Virus News and Research

Latest Virus News and Research

AHF unveils new national advertising campaign about AIDS drugs

AIDS Healthcare Foundation today unveiled a new national advertising campaign headlined, "There Is No Magic Pill," an advocacy and awareness campaign to educate and prompt discussion among gay men and others regarding Gilead Sciences and its likely plans to seek Food and Drug Administration approval for use of its blockbuster AIDS drug Truvada as a form a 'pre-exposure prophylaxis' to prevent HIV transmission.

10 Mar 2011

Swine flu virus may evolve into a deadlier form

In the fall of 1917, a new strain of influenza swirled around the globe. At first, it resembled a typical flu epidemic: Most deaths occurred among the elderly, while younger people recovered quickly. However, in the summer of 1918, a deadlier version of the same virus began spreading, with disastrous consequence. In total, the pandemic killed at least 50 million people - about 3 percent of the world's population at the time.

10 Mar 2011

Vertex to present telaprevir and VX-222 study results against hepatitis C at EASL annual meeting

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated announced today that 15 abstracts on the company's medicines in development for hepatitis C, including its protease inhibitor, telaprevir, and polymerase inhibitor, VX-222, were accepted for presentation at the 46th Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver in Berlin, Germany, March 30 to April 3, 2011.

9 Mar 2011

Merck to present VICTRELIS phase III study data against HCV at EASL annual meeting

Merck, known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, announced that several new data analyses from Phase III studies of VICTRELIS, its investigational oral hepatitis C protease inhibitor, will be presented at The International Liver CongressTM / 46th European Association for the Study of the Liver annual meeting.

9 Mar 2011

ITMNs can reduce Japanese Encephalitis transmission to humans

A new study revealed that using treated mosquito nets could drastically reduce the transmission of Japanese Encephalitis to humans.

9 Mar 2011

Study finds increase in oral tongue cancer incidence in young US white females

A UNC study released this week in the Journal of Clinical Oncology finds an increasing incidence of squamous cell carcinoma of the oral tongue in young white females in the United States over the last three decades.

9 Mar 2011

Study: HBV infection reduces risk of liver metastasis in CRC patients

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in Western countries. Metastatic liver disease more frequently develops metachronous metastasis following treatment of CRC.

9 Mar 2011

Roundup: Medicaid cuts coming in Pa., Kansas; Mass. insurance hikes

Come Tuesday morning, bad news will abound in the Capitol - and it will be in the billions. That is when Gov. Corbett is to unveil, at last, the closely guarded details of his first state budget to the legislature and the people of Pennsylvania.

8 Mar 2011

EHR? Not so fast - Patients express security concerns

CDW Healthcare, part of the public sector subsidiary of CDW LLC, today announced the results of a national survey on patient perceptions of electronic health records (EHRs) and the security of personal health information (PHI). The report, “Elevated Heart Rates: EHR and IT Security,” found that while patients trust their doctors to protect their information, 49 percent believe that EHRs will have a negative impact on the privacy of their PHI and health data.

8 Mar 2011

Conflicts in medical management of hemophilia

Hemophilia is a medical disorder that is part of our genetic load as humans. It will never disappear. Therefore, the only way to live with it is to receive adequate medical management. Its effects on those males who have inherited the disorder that affects their blood clotting without treatment includes recurrent hemorrhages (bleeds) into joints as well as internal bleeding. The bleeds are painful, resulting in disuse, disability and crippling. The first signs usually appear in early childhood. A child who suffers a mouth bleed can slowly lose enough blood to result in death.

8 Mar 2011

New discovery in childhood respiratory disease

Researchers have identified a critical part of the process by which one of the world's most common and dangerous early childhood infections, respiratory syncytial virus, causes disease.

8 Mar 2011

BMY to present new Phase II data on investigational hepatitis C compounds at ILC

New Phase II data on multiple Bristol-Myers Squibb Company investigational hepatitis C compounds will be presented at The International Liver Congress, the 46th annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver in Berlin, Germany, from March 30 to April 2.

8 Mar 2011

Also in global health news: EU-India talks; China's health system funding; water in Ethiopia; nonprofit offering health services abroad to sell off assets; polio in India

BMJ News Examines Ongoing EU-India Trade Talks' Impact On Access To Affordable Medicines

8 Mar 2011

New insight into multiple sclerosis

Scientists have blocked harmful immune cells from entering the brain in mice with a condition similar to multiple sclerosis.

8 Mar 2011

New clinical trial to assess antiretroviral treatment in HIV-infected individuals based on CD4 counts

A major new clinical trial seeks to determine whether HIV-infected asymptomatic individuals have less risk of developing AIDS or other serious illness if they begin taking antiretrovirals sooner rather than later, based on their level of CD4+ T-cells.

8 Mar 2011

iPrEx update, bone mineral density study highlighted at day three of 18th CROI

The 18th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections is being held at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston from February 27 through March 2. Day three of this major HIV/AIDS research conference included the following selected presentations from scientists supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health.

5 Mar 2011

HIV prevention, treatment highlighted at Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections

Today was the last day of the 18th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, a key HIV/AIDS research meeting being held at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston from February 27 through March 2. Highlighted below are selected presentations from March 2nd on research supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, both components of the National Institutes of Health.

5 Mar 2011

Grifols receives FDA approval for Alphanate to treat vCJD

Grifols, a global healthcare company and biopharmaceutical manufacturer based in Barcelona, Spain today announced that it received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for revised labeling for Alphanate Antihemophilic Factor/von Willebrand Factor Complex indicating that certain manufacturing steps have been shown to reduce the infectivity of a experimental TSE agent that is a model for variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease.

5 Mar 2011

Brain enzyme can restore even old, fading memories, say researchers

Even long after it is formed, a memory in rats can be enhanced or erased by increasing or decreasing the activity of a brain enzyme, say researchers supported, in part, by the National Institutes of Health.

4 Mar 2011

Sangamo's preclinical ZFN-gene modification studies for HIV/AIDS treatment presented at CROI

Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. announced that data from its programs to develop ZFN-based therapeutic approaches for the treatment of HIV/AIDS were discussed in four oral presentations at the 18th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, held in Boston from February 27 to March 2, 2011.

4 Mar 2011