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Posted: August 26th, 2010, 2:00am CDT
Blood hounds, cadaver dogs, and other canines who serve humanity may soon have a new partner - disease detector dogs - thanks to an unusual experiment in which scientists trained mice to identify feces of ducks infected with bird influenza. Migrating ducks, geese, and other birds can carry and spread flu viruses over wide geographic areas, where the viruses may possibly spread to other species...
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Posted: August 23rd, 2010, 2:00am CDT
New Compound May be Effective Against Chagas' Disease A new compound may offer an effective drug candidate against the deadly tropical infection, Chagas' disease say researchers from Brazil. They report their findings in the August 2010 issue of the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy...
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Posted: August 7th, 2010, 2:00am CDT
The influenza virus, scientists well know, is a crafty, shape-shifting organism, constantly changing form to evade host immune systems and jump from one species, like birds, to another, mammals...
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Posted: July 8th, 2010, 4:00am CDT
USAID Program To Prevent Spread Of Bird Flu In Bangladesh Expands All Headline News reports on a USAID-funded initiative to prevent the spread of bird flu in Bangladesh...
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Posted: July 6th, 2010, 5:00am CDT
Intercell AG (VSE: ICLL) announced the results of a Phase II clinical trial of its investigational Vaccine Enhancement Patch (VEP) system for avian H5N1 influenza. In this development program, Intercell is working under a contract with the U.S...
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Posted: April 22nd, 2010, 2:00am CDT
The Field Museum and the University of Chicago have announced the establishment of the Emerging Pathogens Project, a unique research program to study the evolution of species-switching parasites or pathogens that result in diseases such as bird flu, malaria, and AIDS. Many diseases have a long infection history in animals...
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Posted: April 20th, 2010, 5:00am CDT
Though the world has made "great strides" in eliminating H5N1 (avian flu) from poultry since the "peak of its outbreak in 2006" in 63 countries, the virus persists in Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Indonesia and Vietnam, VOA News reports (DeCapua, 4/16). Juan Lubroth, the U.N...
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Posted: April 14th, 2010, 2:00am CDT
Pathogens can now be easily tracked in time and space as they evolve, an advance that could revolutionize both public health and inform national security in the fight against infectious diseases...
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Posted: April 13th, 2010, 7:00am CDT
Antibodies are immune molecules that have a key role in protecting against infection with influenza virus. The target of the protective antibodies is the influenza protein HA, which varies so dramatically among influenza viruses that it is used to classify them into subtypes (H1-H16)...
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Posted: March 31st, 2010, 7:00am CDT
A University of Alberta-led research team has discovered an influenza detector gene that could potentially prevent the transmission of the virus to humans. Katharine Magor, a U of A associate professor of biology, has identified the genetic detector that allows ducks to live, unharmed, as the host of influenza...
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Posted: March 26th, 2010, 6:00am CDT
WHO Warns Bird Flu Continues To Pose Threat Despite a reduction in the number of cases of avian flu (H5N1) since its peak in 2006, the WHO said in a statement Wednesday that "the newly confirmed human and poultry cases of avian influenza this year are a reminder that the virus poses a real and continuous threat to human health," Agence France-Presse reports (3/24)...
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Posted: March 22nd, 2010, 2:00am CDT
Researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) found an Infrared Thermal Detection System (ITDS) to be a fast and effective fever screening tool in clinical settings during the H1N1 influenza pandemic. The ITDS detected fever in patients through split-second, non-contact skin temperature measurements...
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Posted: March 3rd, 2010, 4:00am CST
The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) have awarded a $300,000 grant for research focusing on the nature of the immune response induced by the action mechanisms of plant-made Virus-Like Particles (VLP) to Dr. Louis Vezina, Chief Scientific Officer of Medicago and to Dr. Brian Ward and Dr...
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Posted: March 3rd, 2010, 3:00am CST
Inovio Biomedical Corporation (NYSE Amex: INO), a leader in DNA vaccine design, development and delivery, announced that its affiliate VGX International Inc. (Korean Stock Exchange: 011000) has received approval in Korea to begin a Phase I clinical trial in healthy volunteers for Inovio's SynCon™ preventive DNA vaccine (VGX-3400) targeting H5N1 avian influenza...
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Posted: February 26th, 2010, 3:00am CST
Campylobacter Bacteria in Cattle Manure May Survive Composting Contrary to popular belief, some disease causing bacteria may actually survive the composting process...
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Posted: February 24th, 2010, 4:00am CST
An international team of scientists has created a highly pathogenic laboratory hybrid of the H5N1 bird flu and human seasonal flu viruses by swapping just one gene, and propose that a similar genetic interaction could happen in nature between the current pandemic H1N1 swine flu and H5N1 avian flu strains, highlighting the importance of continued surveillance...
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Posted: February 23rd, 2010, 6:00am CST
Genetic interactions between avian H5N1 influenza and human seasonal influenza viruses have the potential to create hybrid strains combining the virulence of bird flu with the pandemic ability of H1N1, according to a new study. In laboratory experiments in mice, a single gene segment from a human seasonal flu virus, H3N2, was able to convert the avian H5N1 virus into a highly pathogenic form...
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Posted: February 23rd, 2010, 3:00am CST
Adamas Pharmaceuticals, Inc...
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Posted: February 11th, 2010, 7:00am CST
Social interaction between neighbours, work colleagues and other communities and social groups makes voluntary vaccination programs for epidemics such as Swine Flu, SARS or Bird Flu a surprisingly effective method of disease control...
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Posted: February 11th, 2010, 7:00am CST
One quarter of Ontario hospitals surveyed in a Queen's University-led study do not have an influenza pandemic plan and few plans that do exist have been tested. In addition, key players were not involved in developing the plans, and funding for pandemic preparedness was inadequate. "It's not good enough just to have a plan, you have to test it...
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Posted: January 20th, 2010, 7:00am CST
The two strains of the H1N1 influenza virus responsible for the 1918 and 2009 global flu pandemics do not cause disease in birds. The results of the study, published in the February issue of the Journal of General Virology, also show it is unlikely that birds played a role in the spread of the H1N1 virus in these pandemics...
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Posted: January 14th, 2010, 3:00am CST
Genetic analyses of avian influenza in wild birds can help pinpoint likely carrier species and geographic hot spots where Eurasian viruses would be most likely to enter North America, according to new U.S. Geological Survey research...
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Posted: January 8th, 2010, 4:00am CST
NexBio, Inc. announced the initiation of a double blind placebo controlled multi-center trial in the U.S. and Mexico of DAS181 (Fludase®) for the treatment of laboratory confirmed influenza infection. DAS181 is an investigational host-targeted drug candidate that blocks entry of influenza virus into cells of the respiratory tract...
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Posted: January 7th, 2010, 6:00am CST
Zimbabwe Wants To Boost Access To ART By End Of 2010, Health Minister Says Zimbabwe's government plans work with international organizations to increase the number of people receiving anti-retroviral therapy (ART) to 300,000 by the end of the year, up from the 180,000 who currently get the drugs, Henry Madzorera, the country's health minister, said on Tues...
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Posted: December 25th, 2009, 2:00am CST
The specter of a drug-resistant form of the deadly H5N1 avian influenza is a nightmare to keep public-health officials awake at night. Now, however, a study published this week (Dec...
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Posted: December 25th, 2009, 2:00am CST
The specter of a drug-resistant form of the deadly H5N1 avian influenza is a nightmare to keep public-health officials awake at night. Now, however, a study published this week (Dec...
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Posted: December 22nd, 2009, 4:00am CST
The specter of a drug-resistant form of the deadly H5N1 avian influenza is a nightmare to keep public health officials awake at night. Now, however, a study published this week (Dec...
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Posted: December 22nd, 2009, 4:00am CST
The specter of a drug-resistant form of the deadly H5N1 avian influenza is a nightmare to keep public health officials awake at night. Now, however, a study published this week (Dec...
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Posted: December 22nd, 2009, 3:00am CST
Medicago Inc. (TSX-V: MDG) a biotechnology company focused on developing highly effective and affordable vaccines based on proprietary manufacturing technologies and Virus-Like Particles (VLPs), reported positive interim results from a Phase I human clinical trial with its H5N1 Avian Influenza vaccine candidate ("H5N1 vaccine")...
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Posted: December 22nd, 2009, 3:00am CST
Medicago Inc. (TSX-V: MDG) a biotechnology company focused on developing highly effective and affordable vaccines based on proprietary manufacturing technologies and Virus-Like Particles (VLPs), reported positive interim results from a Phase I human clinical trial with its H5N1 Avian Influenza vaccine candidate ("H5N1 vaccine")...