The retrovirus XMRV does not cause prostate cancer or chronic fatigue syndrome – that hypothesis was disproved by the finding that the virus was produced in the laboratory in the 1990s by passage of a prostate tumor in nude mice. A trio of new papers on the virus attempt to address questions about the serological …
Ron Fouchier has discussed his influenza H5N1 transmission experiments in ferrets at an ASM Biodefense Conference, clarifying several assumptions about the transmissibility of the virus in this animal model. Two different influenza H5N1 strains were used for Fouchier’s experiments: a wild type virus, and a mutated virus (we’ll call it mutH5N1). He did not reveal the nature …
Influenza H5N1 is not lethal in ferrets after airborne transmission Read More »
The mantle of world’s biggest virus has passed from Mimivirus to Megavirus. But in this case, size doesn’t matter. It’s the genes that these viruses share and do not share that make this story important. The discovery of Mimivirus in a French cooling tower amazed virologists. At 750 nanometers in diameter, it dwarfed all other …
by David Tuller Note: This account draws from interviews, a close reading of a fraction of the 4608 studies that pop up (as of today; yesterday it was 4606) on a PubMed search for “chronic fatigue syndrome,” and a review of many pages of government documents–in particular the minutes and testimony from meetings of the …
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and the CDC: A Long, Tangled Tale Read More »
In my recent keynote address to the Brazilian Virology Society entitled The World of Viruses, I presented my list of ten seminal virologists. The idea to include such a discussion came from David Baltimore, who sent me the following note: Since you have been thinking about the history of virology, I thought I would share …
This article was written for extra credit by a student in my recently concluded virology course. by Adriana Lopez The expression Happy as a Clam€ comes with new meaning as hepatitis A virus has been detected in clams, mussels, and oysters in markets for human consumption. As bivalve shellfish are excellent bio-accumulators of contaminants and chemicals, …
