Central nervous system infections develop infrequently following heart transplants but are a significant predictor of death, according to an article posted online today that will appear in the December 2007 print issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
By targeting a site in a mouse brain well connected to other areas, researchers successfully delivered a beneficial gene to the entire brain—after one injection of gene therapy. If these results in animals can be realized in people, researchers may have a potential method for gene therapy to treat a host of rare but devastating congenital human neurological disorders, such as Tay-Sachs disease.
A team led by researchers at the UCSF Positive Health Program has been named to receive $15 million over five years to expand understanding of the complex interactions between HIV and the immune systems of newly infected patients following HIV transmission.
Dallas County Health and Human Services (DCHHS) has confirmed three new human cases of West Nile virus for the 2007 season. Two patients, who reside in zip codes 75205 and 75220, were diagnosed with West Nile fever and have recovered.
Last month a collaboration of European and Asian researchers launched a new attack against the deadly bird flu virus, harnessing the combined power of more than 40,000 computers across 45 countries to boost the pace of antiviral drug discovery.
Robert E. Fontaine, M.D., CDC senior epidemiologist and Resident Advisor to the U.S. Field Epidemiology Training Program in Beijing, China, has been honored with the Friendship Award of 2007. The Friendship Award is the highest honor given by the Chinese government to recognize non-Chinese experts who have made outstanding contributions to China’s social and economic development.
Since it first appeared in Hong Kong in 1997, the H5N1 avian flu virus has been slowly evolving into a pathogen better equipped to infect humans. The final form of the virus, biomedical researchers fear, will be a highly pathogenic strain of influenza that spreads easily among humans.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health has awarded the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine a $1.18 million grant to develop rabies virus vaccines. This award is the continuation of a previous four-year $837,000 grant issued by NIAID in 2002 to initiate the study.
Since it first appeared in Hong Kong in 1997, the H5N1 avian flu virus has been slowly evolving into a pathogen better equipped to infect humans. The final form of the virus, biomedical researchers fear, will be a highly pathogenic strain of influenza that spreads easily among humans.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has completed the humane depopulation of birds on the farm in Saskatchewan where highly pathogenic H7N3 avian influenza was detected last week.