New DISEASE Gaia Church
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NEW DISEASES
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DISEASE: It's one of the Horsemen fighting all the Plague Species, like Homo Sapiens.
I usta think that people in primitive places like jungles, had to memorize a lot of dangerous/poisonous plants and animals. I suddenly realize that we do too --and probably vastly more than they do. For example, we should know that we shouldn't drink out of a garden hose because of dangerous chemicals that leach from the plastic.
NEWS of NEW DISEASES.
. . West Nile; SARS; Norwalk virus; CJD/Mad Cow; Lyme; Monkeypox; Plague; Toxoplasmosis; Legionaire's; Bird Flu; Chagas disease; Dengue; "Flesh-eating" bacteria; Polio (is new again); X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency disease, or SCID, also known as "bubble boy" disease; celiac disease; IED, Obesity, CHIKV fever, picorna-viruses, Leptospirosis, Chikungunya,
. . Non-Human (so far...): Chronic wasting disease, Bluetongue, Brucellosis,
. . About 35 new infectious diseases such as AIDS and SARS have been identified since the 1970s, and the primary source for new human infections has been animal-borne viruses.
It's not really new --there's suspicion that Alexander the Great may have died of West Nile Virus.
An AIDS virus measures around 50 nanometers across.
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Dec 27, 07: A new, low-cost screening strategy could make it easier for poor countries to target and treat Chagas disease, a deadly parasite-borne condition found mainly in Latin America, according to a new study.
. . Fighting the disease has traditionally focused mainly on spraying campaigns to kill the bug that carries the single-cell parasite causing Chagas disease, which affects an estimated 11 million people in the Americas. But a team of U.S. researchers showed they could use easy-to-collect data on the number of insects found in homes during spraying campaigns to identify clusters of at-risk children who should be tested for Chagas disease. This then allows health officials to better target the disease now creeping into urban areas without having to test entire communities.
. . Chagas disease is usually transmitted to humans by a blood-sucking insect called an assassin bug or a kissing bug. The insect carries a protozoan parasite called Trypanosoma cruzi, which kills more people in the region each year than any other parasite-born disease, including malaria, Levy said. Once infected, people can live with the condition for years before symptoms occur, making it critical to attack the condition as early as possible, he added.
. . While this strategy would not likely identify every case, the researchers essentially detected 83% of the infections while only needing to test about a quarter of the overall population.
Dec 27, 07: The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed a single case of human-to-human transmission of the H5N1 bird flu virus in a family in Pakistan but said there was no apparent risk of it spreading wider.
. . But it said a WHO team invited to Pakistan to look into an outbreak involving up to nine people, from late October to December 6 had found no evidence of sustained or community human-to-human transmission. Others have been confirmed in Indonesia and Thailand in similar circumstances of what the WHO calls close contacts in a very circumscribed area.
Dec 18, 07: Benin, the home of ritual Voodoo sacrifice, became the latest in a string of West African states to report cases of H5N1 bird flu after laboratory tests confirmed the deadly virus on two poultry farms.
. . Benin's immediate neighbors, Nigeria, Togo, Niger and Burkina Faso, have all reported H5N1 cases. Eastern neighbor Nigeria is one of the regional nations worst affected by bird flu. It reported sub-Saharan Africa's first confirmed human death from the disease early this year.
. . Health experts have said they fear Benin's Voodoo priests could be particularly at risk because of their practice of tearing out the throats of live chickens in ritual sacrifices.
Dec 13, 07: An ingredient in human semen may actually help the HIV virus infect cells, German researchers said. They said naturally occurring prostatic acidic phosphatase or PAP, an enzyme produced by the prostate, can form tiny fibers called amyloid fibrils that can capture bits of the human immunodeficiency virus and usher it into cells.
. . Researchers at the University Clinic of Ulm were looking for factors in semen that might block infection with HIV-1, the most common strain of the virus that causes AIDS. Instead, they found one that enhanced transmission, in some experiments as much as 50-fold. They said they are now looking for compounds that might block this process.
. . Amyloid fibrils formed from different proteins are associated with many diseases, including Alzheimer's and prion disease.
Dec 26, 07: A third case of a chicken testing positive for the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus in the northeast German state of Brandenburg was confirmed by state authorities.
Dec 11, 07: The deadly H5N1 bird flu virus has been found in two new sites in Poland.
. . South Korea said ducks at a poultry farm tested positive for an antibody to a bird flu virus.
Dec 11, 07: On the slaughterhouse floor at Quality Pork Processors Inc. is an area known as the "head table", but not because it is the place of honor. It is where workers cut up pigs' heads and then shoot compressed air into the skulls until the brains come spilling out. But now the grisly practice has come under suspicion from health authorities.
. . Over eight months from last December through July, 11 workers at the plant in Austin, Minn. --all of them employed at the head table-- developed numbness, tingling or other neurological symptoms, and some scientists suspect inhaled airborne brain matter may have somehow triggered the illnesses.
. . Five of the workers --including Kruse, who has been told she may never work again-- have been diagnosed with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, or CIDP, a rare immune disorder that attacks the nerves and produces tingling, numbness and weakness in the arms and legs, sometimes causing lasting damage.
. . Compressed air could turn some brain matter into a mist that could be inhaled by workers, said Mike Doyle, a microbiologist. Victims can recover fairly quickly if the illness is caught early. In advanced cases, treatment arrests the disease but doesn't reverse its effects.
Dec 10, 07: Scorpions scamper in bowls, water snakes coil in tanks and cats whine in cramped cages, waiting to be slaughtered, skinned and served for dinner. Welcome to the Qingping market in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, where everything from turtles to insects are sold alongside fowl and freshly caught fish.
. . An outbreak of the SARS virus in 2002 resulted in a local gourmet favorite --the civet-- being banished to the black market. The raccoon-like animal was blamed for spreading SARS, which infected 8,000 people globally and killed 800. But exotic wildlife and squalor have returned to the Qingping market, making health officials worried that another killer virus could emerge.
Dec 6, 07: Uganda has 101 suspected cases of Ebola fever and hundreds more people being closely monitored, officials said on Friday, as fear grew in Uganda and neighboring countries that the deadly virus might spread. Twenty two people have so far died of the fever. 11 health workers have fallen sick.
. . Another 338 people are being monitored because they came into contact with those infected by the virulent hemorrhagic fever, which often causes victims to bleed to death through the ears, eyes and other orifices.
. . Meanwhile, north of the Ebola-hit district, a separate epidemic of bubonic plague has infected 160 people and killed 19 since July. A cultural practice of making women sleep on the floor where they are bitten by fleas while men take the bed was to blame. We have a program of public education to tackle this", he said.
Dec 6, 07: A new virus called the Chikungunya virus, which causes painful and sometimes crippling symptoms, has spread to several new countries in the past year because it has found a new species of mosquito to carry it, researchers said.
A single mutation allowed the virus to infect the Asian tiger mosquito --which itself is spreading to many more countries in Europe and North America, the researchers said. "This mutation increases the potential for Chikungunya virus to permanently extend its range into Europe and the Americas", Stephen Higgs and colleagues at the U of Texas Medical Branch wrote in their report.
. . This is especially true if average temperatures continue to rise with global warming, they wrote. The virus caused outbreaks in India and Italy this year.
. . Chikungunya is a type of virus called an arbovirus and was carried mostly by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. It caused an epidemic that began in Kenya in 2004 and spread to several Indian Ocean islands. On tiny Reunion Island alone more than a third of the population --266,000 people-- were infected, with debilitating aches and pains. It killed 260 people.
. . But because Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are not found in Reunion, researchers suspected that something else was carrying the virus.
Nov 29, 07: A new strain of the deadly Ebola virus has infected 51 people and killed 16 in an area of Uganda near the border with Democratic Republic of Congo, U.S. and Ugandan health officials said. It is known to infect humans, chimpanzees and gorillas.
. . There are four identified strains of Ebola: The Zaire strain killed 80% of victims while the Sudan strain had just over a 50% mortality rate. The new strain would be the fifth identified. Marburg is a close Ebola cousin.
Nov 30, 07: An outbreak in Europe of an obscure disease from Africa is raising concerns that globalization and climate change are combining to pose a health threat to the West.
. . Nearly 300 cases of chikungunya fever, a virus that previously has been common only in Africa and Asia, were reported in Italy -where only isolated cases of the disease had been seen in the past.
. . While the outbreak was largely the result of stronger trade and travel ties, some experts believe it is a sign of how global warming is creating new breeding grounds for diseases long confined to subtropical climates.
. . Officials at the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control said the particularly mild winter in Italy allowed mosquitoes to start breeding earlier than usual, giving the insect population a boost. "This outbreak is most important as a warning signal", said Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum, a climate change expert at the World Health Organization. "Climate change affects the breeding of every mosquito on earth."
. . More mosquitoes will mean more disease. With warmer temperatures in the future, Europe and North America might be hit by outbreaks of diseases usually confined to southern continents.
. . Experts are also nervous because the Asian tiger mosquito might be capable of spreading more dangerous diseases like dengue fever and yellow fever. "Dengue would certainly be more worrying than chikungunya. Southern European countries around the Adriatic coast like Greece, France and Spain are also at risk."
Nov 30, 07: Britain's toad population could face extinction in some areas within 10 years due to an infectious fungal disease, scientists said. Deadly Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis was introduced to Britain with the release of non-native North American bullfrogs. They have since been exterminated but the disease remains.
. . New mathematical models developed by researchers at Imperial College London and the Institute of Zoology point to the disease having a potentially devastating impact in Britain where it has so far been detected only in the southern county of Kent.
. . The big unknown is just how long the fungus, which lives on the skin of host amphibians, can survive on its own in water. Scientists fear it may be a very long time. If the fungus is able to live outside the host for a year, there would be a severe decline in the overall population of the European common toad (Bufo bufo) in Britain and, in some places, extinction in 10 years, the models suggest.
. . The disease has already destroyed entire amphibian populations in Central and South America, and Australia, and is a growing problem in some parts of Europe. Scientists have linked its spread to global warming. Luckily, the common British frog (Rana temporaria) is resistant to the disease.
Nov 27, 07: The safety of influenza drugs is under scrutiny as advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration analyzed abnormal psychiatric behavior seen in some patients, especially children.
. . Medical experts are reviewing cases of patients taking Roche Holding AG's Tamiflu and GlaxoSmithKline Plc's Relenza experiencing hallucinations, delirium and other abnormal behavior. In the case of Tamiflu, several cases resulted in erratic behavior, including jumping from buildings, resulting in death.
. . Japan in March warned against prescribing Tamiflu to those ages 10 to 19 when more than 100 people, mostly young, showed signs of strange behavior after taking the drug. It also broadened its probe to other flu drugs, Relenza and amantadine, after additional reports of abnormal behavior.
. . FDA staffers are recommending a stronger label warning for Tamiflu to note patient deaths and suggest close monitoring children for behavioral changes. For Relenza, addition of a warning about hallucinations and delirium is recommended.
Nov 26, 07: Washington, D.C., has the highest rate of AIDS in the US, and more babies are born with the AIDS virus in Washington than in other U.S. cities, according to a report.
Nov 16, 07: Some viruses being used in experimental AIDS vaccines may damage the immune system by exhausting key cells, researchers reported on Thursday in a finding that may further cloud the field of HIV vaccines.
. . They said vaccines using the viruses should not be tested on people until more studies are done. But other vaccine experts said the findings, while scientifically interesting, were not a cause for immediate alarm. The usually harmless viruses are used as so-called vectors to carry genetic material from the AIDS virus into the body so that the immune system can recognize and rally against it.
. . But the viruses, called adeno-associated viruses, may themselves be doing harm. In mice, the adeno-associated virus, or AAV vaccines, directly interfered with immune cells called CD8 T-cells, Ertl's team reported. These are the "killer" T-cells that a vaccine is supposed to muster to fight HIV.
. . Antigens are the proteins the immune system uses to recognize enemies such as bacteria and viruses. In the case of HIV, turned-off T-cells could leave a person more vulnerable than usual to infection. "AAVs do not cause disease", Ertl's team wrote. They cannot even replicate on their own, instead piggybacking onto adenoviruses, which cause colds, or herpes viruses. But they do persist in the body.
. . Ertl said it was unclear whether her findings might cast light on the troubling developments in a trial of an AIDS vaccine that used another virus, an adenovirus. "The dose given to these mice was equivalent, on the basis of body weight, to 3,000 to 4,000 times the highest dose given to humans in the ... study in India."
. . Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the study should be taken "with a very heavy dose of caution."
Nov 9, 07: Tests show a wildlife biologist at Grand Canyon National Park most likely died of plague. The death of 37-year-old Eric York last week triggered a health scare that led to about 30 people being given antibiotics as a precaution.
. . York became ill on Oct. 30 and called in sick for a couple of days before being found dead in his home on Nov. 2. As a wildlife biologist, he often came into contact with wild animals that can carry the plague or in areas where rodents congregate.
. . Health officials in Arizona warned in September that the plague appeared to be on the rise and that more cases were likely after an Apache County woman was infected with the disease.
. . Plague is transmitted primarily by fleas and direct contact with infected animals. When the disease causes pneumonia, it can be transmitted from an infected person to a non-infected person by airborne cough droplets. Up to 50% are fatal if the disease causes pneumonia.
Oct 29, 07: As traditional antibiotics prove increasingly ineffective against common infections, scientists think they've found a new treatment: telling bacteria to kill themselves.
. . Researchers at the Hebrew U of Jerusalem have discovered a protein they call "extracellular death factor" (EDF). Bacteria use EDF to regulate their colonies by inducing suicide in some cells. The protein could be used to create a new class of antibiotics that would effectively treat bacterial species that have grown resistant to conventional antibiotics. A particularly virulent staph bug has caused recent deaths and severe illness. Even bacteria completely immune to penicillin and its cousins could be killed.
. . It would turn bacterial colonies' regulatory mechanisms against themselves. The researchers say that groups of E. coli bacteria use a rudimentary chemical-signaling system to thin their own ranks, allowing more resources for the other cells to survive under stressful conditions. In multicellular organisms, the intentional suicide of some cells is a widely observed phenomenon known as programmed cell death.
. . Though bacteria are single-celled organisms, research from the past decade suggests that they generally exist in multicellular colonies. Living in one of these bacterial cities causes an individual bacterium to behave differently. Generally, they become more resistant to antibiotics and more virulent. This is a major problem for doctors already dealing with increased resistance at the individual-bacterium level.
Oct 29, 07: The AIDS virus invaded the US in about 1969 from Haiti, carried most likely by a single infected immigrant who set the stage for it to sweep the world in a tragic epidemic, scientists said. Michael Worobey, a U of Arizona evolutionary biologist, said the 1969 U.S. entry date is earlier than some experts had believed.
. . The timeline laid out in the study led by Worobey indicates that HIV infections were occurring in the US for roughly 12 years before AIDS was first recognized by scientists as a disease in 1981. Many people had died by that point.
. . They found that HIV was brought to Haiti by an infected person from central Africa in about 1966, which matches earlier estimates. The researchers virtually ruled out the possibility that HIV had come directly to the US from Africa, setting a 99.8% probability that Haiti was the steppingstone.
. . Studies suggest the virus first entered the human population in about 1930 in central Africa, probably when people slaughtered infected chimpanzees for meat. AIDS has killed more than 25 million people and about 40 million others are infected with HIV.
Oct 29, 07: New Zealand scientists have found what appears to be a cure for the disease that is responsible for wiping out many of the world's frog populations.
. . Chloramphenicol, currently used as an eye ointment for humans, may be a lifesaver for the amphibians, they say. The researchers found frogs bathed in the solution became resistant to the killer disease, chytridiomycosis. The fungal disease has been blamed for the extinction of one-third of the 120 species lost since 1980.
. . Fearful that chytridiomycosis might wipe out New Zealand's critically endangered Archey's frog (Leiopelma archeyi), the researchers have been hunting for a compound that would kill off the disease's trigger, the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis.
. . "And even when they were really sick in the control group, we managed to bring them back almost from the dead." They found that placing the animals in the solution delivered the best results. The team has admitted it was surprised by the outcome. "You don't usually expect antibiotics to do anything to fungi at all. And it does. We don't understand why it does, but it does", said Russell Poulter. "It's also got the great advantage that it's incredibly cheap."
. . Since 1980, more than 120 amphibian species have disappeared. The next challenge the research team has set itself is to find a treatment that will work in the wild.
Oct 25, 07: Deadly 'Superbug' Could Be Wiped Out, If Only patients were routinely screened for symptoms of the deadly staph infection before checking into the hospital. Yet hospitals oppose efforts to make this screening mandatory.
Oct 17, 07: Two drug-resistant "superbugs" are becoming more common across the US including one that causes hard-to-treat ear infections in children, researchers reported.
. . One, methicillin-resistant staph aureus or MRSA, killed an estimated 19,000 Americans in 2005 and made 94,000 seriously ill, according to one report in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Five of those children had to be treated with an antibiotic approved only for adults because children's drugs were not strong enough to kill it.
. . The pediatricians said doctors could help prevent the ear infection problem by performing an old-fashioned, low-tech procedure called an ear tap, which can be used to both diagnose and sometimes treat the infections. And both reports suggest that doctors and hospitals are not following guidelines for controlling bacterial infections.
. . Pichichero and Casey treated middle ear infections in 1,816 children and performed ear taps on 212 of them. This involves punching a hole in the eardrum to remove fluid and then testing the fluid to identify exactly what type of bacteria had caused the infections. Doctors usually make a best guess and treat children's ear infections with whatever antibiotic they believe to be most appropriate, but Pichichero said this may not be optimal.
. . Draining it immediately relieves the pressure and pain. It immediately brings the fever down. 50% of the time there is no need for antibiotics at all." The ear taps would allow doctors to identify precisely which strain of bacteria is infecting a child and choose the most appropriate antibiotic. And using antibiotics less often would help overcome the threat of antibiotic resistance and make the drugs more useful when they really are needed.
. . MRSA is mostly spread on the hands, but also on contaminated medical equipment. Deaths tied to staph infections may exceed those caused by AIDS, said one public health expert.
Oct 11, 07: AIDS researchers must step up collaboration following the failure last month of a key experimental HIV vaccine, the new head of a global group coordinating the hunt for an effective shot said.
Oct 10, 07: A group of researchers has discovered a mechanism that helps protect deer mice from hantavirus even though the rodents carry the life-threatening disease. The research could pave the way for new therapies for treating hantavirus and other so-called zoonotic diseases transmitted to humans by animals -a huge class that includes SARS, rabies, influenza and AIDS.
. . Hantavirus does its damage by exciting the body's own immune system to the extent that it attacks the victim's lungs and blood vessels. If left untreated, Hjelle said the disease kills about 40% of the people it infects. "People die when the immune response hits its peak", he said.
. . But deer mice have developed a mechanism that moderates the harmful response, Hjelle said. The mice make a protein called transforming growth factor beta, a powerful inflammatory molecule that inhibits the immune response, Hjelle said.
. . The research points to treatments that could suppress the immune response in humans. Clinical studies could begin as early as next year to determine if the TGF beta has therapeutic value in another rodent species.
. . More than 120 people in New Mexico and Colorado have developed life-threatening cases of hantavirus disease since an initial outbreak in 1993 in the Four Corners area. It has resulted in 31 New Mexico deaths.
Oct 9, 07: Cocktails of drugs widely used to treat infection with the AIDS virus appear to stop brain damage caused by HIV as well, researchers reported.
Oct 6, 07: Dengue, a mosquito-borne virus that causes high fever, nausea and painful body aches, is reaching epidemic levels in the Caribbean and Latin America, health officials say. Changing weather patterns as well as increased tourism and migration have raised its prevalence, according to a Pan American Health Organization report. The disease is raging now during the wettest time of year for most countries in the region.
. . The virus, which has four distinct strains, usually keeps victims bed-ridden for a week with painful flu-like symptoms. About 5% of cases develop into the more severe and sometimes fatal hemorrhagic form marked by internal and external bleeding. Victims can also die from dehydration if they do not receive prompt treatment, which normally includes bed rest and hydration. Severe cases can require hospitalization.
. . The Pan American Health Organization expects dengue cases in the hemisphere to top 1 million this year. It has logged 630,356 cases so far this year, 11% more than for all of 2006. Of those, 12,147 were of the severe hemorrhagic type and 183 people died.
. . With no vaccine available, public health experts rely on fumigation and other campaigns to control mosquitoes.
Oct 6, 07: The H5N1 bird flu virus has mutated to infect people more easily, although it still has not transformed into a pandemic strain, researchers said. "We have identified a specific change that could make bird flu grow in the upper respiratory tract of humans", said Kawaoka, who led the study. "The viruses that are circulating in Africa and Europe are the ones closest to becoming a human virus."
. . Recent samples of virus taken from birds in Africa and Europe all carry the mutation. Cases since 2003 infected 329 people in 12 countries, killing 201 of them. It very rarely passes from one person to another, but if it acquires the ability to do so easily, it likely will cause a global epidemic.
. . All flu viruses evolve constantly and scientists have some ideas about what mutations are needed to change a virus from one that infects birds easily to one more comfortable in humans.
. . Birds usually have a body temperature of 106 degrees F, and humans are 98.6 degrees F usually. The human nose and throat, where flu viruses usually enter, is usually around 91.4 degrees F. "So usually the bird flu doesn't grow well in the nose or throat of humans", Kawaoka said. This particular mutation allows H5N1 to live well in the cooler temperatures of the human upper respiratory tract.
. . Luckily, they do not carry other mutations, he said. "Clearly there are more mutations that are needed. We don't know how many mutations are needed for them to become pandemic strains."
Oct 1, 07: A daily dose of specially-formulated dark chocolate may help cut chronic fatigue syndrome symptoms.
Sept 29, 07: It sounds like science fiction but it's true: A killer amoeba living in lakes enters the body through the nose and attacks the brain where it feeds until you die.
. . Even though encounters with the microscopic bug are extraordinarily rare, it's killed six boys and young men this year. The spike in cases has health officials concerned, and they are predicting more cases in the future.
. . "This is a heat-loving amoeba. As water temperatures go up, it does better", Beach said. "In future decades, as temperatures rise, we'd expect to see more cases." Though infections tend to be found in southern states, Naegleria lives almost everywhere in lakes, hot springs, even dirty swimming pools, grazing off algae and bacteria in the sediment.
. . Beach said people become infected when they wade through shallow water and stir up the bottom. If someone allows water to shoot up the nose -say, by doing a somersault in chest-deep water- the amoeba can latch onto the olfactory nerve. The amoeba destroys tissue as it makes its way up into the brain, where it continues the damage, "basically feeding on the brain cells", Beach said.
. . People who are infected tend to complain of a stiff neck, headaches and fevers. In the later stages, they'll show signs of brain damage such as hallucinations and behavioral changes, he said.
. . Once infected, most people have little chance of survival. Some drugs have stopped the amoeba in lab experiments, but people who have been attacked rarely survive, Beach said. "Usually, from initial exposure it's fatal within two weeks."
The easiest way to prevent infection, Beach said, is to use nose clips when swimming or diving in fresh water. "You'd have to have water going way up in your nose to begin with" to be infected, he said.
Sept 25, 07: Researchers have figured out why a Peruvian meteor strike made local residents sick: it hit an arsenic-tainted underground water supply, vaporizing the water and sending arsenic-laden steam into the air.
Sept 24, 07: Bacteria that became more dangerous in space may help scientists design better antibiotics on Earth, U.S. researchers said. They found that a type of Salmonella that causes food poisoning became more virulent after spending 12 days at near-zero gravity in the space shuttle, killing more mice than Earthbound bacteria and killing them more quickly. Their findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, might help protect both astronauts and people infected on the ground.
. . Not only did the space bacteria kill more mice more quickly, but they showed different genetic activity than non-traveling bacteria. Why is not entirely clear, Nickerson said, but she believes it may have to do with the physical forces that affect bacteria in both space and in the human body. "What our data suggests is happening is that the cells are responding directly to a force called fluid shear."
. . Fluid shear is the effect water or other fluids have as they pass across the surface of an object --in this case, the outside of a bacterium. Being in space closely simulates the effect of being in a human gastrointestinal tract, or the womb --both places where Salmonella can cause trouble, Nickerson said.
. . The findings have already given other researchers at the same institute some ideas for designing new antibiotics. Knowing the potential danger could also help protect astronauts. Some studies also suggest that prolonged space flight can suppress the immune system, making astronauts more vulnerable to disease.
. . Fred Haise became feverish with a serious urinary tract infection during the aborted Apollo 13 mission to Luna in 1970, and other missions have been delayed after astronauts became ill or were exposed to potential infections.
Sept 24, 07: A multinational team of researchers has developed an easier, cheaper system that can detect the bird flu virus on a throat swab specimen in less than 30 minutes.
Sept 24, 07: Vaccination is the best way to fight the specific strain of bluetongue virus rampaging through cattle and sheep in northern EU countries and vast amounts of vaccine may well be needed, the EU executive said.
Sept 22, 07: A laboratory has found the Bluetongue virus in a cow in eastern England, the agriculture ministry said, the first case in Britain and a fresh setback for the country's farming industry. Britain's livestock farmers have already been hit by the discovery of the more serious foot and mouth disease at several sites in the past two months.
. . Bluetongue causes fever and mouth ulcers and in some cases turns an animal's tongue blue. It is transmitted by insects such as midges and can be highly dangerous to sheep and cows, although it does not affect humans.
. . Bluetongue is mostly found in Mediterranean countries such as Italy, Spain and in North Africa, but has spread more widely this year across five more northerly EU countries --Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
Sept 21, 07: It used to be called the common cold. Now scientists are starting to put some not-so-common names to the hundreds of viruses that make people cough, sneeze, wheeze and worse.
. . This week they described how new research techniques are uncovering a host of new respiratory viruses --including a new, monster-sized virus-- and spurring efforts to better understand the role of these viruses in disease. Scientists have only recently had the molecular research tools to identify these bugs. Cold viruses are the main culprit behind 50% to 80% of asthma attacks.
. . Some of the research activity was spurred by the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome or SARS, which spread from China to 30 countries in 2003, infecting close to 8,000 people and killing nearly 800 before it was contained. "After SARS turned out to be a coronavirus, that energized the coronavirus field."
. . Another new virus is the human bocavirus, a close cousin to the bovine parvovirus and the canine minute virus, which cause diarrhea in cattle and dogs. "Now it is being found in acute respiratory disease in children."
. . The other puzzling virus is the mimivirus, first discovered growing inside an amoeba in 1992 but which evaded identification until 2003 because of its enormous size and complex characteristics. Three times bigger than other viruses, the mimivirus was found in the DNA of patients with pneumonia, and may account for some of the 20 to 50% of pneumonia cases that previously went unidentified. "One of the things we are looking at is does our virus have the ability to create tumors", Wang said.
Sept 13, 07: Ebola is said to be depleting gorilla populations. The most common type of gorilla is now "critically endangered", one step away from global extinction, according to the new 2007 Red List of Threatened Species by the World Conservation Union.
Sept 11, 07: Authorities placed two towns in southern Democratic Republic of Congo in quarantine to contain an outbreak of Ebola hemorrhagic fever, a deadly disease for which there is no treatment.
Sept 6, 07: A small region in northern Italy is battling what may be Europe's first epidemic of the crippling, mosquito-borne Chikungunya virus, a senior official at the Italian National Institute of Health. About 160 cases have been confirmed in Italy and another 30 victims of the non-fatal but painful disease are suspected. No deaths from Chikungunya have been documented in scientific literature.
. . There was no transmission of Chikungunya inside their borders, but only among people who had been infected abroad, particularly in Africa and India. "This is the first time that in Europe we have an epidemic. That means local transmission, not only importation of a case."
. . The affected areas were advised to be vigilant to possible symptoms of the virus and take measures to ward off mosquitoes, like using repellent.
Sept 5, 07: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it knows of one report suggesting a consumer developed a rare lung disease from eating butter-flavored microwave popcorn. FDA spokesman Michael Herndon said the federal agency had received one report of someone who consumed large quantities of the butter-flavored popcorn and developed a life-threatening lung disease sometimes called "popcorn workers lung."
. . Consumers, not just factory workers, may be in danger from fumes from buttery flavoring in microwave popcorn, according to a warning letter to federal regulators from a doctor at a leading lung research hospital. A pulmonary specialist at Denver has written to federal agencies to say doctors there believe they have the first case of a consumer who developed lung disease from the fumes of microwaving popcorn several times a day for years. He described progressively worsening respiratory symptoms of coughing and shortness of breath. Tests found his ability to exhale was deteriorating, Rose said, although his condition seemed to stabilize after he quit using microwave popcorn.
. . Her staff measured airborne levels of diacetyl in the patient's home when he cooked the popcorn. The levels were "similar to those reported in the microwave oven exhaust area" at the quality assurance unit of the popcorn plant where the affected employees worked, she said.
. . In response to Rose's finding, the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association issued a statement recommending that its members reduce "to the extent possible" the amount of diacetyl in butter flavorings they make. It noted that diacetyl is approved for use in flavors by the federal Food and Drug Administration.
. . One national popcorn manufacturer, Weaver Popcorn Co. of Indianapolis, said last week it would replace the butter flavoring ingredient because of consumer concern. Congress has also been debating new safety measures for workers in food processing plants exposed to diacetyl.
Sept 1, 07: A drug used to treat people infected with the AIDS virus has shown promise as a possible future weapon against cancer, U.S. researchers said.
. . Scientists at the U.S. National Cancer Institute examined how drugs called protease inhibitors, usually given in combination with other drugs to fight the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, performed against several types of cancer including non-small cell lung cancer.
. . Three of six drugs they tried inhibited cancer cell growth. The most effective of the drugs was nelfinavir, sold by Roche Holding AG as Viracept, the researchers said. The drug also slowed the growth of both drug-sensitive and drug-resistant breast cancer cells, they added.
Aug 29, 07: Dozens of dead dolphins washing up along the Mediterranean coast have alerted environmentalists to a virus they fear will become an epidemic.
Aug 29, 07: A mathematical analysis has confirmed that H5N1 avian influenza spread from person to person in Indonesia in April, U.S. researchers reported.
Aug 23, 07: Infectious diseases are emerging more quickly around the globe, spreading faster and becoming increasingly difficult to treat, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
. . In its annual World Health Report, the United Nations agency warned there was a good possibility that another major scourge like AIDS, SARS or Ebola fever with the potential of killing millions would appear in the coming years.
. . It said it was vital to keep watch for new threats like the emergence in 2003 of SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which spread from China to 30 countries and killed 800 people. "It would be extremely naive and complacent to assume that there will not be another disease like AIDS, another Ebola, or another SARS, sooner or later", the report warned.
. . Since the 1970s, the WHO said, new threats have been identified at an "unprecedented rate" of one or more every year, meaning that nearly 40 diseases exist today which were unknown just over a generation ago. Over the last five years alone, WHO experts had verified more than 1,100 epidemics of different diseases.
. . With more than 2 billion people traveling by air every year, the U.N. agency said: "an outbreak or epidemic in one part of the world is only a few hours away from becoming an imminent threat somewhere else."
. . The report called for renewed efforts to monitor, prevent and control epidemic-prone ailments such as cholera, yellow fever and meningococcal diseases. International assistance may be required to help health workers in poorer countries identify and contain outbreaks of emerging viral diseases such as Ebola and Marburg hemorrhagic fever, the WHO said.
. . It warned that global efforts to control infectious diseases have already been "seriously jeopardized" by widespread drug resistance, a consequence of poor medical treatment and misuse of antibiotics. This is a particular problem in tuberculosis.
. . "Drug resistance is also evident in diarrheal diseases, hospital-acquired infections, malaria, meningitis, respiratory tract infections, and sexually transmitted infections, and is emerging in HIV", the report declared.
. . Although the H5N1 bird flu virus has not mutated into a form that passes easily between humans, as many scientists had feared, the next influenza pandemic was "likely to be of an avian variety" and could affect some 1.5 billion people. "The question of a pandemic of influenza from this virus or another avian influenza virus is still a matter of when, not if", the WHO said.
Aug 23, 07: Sunscreen labels should spell out precisely how well they protect against sun damage and manufacturers should conduct new tests for a subtler type of ultraviolet radiation that can cause cancer, U.S. regulators said.
Aug 22, 07: Scientists say a type of fruit bat could be the source of a deadly outbreak of Marburg disease in Africa.
Aug 21, 07: Researchers have found some of the changes that a flu virus needs to become a deadly pandemic strain, and said on Tuesday the H5N1 avian influenza virus has so far made only a few of them. They said their study can help scientists watch for the mutations most likely to make H5N1 a global threat. They found none were anywhere near as mutated as flu viruses that caused the three most recent pandemics, notably the 1918 "Spanish flu" that killed millions worldwide.
. . Finkelstein's team said they identified 32 clear-cut changes in influenza viruses that differentiated a human flu from a bird flu. Even when H5N1 viruses infected people, each one had made one or two of these changes at the most.
. . Health experts agree that the world is due for an influenza pandemic. There were three in the last century. The main suspect is the H5N1 avian flu, because it has infected hundreds of millions of birds globally and has hopped to people several times, killing 194 out of 321 people infected since 2003.
. . Like most influenza viruses, it is mutating constantly. If it makes just the right changes, it could pass easily from one person to another, and that could mean millions of deaths. But no one knows what mutations to look for. "The pandemic virus from 1918, the Spanish flu, is halfway between a bird virus and a human virus. What is reassuring is the H5N1 appears be much more avian than that 1918 virus. So it is still on the bird side of things, which is good."
Aug 20, 07: A common virus caused human adult stem cells to turn into fat cells and could explain why some people become obese, U.S. researchers said. The research builds on prior studies of adenovirus-36 --a common cause of respiratory and eye infections-- and it may lead to an obesity vaccine, they said.
. . "We're not talking about preventing all types of obesity, but if it is caused by this virus in humans, we want a vaccine to prevent this", said Nikhil Dhurandhar, an associate professor at Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State U.
. . Obese people were three times more likely to have been infected with Ad-36 than thin people in a large study of humans. Now, researchers in Dhurandhar's lab have shown that exposure to the virus caused adult human stem cells to turn into fat-storing cells.
. . Half of the stem cells were exposed to the virus Ad-36. After a week, most of the infected stem cells developed into fat cells, while the uninfected cells were unchanged. Ad-36 is just one of 10 pathogens linked to obesity and that more may be out there.
. . Globally, around 400 million people are obese, including 20 million children under age 5, according to the World Health Organization.
Some HIV-infected people stay healthy with no drugs. Scientists found out why: their immune cells produce proteins called Alpha Defensins.
Aug 17, 07: Uganda has contained an outbreak of Marburg disease among gold miners, but contacts of the two known cases must now make sure they don't spread the deadly virus through sex, the World Health Organization said. Investigators had collected hundreds of bats from the mine, which they suspect may be a possible reservoir of the disease.
. . It's a rare viral hemorrhagic disease, spread through blood or other body fluids including semen. Closely related to the Ebola virus, it kills most of its victims. There is no vaccine or specific treatment for the disease, which causes a severe headache and fever followed by rapid debilitation. Death can follow within eight to nine days.
. . An outbreak is contained when two incubation periods, or 21 days, have passed without any contacts developing symptoms.
Aug 17, 07: Uganda has contained an outbreak of Marburg disease among gold miners, but contacts of the two known cases must now make sure they don't spread the deadly virus through sex, the World Health Organization said.
Aug 16, 07: Nearly two decades of observations of thousands of people who lived near a Cold War uranium-refining plant will be shared by the U of Cincinnati with other researchers in an effort to further understand the health effect.
Aug 16, 07: The AIDS virus damages the brain in two ways, by not only killing brain cells but by preventing the birth of new cells, U.S. researchers reported. The study helps shed light on a condition known as HIV-associated dementia, which can cause confusion, sleep disturbances and memory loss in people infected with the virus.
. . It is less common in people taking drug cocktails to suppress the virus, and why HIV damages brain function is not clearly understood. The virus kills brain cells but it also appears to stop progenitor cells, known as stem cells, from dividing. "The HIV protein both causes brain injury and prevents its repair."
. . The cocktail of drugs known as highly active antiretroviral therapy or HAART that treats HIV does not infiltrate the brain well, allowing for a "secret reservoir" of virus. HIV-associated dementia is becoming more common, as patients survive into their older years.
. . The culprit is gp120 --a protein found on the outside of the AIDS virus, the researchers found. "Knowing the mechanism, we can start to approach this therapeutically."
Aug 10, 07: Researchers studying bird flu viruses said they may have come up with a way to vaccinate people before a feared influenza pandemic. Experts have long said there is no way to vaccinate people against a new strain of influenza until that strain evolves. That could mean months or even years of disease and death before a vaccination campaign began.
. . But a team at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Maryland and the Emory U School of Medicine in Atlanta said they may have found a short-cut. "It gives us a chance to develop vaccines or monoclonal antibodies ... to really work in a preemptive way to be prepared."
. . Monoclonal antibodies, often used against cancer, are engineered immune system proteins that specifically attack proteins on a tumor or, in this case, on the flu virus. "While nobody knows if and when H5N1 will jump from birds to humans, they have come up with a way to anticipate how that jump might occur and ways to respond to it", National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Elias Zerhouni said.
. . Researchers have studied various strains of H5N1 and compared them to the worst known flu virus ever --the H1N1 virus that killed anywhere between 50 million and 100 million people in 1918 and 1919.
. . They found a mutation that makes one strain of the H1N1 virus more easily infect birds, and another one prefer humans. It lies in the part of the virus that attaches to cells in the respiratory tract. They then made the same alteration in an H5N1 virus, and vaccinated mice with some of this genetically engineered H5N1 DNA.
. . They found an antibody that could neutralize both types of H5N1 --H5N1 adapted to birds, and an engineered form that would in theory prefer humans.
July 24, 07: Fatal virus threatens seal colony: The public is being asked to help monitor Northern Ireland seal colonies following an outbreak of a deadly virus.
July 18, 07: AIDS drug cocktails may be able to restore the ravaged immune systems of some people infected with HIV, researchers reported. Immune cells known as CD4 T-cells returned to normal levels in an ideal group of patients, picked because they responded optimally to a combination of at least three AIDS drugs. Although it is impossible to eradicate the virus with existing drugs, it is possible to keep it at extremely low levels in some people with the right combination of drugs.
July 18, 07: Global AIDS treatment will fall far short of a universal target to have five million pJuly 18, 07: eople being treated by 2010, due to a continued lack of access to drugs by many of the world's impoverished people, according to a new repo.
July 12, 07: Custom-made microbes could produce drugs, eat pollution, generate fuel -- or create an unpredictable environmental nightmare. As the field advances, some watchdogs call for increased regulation.
July 9, 07: Thai researchers have urged people in Southeast Asia to stop eating raw freshwater fish because they risk becoming infected with a parasitic worm that may predispose them to developing liver cancer.
July 5, 07: Scientists are perfecting a test which they hope will confirm mad cow disease (vCJD) in humans. At present, doctors test for the presence of abnormal proteins called prions which are thought to cause the disease by killing off brain cells. But this can only be definitively done at post mortem by examining the brain. An Edinburgh U team has found a way to boost prion numbers to confirm a diagnosis.
. . The technique, known as protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA), works by by mimicking and accelerating the replication of prions so they are more easily detected in test samples. It has so far been tested mainly in animal models.
July 5, 07: A combination of two experimental AIDS drugs can help control the deadly virus in people who are infected with highly resistant forms, an international team of researchers reported.
July 2, 07: An organism that may have played a part in killing thousands of bighorn sheep in the West over the last five decades and in thwarting repopulation efforts has been isolated in a lab and found in struggling bighorn herds in the wild, biologists say.
. . Research done at Washington State U on tissue taken from dying lambs captured in Hells Canyon -a chasm that borders Idaho, Oregon and Washington- isolated a type of bacteria called mycoplasma ovipneumoniae. Biologists say that could be the initial organism that attacks the sheep and works by inhibiting the ability of hairlike structures in airways to eliminate bacteria that lead to deadly pneumonia.
July 1, 07: Asian nations must prepare to tackle disasters unleashed by global warming with the same urgency they now focus on fighting disease epidemics, the World Health Organization said.
Jun 29, 07: German scientists have engineered an enzyme that cuts HIV DNA out of infected cells. It's a new approach that would eliminate the virus rather than suppressing it, like current treatments do. The research is in the early stages --it hasn't even been tested in animals yet. But it could be a revolutionary approach for the 40 million people worldwide infected with HIV.
. . Apparently, HIV is good at avoiding detection inside a cell, so a key part of the finding is that the enzyme that can sniff out the virus. This ability to recognize HIV's DNA might one day help overcome one of the biggest obstacles to finding a cure: the ability of the HIV virus to avoid detection by reverting to a resting state within infected cells which then cease to produce the virus for months or even years.
Jun 14, 07: Scientists investigating a mysterious ailment that killed many of the nation's honeybees are concentrating on pesticides and a new pathogen as possible culprits, and some beekeepers are already trying to keep their colonies away from pesticide-exposed fields. After months of study, researchers are finding it difficult to tie the die-off to any single factor.
. . Scientists from Penn State and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are leading the research into colony-collapse disorder, including study of the yet-to-be identified pathogen, a microorganism capable of causing disease.
Jun 13, 07: A dead cat in South Dakota has tested positive for a bacteria that could infect humans. The cat, sent to the state lab in Pierre, was found to have tularemia, also known as "rabbit fever", a tick-borne disease that can infect humans.
May 30, 07: Voluntary HIV tests should be offered to all patients attending clinics, for whatever reason, in countries where AIDS is widespread, the World Health Organization said.
May 29, 07: Blood taken from four Vietnamese survivors of the H5N1 bird flu virus protected mice from several strains of the virus, researchers reported. Their finding may offer a new way to treat bird flu infections in people and another potential weapon to stockpile ahead of a feared pandemic of avian influenza.
. . Antibodies are immune system proteins that recognize and help orchestrate an immune attack on bacteria, viruses and parasites. Monoclonal antibodies are specially engineered to attack a certain protein --in this case, one found in H5N1.
. . Lanzavecchia extracted antibody-producing white blood cells, called memory B cells, from the samples. He used a treatment he has developed to make them produce antibodies continuously.
. . Subbarao's lab screened these for antibodies that could neutralize H5N1. The researchers produced more of these antibodies and then tested mice infected with lethal doses of H5N1. Most of the mice who got the new antibodies survived, while all untreated mice died, the researchers said.
. . The antibody treatment protected the mice as late as 72 hours after infection. This is important because antiviral drugs needs to be given quickly after infection --best within 48 hours-- to be effective.
May 28, 07: Drug-resistant bacteria are infecting more people in community settings such as prisons and public housing, and not just in hospitals where such "superbugs" can run rampant, researchers said. The stubborn infections --known as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus-- do not respond to standard antibiotic treatment, said the report.
. . Over a five-year period, researchers at a Chicago hospital found a seven-fold increase in drug-resistant staph infections that had been contracted outside of any hospital. They projected the rate of infection rose to 164 cases per 100,000 people in 2005, up from 24 cases per 100,000 in 2000.
. . After analyzing 518 people who received treatment for community-contracted infections, researcher Bala Hota of Chicago's Rush U Medical Center pointed to two risk factors: incarceration in a jail or prison, and living in public housing projects. Other risk factors linked to so-called community-contracted infections include intravenous drug use, living in overcrowded housing, playing certain sports, tattooing and poor hygiene, the report said.
. . Most scientists have blamed overuse of antibiotics for creating drug-resistant bacteria, which evolve to evade treatment.
May 24, 07: A case of bird flu is confirmed at a farm in north Wales following the death of 15 chickens there.
May 23, 07: Officials at Denver Zoo in the US state of Colorado are taking precautions to avoid an outbreak of plague after a monkey at the zoo died of the disease. The zoo's 17 remaining capuchin monkeys have been put into an isolated cage and are being treated with antibiotics.
. . Zoo officials suspect the monkey caught the disease from the carcass of an infected squirrel it may have eaten. Several squirrels and a rabbit have been found dead of the disease in recent weeks near the zoo.
. . Veterinarians say there is little risk of the plague spreading to humans but visitors are being warned to avoid squirrels and rabbits. The disease is normally found in some wild animals in Colorado during the spring, but usually in rural areas. "We see it every year in wild rodents."
. . Plague is usually spread among rodents by flea bites, but humans can pick it up by eating an infected animal or handling its feces.
. . Plague is endemic in many countries in Africa, in the former Soviet Union, the Americas and Asia, according to the WHO. If left untreated, it has a case-fatality ratio of 30%-60%. A form of plague --the Black Death-- is believed to have killed millions of people in Europe in the early 1300s.
May 17, 07: Birds that once flourished in suburban skies, including robins, bluebirds and crows, have been devastated by West Nile virus, a study found. The virus, which is spread by mosquito bites, has infected 23,974 people in confirmed cases since 1999, killing 962.
. . Populations of seven species have had dramatic declines across the continent since West Nile emerged in the US in 1999, according to a first-of-its-kind study. The research compared 26 years of bird breeding surveys to quantify what had been known anecdotally.
. . But the disease, primarily an avian virus, has been far deadlier for birds. The death toll for crows and jays is easily in the hundreds of thousands, based on the number dead bodies found and extrapolated for what wasn't reported. It hit the seven species -American crow, blue jay, tufted titmouse, American robin, house wren, chickadee and Eastern bluebird- hard enough to be scientifically significant.
. . The hardest-hit species has been the American crow. Nationwide, about one-third of crows have been killed by West Nile, said study lead author Shannon LaDeau. In some places, such as Maryland, crow loss was at 45%, and around Baltimore and Washington, 90% was gone.
. . While crows are scavengers and often disliked, they play a key role in nature by cleaning up animal carcasses, LaDeau noted. Researchers will next look into what species benefit from the disappearance of crows.
. . The birds act as an early warning system for humans, said Wesley Hochachka.
Apr 30, 07: Drug-resistant versions of the AIDS virus passed from mother to child can quickly hide in the infant's immune system cells and lurk for years, researchers reported. This will limit what drugs the children can take to control their infection, Dr. Deborah Persaud of Johns Hopkins U School of Medicine in Baltimore and colleagues said.
. . While mother-to-child transmission of the AIDS virus has been slowed in the United States by giving drugs to both the mother and the baby at the time of birth, it is still a major cause of HIV infection in the developing world. If not treated, about 25% of newborns get the virus from their infected mothers, either during birth or shortly after, while breastfeeding.
. . Drug-resistant versions of the human immunodeficiency virus are also a growing problem. People develop resistance while taking AIDS drugs, but then this resistant virus can be passed from one person to another.
. . Persaud's team studied 21 HIV-infected infants in 10 U.S. states. They found five of them were infected with drug-resistant HIV from their mothers. The virus moved quickly to so-called resting or inactive CD4 T-cells --the cells normally infected by HIV. Single drugs do very little to control it, so it is important to use cocktails of drugs that interfere with the virus at various points in its life cycle.
. . There are currently about 20 different available AIDS drugs in various classes, but patients with resistant virus automatically cannot use several of them.
Apr 15, 07: Bovine TB can spread from human to human, scientists fear after a cluster of six cases, one fatal, in England. All had visited the same Birmingham bar or nightclub, yet only one of the young patients had been in contact with infected unpasteurized milk or cattle.
. . Experts said that bovine TB was an under-appreciated cause of disease and death in humans. Mycobacterium bovis infection in humans used to be relatively common in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During this time, over 50,000 new cases and 2,500 human TB deaths were recorded each year in Britain. Pasteurization laws and eradication programs in cattle helped reduce the toll.
. . Estimates suggest only 1% of TB cases in the western world are caused by bovine TB --the rest are down to the conventional human TB bug Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Apr 1, 07: A bloodthirsty parasite is popping up in parts of Sweden where deep winter chills used to make survival difficult, if not impossible. Ticks are spreading north along the Scandinavian country's shorelines, pestering pets and spreading infectious diseases to humans. The pinhead-sized arachnids have even turned up near the Arctic Circle.
. . "It probably has to do with the greenhouse effect", said Thomas Jaenson, professor in medical entomology at Uppsala U. "The fact that we've seen ticks in January indicates that there has been a major change."
. . Sweden's disease control agency doesn't keep records on Lyme disease, but said the potentially deadly tick-borne encephalitis virus, known as TBE, is on the rise.
African American men are nearly seven times more likely to be diagnosed with HIV than white men, according to a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Feb 19, 07: A mutant cancer which causes facial tumours on Australia's Tasmanian devil has brought the carnivorous marsupial to the brink of extinction, a leading researcher has said.
. . Local populations of the animal have already been savaged by the mysterious disease which results in malignant facial tumors. The disease, which usually results in death six months, could lead to the extinction of the species within a decade. "It seems almost uniformly fatal."
. . The Tasmanian devil is found only on the island state south of the Australian mainland. Fearful that the entire Tasmanian devil population could be wiped out by the mysterious illness, environmental authorities recently took four colonies of healthy animals off the island and placed them in zoos in mainland Australia. They are also removing the diseased animals from the wild when they can.
. . McCallum added there was no evidence to suggest the disease had spread to other animals. [Yah, wow; a contagious cancer!!]
Feb 15, 07: Ponds and swamps are becoming eerily silent. The familiar melody of ribbits, croaks and chirps is disappearing as a mysterious killer fungus wipes out frog populations around the globe, a phenomenon likened to the extinction of dinosaurs.
. . Scientists from around the world are meeting Thursday and Friday in Atlanta to organize a worldwide effort to stem the deaths by asking zoos, aquariums and botanical gardens to take in threatened frogs until the fungus can be stopped.
. . The aim of the group called Amphibian Ark is to prevent the world's more than 6,000 species of frogs, salamanders and wormlike sicilians from disappearing. Scientists estimate up to 170 species of frogs have become extinct in the past decade from the fungus and other causes, and an additional 1,900 species are threatened.
. . "This is the precedent of a disease working its way across an entire species on the scale of all mammals, all birds or all fish", said Joseph Mendelson, curator of herpetology at Zoo Atlanta and an organizer of Amphibian Ark. "Humans would be absolutely stupid if they didn't pay attention to that."
. . Amphibians -of which frogs make up the majority- are a vital part of the food chain, eating insects that other animals don't touch and connecting the world of aquatic animals to land dwellers. Without amphibians, the insects that would go unchecked would threaten public health and food supplies.
. . Amphibians also serve important biomedical purposes. Some species produce a chemical used as a pain reliever for humans; one species is linked to a chemical that disables the virus that causes AIDS.
. . The fungus isn't the only thing that's deadly to amphibians -it's just killing them faster than development, pollution and global warming.
. . The African clawed frog, which carries the fungus on its skin and is immune to its deadly effects, has been shipped all over the world for research.
Feb 15, 07: South Africa is overhauling its AIDS strategy in a bid to counter the rise of extreme drug resistant tuberculosis which is proving a serious threat to those suffering HIV/AIDS.
Feb 14, 07: Scientists have captured an image of the AIDS virus in a biological handshake with the immune cells it attacks, and said they hope this can help lead to a better vaccine against the incurable disease. They pinpointed a place on the outside of the human immunodeficiency virus that could be vulnerable to antibodies that could block it from infecting human cells.
. . The study may reveal HIV's long-sought "site of vulnerability" that can be targeted with a vaccine aimed at preventing initial infection.
. . Experts agree that a vaccine is the only hope of stopping the pandemic of AIDS. But while dozens of potential vaccines are in development, only two AIDS vaccine candidates are in advanced human trials.
. . The team at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the NIH, made atomic-level images of the virus. They revealed the structure of a protein on the surface of HIV as it looks while the protein is bound to an infection-fighting antibody. They said this protein, called gp120, seems susceptible to attack by this antibody, which is called b12 and is capable of broadly neutralizing the virus.
. . An antibody is an immune system protein that helps seek and destroy invaders like viruses and bacteria.
Feb 12, 07: Could some people have a little immunity to the H5N1 bird flu virus? One study in mice suggests it is, in theory, possible.
There are an estimated 5.7 million people infected with HIV in India, more than any other country, according to U.N. figures. Experts say that number could quadruple by 2010, as many people are still reluctant to discuss safe sex openly. [or any kind, actually...]
Feb 5, 07: A naturally occurring molecule saves vital immune system cells from cellular suicide during the onslaught of the AIDS virus and might help keep the body's natural defenses working in HIV-infected people, a study found. The findings represent a potential new avenue to fight the effects.
. . They looked at the role played by interleukin 7 in averting the death of T cells, a kind of white blood cell important to the immune system. Interleukin 7 is a substance important in maintaining proper functioning of the immune system. Lusso expressed "reasonable optimism" that treatment involving interleukin 7 may benefit people with AIDS.
. . In assaulting the immune system, HIV hides inside certain T cells. These cells, as the infection progresses, commit cellular suicide --called apoptosis-- undermining the body's ability to combat infections and certain cancers. In fact, the virus manages to induce the suicide of many more T cells than it directly infects.
. . The samples with interleukin 7 displayed lower levels of T cell death. The researchers believe interleukin 7 potentially could be used alongside existing AIDS drugs to bolster the immune system. Lusso noted that existing AIDS drugs can keep the virus at bay for years, but damage to the immune system commonly persists even after years of such treatment.
. . Scientists want to find new ways to remedy these immune defects, with the aim to make the immune system functional even in HIV-infected people. He said the next step is a study in which monkeys with the simian equivalent of HIV are given interleukin 7 to see if it blocks immune system dysfunction and immune cell depletion.
Feb 2, 07: Scientists say a bacterial disease that can affect mammals, including humans, may be behind an increase in sea lions found dead on Oregon beaches recently.
. . Leptospirosis and other diseases are reasons for people and dogs to avoid the dead animals on shore. Federal law prohibits approaching live mammals on the beach. Some people try to help stranded sea lions, seals and other mammals.
. . There are up to 100 documented cases in humans in the United States each year, mostly involving trappers, slaughterhouse workers, agricultural workers and soldiers. Symptoms include headaches and nausea, but serious cases can lead to kidney failure and liver damage. "The disease is probably underreported.
Feb 1, 07: Symptoms of prion diseases, such as the human form of mad cow disease vCJD, can be reversed, a study of mice suggests.
. . Medical Research Council experts found memory and behaviour problems could be tackled by stopping production of the proteins corrupted in such diseases. However, writing in Neuron, they warn the usefulness of the work for humans depends on having a test for vCJD (variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease). A UK expert said it was "potentially very important work".
. . Normal prions have a very brief lifespan. But in prion diseases, they become malformed and start to accumulate. They then damage the synapses, which pass messages between nerve cells in the brain, and eventually the cells themselves die.
Jan 17, 07: The virus that caused the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic which killed more people than World War One was so deadly because it triggered an uncontrolled immune system response in its victims, scientists said. About 50 million people died in the 1918 pandemic, the worst in modern history, but why it was so lethal has been a mystery.
. . By infecting macaque monkeys with a reconstructed version of the 1918 virus, an international team of researchers uncovered a clue about the virus which could help to reduce the impact of future influenza pandemics.
. . They found the virus replicated quickly and unleashed an excessive immune system response in the macaques that destroyed the lungs in a matter of days. "Instead of protecting the individuals that were infected with the high pathogenic virus, the immune response is actually contributing to the lethality of the virus."
. . "The H5N1 virus can also cause very serious disease and it appears to do this in a way that is quite similar to the 1918 virus", said Darwyn Kobasa of the Public Health Agency of Canada and lead author of the study.
Jan 13, 07: At least five frogs have died in Japan's first confirmed cases of a fungal infection linked to sharp reductions in amphibian numbers in other parts of the world, an expert said Friday. The discovery prompted animal and research groups in Japan to jointly declare "a state of emergency", urging frog owners to contact veterinarians immediately for any abnormalities.
. . The dead frogs were of South American origin and are believed to have been raised in Japan. There had been no reports of massive deaths of wild frogs, a situation more grave because of the difficulties to contain infection. It is believed to be a major cause of the dramatic reduction of the number of amphibians in many parts of the world.
. . The parasitic skin fungus has a more than 90% likelihood of killing an amphibian, but is harmless to other species including human beings. The chytrid fungus kills the frogs by growing on their skin, making it hard for them to use their pores and regulate water intake. The frogs die of dehydration in the water. Frogs and many other amphibians are acutely sensitive to changes in environmental temperature and humidity as they can not maintain a steady internal temperature to the same extent as birds and mammals.
Jan 8, 07: About 75 people have died in Kenya of Rift Valley fever during the past three weeks and another 183 are infected with it, according to a senior health official. The death toll from the hemorrhagic fever --a virus which spreads from animals to humans by mosquitoes and through contact with raw blood, milk and other bodily fluids-- could be higher because the figures are only of adult victims.
. . The disease mainly affects animals, only occasionally jumping over to infect humans. People who get the virus show symptoms such as headaches, fever, stiff necks, vomiting, and a discomfort when exposed to light. The symptoms last for up to four days by which time the body clears them out and patients usually improve.
. . Only about 1 or 2% of those infected with the fever reach the hemorrhagic stage, where they get jaundice, vomit and pass blood. Up to 50% of patients at this stage may die, the WHO said. The last outbreak of the disease in East Africa was between 1997-1998, when 478 people died in Somalia and Kenya. While there is a vaccine against the fever for animals, there is not one for humans.
. . Infected mosquitoes may also lay eggs, which can survive for up to several years in dry conditions until it rains and they hatch to produce other infected mosquitoes and spread the disease years later.
Jan 7, 07: Stem cells nearly as powerful as embryonic stem cells can be found in the amniotic fluid that protects babies in the womb, U.S. researchers reported. They used them to create muscle, bone, fat, blood vessel, nerve and liver cells in the laboratory and said they believe the placenta and amniotic fluid can provide one more source of the valued cells. They would also provide a non-controversial source of the cells, which are found with difficulty throughout the body and in days-old embryos.
. . Embryonic cells are considered the most malleable of the various types of stem cells, but these amniotic fluid-derived cells are a close second, said Dr. Anthony Atala. Tests in mice showed the stem cells could be used to replace damaged brain cells, and could be "printed" onto structures using technology similar to that seen in inkjet printers to make bone tissue.
. . Like embryonic stem cells, they appear to thrive in lab dishes for years, while normal cells, called somatic cells, die after a time. And unlike embryonic stem cells, they do not form a type of benign tumor called a teratoma.
. . A bank with 100,000 specimens of the amniotic stem cells theoretically could supply 99% of the U.S. population with perfect genetic matches for transplants. "It is still several years away before we try this in a patient."
Jan 8, 07: Japanese researchers have identified a gene variant which appears to predispose a person to strokes, but it seems more prevalent in Asians than in those of European or African descent.
Jan 8, 07: The number of people that could die in a flu pandemic that matches the 1918-20 outbreak will be "very scary" and far higher than the 62 million deaths forecast by a recent study, an adviser to the White House said. The 1918-20 "Spanish influenza" pandemic --the worst in living history-- killed anywhere from 20 million to 100 million people. Half a million died in the US.
Washington estimates that if a 1918-type pandemic hits the United States today, nearly two million people would die and 30% of the country's 300-million people would be infected. The Harvard study predicted 350,000 deaths in the United States in such a scenario.
The H5N1 virus has killed at least 154 people out of 258 human cases. "If a pandemic virus emerges, it is almost inevitable that the virus will sweep the globe", Venkayya said.
. . The U.S. government says countries need to sharply stepped up vaccine production capacity --currently at around 350 million doses per year for a global population of over 6 billion people.
. . Venkayya also called for urgent efforts to try and utilize adjuvants --substances that be delivered along with vaccines and that enhance the immune response to a vaccine dose. "So for every individual you are immunizing, you can use a much smaller dose of vaccine than you would have without the adjuvant which means you can immunize many more people." He said recent data from global drug firms like GlaxoSmithKline Plc, which were carrying out tests on adjuvants, suggested that if they proved to be safe, they would allow countries to immunize over 20 times more people from a single dose of vaccine.
Dec 31, 06: U.S. and Japanese scientists have genetically engineered a dozen cows to be free from the proteins that cause mad cow disease, a breakthrough that may make the animals immune to the brain-wasting disease.
. . An international team of researchers from the U.S. and Japan reported Sunday that they had "knocked out" the gene responsible for making the proteins, called prions. The disease didn't take hold when brain tissue from two of the genetically engineered cows was exposed to bad prions in the laboratory, they said.
. . Experts said the work may offer another layer of security to people concerned about eating infected beef, although though any food derived from genetically engineered animals must first be approved by the FDA.
. . Key results won't be known until later this year, at the earliest, according to the Sioux Falls, S.D. based biotechnology company Hematech Inc. that sponsored the research. It can take as long as two years for mad cow disease to be detected in infected animals.
. . Scientists are still mystified by the biological purposes of normal prions, which humans also produce. But they believe that even one prion going bad can set off the always fatal and painful brain disease -known as variant
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. Similar prion-based diseases also are found in sheep, deer and elk.
. . At least 180 people worldwide have died after eating meat infected with mad cow disease in the last two decades. Symptoms can take years to develop.
Dec 21, 06: A global flu pandemic could kill 62 million people, experts have warned. The 1918 pandemic claimed 50 million lives, and experts in The Lancet predict the toll today would be higher than this, despite medical advances.
. . The world's poorest nations would be hardest hit, fuelled by factors such as HIV and malaria infections, the Harvard University researchers believe. Yet developing countries can least afford to prepare for a pandemic, which needs to be addressed, they say.
. . Lethal global flu epidemics tend to occur three or four times a century. Some scientists believe a new one may be imminent and could be triggered by bird flu.
. . When they extrapolated the mortality rates then to the global population of 2004, they estimated 51-81 million people could die from a similarly severe outbreak and gave a median estimate of 62 million. And 96% of these deaths would occur in the poorest countries, where there is overcrowding and access to medical care is limited.
Dec 21, 06: Scientists have found a way to remove disease-causing proteins from infected animal blood, which they hope may fight the human form of mad cow disease. UK and US researchers identified a molecule which removed the prion proteins from blood infected with scrapie, the Lancet reports. Scrapie, which can affect sheep, is related to variant CJD. Globally, there have been 200 cases of vCJD reported.
. . They screened millions of molecules and found that one, called L13, binds prion protein (PrP), removing it from the blood. The team checked this by passing 500 millilitres of scrapie-infected hamster blood through a filter that removes white blood cells --something which is done to all blood donated from transfusion in the UK.
. . When they injected the blood into 99 hamsters, 15 became infected with scrapie. But when they passed treated blood through devices containing the removal molecule and injected 96 hamsters with it, they found that none became infected.
. . L13 was also found to bind to PrP from human infections of vCJD, suggesting that it may also remove prion infectivity from human blood.
Dec 15, 06: ["new" again] Two mountain lions have died of bubonic plague in northwest Wyoming, posing a risk of possible infection to humans, a local scientist said. In a little more than a year, four area mountain lions have died from the disease and several domestic cats have tested positive.
. . Bubonic plague is often spread by fleas but if it reaches an animal's lungs, it can be spread through coughing or sneezing. Modern outbreaks are normally associated with rats and their fleas and can be often be treated with antibiotics. If not promptly diagnosed, it can be fatal. Mountain lions eat rodents on occasion.
Dec 14, 06: Researchers have discovered a gene mutation which prevents otherwise healthy carriers from feeling pain. The U of Cambridge team made the discovery after studying three related families with a rare genetic disorder in northern Pakistan.
. . One family member, a 10-year-old boy, worked as a street performer, placing knives through his arms. The Cambridge team found six people from the three related families all carried the same mutated gene. None had experienced pain at any time in their lives. Detailed neurological examinations revealed that there was no evidence of any sort of disease which could explain this deficit. And they were able to perceive a number of sensations, such as touch, temperature, tickle and pressure.
. . They believe it could be possible to develop new painkilling drugs which target the same process.
. . Researcher Dr Geoffrey Woods said: "This paper shows that rare diseases can still be of great importance, because of the insights they give into biological and developmental processes." Dr Wood said a different mutation in the same gene had been linked to over-sensitivity to pain in some inherited disorders.
Dec 14, 06: Circumcision can cut the rate of HIV infection in heterosexual men by 50%, results from two African trials show. The findings are so striking, the US National Institutes of Health decided it would be unethical to continue and stopped the trials early. It was decided to halt the trials as it was unethical not to offer circumcision in the men who were acting as controls.
. . It supports a previous South African study which reported similar results. Experts said it was a significant breakthrough but could not replace standard methods of preventing infection such as condoms.
. . The trial in Kenya found a 53% reduction in new HIV infections in heterosexual men who were circumcised while the Ugandan study reported a drop of 48%.
. . There are several reasons why circumcision may protect against HIV infection. Specific cells in the foreskin may be potential targets for HIV infection and also the skin under the foreskin becomes less sensitive and is less likely to bleed reducing risk of infection following circumcision.
. . A commenter: Dr Kevin De Cock, director of the HIV/Aids department of the World Health Organization.
Dec 7, 06: The Ebola virus may have killed more than 5,000 gorillas in West Africa --"in our study area alone" --enough to send them into extinction if people continue to hunt them, too, researchers said. The virus is spreading from one group of the already endangered animals to another. And it appears to be spreading faster than it is among humans.
. . Ebola hemorrhagic fever is one of the most virulent viruses ever seen, killing between 50% and 90% of victims. The World Health Organization says that it killed 1,200 people infected between its discovery in 1976 and 2004. The virus is transmitted by direct contact with blood, organs or other bodily fluids. There is no cure or good treatment, although several groups are working on vaccines.
. . Several experts have noted that chimpanzees and gorillas are also killed by the virus, and suspect that people may have caught it from infected apes --perhaps when hunting them. But it was not clear whether the gorillas were infecting one another, or being repeatedly infected and re-infected by another species of animal, perhaps a bat.
. . "The issue here is that there is a certain amount of work that needs to be done to take these vaccines that already exist and put them into gorillas", Walsh said. "The price tag on that is a couple of million bucks." He hopes a rich donor will take up the cause.
Dec 4, 06: Scientists believe they could slow the progress of "mad cow disease" by genetically "revamping" the brain. Tests in mice with scrapie --a disease similar to CJD in humans and BSE in cattle-- showed the life-extending treatment works. The method used by the German team involves molecules called special RNAs (siRNAs).
Nov 27, 06: Exotic animals captured in the wild are streaming into the U.S. by the millions with little or no screening for disease, leaving Americans vulnerable to a virulent outbreak that could rival a terrorist act.
Nov 23, 06: A joint China-Hong Kong research team says it has found a genetic link between SARS in civet cats and humans, bearing out claims that the disease had jumped across species, state media said. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome emerged in southern China in 2002, swept through the province of Guangdong and spread globally in 2003, infecting 8,000 people and killing 800.
. . Hong Kong scientists have previously said the SARS virus jumped from civet cat, a delicacy in southern China, to humans and quickly developed the ability to pass from person to person. World Health Organization experts also found evidence of the virus in cages in a restaurant where a patient served up civet dishes.
. . That evidence was enough for Guangdong authorities to cull thousands of civet cats in January 2004 and permanently ban their sale and consumption. But the raccoon-like animals, unrelated to cats, are still being sold in markets around the provincial capital.
A study commissioned by Pope Benedict on the use of condoms to fight AIDS has passed its first hurdle and is now being reviewed by top theologians for possible use in a Papal document, a cardinal said. [after how many million people died --& will yet die-- for their inaction... and action to fight it?]
Nov 18, 06: India must get on top of its HIV epidemic by next year or risk seeing it spiral out of control, the man who controls the richest private anti-AIDS fund in the country and a senior UN official warned. It's now estimated to have infected 5.7 million Indians. Alexander, who has repeatedly said India's epidemic is at a tipping point. "It's very urgent."
. . Denis Broun, India coordinator for the U.N.'s HIV-prevention agency, UNAIDS, said that in the worst-case scenario, the virus could spread to infect 3% of India's billion-plus population in the next 5 to 10 years, up from 0.9% now.
. . India already has more HIV-positive people than any other country, UNAIDS says. The AIDS-causing virus is presently thought to be largely confined within a sexual triangle of poor, male migrant workers, the prostitutes they visit, and their wives back home. For that reason, the Gates Foundation spends much of its efforts telling the first two groups to use condoms.
Nov 16, 06: Scientists have discovered two spots on the H5N1 bird flu virus which would need to mutate for the virus to infect people more easily.
Nov 14, 06: A warmer world already seems to be producing a sicker world, health experts reported Tuesday, citing surges in Kenya, China and Europe of such diseases as malaria, heart ailments and dengue fever. "The impacts may already be significant." Kristie L. Ebi, an American public health consultant for the agency, warned "climate change could overwhelm public health services."
. . The specialists laid out recent findings as the two-week U.N. climate conference entered its final four days, grappling with technical issues concerning operation of the Kyoto Protocol, and trying to set a course for future controls on global greenhouse gas emissions.
. . Britain's environment secretary, David Miliband, an early arrival for high-level talks here, said participation of the United States, the world's biggest emitter, was "essential."
. . Campbell-Lendrum noted "It's a global issue and a global justice issue", one that demands action by the industrial north to alleviate the disease burden on the south."
. . In Kenya, where temperature increases have tracked the global average, malaria epidemics have occurred in highland areas where cooler weather historically has kept down populations of disease-bearing mosquitoes. Research shows that even a seemingly small rise in temperatures can produce a 10-fold increase in the mosquito population, he said. "Highland malaria seems to be on the increase in the rainy season and when temperatures are high", Nzioka said.
. . The WHO's Dr. Bettina Menne said malaria, which two decades ago was present in only three southeastern European countries, has spread north to Russia and a half-dozen other nearby countries. Russian news media reported in September that larvae of the anopheles mosquito, the malaria carrier, had been found in Moscow.
. . Menne cited a threat from other mosquito-borne diseases as well. "There's an increased risk of local outbreaks, especially in the Mediterranean, of dengue and
West Nile virus", she said.
. . A study of three Chinese cities found annual excess deaths totaled between 173 and 685 per million residents, Jin said. Projected over the huge Chinese population of 1.3 billion, this could amount to as many as 890,000 deaths nationwide per year.
Nov 8, 06: A monkey virus similar to HIV is endemic in wild gorillas in Africa and was probably transmitted to them by chimpanzees, researchers said. "It is the first time that someone has done a survey among wild gorillas to see whether they were infected with an SIV. We showed they were infected and moreover they are infected with a virus that is closely related to HIV-1 and a particular variant O."
. . HIV is thought to have been passed on to humans when they slaughtered infected chimpanzees for food. About 25 million people have died of HIV/AIDS since the virus was identified a quarter of a century ago.
. . There are three strains or groups of HIV --M, N and O. Group M is the most common strain and has spread around the globe. Strain N is linked to few cases in Cameroon and group O represents about 1% of HIV/AIDS cases in Cameroon and surrounding countries.
. . The infected gorillas lived nearly 400 km apart, so the scientists believe it is likely SIV infection is endemic in the animals. "We have discovered it in gorillas but we think the primary reservoir are still chimpanzees. We think chimpanzees transmitted it to gorillas but we don't know who transmitted it to humans --the gorilla or the chimp."
. . How the animals acquired it is also a mystery because gorillas are vegetarians and encounters with chimpanzees are thought to be rare. Knowing the origin of the HIV and that is crossing species is important for understanding what happens to the virus when it jumps species.
Nov 6, 06: Chronic fatigue syndrome, once thought by some doctors to be a psychological problem or even a excuse for malingerers, is a real disease that affects more than a million Americans, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
. . Early diagnosis and treatment of the disease are important for recovery --even though it is not clear what the best treatments are. "Fortunately, there are therapies for CFS that can reduce much of the pain and suffering."
. . Up to 80% of people with chronic fatigue do not know they have it, the CDC said. Its causes are unknown but it can cause profound exhaustion, sleep difficulties, and problems concentrating and remembering. Flu-like symptoms, including pain in the joints and muscles, tender lymph nodes, sore throat and headaches are also common. "A distinctive characteristic of the illness is a worsening of symptoms following physical or mental exertion."
. . "Diagnosis is primarily made by taking a patient's medical history, completing a physical exam and lab tests to rule out other conditions." Several other illnesses have symptoms that mimic chronic fatigue, including fibromyalgia syndrome, myalgic encephalomyelitis, neurasthenia, multiple chemical sensitivities, and chronic mononucleosis, the CDC noted.
. . "There are tens of millions of people with similar fatiguing illnesses who do not fully meet the strict research definition of CFS. Patients should be advised to avoid herbal remedies like comfrey, ephedra, kava, germander, chaparral, bitter orange, licorice root, yohimbe and any other supplements that are potentially dangerous."
Nov 4, 06: Scientists trying to figure out why a few people resist the ravages of AIDS say they have captured a snapshot of an immune system structure that could help them design a drug to boost the body's defenses against the virus. Having an image of the enzyme, called A3G, could help researchers design a drug to mimic its effects and perhaps provide the first medicine to boost the ability to fight AIDS.
. . A small percentage of people infected with HIV never become ill. They are called long-term non-progressors, or "elite" patients. Some studies have suggested that these elite patients have extra copies of A3G, which disables HIV by making it mutate to death. "We all know that HIV gets away from therapy by creating a lot of mutations in itself", said Harold Smith, a professor of biochemistry and biophysics who helped lead the study.
. . HIV fights back against A3G with a gene called vif. In most cases, HIV overwhelms A3G as it attacks the immune system. "It is like cell wars going on. It is the number of vifs and A3Gs that you have that makes a difference", Smith said.
. . Knowing what the structure looks like can help in a process known as rational drug design, in which scientists build a new drug molecule by molecule, to precisely match a target like a key fitting into a lock. The structure defends against other, similar viruses, including hepatitis B.
. . The AIDS virus infects 40 million people globally and has killed 25 million. Although there are about 20 different drugs on the market that can help control the virus, there is no cure and no vaccine.
Oct 30, 06: Scientists in Hong Kong and the US have detected a new strain of H5N1 bird flu virus in China and warned it might have started another wave of outbreaks in poultry in Southeast Asia and move deeper into Eurasia.
Oct 30, 06: Scientists in Hong Kong and the United States have detected a new strain of H5N1 bird flu virus in China and warned it might have started another wave of outbreaks in poultry in Southeast Asia and move deeper into Eurasia.
Oct 24, 06: Four Tasmanian devils sent to Denmark this year to honour the birth of the nation's future king may have been exposed to a deadly disease laying waste to the dog-like species, reports have said.
. . However, the Danish zoo's hopes of successfully breeding the animals were in doubt after tests found "devil facial tumor disease" in animals at Northern Tasmania's Trowunna Wildlife Park, which supplied Denmark with its devils.
. . The Tasmanian devil population --found only on the south Australian island-- has been slashed by up to 70% in some areas by the mystery cancer-like disease whose malignant facial tumors spread between animals during fights.
Oct 23, 06: A family of viruses that cause a range of ills from the common cold to polio may be able to infect the brain and cause steady damage, a team at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota reported. "Our study suggests that virus-induced memory loss could accumulate over the lifetime of an individual and eventually lead to clinical cognitive memory deficits."
. . The viruses are called picorna-viruses and infect more than 1 billion people worldwide each year. They include the virus that causes polio, as well as colds and diarrhea. People contract two or three such infections a year on average.
. . One virus particularly likely to cause brain damage is enterovirus 71, which is common in Asia, the researchers said. It can cross over into the brain and cause encephalitis, a brain inflammation that can lead to coma and death.
Oct 19, 06: Europe's top food safety agency will give its views next month on whether a fatal brain-wasting disease, similar to mad cow disease, might threaten human health if transmitted form sheep and goats. Earlier this year, two sheep in France and one in Cyprus, were suspected of being infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) infection, also known as mad cow disease.
. . The sheep were initially tested for scrapie, which is similar to BSE, and known to exist in sheep for more than 100 years. That followed on from a similar ordeal that France faced in 2005, when mad cow disease was confirmed in a goat that had been killed three years earlier --the first case of BSE in a goat.
. . Scrapie belongs to a family of diseases known as TSEs (transmissible spongiform encephalopathy) and characterised by a degeneration of brain tissue giving a sponge-like appearance. The group includes Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease in humans and BSE in cattle. These fatal diseases, caused by nervous system proteins called prions, gradually destroy the brain.
Oct 17, 06: Researchers trying to find quicker and better ways to make flu vaccines said on Tuesday they had formulated a vaccine that protected mice against the deadliest influenza virus known --the one that caused the 1918 pandemic.
. . Their research also helped them find ways to predict how well a vaccine protects against a particular flu strain --a key step in making vaccines against diseases that are not yet widely circulating.
. . On average, influenza pandemics hit three times a century and vary in their severity. The last one was in 1968 and killed about a million people, and experts believe the world is overdue for another.
. . All 10 vaccinated mice survived, they reported. They also found that transferring antibody-rich immunoglobulin --a blood product-- from immunized mice to non-immunized mice helped protect the unvaccinated mice against the virus, too. Eight of 10 mice given antibodies from the immunized mice survived infection with the 1918 virus while none of the 10 untreated mice did.
. . Giving two doses of vaccine, even over a period of years, might protect people better and that it might be possible to start vaccinating people before a pandemic strain of flu even emerges.
Oct 12, 06: A quick new genetic test has helped identify mysterious germs that sickened dozens of New Yorkers in a 2004 outbreak, researchers reported. The test may help doctors and scientists nail down the causes of outbreaks of respiratory disease, which goes unidentified in about half of all cases now.
. . They found nine previously undiagnosed germs -- six viruses and three bacteria. Eight of the specimens tested positive for rhinoviruses that are unlike any known rhinovirus. Antibiotics can quickly cure a bacterial infection but are useless against a virus.
Oct 5, 06: A fragment of a human protein that blocks influenza viruses --including avian flu-- from attaching to and infecting cells holds promise if laboratory experiments are borne out, researchers said.
Sept 29, 06: Travelers to parts of Africa and Asia are returning with a new mosquito-borne virus and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned it could become entrenched in new areas. It singled out tropical or subtropical areas of the U.S. including the Gulf Coast, Hawaii and the Virgin Islands as particularly at risk.
Large outbreaks have been reported in Indian Ocean islands and in India. Around 180,000 suspected CHIKV fever cases were also detected in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Maharashtra since early this year.
. . In the two years to May 2006 around 300,000 suspected CHIKV fever cases were reported on Indian Ocean islands, mainly on Reunion, a French overseas department, but also in Mombasa, Kenya; Madagascar; Mauritius and the Comoros islands.
. . The virus first emerged in Tanzania in 1953 and, though no deaths have been recorded, it can cause a debilitating illness whose symptoms include fever, headache, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, muscle and joint pain and rash. No specific drug therapy or vaccine exists to treat it.
Sept 18, 06: More than a quarter of New Yorkers infected with the AIDS virus are now dying of other causes, researchers said today. An analysis of 68,669 New York City residents infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, found that of those who died between 1999 and 2004, 26.3% died of something other than HIV. That is a 32% increase from 1999, when just under 20% of HIV patients died of other causes.
. . Cocktails of drugs that suppress the virus have been credited with allowing HIV patients to lead near-normal lives, and once- or twice-a-day dosing now makes them more manageable.
. . Another study published in the same journal found that nearly 10% of men interviewed in New York who identified themselves as heterosexual reported having sex with at least one man during the previous year. The survey of 4,193 men conducted by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene found that 70% of the men who had sex with other men were married.
Sept 17, 06: A severe bird flu pandemic among humans could cost the global economy up to $2 trillion, the World Bank said, sharply raising earlier estimates.
Sept 10, 06: Scientists have discovered a potential reason to explain why the H5N1 strain of bird flu is so much more deadly to people than standard human flus. The Nature Medicine research found that the bird flu virus triggers a massive inflammatory response, which often proved fatal. A UK expert said the study provided vital information about how best to treat people infected with the virus. There have been 241 cases of people being infected with H5N1 since the outbreak started in 2003. Over half died from the disease.
. . The researchers noted that the presence of high levels of H5N1 virus triggered a release of proteins called cytokines which should control a body's response to infection.
. . The highest levels of cytokines were seen in those with the highest viral loads --who were those who had died. In these cases, there was also an associated loss of lymphocytes (types of white blood cell) in the peripheral blood. The team suggests it is these factors which lead to lung damage, and on many occasions, death.
Sept 4, 06: Diseases not normally seen in Europe are now starting to appear because of the world's changing climate, a scientist said today.
. . Professor Paul Hunter, of the U of East Anglia, told a British science conference that erratic weather that will cause flooding and drought will also lead to changes in the incidence of infectious disease.
. . Vibrio vulnificus, which can be caught by eating shellfish, or through swimming in infected water with an open wound, causes a skin infection and other symptoms and can be fatal. The organism usually lives in waters that are 20 degrees C (68 F) or higher.
. . People on the Italian coast have also been infected by an organism called Ostreopsis ovata that has been able to extend its habitat because of warmer sea waters. "Over 100 holidaymakers have been reported as taken to [the] hospital with a variety of symptoms, including diarrhea, skin rashes and hay fever type illnesses."
. . Congo Crimea Haemorrhagic Fever has also caused problems in recent years in areas where it had not previously been a problem. The insect-borne disease causes bleeding from the skin, mouth and nose. "The view is that it is not because of warmer summers but because winters are not as cold as they used to be", Hunter said.
. . Professor Hunter warned that not enough was being done to monitor the spread, due to the warming of the Earth, of big killers such as malaria in Africa.
. . He emphasized that "the burden of climate change will fall on the poorest countries in the world, and the tropical countries. "In Europe, we're getting worried about three or four cases of rare disease associated with the Baltic Ocean --but in Africa, we're talking about potentially many millions of cases of malaria occurring as a result of climate change which might not have occurred earlier."
. . The migration of ticks and midges also caused diseases like malaria to spread, he said. The researchers also believe that infectious diseases borne by humans, such as TB and HIV, are likely to spread more widely as people migrate to escape drought and other effects of climate change.
Aug 21, 06: Chinese scientists have diagnosed a child suffering from respiratory illness as being infected with the human bocavirus, which was only identified last year. The child had been admitted to hospital with a severe respiratory infection. DNA tests then confirmed the child had contracted the virus.
. . Last August, Swedish researchers said they had identified the previously unknown virus that may cause many cases of serious respiratory infections in children. They suggested researchers start a systematic search for all the viruses that cause respiratory infections.
Aug 16, 06: Scientists they had made a breakthrough in the race to develop a drug for the H5N1 bird flu virus if it mutates into a form that can jump from human to human. But they warned that it could take five years or longer to convert their discovery of a potential weak point in the N1 part of the virus into an effective drug.
. . Nearly 60% of those infected have died, and the best known drugs to tackle H5N1 infection in humans are oseltamivir known as Tamiflu and zanamivir known as Relenza, both originally developed to fight other forms of human 'flu.
Aug 19, 06: South Africa dismissed harsh criticism of its AIDS policy by a top U.N. official "with contempt" on Saturday and said he was no Messiah for Africa's HIV/AIDS crisis.
. . Aug 18, 06: South Africa's government remains "obtuse" and "negligent" in its approach to AIDS and should be denounced, researchers and diplomats said.
. . Aug 16, 06: Only two AIDS vaccine candidates are in advanced human trials --one made by Merck and Co. and another by Sanofi-Aventis SA. They do not expect the Merck vaccine will protect against disease in the way, for instance, a measles vaccine does.
. . It is difficult to vaccinate against because the virus infects the very immune system cells that are usually stimulated by a vaccine.
Aug 16, 06: Ten times more people in Africa are getting life-saving AIDS drugs than just three years ago, but still most get no treatment and the pandemic continues to spread, the World Health Organization reported.
Aug 11, 06: Doctors are finding new uses for HIV drugs, with one study showing they might safely protect women at high risk of infection and a second showing that people can safely skip the most toxic pills.
. . Family Health International tested an experimental approach called pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP using a drug called tenofovir. Researchers believe the drug, made by the California-based Gilead Sciences Inc. under the brand name Viread, could keep healthy people from getting HIV.
. . The researchers gave either the pill or a placebo to 936 high-risk women in Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria. They were not able to tell if the pills actually prevented infection with the AIDS virus but tested the women's kidney and liver function to make sure taking the drugs was safe. They also wanted to see if the women would take the drugs consistently.
. . One worry was that the women would feel protected by the drug and would fail to use condoms, or have sex more often. But this did not happen during the trial, Cate said. The women, all recruited because they were sex workers, or had sex frequently with different men, all got counseling and condoms at every visit. Several women got pregnant --at a rate of about 40 per 100 women per year-- suggesting that the women did not always use condoms.
Aug 11, 06: A team led by Dr. Sharon Riddler of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine at the U of Pittsburgh tested some of the combinations to see if patients could skip the oldest class of HIV medications, called nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, also known as NRTIs or "nukes." They can cause intolerable side effects in some patients, ranging from diarrhea to hepatitis.
. . Their test of 753 volunteers at 55 centers showed that using two drugs in the NRTI class with a drug called efavirenz, a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor, suppressed the virus in more people than a more widely used combination.
The AIDS virus has an accomplice that helps it infect the immune system cells it attacks -- other immune system cells, U.S. researchers reported. In fact, these other cells, known as B cells, may be key to infection, the U of Pittsburgh researchers told an AIDS conference. The findings may help find a way to block infection, and help explain why the virus can hide out in "reservoirs" inside the body for decades.
. . One study showed that B cells harbored viruses that could be transmitted to T cells for as long as two days. HIV had little effect on the T cells when B cells were not around.
. . The researchers found a compound that blocks DC-SIGN. When they blocked DC-SIGN in B cells, and put them in with T-cells in a lab dish, the virus was unable to infect the T-cells, the researchers said.
Aug 11, 06: How we interact with each other is important to how a disease changes and adapts. Since not all people act similarly, what seems to happen is that different strains, or types, of a single disease develop to suit our various behaviors. Some strains are better at infecting people in monogamous relationships, while others are better at infecting people with many short partnerships, according to a study.
. . Highly infectious strains, which take hold in the body for long periods of time, do well in monogamous pairings, where there is little chance a new host will come along any time soon. On the other hand, highly transmissible strains are better adapted to infect people with frequent, short-term relationships.
. . This is the first time that one specific aspect of human behavior can explain why different strains coexist, said Ken Eames, a coauther of the study from the University of Warwick. It also explains how two different strains of a same disease can occur in a population without one driving the other to extinction by infecting all possible hosts.
. . Though the new model can be easily applied to sexually transmitted diseases, Eames says the findings extend more broadly. It's an issue for all sorts of diseases, many infections are spread through social contacts in a household or an office, for example, and those contacts also tend to be longlasting."
Aug 10, 06: Only one in five people with HIV in poor and middle-income countries receives the drugs that treat the virus, said a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
. . That is despite a tripling in the number of people receiving the drug treatment between 2003 and 2005 as individual countries worked to meet a target of treating 3 million people with the drugs by 2005. This means that globally there will be a rise in people living with HIV and thus a growing need to boost measures against HIV transmission.
July 29, 06: AIDS virus hides out inside people's intestines, researchers said. The virus replicates in the lining of the gut and does much of its damage to the immune system there. These findings suggest anti-inflammatory drugs may help the drugs work better.
. . Dandekar said the study was the first to explain why the drug cocktails taken by HIV patients so often fail to work completely. "The real battle between the virus and exposed individuals is happening in the gut immediately after viral infection."
July 26, 06: A bird flu vaccine for humans that uses only a very low dose of active ingredient has proved effective in clinical tests and could be mass produced in 2007.
July 20, 06: A deadly virus found in two fish species in the northeastern United States last month appears to have spread to two more species, scientists said today.
. . Meanwhile, hundreds of fish in Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River have died in recent weeks, but officials are not yet sure if the newfound virus is behind the kills. Last week, an estimated 1,000 dead fish washed up on the shores of Lake Ontario in just one morning.
. . The virus, hemorrhagic septicemia, was confirmed in these two fish in June: round gobies and muskellunge. It causes fatal anemia and hemorrhaging in many fish species but poses no threat to humans or other animals.
July 10, 06: Circumcising men routinely across Africa could prevent millions of deaths from AIDS, World Health Organization researchers and colleagues reported.
. . They analyzed data from trials that showed men who had been circumcised had a significantly lower risk of infection with the AIDS virus, and calculated that if all men were circumcised over the next 10 years, some two million new infections and around 300,000 deaths could be avoided.
. . Researchers believe circumcision helps cut infection risk because the foreskin is covered in cells the virus seems able to easily infect. The virus may also survive better in a warm, wet environment like that found beneath a foreskin.
. . AIDS now infects close to 40 million people and has killed another 25 million. It mostly affects sub-Saharan Africa and the main mode of transmission is sex between a man and a woman.
July 5, 06: Tests in hamsters suggest it may be possible to develop a blood test for mad cow and related diseases in both humans and animals before they develop symptoms, researchers reported.
July 5, 06: Adults who carry much of their fat around the middle may be at increased risk of colon cancer, a large European study suggests.
. . Waist size and waist-to-hip ratio, which are both indicators of abdominal obesity, appeared more important in colon cancer risk than does overall weight. In fact, the study found that body mass index (BMI) --a measure of weight in relation to height-- was unrelated to colon cancer risk among the women.
. . This visceral fat increases colon cancer risk by raising levels of certain hormones that affect cell growth, including the growth of cancer cells. For example, the researcher noted, people with type 2 diabetes have a higher rate of colon cancer -- supporting a potential role for the hormones insulin and insulin-like growth factor 1 in promoting tumor cell growth.
June 26, 06: Scientists have decoded the genetic make-up of a bacterium responsible for many hospital-acquired infections --and shown why it is so difficult to tackle. Clostridium difficile caused more than 44,000 infections in the UK in 2004 --mostly among the elderly.
. . Researchers found it can chop and change its genetic structure very easily --maximizing its ability to neutralize attack by antibiotics. It can only be treated with two antibiotics, metronidazole and vancomycin --and there is concern that these will also soon become ineffective. The bug is now more prevalent, and causes more deaths than the notorious superbug MRSA.
. . Most important, and unlike its nearest relatives, C. difficile can readily exchange genes and resistance elements. "It has gained an array of genes that make it resist antibiotics, help it to interact with, and thrive in, the human gut and help it to change its surface. "This combination gives it a hugely impressive range of resources to help it prosper in humans."
. . The study also found that C. difficile produces a chemical called paracresol, which kills other competing bacteria, and protects it from bile acids in the gut. C. difficile thrives in the absence of oxygen and can "hibernate" in adverse conditions by forming spores. It is thought these spores are responsible for most human infections, and because they are highly resistant to most disinfection methods they are very difficult to eradicate, and can spread easily.
. . Since 2003, a new and more virulent strain (called NAP1/027) has emerged in hospitals in North America and is now present in most UK hospitals.
June 14, 06: Mutations in a single gene may have turned the AIDS virus from a fairly benign infection of monkeys and apes into a global pandemic that has killed more than 25 million people in 25 years, researchers said. The virus in humans appears to have lost a genetic characteristic that protected the immune system in apes and monkeys.
. . "The observed difference in Nef function may provide --for the first time-- a mechanism to explain why many monkey species naturally infected with SIV do not develop disease." Many species of monkeys, and chimps, are infected with various strains of SIV and it almost never causes disease. But HIV destroys the human immune system, leading to AIDS.
. . In HIV infection, these T-cells destroy themselves in a process known as programmed cell death or apoptosis. But the SIV version of the virus seems to somehow shut off the death function. "A strong immune response can be good in the short term, but if sustained for a long time as in those with HIV, it can exhaust the immune system. If you could somehow dampen the response, it might effectively convert the condition to the more chronic, asymptomatic infection seen in monkeys."
June 14, 06: The world may be unprepared for a bird flu pandemic, but U.S. researchers said they had come up with one low-tech answer to widespread shortages of medical equipment --a mask made out of a T-shirt. It can't filter out viruses themselves, but fine particles that can carry germs or toxins.
June 12, 06: A study raises questions about whether newer antidepressant drugs raise the risk of suicide as some studies have suggested. It found that suicide rates have dropped in the United States since the drugs were introduced, researchers said.
. . In fact, the use of the new SSRI antidepressants to treat depression has saved more than 30,000 lives, according to the study. Licinio's team studied federal data to show the U.S. suicide rate held steady for 15 years prior to the introduction of Prozac in 1988, then dropped steadily over 14 years as sales of the antidepressant rose. The research team found the strongest effect among women.
. . Mathematical modeling of probable suicide rates from 1988 to 2002, based on pre-1988 data, suggests 33,600 fewer people have committed suicide since Prozac hit the market, Licinio said.
June 8, 06: A shot that helps keep AIDS-infected monkeys alive may offer the best clues yet about how to make an effective HIV vaccine, researchers reported. Monkeys who got the SIV vaccine lived much longer when they were later infected with HIV, living up to 900 days, while unvaccinated monkeys died on average within 300 days. More than 30 different vaccines are in various stages of testing in people.
. . The experiment provided important clues about how the AIDS virus destroys the immune system, and how to track the health of infected people. The study highlights the biggest challenge of the pandemic --how to prevent infection.
. . The problem is that the virus, which has killed more than 25 million people since 1981, attacks the immune system cells that usually defend against infection. It mutates constantly, making a moving target. Most vaccines stimulate the body to produce antibodies, which help orchestrate an immune response against a particular virus or bacteria. But that approach does not work for HIV.
. . Scientists believe a second type of immune response, called cell-mediated immune response, is necessary to fight the AIDS virus. Letvin's team tested a vaccine that triggers a strong immune response by those cells, known as T-cells.
. . There are two human vaccines that are similar to this that are now going forward into advanced efficacy trials.
. . How much virus is in the blood, called viral load, is not particularly important, Letvin said. That runs counter to many assumptions among AIDS experts.
June 5, 06: A disorder that causes episodes of unwarranted anger is more common among American adults than thought, a new study finds. Intermittent explosive disorder (IED) affects as many as 7.3% of adults, or up to 16 million Americans at some point in their lives, according to the U.S. government's National Institute of Mental Health. The conclusion, announced today, is based on a data from a nationally representative, face-to-face household survey of 9,282 U.S. adults.
. . Psychologists say IED is defined by having had three episodes of impulsive aggressiveness "grossly out of proportion to any precipitating psychosocial stressor", involving having "all of a sudden lost control and broke or smashed something worth more than a few dollars... hit or tried to hurt someone... or threatened to hit or hurt someone."
. . The disorder typically starts during early teen years. It can lead to depression, anxiety and substance abuse later. Nearly 82% of those with IED also had one of these other problems. The disorder is not widely known, however, and only 29 percent of those who have it have sought treatment.
May 28, 06: Evidence has emerged that infectious prions could be spread when animals lick each other during grooming sessions.
. . It is widely accepted that diseases such as BSE can be contracted by eating brain tissue from an infected animal. Yet it remains a mystery how similar diseases such as scrapie can spread between sheep that eat nothing but grass, or how chronic wasting disease can spread between wild, free-roving animals like elk. Now, evidence has emerged suggesting that the infectious agents, called prions, could spread when animals lick one another during mutual grooming sessions.
. . Richard Bessen and his colleagues at Montana State University in Bozeman injected the brains of hamsters with a strain of prion disease that normally infects mink but can also infect hamsters. They found that the prions fanned out through facial nerves to reach the nose and tongue, accumulating in taste buds and other oral and nasal tissues.
May 27, 06: Reports of a mysterious medical condition are cropping up across the country but doctors are divided on whether it is a real disease or all in their patients' heads.
. . Called Morgellons Disease, patients who report having it describe sensations of creepy-crawlers beneath the skin and fibrous filaments oozing out of open wounds.
. . Interest in the disease was recently rekindled after afflicted Texas teenager Travis Wilson committed suicide about a month ago. To date, no clinical studies have looked into Morgellons and only one paper mentioning Morgellons has been published in a medical journal. As of February 2006, more than 2,000 reports of the disease have been reported on the Foundation's website, the majority from Texas, California and Florida.
. . Patients with the disease often describe feelings of insects or parasites scuttling beneath their skin and open lesions that heal slowly and which ooze out blue and white fibers, some as thick as spaghetti strands. Attempts to remove the fibers are said to elicit shooting pains radiating from the site.
. . The lesions range from minor to disfiguring in appearance and fibers appear either as single strands or as bundles. Patients also sometimes report the presence of fibers or black granular specks on their skin even in the absence of lesions. Some patients even report symptoms of the disease in their pets--dogs mostly, but also cats and horses.
. . According to statistics from the Morgellons Research Foundation, about 95 percent of patients also report suffering from disabling fatigue, or "brain fog", that hinders their ability to pay attention. Other reported symptoms include joint pain, sleep disorders, hair loss, decline in vision, and even the "disintegration" of perfectly healthy teeth. It appears that once patients contract the disease, they have it for life. To date, there have been no reports of spontaneous remissions.
. . A preliminary analysis of the fibers suggests they are more than just lint from household materials such as clothing, carpets or bedding. Further deepening the mystery, some analyses suggest the fibers might be made of cellulose, a molecule generally found in plants. "They're basically fibers that you wouldn't expect to see in humans."
. . But some call it another disorder that is well known to doctors --delusions of parasitosis. The Los Angeles Department of Health Services recently issued a statement that said bluntly: "No credible medical or public health association has verified the existence or diagnosis of 'Morgellons Disease.' The current description of the disease is vague and covers many conditions."
May 25, 06: Researchers who picked up and analyzed wild chimp droppings said on Thursday they had shown how the AIDS virus originated in wild apes in Cameroon and then spread in humans across Africa and eventually the world.
. . "It says that the chimpanzee group that gave rise to HIV ... this chimp community resides in Cameroon", said Beatrice Hahn of the U of Alabama, who led the study. "But that doesn't mean the epidemic originated there, because it didn't", Hahn, who has been studying the genetic origin of HIV for years, said in a telephone interview. "The epidemic took off in Kinshasa, in Brazzaville." Kinshasa is in the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire, and faces Brazzaville, in Congo, across the Congo River.
. . Studies have traced HIV to a man who gave a blood sample in 1959 in Kinshasa, then called Leopoldville. Later analysis found the AIDS virus.
. . Up to 35% of the apes in some communities were infected. Not only that, they could find different varieties, called clades, of the virus. "We found some of the clades were really, really very closely related to the human virus and others were not", she said.
. . Ivory and hardwood traders used the Sangha River in the 1930s, when the original human-to-human transmission is believed to have happened. Hahn's study suggests the virus passed from chimpanzees to people more than once.
May 24, 06: Scientists in the United States have taken a close up, three-dimensional look at spike proteins on the surface of the AIDS virus --which could speed up the search for a vaccine. The proteins, known as gp120 and gp41, allow HIV which causes AIDS to bind and fuse with human cells.
. . The proteins are the only two molecules on the surface of the virus and are obvious targets for an effective vaccine. Dozens of AIDS vaccines using different approaches are being developed and tested. Roux believes part of the reason vaccines have failed so far is that, although scientists were aware of the spike proteins, nobody had really known how the spikes were put together. "Without that knowledge, it makes it (vaccine development) more of a shot in the dark."
. . They got a close look at the intact spikes on HIV, which has about 14, and a similar monkey virus, which has 73.
. . The technology was perfected only in recent years. They may also use it to look at other viruses.
May 23, 06: "With more than 500 sperm banks in the United States and tens of thousands of donors, it was bound to happen. A sperm donor from Michigan passed on a rare and potentially deadly genetic disorder to five children.
. . The disorder, called severe congenital neutropenia, affects only one in five million newborns. Those with the disorder lack a certain type of white blood cell, and this leaves them vulnerable to a host of infections and also leukemia. Fortunately, medication, albeit at $200 a day, can keep white blood cell counts high.
. . Doctors thought it was more than a coincidence when five kids born to four couples in the Detroit area were discovered with congenital neutropenia. They traced it back to one sperm bank and one man.
. . For now, this seems to be an honest mistake. The donor, known but unnamed in the report, could have been an asymptomatic carrier of the disease. (The only problem is that his whereabouts are unknown; the children are several years old now, and the donor has fathered other children.) The sperm bank, known but unnamed in the report, only screens for about ten of the most common hereditary diseases, such as cystic fibrosis. Maybe the incident will bring about more rigorous genetic testing.
. . Sperm banks can't be expected to screen for rare genetic disorders when there are so many more pressing concerns to find out about the donor, such as baldness, salary history, hobbies and taste in clothing. That's right: Most sperm banks draw the line at 5'11". Einstein wouldn't have stood a chance.
. . Sperm banks weed out the short and bald and even those potential donors with a grandparent who died young. Darker skin donors are not as desirable as those with lighter skin, even among African American clientele.
. . Last year, the Food and Drug Administration essentially banned gay men from donating, citing the risk of HIV-infected sperm. (They would have to abstain from homosexual sex for five years.) Like blood, sperm can be and is tested for the virus, so the ban seems entirely biased against gay sexual orientation."
May 23, 06: More than 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS but declines in infection rates are being seen in some African countries where HIV/AIDS has had the greatest impact.
. . Thailand and Uganda have been the rare success stories but Piot said prevention efforts are working in countries such as Kenya and Zimbabwe and that 1.5 million people in developing countries are receiving life-saving drugs at knock-down prices.
May 8, 06: Gene therapy experts say they have found a way to persuade cells to repair themselves. Instead of replacing a faulty gene, the new approach harnesses the cells' own correctional mechanisms. German researchers showed a drug could influence the way a gene behaved in patients with a debilitating genetic condition.
Apr 27, 06: A vaccine that protects monkeys against the highly deadly Marburg virus, a relative of Ebola, may also provide the first known treatment for the infection, researchers reported. The vaccine was created using a harmless virus known as vesicular stomatitis virus, or VSV. The researchers took out one gene and replaced it with a key gene from Marburg virus.
. . Now they hope to use a similar vaccine to try to treat Ebola. Both viruses have caused rare, but frightening and deadly, outbreaks in Africa and both are considered to be potential bioterror agents. When they infected monkeys with Marburg and then administered the vaccine, the monkeys were protected and stayed healthy. Unvaccinated monkeys died within 10 to 12 days.
. . He said it may be a while before the vaccine is tested in people, but hopes it is a first step.
. . Marburg virus killed more than 300 people --90% of those infected-- in Angola last year. Ebola is usually somewhat less deadly and killed 254 people between 2001 and 2005 in Gabon and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
. . It may take some time to develop and license a human vaccine, but Geisbert said it may be possible to use an experimental version in case of a lab accident. [That's a good 1st test!]
May 3, 06: While the world focuses on battling the spread of the deadly bird flu, nearly 150 different strains of the virus with the potential to cause a global pandemic were laying in wait, scientists warned today.
Apr 23, 06: Researchers are closing in on a breakthrough microbicide gel to help prevent HIV infection in women, scientists said, but a lack of funding by major pharmaceutical companies is hampering research.
. . Microbicides cover a range of vaginal and rectal creams, gels or suppositories that kill microbes and aim to cut the transmission of HIV and possibly other sexually transmitted diseases when applied before sex.
. . If proven successful, they could provide a powerful prevention tool for
AIDS and one that, unlike condoms, can be directly controlled by women.
. . Five potential microbicide products are in advanced clinical trials and scientists say the first results should be made public within two years. Researchers say many of the products being tested could be highly effective in treating diseases such as herpes and chlamydia, both major problems in the developed world.
Apr 18, 06: A woman was hospitalized earlier this month with bubonic plague, the first confirmed human case in Los Angeles County in more than two decades, health officials said. Bubonic plague is not contagious, but if left untreated, it can morph into pneumonic plague, which can be spread from person to person. Bubonic plague is usually transmitted to humans from the bites of fleas infected by dead rodents. An estimated 10 to 20 Americans contract plague each year, mostly in rural communities. About one in seven cases is fatal, according to federal statistics.
. . Health officials suspect the woman was exposed to fleas. Health officials went to the woman's home to trap squirrels and other wild animals. Blood samples from the animals will be sent to a lab to determine if any are infected.
. . Bubonic plague, also known as the Black Death, killed an estimated 25 million people in Europe between 1346 and 1351. The last major urban outbreak in the U.S. occurred in Los Angeles in 1924-25, when at least 30 people died.
Apr 13, 06: India already harbors at least five million cases of HIV--the most in the world after South Africa--but it is too poor, and its health infrastructure too weak, to permit reliance on drugs. A project has kept the HIV prevalence rate among prostitutes in Sonagachi down to 5%, whereas in the brothels of Mumbai (Bombay), it's around 60.
Apr 11, 06: Turning bacteria, plants or insect cells into protein factories could be a key to faster vaccine production to fight a flu pandemic or another outbreak, vaccine developers and U.S. scientists said.
Apr 11, 06: Restoring wetlands and clearing poultry farms from migratory flyways could help curb the spread of bird flu by stopping wild birds from mixing with domestic fowl, a U.N.-commissioned report said.
Apr 10, 06: An outbreak last month of 536 reported cases of Norwalk virus in 11 Chicago-area hospitals and nursing homes has put health officials on alert.
. . Highly contagious but self-limiting and rarely life-threatening, Norwalk, or Norovirus as it is now called, is found in the stool or vomit of infected people. Often misnamed stomach flu, though *not an influenza virus, Norwalk causes severe diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. "This is a very uncomfortable illness that fortunately will resolve itself in a couple of days.
Mar 24, 06: There is no single cause for Gulf War illness, researchers have concluded. Researchers say effects on servicemen's health have been seen, but there is no direct scientific link between serving in the 1991 Gulf War and a syndrome.
Mar 22, 06: Scientists said today they may have uncovered why the H5N1 avian flu that is so lethal in birds has not been able to spread easily among humans.It is because bird flu viruses attach to receptors, or molecules on cells, in different regions of the respiratory system from human influenza viruses.
. . Receptors act like doorways that allow the virus to enter the cell, multiply and infect other cells. Humans have receptors for avian viruses, including H5N1, but they are found deep within the lungs. Cells in the upper airway in humans lack the receptors targeted by avian flu viruses, which limit their ability to spread from person to person. "For the viruses to be transmitted efficiently, they have to multiply in the upper portion of the respiratory system so that they can be transmitted by coughing and sneezing."
Mar 22, 06: The deadly bird flu virus may pose a fresh threat to endangered mammal species including big cats such as tigers and leopards, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) said.
Mar 20, 06: Scientists have discovered a previously unknown mechanism that cells use to fight off HIV. Two proteins that normally help repair cellular DNA were found also to destroy DNA made by HIV after it enters a human cell which it requires to survive. It is hoped the breakthrough could lead to treatments to which the virus might be less able to adapt.
Mar 9, 06: Four years ago, a disoriented sea lion created a stir by wandering past security onto the tarmac at San Francisco International Airport. Another addled sea lion took a wrong turn in the Pacific Ocean and found its way into California's Central Valley, surprising local citizens by traipsing through an artichoke field. The two sea lions were treated for a powerful form of brain poisoning and survived. But hundreds of other sea lions have died, joining a short list of ocean animals that are succumbing to strange diseases.
. . In Florida, hundreds of manatees have died from an airborne toxin produced by "red tide." Infectious germs and toxins have killed bottle-nosed dolphins all over the eastern and southern coasts of the United States. And a parasite found in cat feces is taking the lives of sea otters off the coast of California.
. . Marine researchers are hesitant to say the world's oceans are sicker than usual. But they are raising the alarm that the ocean is changing --possibly as a result of human interference-- and the evolving diseases are putting both sea animals and humans at risk.
. . Sea lions off California, for instance, are suffering from poisoning by domoic acid, which is created when algae growth runs amok and "blooms" appear. Fish eat the algae and become poisonous to mammals who eat them, including humans and sea lions. The poisoning cases in sea lions first began to appear in 1998, and California researchers have seen hundreds since then as beachgoers stumble upon animals undergoing seizures.
. . Humans suffer from memory loss when they eat seafood contaminated with domoic acid --algae-related toxins cause a variety of neurological problems-- and researchers think the sick sea lions are suffering from a similar condition. That explains why the animals do strange things like wander out of the water and become overly friendly or aggressive when they encounter humans. Even with treatment, about half the sea lions die.
. . Sea lions are also dying of a sexually transmitted cancer that reminds researchers of Kaposi's sarcoma, a disease that causes potentially fatal lesions in AIDS patients.
. . In Florida, scientists have watched manatees die from poisoning by so-called brevotoxins, which are produced by algal blooms known as red tides. The manatees apparently breathe the toxins and become sick. California sea otters are succumbing to toxoplasmosis, a disease best known for infecting unborn children if their mothers come in contact with cat feces. Scientists only have one explanation for this affliction: Parasites from cat feces are making their way into the ocean and infecting the sea otters.
. . Scientists say humans are likely responsible for the changes in the ocean that are boosting these diseases, but they aren't sure exactly what's going on. In the case of algal blooms, possible causes include fertilizer runoff, climate change and over fishing. Pollutants like DDT could be responsible for the cancer rate in sea lions, while flame retardants and stain-resistant compounds could explain die-offs of marine mammals like dolphins.
. . And the cats and the sea otters? It's not entirely clear what role humans play on that front: Are cat feces getting into the ocean through kitty litter flushed down the toilet? Or through runoff from neighborhoods where feral cats live?
. . Scientists don't seem worried that the equivalent of bird flu --say, a "fish flu"-- is lurking in the ocean, waiting to strike at humankind. The ocean, it seems, has plenty of toxins but isn't the best incubator of infectious diseases that kill humans.
Mar 2, 06: The World Health Organization (WHO) sought to reassure tourists it was safe to travel to the Indian Ocean region, despite a crippling mosquito-borne virus that has infected some 180,000 people. The "Chikungunya" fever, for which there is no cure or vaccine, has been spreading through Reunion, Mauritius and Seychelles since January. Mauritius has so far had 1,298 confirmed cases and 4,706 suspected cases and authorities are awaiting test results after the death of a 33-year-old man last week.
Feb 28, 06: Australian scientists are testing a vaccine to fight two deadly animal viruses that can infect and kill humans. Scientists say one of the pathogens, the Nipah virus, is considered a potential biological weapon. It killed more than 100 people and a million pigs in Malaysia in 1999, while the Hendra virus killed two Australians in 1994.
. . The Nipah virus is a member of a new genus of viruses related to the mysterious Hendra virus, which killed two people and 16 horses in Australia's northern state of Queensland in 1994-95 and brought the state's thoroughbred racing industry to a standstill. Mungall said a Nipah outbreak in Bangladesh in the past two years killed 61 of the 97 people infected and probably involved human-to-human transmission.
. . Both viruses are carried by fruit bats and have alarmed scientists with the ease in which they jump from animals to humans.
. . Testing of a new vaccine showed promise of preventing both diseases. "It worked far better than we expected." Animals immunized with a protein component prepared from the virus were effectively protected against both viruses, Mungall said.
Feb 25, 06: Doctors in mainland France have detected a mosquito-borne disease among people returning from the Indian Ocean region, where the virus is spreading rapidly. France's health minister has blamed "Chikungunya" fever, for which there is no known cure or vaccine, for directly or indirectly killing 77 people on the French island of La Reunion off the southeast coast of Africa.
. . French health officials say 157,000 people have now been infected by the disease on La Reunion, about one in five of the population. Health Minister Xavier Bertrand told Europe 1 that the mosquito which carries the virus could be present in southeastern France but gave no details.
. . The illness, which has also been found in the nearby Indian Ocean islands of the Seychelles and Mauritius, is marked by high fever and severe rashes. Most people recover although it is extremely painful.
. . First recognized in East Africa in 1952, chikungunya leaves the immune system weak, proving opportunities for other diseases to set in. The name comes from the Swahili for stooped walk, referring to the posture of those afflicted.
Feb 18, 06: Humans risk being overrun by diseases from the animal world, according to researchers who have documented 38 illnesses that have made that jump over the past 25 years. That's not good news for the spread of bird flu, which experts fear could mutate and be transmitted easily among people.
. . There are 1,407 pathogens -viruses, bacteria, parasites, protozoa and fungi- that can infect humans. Of those, 58% come from animals. Scientists consider 177 of the pathogens to be "emerging" or "re-emerging." Most will never cause pandemics. Experts fear bird flu could prove an exception.
. . Each year for the last 25 years, one or two new pathogens and multiple variations of existing threats have infected humans for the first time. Without speculating about earlier infection rates, Woolhouse told reporters it appears impossible the human species could endured such a rapid pace of new infections over thousands of years. "Humans have always been attacked by novel pathogens. This process has been going on for millennia. But it does seem to be happening very fast in these modern times."
Feb 6, 06: U.S. and Ugandan researchers reported they'd found that people infected with a clade, or subtype, of HIV called D died more quickly that those with infections from the A clade. Clade was a better predictor than viral load --how much virus can be found in a patient's blood-- of rapid death from AIDS. Researchers are not certain yet if clade is important for making vaccines against AIDS.
. . The virus has mutated into nine clades that correspond to rough geographical boundaries. Clades A and D are common in Uganda, for instance, while clade C circulates in Botswana, South Africa, India and parts of China. Clade B is common in Europe and the United States. The Johns Hopkins team said clade D may be more virulent than A because D uses multiple doorways, called receptors, to get into human immune cells called T-cells that it infects. Clade A HIV uses only one receptor.
. . Ten% of those infected with subtype D died within three years, while none with subtype A died that quickly.
Jan 26, 06: Scientists may have found out what makes the H5N1 influenza virus so deadly --bird flu viruses have a gene that may make them especially destructive to cells, U.S. researchers reported. All the bird flu viruses studied by the team had the gene and none of the human influenza viruses did.
. . People infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus in Vietnam and Thailand had the "avian" version of the flu virus, as did the victims of the 1918 influenza pandemic, which killed tens of millions of people globally. But the influenza viruses that cause the normal seasonal human misery, and those that caused the less deadly 1957 and 1968 human flu pandemics, do not carry the avian genes.
. . Naeve and his colleagues have been working to sequence the genomes of all known influenza viruses. No one has done this, even though flu viruses have just eight genes and are relatively simple organisms, the researchers said. "This is information we expect will be very important in understanding the attributes of this virus --how it will cross from birds to humans. We are releasing this data so that other investigators worldwide can mine it for information", he said. The researchers used a collection of samples of 11,000 influenza viruses, including 7,000 avian influenza viruses.
. . The H5N1 virus has been found in birds for decades but it first was seen to infect people in 1997, in Hong Kong. Since it resurfaced in 2003, it has infected at least 152 people and killed 83 of them, according to the World Health Organization.
. . H5N1 does not yet pass easily from person to person, but experts fear it will mutate into a form that does so, sparking a pandemic that could kill millions or tens of millions. One factor will be just what genetic changes the virus makes, and no one can predict what they will be. But Naeve's team may have identified two proteins to watch. They are called NS1 and NS2, for non-structural protein, and they are only made once the virus has infected a cell.
. . "As time progresses, one might expect that signature to change into a less-virulent form", he said, or it may not, as was apparently the case in 1918. "I don't think anybody can predict at this time what the future holds for the H5 outbreaks. It's pretty scary", Naeve said.
Jan 24, 06: The 3D structure of the virus which causes Aids has been revealed for the first time, scientists say. The variable size and shape of HIV has made it hard to map, the team said. So the UK-German team took hundreds of images of viruses, that are 60 times smaller than red blood cells, and used a computer program to combine them.
. . Oxford University's Professor Stephen Fuller said the 3D map would assist in understanding how the virus grows. "You say can you show me the structure of the HIV virus and the question is which one. "HIV is very variable. It varied in diameter by a factor of three." The way the research team, from the Wellcome Trust center for Human Genetics at Oxford University, dealt with this was by taking multiple images at different tilts.
. . Working with colleagues in Heidelberg and Munich, they took about 100 images of 70 individual HIV viruses and then looked at similarities. Despite the variability, the team found some consistent features. This included the finding that the core of virus - which is cone-shaped - spans the width of the viral membrane. But there are spikes on the outside which bind to human immune cells, called T cells, and allow the virus to invade them. The significance of this is that whereas most viruses have internal structures which define the size, in the HIV virus it is the membrane which defines the size. This puts constraints on the way it can assemble. "This could inform the development of more effective therapeutic approaches."
. . Like any virus, HIV is not a cell but rather strands of genetic code wrapped in protein. The virus invades living cells and take them over by usurping the cell's genetic code with its own. AIDS affects 40 million people across the world.
Jan 20, 06: The H5N1 avian influenza virus can survive for more than a month in bird droppings in cold weather and for nearly a week even in hot summer temperatures, the World Health Organization said. Bird droppings may be a significant source of its spread to both people and birds. H5N1 has different qualities from seasonal flu, the WHO said. "The incubation period for H5N1 avian influenza may be longer than that for normal seasonal influenza, which is around 2 to 3 days. Current data for H5N1 infection indicate an incubation period ranging from 2 to 8 days and possibly as long as 17 days."
. . For unknown reasons, very few cases have been detected in presumed high-risk groups, such as commercial poultry workers, workers at live poultry markets, cullers, veterinarians, and health staff caring for patients without adequate protective equipment." [Remember how cowpox-exposure defended against smallpox!]
Jan 6, 06: A new study finds that a cell once believed to serve neurons instead may perform the crucial function of regulating blood flow in the brain. The discovery challenges a basic assumption in neuroscience and could have implications for interpreting brain scans and understanding what occurs during brain trauma and Alzheimer's disease.
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