Virus News and Research

Latest Virus News and Research

Important that GP's take flu pandemic threat seriously

Family doctors are advised to plan their response to managing a flu pandemic in this week's BMJ.

7 Nov 2005

HIV-positive patients have shorter survival periods while awaiting liver transplants

A new study on HIV-positive patients eligible for liver transplants found that their survival while waiting for a transplant is significantly shorter than patients who are HIV-negative.

7 Nov 2005

Mongolian birds provide Avian influenza virus samples

Avian influenza virus samples collected from wild birds in Mongolia by field veterinarians from the New York City-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have been selected by the World Health Organization to be part of a new human pandemic influenza vaccine currently in development.

7 Nov 2005

Clinicans warned about randomized clinical trials

A review article in the November 2 issue of JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, suggests clinicians ought to view with skepticism the results of randomized clinical trials stopped early because of apparent benefit.

3 Nov 2005

Interferon combined with ribavirin treatment is effective for children with chronic Hepatitis C virus

Nearly half of 118 children with chronic Hepatitis C virus (HCV) treated with a combination of interferon-alpha-2b and an optimized dose of ribavirin achieved sustained viral response, and side effects were generally mild.

3 Nov 2005

New insight into the eradication of HIV in infected individuals receiving antiviral therapy

Antiviral therapy has been used to suppress HIV replication and has dramatically improved the clinical course of disease in affected patients. But the existence of viral reservoirs precludes the complete elimination of HIV from treated patients.

3 Nov 2005

First steps taken to treat human hereditary blindness

A team led by Krzysztof Palczewski, Ph.D., chair of pharmacology at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, has taken the first steps in treating an eye disease causing irreversible congenital blindness in millions of people worldwide by successfully testing two new treatments in mice.

3 Nov 2005

Expert says bird flu more likely to fly in by plane than by birds

The United States, China and France have all announced new efforts to fight a possible pandemic of avian flu, including $500 million to monitor the virus in poultry and practice runs for dealing with a dreaded outbreak.

3 Nov 2005

Updated vaccine against cervical cancer provides longer sustainable response

Drug company GlaxoSmithKline says that it's updated vaccine against the human papillomavirus (HPV), has produced a stronger immune response, than the original formula of the vaccine.

2 Nov 2005

Drug giants join forces to develop gel for women in fight against AIDS

Giant American drug companies Merck and Bristol-Myers Squibb, have signed agreements to develop a treatment called a microbicide, a gel or a cream that women can use to protect themselves from AIDS.

2 Nov 2005

Bush wants $7bn to fight bird flu

U.S. president George Bush has called on Congress to approve $7.1 billion in emergency spending to pay for a strategy to prepare America for the danger of a pandemic bird flu outbreak.

2 Nov 2005

Vaginal gel shown to protect female monkeys against an HIV-like virus

Research with female monkeys at the Tulane National Primate Research Center has for the first time shown that three different anti-viral agents in a vaginal gel protect the animals against an HIV-like virus.

1 Nov 2005

New way to generate genetically altered influenza virus

In the event of an influenza pandemic, the world's vaccine manufacturers will be in a race against time to forestall calamity.

1 Nov 2005

A promising new vaccine against a pre-cancerous cervical virus

Updated data from a study on a promising new vaccine against a pre-cancerous cervical virus shows superior efficacy in preventing cervical pre-cancers and non-invasive cervical cancer

1 Nov 2005

Breastfeeding does not raise the risk of mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis C virus

One study found that infant girls are twice as likely to be infected as infant boys. Both studies provide new information with which to counsel pregnant women infected with HCV. Taken together, the two new studies expand upon preliminary data from smaller studies of mother-to-child transmission of HCV.

1 Nov 2005