Word: viral
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Aspirin's list of unexpected benefits may not end with cancer. There is at least some evidence that it may be useful in preventing gum disease, gallstones, cataracts, miscarriages and even in treating viral diseases. Researchers in several fields eagerly await the results of the Women's Health Study, an ambitious trial involving 40,000 women, half of whom will be randomly assigned to take low doses of aspirin every other day for at least five years. Originally designed to see if aspirin can prevent heart disease in women as it does in men, the study will also look...
...Already PCR has begun to help physicians determine which babies born to AIDS-infected mothers also harbor the virus. Since all newborns carry their mother's antibodies whether or not they are actually infected, standard antibody tests are inconclusive. PCR, however, can home in on the minute quantities of viral DNA that may be present in only 1 out of 100,000 . cells. A positive diagnosis means the baby can immediately begin therapy with...
...based diagnostic tests are also under development for Lyme disease, tuberculosis and viral meningitis. Present tests for tuberculosis, which involve culturing and growing the bacteria, take up to a month to confirm a diagnosis. PCR can do the job in a few hours. Current tests are unable to distinguish viral meningitis quickly from the far more dangerous bacterial form of the disease, which is most common in infancy. As a result, all babies found to have meningitis are treated as if they had the more lethal form. With a PCR diagnosis, those with viral meningitis could be spared unnecessary hospitalization...
Within days after the viral burst, the researchers measured a rapid increase in the bloodstream of the number of anti-HIV antibodies. These Y-shaped bits of protein sought out the virus and targeted it for destruction. Once the antibody attack reached full scale in the seven test subjects, the level of HIV in the bloodstream dropped precipitously. In the majority of cases, the researchers could detect little or no virus two to three weeks later. "In other words, the normal immune system can shut down the AIDS virus," says Dr. Stephen Clark, who organized the study at the University...
...vaccine. A successful shot that sells for an exorbitant price will be of little use to most Africans, who have no more than a few dollars a year to spend on health care. Nine years have passed since the discovery of a vaccine for hepatitis B, a viral disease that, like AIDS, is spread by sexual contact and the sharing of hypodermic needles. But the product has yet to reach many people in poor U.S. neighborhoods and Third World countries largely because it costs more than $120 a shot. It would be a gross injustice, says Harvard's Mann...