http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Adding vitamin B12 to standard hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment significantly boosts the body's ability to keep the virus at bay, indicates a pilot study published online in the journal Gut. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-vitamin-b12-supplements-hepatitis.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 17 Jul 2012 18:30:02 EST news261758041 A major collaboration between US research centers has highlighted three factors that could ultimately determine whether an outbreak of influenza becomes a serious epidemic that threatens national health. The research suggests that the numbers in current response plans could be out by a factor of two or more depending on the characteristics of the particular pandemic influenza. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-uncertainties-pandemic-influenza.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 02 Jul 2012 11:03:30 EST news260445803 (Medical Xpress) -- Professors at Colorado State University and the University of Northern Colorado are developing a drug that can stop replication of West Nile, dengue and yellow fever viruses that continue to plague two-thirds of the world's population with no clinically useful antiviral drugs available. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-drug-combat-west-nile-virus.html Medical research Fri, 08 Jun 2012 06:50:01 EST news258356405 (AP) -- A pill to prevent HIV infection is already being given to some healthy people, but without government approval, it remains out of reach and too costly for many who need it. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-advocates-hiv-pill.html HIV & AIDS Fri, 11 May 2012 11:59:29 EST news255956363 Unpredictable, ever-changing and with potentially far-reaching effects on the fates of nations, infectious diseases are compelling actors in the drama of human history, note scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. In an essay marking 200 years of publication of the New England Journal of Medicine, NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., and coauthor David M. Morens, M.D., trace key advances in understanding and combatting infectious diseases and outline ways in which the contest between microbes and man might play out in decades to come. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-niaid-scientists-years-infectious-diseases.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:38:48 EST news247397923 Incomplete availability of data has hampered a thorough assessment of the evidence for using the anti-influenza drug oseltamivir, a Cochrane Review has found. However, after piecing together information from over 16,000 pages of clinical trial data and documents used in the process of licensing oseltamivir (Tamiflu) by national authorities, a team of researchers has raised critical questions about how well the drug works and about its reported safety profile. The new analysis shows inconsistencies with published reports, and describes possible under-reporting of drug-related side-effects in some published trial reports. While the drug did reduce the time to first alleviation of symptoms by an average of 21 hours, it did not reduce the number of people who went on to need hospital treatment. Results from the reanalysis of data also raise questions about how the drug works as an influenza virus inhibitor. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-uncertainties-anti-influenza-drug.html Medications Wed, 18 Jan 2012 04:00:03 EST news246081179 The two main ways to prevent and control influenza today are annual immunization and antiviral drugs. A team of investigators has found that statins, cholesterol-lowering drugs, may offer an additional treatment to complement these approaches and reduce mortality among patients hospitalized with influenza. The findings are published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases and are now available online. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-statins-mortality-patients-hospitalized-influenza.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 14 Dec 2011 04:50:02 EST news243059136 Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have determined the atomic structure of a protein that the Lassa fever virus uses to make copies of itself within infected cells. The structural data reveal an unexpected molecular crevice where the viral protein grips the viral genes, making this crevice a target for potential antiviral drugs. Lassa fever virus and other arenaviruses infect hundreds of thousands of people annually and are often deadly. Currently there is no specific therapy or vaccine against them. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-scientists-potential-achilles-heel-lassa.html Medical research Tue, 15 Nov 2011 10:16:21 EST news240574574 Antiviral drugs used to target the herpes virus could be effective at slowing the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD), a new study shows. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-antiviral-drugs-alzheimer.html Neuroscience Mon, 17 Oct 2011 09:37:09 EST news238062999 Patients being treated for chronic hepatitis C become less likely to take their medications over time, according to a new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Since the study also showed better response to the drugs when they're taken correctly, the researchers say the findings should prompt clinicians to assess patients for barriers to medication adherence throughout their treatment, and develop strategies to help them stay on track. The study is published online this month in Annals of Internal Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-hepatitis-patients-falter-adherence-treatment.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 29 Sep 2011 16:47:54 EST news236533666 Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have demonstrated for the first time that it is possible to inhibit the growth of brain tumours by treating the common Cytomegalovirus (CMV). The virus, which is found in a wide range of tumour types, offers a possible route towards controlling tumour growth and reducing the size of the tumour as a complement to conventional cytotoxin-based therapies. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-treatment-common-virus-tumour-growth.html Cancer Tue, 27 Sep 2011 09:51:10 EST news236335861 In the new movie "Contagion," fictional health experts scramble to get ahead of a flu-like pandemic as a drug-resistant virus quickly spreads, killing millions of people within days after they contract the illness. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-searchers-global-drug-resistant-influenza.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 14 Sep 2011 14:08:17 EST news235228083 (AP) -- The Philippines warned Friday against using geckos to treat AIDS and impotence, saying the folkloric practice in parts of Asia may put patients at risk. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-philippines-geckos-aids-treatment.html HIV & AIDS Fri, 15 Jul 2011 11:30:02 EST news229947928 UC Irvine researchers have found a new approach to the creation of customized therapies for virulent flu strains that resist current antiviral drugs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-antiviral-resistance-influenza.html Medical research Tue, 12 Jul 2011 13:40:41 EST news229696828 Annually changing flu vaccines with their hit-and-miss effectiveness may soon give way to a single, near-universal flu vaccine, according to a new report from scientists at The Scripps Research Institute and the Dutch biopharmaceutical company Crucell. They describe an antibody that, in animal tests, can prevent or cure infections with a broad variety of influenza viruses, including seasonal and potentially pandemic strains. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-universal-flu-vaccine-closer-discovery.html Medical research Thu, 07 Jul 2011 14:00:03 EST news229265919 (Medical Xpress) -- HIV can hide out in the brain, protected from the immune system and antiviral drugs, Dr. Lachlan Gray and his colleagues at Monash University and the Burnet Institute have found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-link-hiv-dementia.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 29 Jun 2011 13:33:27 EST news228573197 (Medical Xpress) -- When Michael Jonas learned he was HIV positive, he returned from Florida to his home in Jackson, Mich., to die. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-hivaids-decades.html HIV & AIDS Mon, 13 Jun 2011 11:30:15 EST news227183397