial to confirm excellent results obtained in a previous trial.

30 Sep 2014

Gut microbe in patients may tip doctors about SCID

Many people recognize "the bubble boy" as an unusual character from a "Seinfeld" episode or a John Travolta movie.

30 Sep 2014

Rwanda is Ebola free, says Ministry of Health

The Ministry of Health would like to inform Rwandans and all visitors to Rwanda that Rwanda is Ebola free. The lab results of the patient who was reported in the media this past week were negative for the Ebola Virus Disease.

30 Sep 2014

Johnson & Johnson inks definitive deal to acquire Alios BioPharma

Johnson & Johnson today announced a definitive agreement to acquire Alios BioPharma, Inc., a privately held clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing therapies for viral diseases, for approximately $1.75 billion in cash.

30 Sep 2014

Luminex gets FDA approval to add three new targets to xTAG Gastrointestinal Pathogen Panel

Luminex Corporation today announced it has received U.S. FDA clearance to add three new targets to its xTAG Gastrointestinal Pathogen Panel (GPP). The targets include Adenovirus 40/41, Entamoeba histolytica and Vibrio cholerae.

From Luminex 30 Sep 2014

Bridgestone Group to donate $1M to combat Ebola outbreak in Liberia

The Bridgestone Group (Bridgestone) today announced it will donate one million dollars (USD) to critical efforts underway in Liberia and the region to combat the Ebola outbreak.

30 Sep 2014

New approach to solve global challenges in food security, emerging diseases and biodiversity loss

Solving global challenges in food security, emerging diseases and biodiversity loss requires evolutionary thinking, argues a new study published online in Science Express that was co-authored by Bruce Tabashnik of the University of Arizona College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

30 Sep 2014

Protein Sciences releases Flublok influenza vaccine for the 2014/2015 season

Protein Sciences Corporation, manufacturer of the revolutionary Flublok influenza vaccine, announced today that doses of the vaccine have been released and are now available for shipment.

29 Sep 2014

Early detection of cancers on the horizon with supersensitive nanodevice

Extremely early detection of cancers and other diseases is on the horizon with a supersensitive nanodevice being developed at The University of Alabama in Huntsville in collaboration with The Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering in Greensboro, NC.

29 Sep 2014

Study correlates HPV vaccine series completion among young US women

According to a recent study in the journal Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics, only 60% of young US women who received the first dose of the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine went on to complete the three-dose vaccine series.

29 Sep 2014