Word: viruses
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
AIDS attacks its victims by knocking out the immune system, thus leaving them defenseless against a host of "opportunistic" infections. A rare form of cancer or pneumonia becomes a deadly invader, but so does a fungus or a common virus. Thus far, there is no cure for AIDS and its source remains unknown. "We've looked at a lot of suspects," says Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), "but we have not come up with enough grounds for an indictment...
Then there are the scourges that have always been with us, the Legionnaire's bacteria that suddenly find an environment in which to flourish anew momentarily, or the influenza virus that undergoes minor mutations to spring forth with renewed vigor. Indeed, of all the potential disease agents looming on the horizon, it is the familiar flu virus that worries Foege the most. "I fully anticipate that possibly in our lifetime we will see another flu strain that is as deadly as 1918. We have not figured out good ways to counter that." The same holds for the most common...
...chamber, they must provide another personal number to gain access to the pressurized inner sanctum. There the scientists wear seamless blue space suits, equipped with their own air filtration systems, to work with some of the world's most lethal microbes, including those that cause Lassa fever and Ebola virus, two maladies that produce severe internal bleeding and are native to Africa. There have been no fatalities in the lab. When a worker is exposed to a disease, he is flown to the Army's Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Frederick...
...epidemic continues. An estimated 20.5 million Americans already have genital herpes, and several times that number live in fear of getting it. Their yearning for relief, a method of prevention and a cure for the virus has driven some to extremes; herpes sufferers have been known to try everything from hair dryers to Clorox to heal their lesions. Now, for the first time, it looks as though help and, more important, a means of preventing the disease...
...among subjects in the study. Skinner believes that the vaccine, which is given in two or three injections at monthly intervals, is effective for at least two years and has no side effects. Its safety, he says, is due to the fact that the vaccine is made from a virus that has been stripped of its DNA core and thereby rendered harmless. Skinner estimates, however, that it will be at least two years before the vaccine is thoroughly tested...