The International donor community today pledged $475 million to fight bird flu after a senior United Nations official warned them that the virus, with its possible mutation into a deadly human pandemic, remains a potent threat around the world.
Malaria may be helping spread the AIDS virus across Africa, the continent hardest hit by the incurable disease. The way the two diseases interact greatly expands the prevalence of both among people in sub-Saharan Africa, a team of scientists said in a study in the journal Science.
Investigators at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have demonstrated in mice a way that might reduce the time it takes for a bone marrow transplant to rebuild a child’s immune system, and so reduce the risk of potentially fatal virus infections that can occur during this time.
Using hormonal contraception does not appear to increase women’s overall risk of infection with the AIDS virus, report the authors of a large study commissioned by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is issuing a renewed safety warning over the use of lancing devices in nursing homes and care homes after reports from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) of transmission of infection.
Mobile DNA, which inserts foreign genes into target cells, is a powerful force in the march of evolution and the spread of disease. Working with the lambda virus and E. coli bacteria, Brown University biologists have solved the structure of a six-protein complex critical to performing this gene-grafting surgery. The technique they developed could be used to reveal the structure of other critical protein complexes, landing the work on the cover of Molecular Cell.
Researchers in the Greene Infectious Disease Laboratory at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and their colleagues in the WHO Global Laboratory Network have developed a new tool for pathogen surveillance and discovery — the GreeneChip System. The GreeneChip is the first tool to provide comprehensive, differential diagnosis of infectious diseases, including those caused by viruses, bacteria, fungi or parasites.
A team led by Huan-Cheng Chang (Academia Sinica, Taiwan) has developed a new concept to determine the masses of viruses within one percent.
A new survey finds most Canadian girls and their parents want young women to be vaccinated against the virus that causes genital warts and cervical cancer.
The global battle against bird flu needs $750 million extra a year to stem its spread and prepare for any pandemic it spawns, the United Nations said.