Virus News and Research

Latest Virus News and Research

Telemedicine and peer support show promise in treating hepatitis C in rural areas

New research reveals a dramatic improvement in diagnosing and curing people living with hepatitis C in rural communities using both telemedicine and support from peers with lived experience in drug use.

27 Nov 2024

Study reveals key protein substitutions affect SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility in mammals

Announcing a new article publication for Zoonoses journal. Zoonotic transmission of severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been found to result in infections in more than 30 mammalian species.

27 Nov 2024

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Public health and the dairy cow in the room

Public health, one of the more misunderstood concepts in the health world, is about the health of entire populations, rather than individuals.

26 Nov 2024

Growing gulf in US life expectancy deepened by COVID-19 pandemic

Researchers update their analysis from the original Eight Americas study to reflect current life expectancy disparities in the United States.

26 Nov 2024

Barcelona's wild boar population linked to hepatitis E infections in humans

Over the last few decades, wild boar populations have increased in the urban areas of Barcelona and in other parts of Catalonia.

26 Nov 2024

Immigration detention center contractor sues over California health inspections

GEO Group, one of the nation's largest private prison contractors, filed a federal lawsuit last month against California officials to strike down a state law allowing local public health officials to inspect immigration detention facilities.

26 Nov 2024

Barcelona launches world’s first joint program on evolutionary medical genomics

Three research institutions in Barcelona have teamed up to launch the world's first Joint Program on Evolutionary Medical Genomics.

22 Nov 2024

Advanced diagnostic kit developed for detecting highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus

The Diagnostics Development Hub (DxD Hub), a national platform hosted by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore, in collaboration with the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), Japan, and the A*STAR Bioinformatics Institute (A*STAR BII), has successfully developed Steadfast, an advanced diagnostic kit for detecting the highly pathogenic H5N1 Avian Influenza Virus (AIV).

22 Nov 2024

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Trump’s nontraditional health picks

President-elect Donald Trump is continuing to staff his incoming administration, and his picks so far for key health policy positions are particularly polarizing.

21 Nov 2024

Cigarette smoke can induce disordered oropharyngeal microbiota that aggravates flu severity

New research has shown that cigarette smoke can induce disordered oropharyngeal microbiota that aggravates the severity of influenza A virus infection.

20 Nov 2024

Researchers uncover hidden roles of accessory genes in SARS-CoV-2

Viruses are lean, mean, infection machines. Their genomes are tiny, usually limited to a handful of absolutely essential genes, and they shed extra genomic deadweight extremely fast.

20 Nov 2024

New approach to stabilize RSV protein could lead to better vaccines

In most people, the lung-infecting pathogens known as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and human metapneumovirus (hMPV) trigger mild cold-like symptoms. But in infants and seniors, these viruses can cause severe pneumonia and even death.

20 Nov 2024

SARS-CoV-2 hijacks cholesterol trafficking to fuel infection and evade immune responses

SARS-CoV-2 disrupts cholesterol metabolism by using its ORF3a protein to sequester cholesterol in lysosomes, reducing BMP levels and optimizing viral survival. This novel mechanism offers insights into long-term metabolic complications of COVID-19.

19 Nov 2024

WHO grants Emergency Use Listing for LC16m8 mpox vaccine

The World Health Organization (WHO) has granted Emergency Use Listing (EUL) for the LC16m8 mpox vaccine, making it the second mpox vaccine to be supported by WHO following the Director-General's declaration of an mpox public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) on 14 August 2024.

19 Nov 2024

New cell model reveals how hepatitis E viruses affect nerve cells

Using a new cell model, researchers can for the first time study how hepatitis E viruses affect nerve cells.

19 Nov 2024

Nationwide IV fluid shortage could change how hospitals manage patient hydration

Hospitals around the country are conserving critical intravenous fluid supplies to cope with a shortage that may last months. Some hospital administrators say they are changing how they think about IV fluid hydration altogether.

19 Nov 2024

Rising temperatures fuel global spread of dengue infections

Climate change is having a massive global impact on dengue transmission, accounting for 19% of the current dengue burden, with a potential to spark an additional 40%-60% spike by 2050 -; and by as much as 150%-200% in some areas -; according to a new study presented today at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH).

18 Nov 2024

Study uncovers key mechanism behind HIV latency

An immune response that likely evolved to help fight infections appears to be the mechanism that drives human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) into a latent state, lurking in cells only to erupt anew, researchers at Duke Health report.

18 Nov 2024

Engineered virus-like particles evolve for superior gene delivery efficiency

Researchers developed a barcoded directed evolution system for engineered virus-like particles (eVLPs), creating a fifth-generation (v5) eVLP with enhanced production, transduction, and gene-editing efficiency. This system could pave the way for improved gene delivery vehicles in therapeutic applications.

17 Nov 2024

Pulses of light show promise in controlling seizures

In what could one day become a new treatment for epilepsy, researchers at UC San Francisco, UC Santa Cruz and UC Berkeley have used pulses of light to prevent seizure-like activity in neurons.

15 Nov 2024