Virus News and Research

Latest Virus News and Research

WHO recommends global use of rotavirus vaccines - can protect millions of children from diarrhoeal diseaseas

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended that rotavirus vaccination be included in all national immunization programmes to provide protection against a virus that is responsible for more than 500,000 diarrhoeal deaths and 2 million hospitalizations every year among children. More than 85% of these deaths occur in developing countries in Africa and Asia. This new policy will help ensure access to rotavirus vaccines in the world's poorest countries.

5 Jun 2009

Australia's swine flu toll soars to almost 900

As the number of swine flu cases now confirmed in Australia edges close to 900, neighbour Singapore has issued advice warning its residents not to travel to Victoria the state worst-hit by the outbreak of influenza A H1N1 with 752 cases.

4 Jun 2009

Australia in top five countries worse hit by swine flu

The latest update from the World Health Organization, #43, says as of 3rd June, 66 countries have officially reported 19,273 cases of influenza A H1N1 infection (swine flu), including 117 deaths.

4 Jun 2009

Congress unlikely to approve Obama's request for additional flu money, majority leader says

U.S House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Wednesday expressed skepticism that Congress would approve President Obama's recent request for an additional $2 billion to help fight the H1N1 (swine flu) virus, Reuters/Washington Post reports.

4 Jun 2009

Promising antimicrobial agent kills viruses, stimulates immune system

A promising antimicrobial agent already known to kill bacteria can also kill viruses and stimulate the innate immune system, according to researchers at National Jewish Health.

4 Jun 2009

WHO closer to declaring H1N1 flu outbreak a pandemic

The WHO on Tuesday said it was "getting closer" to declaring the H1N1 (swine) flu outbreak to be a pandemic, as the virus continues to spread to people outside of North America, and in populations "as far apart as Britain, Spain, Japan, Chile and Australia," the AP/Washington Post reports (Jordans, AP/Washington Post, 6/2).

3 Jun 2009

Metformin may 'revolutionize' cancer-fighting treatments

Researchers at McGill University and the University of Pennsylvania have discovered that a widely used anti-diabetic drug can boost the immune system and increase the potency of vaccines and cancer treatments. Their findings will be published June 3 in the journal Nature.

3 Jun 2009

Swine flu in Victoria - alert measures move up a level

The number of confirmed swine flu cases in Australia has now reached 502 - three quarters of which are in Victoria and as a result the state's alert measures have been moved from "contain" to the next level, the "sustain" phase.

3 Jun 2009

Swine flu - a threatening pandemic or media panic?

The latest update from the World Health Organisation (WHO) # 42, reports that as of the 1st June 2009, 62 countries have officially reported 17,410 cases of influenza A H1N1 infection (swine flu), including 115 deaths.

3 Jun 2009

Research sheds new light on how bird flu outbreaks begin in wild bird populations

New data on the persistence of avian influenza viruses in the environment has allowed a team of University of Georgia researchers to create the first model that takes into account both direct and indirect transmission of the viruses among birds. The model, which is detailed in the early online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has the potential to shed new light on how outbreaks begin in wild bird populations.

2 Jun 2009

Discovery of new arenavirus associated with hemorrhagic fever – first identified in nearly four decades

Scientists at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, the South African National Institute for Communicable Diseases of National Health Laboratory Service (NICD-NHLS), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Roche's 454 Life Sciences Corporation have discovered the new virus responsible for a highly fatal hemorrhagic fever outbreak in Zambia and South Africa in late 2008.

2 Jun 2009

Scientists create pig stem cells

Scientists have managed to induce cells from pigs to transform into pluripotent stem cells - cells that, like embryonic stem cells, are capable of developing into any type of cell in the body. It is the first time in the world that this has been achieved using somatic cells (cells that are not sperm or egg cells) from any animal with hooves (known as ungulates).

2 Jun 2009

Researchers examine 'invading' bacteria in DNA - advanced warfare on the most elemental of levels

Researchers at Texas A&M University's Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering have discovered how certain types of bacteria integrate the DNA that they have captured from invading enemies into their own genetic makeup to increase their chances of survival.

2 Jun 2009

A pandemic of human fear and anxiety

Is a flu pandemic looming and if so should we worry? It is now 41 years since we experienced the last pandemic of flu and many think that we are overdue for the next one. But have we over-reacted to the present outbreak of swine flu?

1 Jun 2009

Study to evaluate ‘Active Hexose Correlated Compound’ and the swine flu virus

A study evaluating the effect of AHCC (Active Hexose Correlated Compound) on supporting the immune system in response to the swine flu virus will be conducted at the Southern China Agricultural University, one of the few research centers in China that have been approved to conduct studies on highly infectious diseases such as the swine flu. This controlled study will examine the effects of AHCC when supplemented to a group of mice infected with the virus.

1 Jun 2009

Experts say let swine flu run its course

With the number of influenza A H1N1 (swine flu) cases in Australia now over 300 federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon says the government is considering whether to elevate the nation's response to the disease from the contain to sustain phase, as it may be impossible to keep quarantining people.

1 Jun 2009

Australian swine flu toll now over 300

The World Health Organisation's last update on the outbreak of influenza A(H1N1) - swine flu says as of the 29th of May, 53 countries have officially reported 15,510 cases including 99 deaths and Australian health authorities have confirmed that more than 300 people have been diagnosed with swine flu in Australia and all states and territories are now affected by the virus.

1 Jun 2009

Iressa (gefinitib) chemotherapy combination proves safe for head and neck cancer patients

Patients undergoing treatment for advanced head and neck cancers may respond well to the addition of gefinitib to chemotherapy, according to a study sponsored by the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group and chaired by Ethan Argiris, M.D., associate professor of medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and co-leader of the Head and Neck Cancer Program of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI).

31 May 2009

MicroRNAs grease the cell's circadian clockwork

Most of our cells possess an internal clock, a group of genes displaying a cyclic expression pattern that reaches a peak once a day. A large number of circadian genes are expressed by organs such as the liver, whose activity needs to be precisely regulated over the course of the day.

31 May 2009

Researchers plan to target immune cells responsible for eluding antiretroviral treatment

Certain human immune cells known as macrophages are composed of hybrid HIV strains that elude treatment and antiretroviral drugs, according to a new study by researchers from the University of Florida and other institutions, the Gainesville Sun reports.

31 May 2009