Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Viruses – Lots of Them – Are Falling From the Sky

An astonishing number of viruses are circulating around the Earth's atmosphere – and falling from it – according to new research from scientists in...

21-Day Ebola Quarantine Period May Not be Long Enough

As medical personnel and public health officials are responding to the first reported cases of Ebola Virus in the United States, many of the...

Some Vaccines Support the Evolution of More-Virulent Viruses

Scientific experiments with the herpesvirus, such as the one that causes Marek's disease in poultry, have confirmed, for the first time, the highly controversial...

How Does Ebola Spread? Hard Facts From Key Studies

About 5 minutes into Tuesday’s press conference describing the first U.S. Ebola diagnosis, Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and...

Does Enterovirus D68 Cause Paralysis?

  Several children in Denver have developed limb weakness or paralysis after contracting respiratory illness, and four of the children have tested positive for enterovirus...

Simple Urine Test for Cervical Cancer Virus

Dread going for a smear test? A simple urine test can pick up the human papilloma virus (HPV) that causes cervical cancer. Though it's...

Project Maps Diverse Group of Viruses That Live in Healthy Humans

The same viruses that make us sick can take up residence in and on the human body without provoking a sneeze, cough or other...

New Study Reveals How Fast Ebola Virus Can Spread

Earlier this week Liberia's defense minister, Brownie Samukai told the U.N. Security Council that Ebola "is now spreading like wildfire, devouring everything in its...

How Flu Virus Attacks Immune System to Establish Infection

Shedding light on influenza's insidious nature, scientists from the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts have discovered how the flu virus is able to quickly...

Overcoming Antibiotic Resistance with Bacteriophages

A team of scientists from Europe has recently isolated a group of naturally-occurring viruses that specifically target the highly infectious hospital superbug Clostridium difficile (C. diff). Dr Martha Clokie of...

Going Viral – Bacteriophages Offer Sustainable, Powerful Method of Controlling Microbes

In the early 1900s, most researchers believed that DNA was a “stupid molecule,” too simple to be of any value in the transmission of...

Onset Of Flu Season Raises Concerns About Human-To-Pet Transmission

As flu season approaches, people who get sick may not realize they can pass the flu not only to other humans, but possibly to other animals, including pets such as cats, dogs and ferrets. This concept, called "reverse zoonosis," is still poorly understood but has raised concern among some scientists and veterinarians, who want to raise awareness and prevent further flu transmission to pets.