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By Category: Agents & Toxins

Researchers Identify Deadly Congo Virus

(All Africa) An international research team has identified a previously unknown virus that caused two deaths in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2009. The unusual characteristics of the virus and its deadly consequences still puzzle the team, however, and research continues to better understand how the virus is transmitted and what might stop Read More »

October 3, 2012
| Filed under Africa, North America, Agents & Toxins, International, and Public Health
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Smallpox Virus May Help Treat Deadly Form of Breast Cancer

(ABC News) A new form of breast cancer treatment may be… smallpox? What was once a feared killer of millions of people may someday be used to treat one of the most dangerous forms of breast cancer. So far it’s worked in mice, and researchers are encouraged. The researchers, from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Read More »

October 2, 2012
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Public Health, and Research
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New pathogen epidemic identified in sub-Saharan Africa

(EurekAlert) A new study out today reveals that the emergence and spread of a rapidly evolving invasive intestinal disease, that has a significant mortality rate (up to 45%) in infected people in sub-Saharan Africa, seems to have been potentiated by the HIV epidemic in Africa. The team found that invasive non-Typhoidal Salmonella (iNTS) disease is Read More »

October 1, 2012
| Filed under North America and Agents & Toxins
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Researchers find novel hemorrhagic fever virus in Africa

(CIDRAP) Researchers have identified a new virus that can cause hemorrhagic fever in humans, based on their investigation of an unusual outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 2009 that sickened three people, killing two. The analysis of a virus from the surviving patient—a nurse who cared for the two children who died—revealed Read More »

October 1, 2012
| Filed under Africa, North America, Agents & Toxins, International, and Public Health
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Cattle anthrax outbreak probably over

(Denver Post) Colorado agriculture officials say four ranch quarantines that were prompted by an outbreak of anthrax in cattle in northeast Colorado have been lifted. State Department of Agriculture officials initially estimated that the outbreak killed 60 cattle in Logan County this past summer, but they have since revised that to about 55 cattle on Read More »