Virus Weekly articles from May 2001

Virus Weekly archives from May 2001

H9N2 Isolates From Parakeets Closely Related to Human H9N2.(Brief Article)
May 8, 2001... 2001 MAY 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Influenza A viruses isolated from the respiratory organs of Indian ring-necked parakeets are almost identical genetically to isolates from humans, say...

Cell Cultures Can Analyze Disinfectant Activity Against HBV.(Brief Article)
May 8, 2001... 2001 MAY 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Sonia Nichols, staff medical writer - A French study has determined cell cultures can be used to examine the effectiveness of common hospital disinfectants against hepatitis B virus (HBV). ...

New PCR Method Useful For Rapid Diagnosis Of Infection.(Brief Article)
May 8, 2001... 2001 MAY 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - A novel adenovirus-specific nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method has a higher sensitivity than cell culture or immunofluorescence (IF) for the...

U.S. Geological Survey Issues Wildlife Health Alert For FMD.(Brief Article)
May 8, 2001... 2001 MAY 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Although no cases of foot-and-mouth (FMD) disease have been found in the United States, given the recent outbreaks in the European Union and South America, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) wildlife...

Famciclovir Comparable To Aciclovir In Resolving Outbreaks.(Brief Article)
May 8, 2001... 2001 MAY 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Famciclovir twice daily is as effective as aciclovir five times daily for treatment of genital herpes, study data indicate. Although famciclovir (FCV)...

New Cyclopentane Derivative Comparable To Oseltamivir And Zanamivir.(Brief Article)
May 8, 2001... 2001 MAY 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - An influenza virus neuraminidase inhibitor called RWJ-270201 completely protects mice against lethal infection with influenza, and compares favorably with...

Proteasome Subunits May Have Regulatory Role In Hepatitis C Virus Replication.(Brief Article)
May 8, 2001... 2001 MAY 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Gastroenterologists have ferreted out what they say could be a principal regulatory role for proteasome subunits in the replication of the hepatitis C virus. They reported their study at the...

Antiretrovirals Can Raise Pediatric CD4 Count Despite Poor Viral Response.(Brief Article)
May 8, 2001... 2001 MAY 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, staff medical writer - Children who achieve only temporary HIV suppression under antiretroviral therapy can still realize sustained immune recovery, study findings indicate. ...

Cell Fusion Inhibitors Have Synergistic Effect.(Brief Article)
May 8, 2001... 2001 MAY 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, staff medical writer - Two experimental drugs that inhibit different events in the process of HIV cell entry become much more potent when used in combination, study results show....

Does A Lifetime Of Fighting Off Infections Trigger Heart Disease?(Brief Article)
May 8, 2001... 2001 MAY 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Hardened arteries and heart attacks may be the price we pay for fighting infection. According to a report in a recent issue of New Scientist, researchers in Austria have shown that a wide...

CDC Opens New Facility in Puerto Rico For Study And Prevention.(Brief Article)
May 8, 2001... 2001 MAY 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) inaugurated its new facility in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on April 18, 2001. These facilities, occupied since August 2000, are the third...

Assay Helps Determine Immunity To Hepatitis B Virus.(Brief Article)
May 8, 2001... 2001 MAY 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The first diagnostic anti-hepatitis B surface antigen assay on a random access system has received Premarket Approval (PMA) by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Center for Devices and...

Rural Drug Users In England Acquire Same Diseases As Urban Counterparts.(Brief Article)
May 8, 2001... 2001 MAY 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Sonia Nichols, staff medical writer - Drug users in rural England acquire blood-borne viral infections at the same rates as their urban contemporaries do. Medical investigators at two...

Studies Cast Further Doubt On Precursor Virus To HIV Being Contained In Polio Vaccine.(Brief Article)
May 8, 2001... 2001 MAY 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- New studies have cast more doubt on the idea that AIDS arose because an oral polio vaccine was contaminated with a precursor to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). For years, there has been...

Countries Debate Vaccination Policy.(Brief Article)
May 8, 2001... 2001 MAY 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- As of the end of March 2001, many parts of Britain were closed to visitors. The tourist industry was losing millions every week. It was suggested the general election may be postponed. And over a...

Survival Disadvantage Reported For Female Patients With Epstein-Barr Virus.(Brief Article)
May 8, 2001... 2001 MAY 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The presence of the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in women with Hodgkin's disease can negatively affect survival time after diagnosis, according to a study published in the April 15, 2001, issue of the...

NewsRx.net Is Preferred Site for Cancer, Malaria, AIDS, Other Health Searches, Audience Measurement Shows.(Brief Article)
May 8, 2001... 2001 MAY 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- NewsRx Network, Atlanta, Georgia, the leading provider of life science databases and daily and weekly health news, announced on April 17, 2001, the results of audience measurements based on its...

HBV Thrives In Human Heptatic Cells Transplanted Into Immunocompetent Rats.(Brief Article)
May 8, 2001... 2001 MAY 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Sonia Nichols, staff medical writer - Hepatitis B virus (HBV) will infect human liver cells transplanted into immunocompetent rats, according to a new study. Whereas immunodeficient animals...

Occupational Risk For Infection Low Among Japanese Health Care Workers.(Brief Article)
May 8, 2001... 2001 MAY 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Sonia Nichols, staff medical writer - Health care workers appear to be at a low risk for acquiring TT virus through occupational exposures, according to investigators in Japan. Information...

Stressgen Targets Hepatitis B For Its Next Heat Shock Protein Fusion Program.(Brief Article)
May 8, 2001... 2001 MAY 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Stressgen Biotechnologies Corporation (SSB) announced on April 17, 2001, that, based on positive preclinical data presented at the Experimental Biology 2001 meeting held in April, it has chosen to...

Goal Of DITTO-HCV Study Is Treatment Tailored To Each Patient's Therapeutic Response.(Brief Article)
May 8, 2001... 2001 MAY 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Maxim Pharmaceuticals (MAXM) has announced that its product Ceplene(TM) (histamine dihydrochloride) will be tested in a new multi-national clinical study, the "Dynamically Individualized Treatment...

Epstein-Barr Virus Implicated In Recurrence.(Brief Article)
May 8, 2001... 2001 MAY 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Epstein-Barr infection early in life may persist in tonsillar tissue and cause recurrent tonsillitis in children, according to a report in the International...

Few Infections Result From Needle Reuse At U.S. Phlebotomy Center.(Brief Article)
May 8, 2001... 2001 MAY 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Sonia Nichols, staff medical writer - Few people who were potentially exposed to bloodborne viruses at a California clinical laboratory have developed viral infections, public health officials...

Five Vaccine Formulations Safe, Immunogenic In Humans.(Brief Article)
May 15, 2001... 2001 MAY 15 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Five live, attenuated dengue vaccines are safe and well-tolerated in humans, report virologists with the U.S. army. N. Kanesa-Thasan and colleagues at...

HCV-4 Subtypes Profile Population of Seine-Saint-Denis District In France.(Brief Article)
May 15, 2001... 2001 MAY 15 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Sonia Nichols, senior medical writer - Scientists in France have confirmed that several subtypes of hepatitis C virus (HCV) type 4 are prevalent among the population of a region in Paris,...

Use Of Bovine Immunodeficiency Virus Reduces Risk.(Brief Article)
May 15, 2001... 2001 MAY 15 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Deborah W. Heinrich, PhD, staff medical writer - Researchers at Chemocentryx in San Carlos, California, infected non-dividing human cells with bovine immunodeficiency virus to study the safety...

Immunotherapy Agent Found Effective In 73% Of Patients.(Brief Article)
May 15, 2001... 2001 MAY 15 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Stressgen Biotechnologies Corp. (TSE:SSB) announced April 24, 2001, preliminary Phase II data confirming previously reported activity of HspE7, a novel immunotherapeutic, for the treatment of a...

New Variant of Genotype C Identified in Australian Aborigines With HBV.(Brief Article)
May 15, 2001... 2001 MAY 15 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Sonia Nichols, senior medical writer - Medical researchers report a new variant of genotype c has been sequenced and identified in Australian Aborigines with serum markers for hepatitis B virus...

Blood Transfusions Do Not Pose Viral Activation Risk.(Brief Article)
May 15, 2001... 2001 MAY 15 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - Contrary to conventional wisdom, blood transfusions do not seem to have a negative effect on HIV patients, according to researchers at the University of...

Scientists Seek Cure For Vaccine- And Asbestos-Linked Mesothelioma.(Brief Article)
May 15, 2001... 2001 MAY 15 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- For years, doctors were certain that an exceptionally lethal cancer of the lungs' lining was caused only by exposure to asbestos. But in 1994, a researcher at the U.S. National Institutes of...

Study Reports Lamivudine Effective In 23% Of Treated Children With Chronic Hepatitis B.(Brief Article)
May 15, 2001... 2001 MAY 15 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- BioChem Pharma Inc. announced that new data on its product, Zeffix (lamivudine), were presented at the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) Congress, held in Prague, the Czech...

Mutant HIV Strains Retain Fitness Despite Reduced Function.(Brief Article)
May 15, 2001... 2001 MAY 15 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - Drug-resistant HIV strains remain dangerous even when mutations seem to degrade their ability to proliferate, researchers in Switzerland warn. ...

Health Officials Plan Less Spraying, More Public Education.(Brief Article)
May 15, 2001... 2001 MAY 15 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- It is spring, and an epidemiologist's thoughts turn to the West Nile virus - the virus that arrived in the U.S. two years ago, imperiling lives and causing alarm along the East Coast. This...

Betulinic Acid Derivative Can Prevent Viral Maturation.(Brief Article)
May 22, 2001... 2001 MAY 22 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - The betulinic acid derivative YK-FH312 seems to inhibit HIV viral packaging and/or release a novel plan of attack for HIV drugs, researchers in Japan say....

Single Genotype Characterizes Hepatitis A Infections In Korea.(Brief Article)
May 22, 2001... 2001 MAY 22 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Sonia Nichols, senior medical writer - Hepatitis A virus (HAV) infections in Korea can be characterized by a single genotype, according to researchers at Korea University. New research...

Too Little Selenium In Diet Can Boost Damage Caused By Virus.(Brief Article)
May 22, 2001... 2001 MAY 22 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers have found strong new evidence to support what concerned mothers have preached for generations: eating a balanced diet can be critical to...

Anti-Inflammatory Medications Ease Eye Infections.(Brief Article)
May 22, 2001... 2001 MAY 22 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Anti-inflammatory medications used to treat arthritis may represent an important new treatment in preventing recurrences of sight-threatening eye infections caused by herpes simplex virus, study...

Viral Factories and Aggresomes Share Characteristics.(Brief Article)
May 22, 2001... 2001 MAY 22 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Many reproducing viruses need to concentrate all of their components in one area of the cell, called a viral factory, so that all of their parts are present in sufficient quantities to allow...

HBV Response To Lamivudine Predicted In First Three Months Of Therapy.(Brief Article)
May 22, 2001... 2001 MAY 22 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Sonia Nichols, senior medical writer - Viral activity during the first three months of therapy is an essential factor in the ultimate response of chronic hepatitis B patients to lamivudine...

Canarypox-CMV pp65 Vaccine Stimulates Long-Lasting Immune Response.(Brief Article)
May 22, 2001... 2001 MAY 22 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - A vaccine consisting of the major matrix phosphoprotein 65 (pp65) of cytomegalovirus (CMV) plus canarypox is able to stimulate pp65-specific antibody...

Adolescents Often Unaware Of HSV-2 Infection.(Brief Article)
May 22, 2001... 2001 MAY 22 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Sexually active adolescents should be routinely tested for herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2) and would benefit from better prevention education, propose...

Hepatitis C Replicates In Oral Mucosa.(Brief Article)
May 22, 2001... 2001 MAY 22 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- At the 36th annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), held April 18-22, 2001, in Prague, Czech Republic, M. Carrozzo and colleagues at the University of Turin,...

Nef Protein Doesn't Need Diacidic Sequence For COP Binding.(Brief Article)
May 22, 2001... 2001 MAY 22 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - Contrary to previous reports, researchers in France say that HIV Nef protein can interact with other coat proteins (COP) without a motif suspected to...

Sequences Inhibiting Surface Env Expression Found.(Brief Article)
May 22, 2001... 2001 MAY 22 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - Researchers in Germany have discovered a pair of motifs in HIV's cytoplasmic tail that suppress surface expression of the Env protein. "Only a small...

Imiquimod Effective Against Genital Warts In Adolescent Girls.(Brief Article)
May 22, 2001... 2001 MAY 22 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Results of a new study show that Aldara(TM) (imiquimod) cream 5% is a highly effective treatment for adolescent girls with the sexually transmitted disease genital warts. Nearly 80% of the...

NewsRx Network Chosen As Source For 'Information Therapy'.(Brief Article)
May 22, 2001... 2001 MAY 22 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- NewsRx Network, Atlanta, Georgia, the leading provider of life science databases and daily and weekly health news, now is a major source for "information therapy." NewsRx databases are derived...

EBV-Based Plasmid Vector Prolongs Glomerular Transgene Expression.(Brief Article)
May 22, 2001... 2001 MAY 22 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Deborah W. Heinrich, PhD, staff medical writer - Researchers at Osaka University in Japan reported on the development of an effective method for transgene delivery to glomerular mesangial cells....

Blood Transfusion Does Not Appear To Be Transmission Route In Thalassemia Patients.(Brief Article)
May 22, 2001... 2001 MAY 22 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Gastroenterologists in Turkey report that TT virus infection in transfusion-dependent thalassemia patients is not transmitted via blood transfusion U.S. Akarca, at the Ege University Medical...

Parents And Physicians Report Increased Concerns About Some Vaccines.(Brief Article)
May 22, 2001... 2001 MAY 22 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- In the wake of recent publicity surrounding vaccine safety issues, parents and the physicians who treat their children are reporting more concern about some vaccines, and even refusing certain...

Higher Chickenpox Vaccination Rates Decrease Disease Even In The Unvaccinated.(Brief Article)
May 22, 2001... 2001 MAY 22 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- With more than 60% of children being vaccinated, the "vaccine has been administered to a high enough proportion of the children in the population that incidence of varicella disease has decreased...