Recent News

By Category: Agents & Toxins

Why is ebola deadlier than other viruses?

(iO9) Ebola is the nightmare virus. It kills ninety percent of people infected, and was for some time feared as the second coming of the plagues of the 1400s. Why is this one virus so much more deadly than other viruses? Ask people to pick a virus that might, under the right circumstances, end the Read More »

August 30, 2013
| Filed under Africa, North America, South America, Agents & Toxins, and Research
Share

UT Medical Branch Researchers Develop New Treatment For Tularemia Based On Cystatin-9 Protein

(BioNewsTexas) Researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have been successful in developing a new treatment plan that that may prove useful against the potential bioterrorism agent and causative pathogen of pulmonary tularemia. This drug agent cystatin-9 exists in the human body as one of the important proteins that is responsible for Read More »

August 29, 2013
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, and Research
Share

New explanation for key step in anthrax infection proposed

(ScienceDaily) A new hypothesis concerning a crucial step in the anthrax infection process has been advanced by scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) at Fort Detrick, Md. The research teams have explored the behavior of the toxins that rapidly overwhelm Read More »

August 22, 2013
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Biotechnology, and Research
Share

Experimental Ebola treatment protects some primates even after disease symptoms appear

(EurekAlert) Scientists have successfully treated the deadly Ebola virus in infected animals following onset of disease symptoms, according to a report published online today in Science Translational Medicine. The results show promise for developing therapies against the virus, which causes hemorrhagic fever with human case fatality rates as high as 90 percent. According to first Read More »

August 22, 2013
| Filed under Africa, North America, South America, Agents & Toxins, Countermeasures, and Research
Share

17th human H5N1 bird flu case reported in Cambodia

(TheGlobalDispatch) A boy from Cambodia’s southern Kandal Province has been confirmed for avian influenza H5N1, making him the 17th case reported from the Kingdom this year, according to a Xinhua report today. The 6-year-old boy was confirmed positive for human H5N1 avian influenza on Aug. 17 after he caught fever, headache, abdominal pain, vomiting, cough Read More »