Virus News and Research

Latest Virus News and Research

Summertime is tick time and Lyme disease is on the rise

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States says cases of the tick borne illness Lyme disease are on the rise across the country.

18 Jun 2007

Vietnam on alert after latest human bird flu death

Authorities in Vietnam have confirmed the death of a man from bird flu, the country's 43rd victim of the deadly virus.

18 Jun 2007

New Yorkers exposed to hepatitis C during surgery

Health authorities in New York are warning 4,500 people that they may have been exposed to hepatitis C.

18 Jun 2007

Herpes virus hijacks DNA repair process

Scientists probing the details of viral infection have discovered an intriguing surprise: in mice, herpes viruses hijack their host cells' tools for fixing DNA damage and use those tools to enhance their own reproduction.

17 Jun 2007

Genetic factors linked to adverse events related to smallpox vaccination

The study, published in the July 15th issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online, may have implications for predicting adverse events from other live vaccines. .

17 Jun 2007

Sanofi pasteur to supply H5N1 vaccines to WHO stockpile

Sanofi pasteur has announced that it is ready to supply a significant number of doses of H5N1 vaccine for the establishment of an international stockpile through a World Health Organization (WHO) partnership.

17 Jun 2007

Drug giant donates bird flu vaccine to WHO stockpile

Europe's largest drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has promised to donate 50 million doses of its "pre-pandemic" bird flu vaccine for humans to a global stockpile for distribution in the world's poorest countries.

14 Jun 2007

Malaria and Epstein-Barr virus in Africa

Endemic Burkitt lymphoma is a form of cancer that accounts for up to 74% of malignant disorders in children in equatorial Africa.

14 Jun 2007

Survey of public knowledge of avian influenza

Researchers at the Food Policy Institute at the Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station have conducted a nationwide survey of public knowledge, attitudes, intentions and behaviors related to the threat of highly pathogenic avian influenza.

14 Jun 2007

Pig disease sweeps across China

China's chief veterinarian has said that 'high fever disease' which kills pigs has now spread across China.

12 Jun 2007

Cholera vaccine in a grain of rice

Japanese scientists have come up with a new strain of rice that carries a vaccine for cholera; they say the breakthrough will provide a cheaper and easier way of distributing the standard injection-based vaccine.

12 Jun 2007

More deaths from bird flu in Egypt

A spokesperson for Egypt's health ministry has confirmed that a 10 year-old girl has become the youngest victim in Egypt of bird flu since the first human case was recorded in the country in March 2006 and is the country's 15th fatality from the deadly virus.

11 Jun 2007

Human bird flu suspects in Malaysia quarantined

Health officials in Malaysia say two people have been quarantined in Malaysian hospitals with suspected bird flu and health officials are also looking into the suspected case in an elderly patient in the state of Selangor.

11 Jun 2007

India's HIV/AIDS infections may be less than first thought

Debate has arisen over the true number of HIV/AIDS numbers in India.

11 Jun 2007

HIV uses pathways to infect cells

Like hobos on a train, HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, uses a pre-existing transport system to leave one infected cell and infect new ones, Hopkins scientists have discovered.

8 Jun 2007

Bird flu back in China

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has reported another death from bird flu in China.

5 Jun 2007

Gene therapy delivery of nerve growth factors reverses erectile dysfunction in mice

Rats with erectile dysfunction, or ED, that were injected with a gene therapy vector containing either of two nerve growth factors were able to regain normal function after four weeks, according to a study conducted by University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers.

5 Jun 2007