The last outbreak of poliomyelitis in the United States occurred in 1979, when a type 1 strain imported from the Netherlands caused 13 paralytic cases among unvaccinated Amish communities in three states. Twenty years later, use of the live, attenuated poliovirus vaccine (OPV) was discontinued in the United States, and was replaced with the inactivated …
If you have ever wanted to make beautiful images of viruses, in colors of your choice, then go to VIPERdb, the virus particle explorer. The first crystallographic X-ray structure of a virus was that of tomato bushy stunt virus in 1977, followed by structures of the animal viruses poliovirus and rhinovirus in 1985. Since then …
Nearly 3% of the world’s population – about 175,000,000 individuals – are infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV), and 3-4 million new infections are added each year. A high percentage of these become life long, chronic infections, which may lead to cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, and death. No vaccine is available, and the only antiviral treatment, …
Harold Various is a terrific scientist. He was awarded the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovery of the cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes. From 1993-1999 he was director of the National Institutes of Health, and is currently President of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. On top of all those accomplishments, he is a great …
If you are not convinced that vaccines are safe, please listen to a conversation between Dr. Ginger Campbell of the Brain Science Podcast and Dr. Paul Offit. Dr. Offit is a pediatrician who is also Chief of Infectious Diseases and Director of Vaccine Education at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He is co-developer …
Influenza viruses of two subtypes, H1N1 and H3N2, have been causing respiratory infections in humans since 1977. Before that year, it was believed that only one human subtype circulated each flu season. How did this unusual situation come about? Major changes in the surface glycoproteins of influenza virus – called antigenic shift – lead to …
