Gorillas May Have Played Role in AIDS Epidemic
ScienceNOW Daily News
8 Nov 2006
Jon Cohen
Photo Courtesy of Cecile Neel/IRD

The origin of HIV has been a mystery since 1984, when researchers first conclusively showed that it causes AIDS. Over the past 20 years, evidence has accumulated that points to Africa and a similar virus in chimpanzees. Many scientists suspect that the chimp virus jumped into humans who hunt and butcher these great apes.

Now a group led by virologist Martine Peeters of the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement in Montpellier, France, has found that gorillas may have played a supporting role in the origin of the AIDS epidemic. As Peeters and co-workers report in tomorrow's issue of Nature, they uncovered a connection to gorillas after analyzing fecal samples collected in remote Cameroonian forests.

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The Biosurveillance Money Pit
Government Health IT
13 Nov 2006
Nancy Ferris

The U.S. has spent billions on biosurveillance. So what have those dollars bought — and why can CNN spot an outbreak faster than CDC?

Every day at 10 a.m. during flu season, a report on the number of cases of flu-like illness in the United Kingdom is placed on the desk of British Prime Minister Tony Blair. A new U.K. system called QFlu collects data on diagnoses and prescriptions of antiviral medicine every evening from more than 3,000 physicians nationwide.

Keeping track of the flu is important because it can be a serious illness with consequences for the economy and national security. Also, most of the diseases that might be introduced in a bioterrorism attack, such as anthrax and smallpox, begin with flu-like symptoms.

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Inexpensive Test Detects H5N1 Bird Flu Infections Quickly And Accurately
NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (Posted by ScienceDaily.com)
14 Nov 2006

Scientists from the University of Colorado at Boulder and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have developed an inexpensive "gene chip" test based on a single influenza virus gene that could allow scientists to quickly identify flu viruses, including avian influenza H5N1. The researchers used the MChip to detect H5N1 in samples collected over a three-year period from people and animals in geographically diverse locales.

In tests on 24 H5N1 viral isolates, the chip provided complete information about virus type and subtype in 21 cases and gave no false positive results, report the scientists. They say the MChip could provide a significant advantage over available tests because it is based on a single gene segment that mutates less often than the flu genes typically used in diagnostic tests.

>>>FULL ARTICLE



Wildlife Disease Related Journal Articles

Qualitative Assessment of Risk for Monkeypox Associated with Domestic Trade in Certain Animal Species, United States, S.M. Bernard and S.A. Anderson [CDC - Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal]

Isolation of Lagos Bat Virus from Water Mongoose, W. Markotter et al. [CDC - Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal]

Zoonotic Focus of Plague, Algeria, I. Bitam et al. [CDC - Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal]