virus Archives - Family Medicine News

What is Gain-of-Function Research?

04.06.2021 Health Problems

Gain-of-function research refers to the serial passaging of microorganisms to increase their transmissibility, virulence, immunogenicity, and host tropism by applying selective pressure to a culture. Image Credit: vchal/Shutterstock.com This is performed in a research context to understand the way in which a pathogen adapts to environmental pressures, allowing disease control measures to be better planned, and potential vaccines and therapies […]

Taiwan reports first case of new SARS-like virus

21.01.2020 Health Problems

Taiwan on Tuesday reported its first confirmed case of the new SARS-like coronavirus as the government warned the public against travelling to Chinese city where it emerged. The patient is a Taiwanese woman in her fifties, living in Wuhan, who returned to the island on Monday with symptoms including fever, coughing and a sore throat. Asian countries have ramped up […]

US begins airport screenings as SARS-linked virus kills 2 in China

18.01.2020 Health Problems

The US will begin screening passengers Friday arriving from a Chinese city at the heart of a mysterious SARS-linked virus, officials said, after an outbreak that has stricken dozens claimed a second life. Three confirmed cases meanwhile have now been reported outside China—two in Thailand and one in Japan—even as health authorities around the world sought to assure the public […]

Second person dies from SARS-linked virus in China: official

17.01.2020 Health Problems

A second person has died in China from a mysterious SARS-linked virus that has stricken dozens and appeared in two other Asian countries, officials said. Local authorities said a 69-year-old man died on Wednesday in Wuhan, the central Chinese city believed to be the epicentre of an outbreak of a coronavirus from the same family as the deadly SARS pathogen. […]

More polio cases now caused by vaccine than by wild virus

25.11.2019 Health Problems

Four African countries have reported new cases of polio linked to the oral vaccine, as global health numbers show there are now more children being paralyzed by viruses originating in vaccines than in the wild. In a report late last week, the World Health Organization and partners noted nine new polio cases caused by the vaccine in Nigeria, Congo, Central […]

Trials promise good news for countries with dengue and Zika virus

21.11.2019 Health Problems

An international team of scientists have reported an effective and environmentally sustainable way to block the transmission of mosquito-borne dengue virus, in trials carried out in Malaysia. The breakthrough has major implications for countries with hot climates such as island nations in the South Pacific to Saudi Arabia, Africa and South America, all of which experience dengue, Zika, yellow fever […]

Eastern equine encephalitis virus poses emergent threat, say NIH officials

21.11.2019 Health Problems

Although eastern equine encephalitis (EEE), a mosquito-borne illness, has existed for centuries, 2019 has been a particularly deadly year for the disease in the United States. As of November 12, 36 confirmed cases of EEE had been reported by eight states; 13 of these cases were fatal. In a new commentary in the New England Journal of Medicine, officials from […]

Zika virus can cause immune and brain abnormalities in asymptomatic pig offspring

14.11.2019 Health Problems

Zika virus infection in the womb produces altered immune responses and sex-specific brain abnormalities in apparently healthy pig offspring, according to a study published november 14 in the open-access journal PLOS Pathogens by Uladzimir Karniychuk of the University of Saskatchewan, and colleagues. As noted by the authors, the findings could point to new strategies to prevent and alleviate the long-term […]

How maternal Zika virus infection results in newborn microcephaly

14.11.2019 Health Problems

A new study led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine revealed how in utero Zika virus infection can lead to microcephaly in newborns. The team discovered that the Zika virus protein NS4A disrupts brain growth by hijacking a pathway that regulates the generation of new neurons. The findings point at the possibility of developing therapeutic strategies to prevent microcephaly […]

Researchers learn how Ebola virus disables the body’s immune defenses

24.10.2019 Health Problems

A new study by researchers from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston uncovered new information on why the Ebola virus can exert such catastrophic effects on the infected person. They’ve described for the first time how the virus disables T cells, an important line of immune defense, thus rendering the infected person less able to combat the infection. […]

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